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Original poster

my eye is twitching, i am hallucinating and depressive, HELP ME.

59 replies

sherazade · 13/04/2008 09:31

please help me someone with a solution or words of hope or anything. i need to rant! my dd2 who is 15 months old has always breastfeed 2-3 times a night and it has never usually been a problem for me, but now for the past 2 weeks she has been waking every 30-40 minutes crying at night and will be only consoled by the breast i have tried water, cuddles but she screams blue murder like she has never seen milk before, depsite eating well in the day. I am so tired that it can take upto an hour for my milk to let down and this frustrates her even more, i have to keep doing deep breathing and swapping breasts and positions over and over again so that my let down occucrs at which point she stops fussing, take a sip for 2-3 minutes and then goes back into sleep instantly only to wake up half an hour later. then she is bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6 am, as is my 3 year old. is this because of teething, she is cutting her molars now? will it pass? i am starting to despise breastfeeding and even being a mum, i am too tired and ratty to do anything all day.

OP posts:
Original poster
sherazade · 13/04/2008 10:11

i don't really want to stop breastfeeding i just want my old routine back.

i eat and drink as well as i can to keep my supply up.

i am thin to the extent that my mum thinks i am anorexic. dh and i fight all the time because i am soo tired and bad tempered. and my three year old hates me.

OP posts:
3littlefrogs · 13/04/2008 10:14

OK - sorry - I may be off track.

Other possibilities: Earache, teething, anything disturbing her such as noise, tummyache.

Still might be worth considering how long you want to keep breast feeding. She really can't be hungry if she is eating and drinking well during the day.

Others have suggested calpol - are there any signs of teeth coming through? Worth a try to see if it helps.

I am so sorry you are going through this. Sleep deprivation is torture.

3littlefrogs · 13/04/2008 10:17

Routines can't last indefinitely - children change and grow up and their needs change.

You sound at the end of your tether - it can be hard to be objective in your situation.

What did you do with your 3 year old when you became pregnant?

morningpaper · 13/04/2008 10:19

she will not remember any of this. They really don't remember much that happens before the age of three.

Sorry Little Frogs, that is not true AT ALL. EVERYTHING that happens before that age forms who they are and they have lots of memories, as any mother will tell you (and definitely any parent who has adopted).

I agree with the Calpol - any maybe some supper? A bit of Ready Brek or something? And maybe try nurofen AND Calpol, or try Medised (not altogether of course or she will slip into a coma. Please read the packets and don't double-dose anything).

I'd also go to bed when she does for a few nights.

PERSONALLY I wouldn't try sleep-training NOW because her sleep is disrupted and it might be because she is in pain or coming down with something.

Can your husband settle her at all?

Do you have eating problems? Are you really eating properly? Do you have supper too before you go to bed?

allgonebellyup · 13/04/2008 10:19

both my dcs were like this, and with ds i was bfing him every hour through the night, he never wanted water, just screamed the house down til he got milk - it really messes up your whole life because you never get any proper sleep.
Sometimes ds' problem was an ear infection as this would make him 10 times worse..

He is 4 now and still wakes a lot at night, though a lot lot better than when he was a baby. it did cause hell in our marriage though, as each of us was getting around 4hrs broken sleep a night, and getting mad with each other over the slightest thing. (We did split but not solely over the lack of sleep, dont worry!!)

allgonebellyup · 13/04/2008 10:23

Forgot to add, yes the eye twitching and also hallucinating are signs of chronic sleep deprivation, these are symptoms that both myself and ex dh noticed when we were going through it all. i used to drive and feel the road was dipping up and down all over the place, and that deer were jumping in front of my car!!!

I found that having an hour's nap after lunch, when ds had a sleep, was a life saver. Turn off all your phones/radios etc and get some shut eye!!!
(unless you go to work?)

3littlefrogs · 13/04/2008 10:24

Morning paper - yes I know what you are saying, and I agree up to a point - but, a child is going to suffer more from a mother having a nervous break down, or severe depression, than maybe a few nights of weaning off the bresat/ sleep training or whatever. I am not advocating being cruel.

There is a very miserable three year old in this situation too, and I am trying to look at the bigger picture.

Also - it isn't going to make the op feel any better if she thinks she is going to cause long term harm by trying to get her dd2 to sleep at night. IMO it is the lesser of 2 evils.

SmugColditz · 13/04/2008 10:26

Do you have a partner? The minute he gets in from work, dump and run. make him take them out for dinner or go to the park or go for a drive, just make him take them both away and give you 2 hours shut eye. If not, call a friend and call in a favour. Tell them how desperate you are and how much this would mean to you. Offer to pay if you can.

