Unisom & BF?

[joyakshi]

okay, is it at all okay to take Unisom while BF'ing? DD is 6 months old. I have not had more than 2 hours sleep at a time in 6 months. she is currently waking every 45 min-2 hours every night to nurse. Naps are not fun right now either. I am so sleep deprived. my doc won't rx Ambien or anything to help. Benadryl doesn't cut it. I can't fall asleep in between feedings b/c I am so jacked from being prevented from falling asleep or being woken up so frequently that after a few hours of not sleeping, I am too traumatized to fall asleep. I get adrenaline rushes when she cries. I can barely function during the day. I still can't shower or eat or even type this without being interrupted by crying. She is high needs, you could say.
we are trying to start solids.

[boobs4milk]

i wouldn't take a sleep aid if you co-sleep. benadryl could cause you to dry up and i'll do a dr. hale's online on the unisom. i know i took unisom and b6 while pg to combat nausea.

http://neonatal.ttuhsc.edu/discus/me.../53/56433.html

looks like he prefers benadryl...

have you tried chamomile tea? i drink a mother's nursing support tea with fennel, fenugreek, blessed thistle, nettle and chamomile and it helps me sleep.

good luck...sleep ain't happenin much here, either.

[juliebird]

You may be already doing this, so forgive me if it sounds obvious, but are you lying down next to her to sleep? the reason I ask is that with my first 2 babies, I always sat up with them to nurse them even in the middle of the night so I didn't sleep either. I can still remember the "adrenaline jack" you mentioned from hearing them cry in the middle of the night! I thought it was too uncomfortable to nurse while lying down (like it stretched my nipple too much or something)

With baby number 3, I experimented a lot more with lying down options and was able to find a way to nurse while laying down with him. I got soooo much more sleep because I could doze while he nursed. Also, for the first time, I tried co sleeping, which I highly recommend if you can do some version. That cuts out the cyring / adrenaline jack because you hear the baby before he/she is fully awake and crying.

hugs mama, it sounds like you're having a tough time. I hope it gets better soon)

[rparker]

Unisom is contraindicated while breastfeeding, at least according to an older edition of Hale's that I searched on Amazon. I took it for about a week for morning sickness while nursing my 2 year old (not an infant) and it didn't effect her adversely, but it did seem to impact my supply. (I don't know for sure because pregnancy is wreaking its own havoc on milk production.)

I've asked my husband who is a pediatrician as well as the family practice doctor that my daughter and I both see and neither of them can tell me for sure WHY Unisom is contraindicated. My husband's best guess is that it's either because a) it could cause apnea in a baby (but probably not a toddler) and/or b) it could have the same negative effect on milk supply as Sudafed.

I know that the OP said it doesn't work for her, but Benadryl is safe while nursing and isn't supposed to dry up your milk. (I've taken it many times over the past 2.5 years because it's one of the few allergy meds that is ok.)

It really isn't safe though to take any over the counter sleep aid while co-sleeping with a baby.

My daughter was also an all-night nurser and I remember how difficult interrupted sleep was to deal with. Do you have a partner who can help with night duty--even if just for a few nights--so you can get a little more sleep? Or would someone be able to watch her for a solid chunk of time during the day so you could sleep? At 6 months your breastfeeding relationship should be well-established enough that it's probably ok to replace one or two feedings with expressed breast milk in a cup or bottle. Are you able to nurse while lying down? My daughter didn't night wean until 29 months, but night nursing got A LOT easier once I mastered nursing while lying down and she figured out how to latch herself on without my help.