Hi all, I am 10 weeks postpartum. My baby sleeps super well from 9:30pm to 3am and goes immediately to sleep after I feed him until 6 or 6:30am.

I, however, have stopped sleeping. I wake up around 2am and stay awake until 7am, then wake for the day at 8:15 when my husband has to go to work. I average around 5-6 hours per night, but many nights I only get 4. I never fall asleep between his first feeding and his second, not for at least 6 weeks. Not with melatonin, not with unisom, not with meditation, hot tea, stopping blue light, not with a hot shower, not with no caffeine after noon, not with anything.

I have been trying cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia for 4 weeks but I am not improving, and in fact I seem to be getting worse the last week. I can’t really do it the way they suggest because I still have to wake in the night.

I don’t want to take sleeping pills and anyway I think that would be counterproductive since one typically needs 6 hours to sleep at a time and I’m not guaranteed to have that with a new baby. Taking sleeping pills is basically what the midwife suggested.

I have had an interview that went really badly this week. I could not speak or remember anything because I was so tired. I’m sure they thought I was a spaz. Im worried that I won’t be able to get a job for a long time, until my son can somehow not wake up at night. In the meantime I can’t really function.

I can’t nap and that is my only free time all day to be able to apply for jobs or prepare food, etc. It also goes against the cbt-i rules.

My husband can take the middle of the night feeding once in a while so I can attempt to sleep through the night with earplugs but sometimes it doesn’t work. And I’m not working so I think it’s a lot for my husband to work full time, go to school, and take the night shift with the baby.

We have no family in town so can’t rely on that.

Does anyone have any ideas to try?