Postpartum Depression and Anxiety

Im nearly 8 weeks PP and I am truly losing my head lately.

I was diagnosed last with with PPD&A and have talking therapy in a few weeks.

I just feel like im not coping or doing a good enough job of being mum or wife.

Im constantly on high alert and the internal noise is just too much for me. Throw in a 9 and 2 year old alongside a baby who's EBF and im a constant mess. I cant stop crying and when I'm not crying im struggling with my toddler who is so full on. I cant get on top of my housework. Im just so drained ALL THE TIME.

And to top it off, im having a flare up with my arthritis.

I just want this dark cloud to lift from my mind and not feel so anxious all the time 😢

Please tell me this gets better!!

in our community

Feeling like a failure

Baby is 9 months old and I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. He doesn’t sleep well, never has, but I feel like it’s worse at the minute. He has never ever slept through, most he’s done is 6 hour stretch twice. Also, he is not interested in food at all despite trying and offering for the last 3 months. All babies his age seem to be eating well, yet to come across one who doesn’t.

He wakes up 5-10 times a night, normally it’s 2-4, most of the time he’ll only settle on the bottle despite me and my husband trying everything for hours. Sometimes we can rock him back to sleep but then up an hour later. At some point in night bottle won’t even settle him, he’ll only go back to sleep when in our bed. When he does wake up he’s rolling, kicking, slapping etc. he has to sleep with mittens on or he’ll pinch my eyes or scrape my gums etc.

Tried everything with his sleep but this isn’t getting better - even tried consultant but they couldn’t help.

We’ve offered him every type of food but he just throws it on the floor. When we try to offer it to him he purses lips and turns head away. Only thing he’ll eat is melty sticks. Seeing others on 3x bottles a day, my LO is on 6-7x bottles. Weve tried feed him before milk due so he’s not reliant on the bottle but it never works. Tried feeding after a feed but also doesn’t work. Tried feeding in the middle but not interested. Literally tried everything with food, not interested.

Feeling like a real failure of a mum. People saying ‘food is fun before 1’, but I’ll get to 1 and it’s going to become a real problem, which I don’t want. I’m exhausted and so upset.

Naps great one day sh"t the next

Why is my baby great at self settling one day and naps really well then the next day (I've changed nothing) will moan and then cry like she doesn't know how to put herself to sleep?! It's so frustrating. I just want one good week. I do the same wake window times, wait for tired signs but then she just kicks off. Is anyone else's baby annoying? 7 months this week. Even the first.nap is just difficult. She's rubbing her eyes in the cot moaning and I just know I'll have to go in there and rock her and have her fall asleep on me. When I really don't want to. Postpartum rage anyone?

Sleeping

This is my first baby and I have no idea if this is normal or not but I've been sleeping basically all throughout the night and getting nearly 10 hours of sleep to still wake up absolutely shattered and have an hour to two hour nap at like 2 pm and then still go to bed at like 11 and sleep through the night and don't get me wrong I love the fact I'm getting in a comfortable enough position to sleep but it just seems out of the ordinary and just want to know if other people have experienced it

napping/self soothing tips

my little one is 10 weeks old, and when tired he used to like being rocked to sleep and have either a dummy, a bottle or to suck his hands. over the last few days he’s started to really fight sleep and i feel awful because he gets so upset and it takes much longer than before to get him to sleep, and sometimes i have to resort to driving him around to get him to sleep, which with the petrol prices currently is not ideal😂 does anyone have any tips on how to let him self soothe/put himself to sleep? i don’t know if it’s maybe too early for that yet but i want him to be getting the sleep he needs and if he’s able to do it without my help then that works out better for him!

Crawling

My baby is refusing to crawl and she is 9months old. She hates being on her stomach. She also isn’t pulling herself up. I know she has arm, ab and neck strength. I don’t know what’s going on. She just throws a absolute fit.

mother in laws 🤷🏻‍♀️

i’ll preface with she’s amazing, raised my trophy husband as a single mom, and i’m lucky she was a labor and delivery nurse for like 30 years but just looking for some solidarity here.

anyone else get deeply annoyed when MIL tells YOU who your baby is?? I mean a baby cries, babies get fussy, but MIL telling me “It must be her personality, I think she’s going to be a vocal one” etc etc makes me think, “bruh she’s been alive only a few months, she hasn’t had the time to develop a personality” and she sees her just a couple hours a week so I’m more of the mind like, baby just isn’t used to you but biting my tongue here!!!