Insomnia - could this be related to weaning/hormones?

[lunarcleo]

Hi all-

I have been having some terrible bouts of insomnia lately in the middle of the night and I'm wondering if it might be related to DD recently giving up nursing during the night.

DD is now 16 months and I've followed her cues as to when she was ready to stop BFing. About a month ago she stopped wanting to nurse when I got home from work, but was still BFing once when she would wake up during the night. Last month I got my first period since the pregnancy and what little was left of my supply dropped off. She was still demanding food during the night, so DH started giving her a bottle of cow's milk during the night, and for now we're still doing that (I'd like to wean her from that, but that's another story).

I've been finding many nights that after DD's wake-up (usually around 2 am), I have a terrible time getting back to sleep. I'll toss and turn for an hour or two with my mind racing most of the time. After a couple days of this I am just exhausted all day long.

If this is hormonally-linked, it might be related to the fact that I've now gotten my second period since the pregnancy, less than 3 weeks from the start of the first one!

I'm at a loss of what to try. I just want to find someway to be able to get through the workday without total exhaustion! I'm willing to consider medications, although we're trying to get pregnant again, so I'm a bit hesitant to use something that would be contraindicated during conception/pregnancy.

Anyone else experienced this? Not sure if I should talk to my family practicioner or to my ob/gyn (although if my next period comes so soon again I'm going to be calling the ob/gyn anyway!).

Thanks in advance!

[brittone2]

I've had insomnia off and on through the years. When I was preggo with both kids, I did hypnobirthing/hypnobabies as my childbirth prep. Listening to the CDs made me sleep sooooo well.

I'm sure you can find a progressive relaxation or hypnosis CD geared toward sleep specifically (there was a recommendation here for one geared toward kids a while back...Sleep Fairy maybe? I don't know if that company makes one geared toward adults).

Just offering that up as an alternative to meds if you are interested. I sleep so soundly after I listen to my CDs...I still listen from time to time on my iPod even though I'm not preggo anymore.

[firsttimemama]

I did have some insomnia hit when I nightweaned DS.

It's sticking around, but I've got lots of other things going on too so I can't say it's absolutely from nightweaning, although I think the onset of it was (did that make sense?)

[tiapam]

I would get your thyroid checked. Insomnia and racing thoughts can be symptoms of thyroid imbalance. Mary Shomon's about.com thyroid page is a great place to check the list of symptoms for hypo and hyper thyroid. The symptoms can be hard to recognize, for example, most people would not be upset if they lost weight, but it is a symptom of hyperthyroidism. It's very helpful to review the full list to see if anything else matches how you are feeling right now.

[maestramommy]

I remember when my first dd nightweaned it took forever for me to start sleeping through her feeding times. I still have bouts of insomnia. The biggest help was getting regular exercise and resisting the urge to take long afternoon naps. I have a feeling I'll be going through that again because Laurel doesn't sleep. At first I was so TIRED every morning and could barely get up. Now I'm just wired and this morning I got up shortly after 6. Not normal, considering I've been getting maybe 4 hours night in the last week.

[lizajane]

exercise, magnesium, melatonin.