breastfeeding and insomnia

Any suggestions for coping with not being able to get back to sleep after feeding the baby. She has had some bad nights lately but last night was better for her, she fed 3 hourly but I slept for 30mins of one of those stretches :wall: after getting up and feeding her.

We cosleep from about 2am or 4am onwards and I probably sleep a bit better then but I don't want to cosleep fulltime. It didn't help that DH has been snoring lately, I wanted to strangle him last night, earplugs helped slightly but I could still hear him. I would go into the spare room but its freezing in winter and the heater is really noisy, might have to propose that DH goes in there, although I think the snoring wasn't the 'cause' just another factor.

I don't use any computer/phone/tv when i feed her, just sit in the dark and try to stay sleepy and only change nappy at the 10pm feed . Its so frustrating lying awake when you know the baby is going ot wake soon adn you aren't sleeping.

Do you think a thermos of calmomile tea so sip while I am feeding might help ( assuming you can drink it while BF)?

I have a history of insomnia at times so I knew this was going to happen eventually, and its a vicious cycle, as the more you stress the less you sleep.

this might not be of any help but when my DS was little and still feeding over night i had to get rid of any clocks that were in the room. I kept my phone in there but had it turned upside down and used all my will power NOT to look at the time. i found that if i kept looking at the clock it made my falling back to sleep so much harder. It was a case of ohh god, he is giong to wake again in two hours and im still awake.. ohh god its now only 1 hr till he wakes and i still cant sleep, oh now he is giong to be awake in half hour i may as well not go back to sleep kinda thing... lol it was a vicious cycle!

Even now when we are no longer BF i still have not bought a clock back into our room. that way if i get woken early in the mornings before my alarm i can happily think ohh its still hours till i have to get up may as well go back to sleep - even if its only 10 mins till my alarm might be giong off?

not sure if it is helpful at all.. just something ive done for myself! i feel for you.. i am getting a bit of insomnia at the moment and hoping it goes.. its made so much worse by the fact i am up once or twice a night to pee!

yep thats the exact dialogue I had with myself last night! Thanks will give it a go!

Does it help if the baby is in the same room as you? I found getting up and going to another room terrible, and ended up cosleeping full time because it maximised sleep for me.

I have had very frequent night feeders though, so that is the only way I could survive.

have you thought about side car ing the cot? baby would still be on her own sleep surface, but not as much disruption for you, so it might be easier to get back to sleep.
it sucks when they are (finally) asleep and then you lie awake.

I definitely recommend a thermos of hot chamomile to sip while feeding (as long as you like chamomile!) As far as I know it's fine while bfing. I often have a hot milk if I've been awake for a while and need to bring on the sleepiness. Also, perhaps some yoga breathing exercises (I mentally give myself the instructions in my yoga teacher's voice), or a cotton ball soaked with lavender oil, which you lift to your nose and have a little inhale of every few minutes. When DS was up for long frequent feeds in the night I found that it was harder to get back to sleep if I used my phone to entertain myself, be it reading an ebook, fb or games, and I know you said you don't use those, but conversely, I find even now that rather than lying there awake and frustrated, I'm better off turning on the bedside light and reading for a bit. I'll often start to get drowsy, and that's the moment to turn off the light and close my eyes. I think it's something to do with the story in the book occupying my brain and stopping all those thoughts which otherwise might keep me awake.

Send DH to a respiratory/sleep specialist to get his snoring sorted out.

I used breathing exercises that I'd learnt in calm birth class. Breathing deep into my abdomen for a count of 4 then out for 6. If it was really hard to sleep, I used an app with a free relaxation track on it. It was called Hypnosis sleep soundly.

Get your DH sorted, for sure!
I know you say you don't want to do it all the time , but feeding lying down always worked the best for me - the lovely CCK hormones sent me straight off to sleep. I had problems once they stopped feeding during the night, though! Getting rid of the clocks and never tracking the time helped, too.
Hope you get more sleep soon!

A thermos of camomile tea was a lifesaver for me with the twins so it's definitely worth a try

DH snores too, and I find giving him a really big shove, waking him right up, works a treat! Seriously... Gives me a chance to get to sleep before he starts up again (once I'm asleep the snoring doesn't usually bother me) and also makes me just a teensy bit glad I'm not the only one awake at such an ungodly hour. We don't talk or anything, but knowing he's 'sharing' my pain helps. ;)

Getting up after 20 mins or so rather than lying there worrying about not sleeping. Write down any worries, fold some clothes - make it something dead boring!

The tea would just have me getting up to pee every hour...