10 products that helped me with postpartum insomnia

The phrase “sleep like a baby” always cracks me up because, as mamas know, babies don’t necessarily sleep well. In fact, when they are brand new, they sleep only a couple of hours at a time, which shocked me when I first became a mom. I need a lot of sleep and my first was a terrible, terrible sleeper. After weeks of very little rest at night, I was miserable. Not surprisingly, my mental health took a toll . When I became pregnant again , I made sure to focus on my postpartum plan, hoping I could prevent finding myself in the same spot I was with my first. One of the biggest splurges we had—and one I’m aware not everyone can afford—was a night doula. Because I knew I was going to have twins via a repeat C-section , I wanted to make sure I could get some nights of semi-full sleep between pumping so I could be better to my babies than I was the first time around. O course, things don’t always go as planned. The first night our doula came over I was so excited to finally get some sleep. I tucked myself in bed, closed my eyes, and… I couldn’t fall asleep. My husband laid next to me, snoring. My toddler was in his room, snoozing. The babies were quiet and taken care of, and I still could not drift off. The hours went by, and it was time for me to get up to pump again. I did it while crying my eyes out and sobbed so loudly that I woke up my husband. He was concerned that something was physically wrong, and when I told him what truly was up he worried that I was going to fall back into that dark place from a couple of years before. I didn’t sleep at all that night. The next morning I called my doula friend and asked what was broken in me. “Nothing” she said reassuringly, “it’s probably postpartum insomnia from all the adrenaline in your body.” Great. I hadn’t planned for this. I posted about my experience on one of my parenting Facebook groups, and so many moms told me they had been there as well. Graciously, they shared their tips and tricks on how to be able to get some rest. I applied all of them the next time our night doula was at home with us and guess what? I slept, not like a baby—like a log.

For any mama who is going through the same struggle, here are my product recommendations to battle postpartum insomnia:

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