Twiglett · 13/04/2008 10:27

Do you want to stop breastfeeding? Because if you do it's ok you know.

morningpaper · 13/04/2008 10:27

Yes I do know what you mean Littlefrogs

I just get wary of people saying 'aah babies don't remember anything anyway' because it is often used by Childcare Gurus in defense of, say, letting a child get really upset for hours on end

But yes you are completely right

I would try the drugs route, while going to sleep at 7pm myself, and then persuade DH to alternate settling her at night. Porbably

morningpaper · 13/04/2008 10:28

(I don't mean drugs permanently, just to eliminate the possibility that she is in pain)

Twiglett · 13/04/2008 10:29

oh I've seen you don't want to stop

well what I'd do is take a load of chocolate, drinks and vitamins and healthy stuff up to bed, take all my clothes off and leave the kids to your partner, when she needs feeding she can be brought in to you .. otherwise drink, eat and rest all day

morningpaper · 13/04/2008 10:30

(Oh have just seen that Medised can't be given to under-2s )

3littlefrogs · 13/04/2008 10:33

I would definitely take her to GP and get her ears looked at. Ear congestion is very painful - but only when the child is horizontal. It is a simple thing to check out. (Just trying to think of every possibility under the sun....)

Original poster
sherazade · 13/04/2008 10:52

thank you all so much.

am going to take her to my gp for ear check.
give her a bowl of porridge at bedtime. followed by calpol and breastfeed.

she is defo teething , she has two molars which i can see cutting through at the same time. why does it not affect her in the day though?

I have been going to bed at 8pm (she goes to bed at 7, i try a bath, bit of corrie and a snack then sleep). since she was born. i'm just too tired to function otherwise.

OP posts:
Original poster
sherazade · 13/04/2008 10:53

oh yes am going to dump them on my husband today too , occasionally i get a daytime nap which helps alot.

when i was pregnant my three year old who is a champion sleeper had a 3-4 hour nap in the day p;lus 13 hours at night so i just slept all the time !! that was the life!

OP posts:
morningpaper · 13/04/2008 10:55

oooh it's probably the bad teeth

with that sort of low-level pain they can be distracted enough in the day I find, but at night it is JUST enough to keep waking them

3littlefrogs · 13/04/2008 10:56

I think any kind of discomfort is worse at night because there is no entertainment or distraction to take their minds off it. Also, they do get more pain in the jaw and ear from molars, and this is worse when horizontal, and much better when upright. Propping up the cot might help. I put books under the legs of the cot at the head end when mine had colds. It seemed to help a bit.

3littlefrogs · 13/04/2008 10:57

X posts

SmugColditz · 13/04/2008 11:55

teething pain is worse aty night, and also if you were prepared to take her downstairs and play, she may be less bothered. But of course, you're not, so she's not just in pain, she's bored and cross because she can't sleep, she's tired and in pain.

Do try the painkillers, it might make a big differentce, I hop[e so!

CorrieDale · 14/04/2008 08:44

How'd it go Sherazade?

Original poster
sherazade · 14/04/2008 14:04

well yesterday evening she fell asleep in the pram unexpectedly at 4.30pm- i panicked a bit because it was close to bedtime, but i suppose the broken sleep must have been impacting on her (she had already had a 2 hr nap in the morning). So I went to my mums and she played around till about 8.30 pm. I gave her a huge bowl of porridge at 7ish and then she fell asleep around 8.45 and I THINK she only woke up twice (cannot even remember exactly- i was too busy sleeping!!). she woke up for the day at 7.30, I don't know what made her sleep improve- the extra nap, late bedtime, or the porrdige??

thanks all, i was really touched as always by the level of response here.

my eye is still twitching though. Will update you on tonight.

OP posts:
CorrieDale · 14/04/2008 17:59

Comes to something when you can say 'only woke up twice'! and get congratulations for it!!

Here, I made damn sure DD had a feed at least every two hours, and we actually had a 4 hour stretch . OK, so the rest of the night wasn't great, but a 4 hour stretch!!!! I think I can count those on one hand over the last 4months.

Tonight, I have stoked her up with weetabix, after her tea. It could go either way... (midnight pooing or another 4 hour stretch!)

morningpaper · 14/04/2008 20:33

Really glad it was a better night

Don't worry about the twitching - I know it FEELS like you are going mad, but it doesn't actually mean it

Fingers crossed for better few nights xxx

SmugColditz · 15/04/2008 22:01

Sherazade, how's it going?