CIO vs. Antidepressants & bottlefeeding?

[Drewsmom]

I have a 3 year old who is an incredibly energetic and bright, little boy as well as our new addition 5 1/2 mo. old little boy. I've had some post-partum depress. I feel considerably better if I'm able to get adequate rest (like a 4-5 hour stretch) at night. My toddler does not nap during the day. Sometimes he does a quiet time but never more than 45 min.s-1 hour.

With him it was fine to get up as much as he needed at night because I would nap during the day I would also sleep through his morning nap which helped me out. Who cares if I slept until 10am and didn't shower til noon...I still don't. That's completely not an option now and I'm finding that I'm having extreme mood swings testing from mild/moderate to severe PPD. My dh is an auditor and works insane hours so I'm the one on duty all day and night including most Saturdays. I really feel like my kids would be better off without me a lot of the time like especially when I get so irrate with my toddler.

I feel like I went from being the best possible mom by meeting his needs to being mommy dearest b/c I now threaten death if he gets out of line at all, threaten to leave him at home if he doesn't get ready and in the car when we're leaving, etc.

Once again, if I can get some rest I'm mostly fine but I don't have the option of a nap or extra help from dh (I've told him how I feel many times and help happens for a day or two then goes back to what it was).

So my qu. is I feel like I'm very close to asking my midwifes for some drugs to treat the depression (which I've never done before and frankly can't believe that I'm doing) but if I do start on that road I honestly feel like it would be better for me to wean and bottlefeed b/c as much as they say that it doesn't cross the breastmilk I still there are effects and I would much rather not risk it. Or I can push ds and try to help him work through it like we did with his carseat and get into longer stretches of sleep at night. He's such a sweet, little boy and so mellow I hate to do that. I hate to hear him cry but I feel like this is my only option.

What would you do?


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[candiland]

Any possible side effects from an antidepressant would still be MUCH, MUCH SAFER than the use of formula. Do you know how many different drugs and hormones cows are given and how much of that your baby would drink? Add that on TOP of the fact that ff would offer no immunity to your child whatsoever; it just doesn't seem like a real good option to me.

I went through this, too, mama. With both of my kids. It took me weeks to recover, physically and emotionally, after I tried CIO. Note the word "tried". I started going pretty psycho around the time each child hit the 4 mo. mark. I went on Zoloft briefly each time and then weaned myself off again.

If you can work to get your kids to nap at the same time, it would be a great help. Keep one up a bit later and move the other's nap up a bit until they correlate. It doesn't take that long. Even if you could get 20 minutes of deep rest a day, it would probably make most of your emotional problems disappear.

You may still need help in the form of an antidepressant - I know I did - but you will not have the all of the extra guilt of tuning out your child's needs by doing CIO and FF. If you are anything like me, the last thing I needed was MORE STUFF to make me feel really horrible about myself.


to you. Good luck!