I'm 44 years old and tandem nursing a 3 year old and a 5 1/2 year old (who is 65 lb.). Both nurse quite often.
As a bit of history, at 32 I messed myself up by taking the pill, developing severe insomnia (waking for 2-3 hours nightly) and also aging so that people took me for my younger sister's mother, when previously they always thought we were twins. Unfortunately, this problem with the pill only arose when I switched to taking it at night, so I didn't realize it was causing the problem for more than eight years. When I did, I tried taking it in the morning again and within a few days I was sleeping through the night.
Now, obviously, I am older plus breastfeeding a lot for a long time. I had a terrible time after the birth of my second son, with severe sleep deprivation, developing allergies to almost everything, really horrible behavior. At one point I took pregnenolone for adrenal fatigue and lo and behold - my appearance improved dramatically and I slept as I had not in 12 years. I had an incredible feeling of being young again, and I could concentrate for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, my milk supply was also reduced significantly. When I stopped the pregnenolone for that reason and then restarted it at a low dose, it did little for me, even titrated back up. I stayed on it for a long time but it never had the same effect.
So finally I was able to figure out that my insomnia (plus aging) was due to low estrogen. I am now taking no supplements, after trying many different things. My sleep has fluctuated but has never been consistently good except for that first week on the pregnenolone. But I can see that the lack of good sleep is robbing me of half a life.
My older son finally sleeps through most nights. I want and so badly need to sleep too. But between my age, my history with the pill and so much nursing, I'm pretty sure my estrogen is low. Then again, I can't take anything to help my hormones because I'm nursing. (No weaning planned.) Acupuncture hasn't helped, and most things I take do seem to stop working anyway.
Any suggestions? Sorry for the long (and gloomy) post!
As a bit of history, at 32 I messed myself up by taking the pill, developing severe insomnia (waking for 2-3 hours nightly) and also aging so that people took me for my younger sister's mother, when previously they always thought we were twins. Unfortunately, this problem with the pill only arose when I switched to taking it at night, so I didn't realize it was causing the problem for more than eight years. When I did, I tried taking it in the morning again and within a few days I was sleeping through the night.
Now, obviously, I am older plus breastfeeding a lot for a long time. I had a terrible time after the birth of my second son, with severe sleep deprivation, developing allergies to almost everything, really horrible behavior. At one point I took pregnenolone for adrenal fatigue and lo and behold - my appearance improved dramatically and I slept as I had not in 12 years. I had an incredible feeling of being young again, and I could concentrate for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, my milk supply was also reduced significantly. When I stopped the pregnenolone for that reason and then restarted it at a low dose, it did little for me, even titrated back up. I stayed on it for a long time but it never had the same effect.
So finally I was able to figure out that my insomnia (plus aging) was due to low estrogen. I am now taking no supplements, after trying many different things. My sleep has fluctuated but has never been consistently good except for that first week on the pregnenolone. But I can see that the lack of good sleep is robbing me of half a life.
My older son finally sleeps through most nights. I want and so badly need to sleep too. But between my age, my history with the pill and so much nursing, I'm pretty sure my estrogen is low. Then again, I can't take anything to help my hormones because I'm nursing. (No weaning planned.) Acupuncture hasn't helped, and most things I take do seem to stop working anyway.
Any suggestions? Sorry for the long (and gloomy) post!
