Insomina Durng pregnancy...leading to Anxiety Too. Help!!

Try a web search for prenatal yoga that is convenient to where you live. In Chicago, www.birthlink.com lists some of the service providers. There are many breathing exercises at prenatal yoga and poses to increase your wellbeing. I agree that massage can also relax you along with lavender in a diffuser and/or acupuncture. Make sure your bodyworker knows you are prenatal.

It is very important for you to sleep. Stop feeling guilty, and take the bull by the horns on this. Research the many ways you can help yourself and put togethrer a program - include foods you should or should not have, exercise and the timing during the day, supplements, and lastly, sleep meds.

I feel for you. I have trouble with this in menopause, and it can be devastating in the longterm.

D.

insomnia sucks. I did some research and discovered that magnesium plays a role in your body. I have been taking 400 mg of magnesium every night for 6 months now. It has helped me so much. It's not instant and there was a week after I stopped taking ambien where I slept poorly if at all. However slowly I started to notice a difference. Now my routine is the same every night. Two hours before bed I drink a cup of sleepytime tea and take my magnesium. Then I slow down and do quiet activities. The hour before bed I am in my bedroom reading by myself with a dim light. Then I do some breathing exercises and go to sleep. There are some nights where I don't sleep well but they are few and far between. I think there are some of us who just have a harder time turning off. Also I know that I have low magnesium and that has helped so much. I am currently 11 weeks pregnant and have cleared all this with my midwife so I know these things are safe. If you pm me I can tell you about all the research I did and the other herbs you can take when you aren't pregnant anymore. I would get off the ambien not because of the pregnancy but because it's only treating the symptoms. Good luck and I feel your pain.

Please do not take any prescription medicine. It will affect your baby one way or another. I don't know if you have seen these commercials lately where they tell you how this that and the other medicines have made birth defects in babies. I also know from personal study that prescription drugs do more harm than good. Google search for natural remedies and use your best judgment for that. But do NOT take prescription drugs or even OTC medicines.

I was HORRIBLE. I could ONLY fal asleep after 4 am. It was fine because I wasn't working then but IF I was working I would have been a BASKET CASE!

I didn't know I was pregnant for the first 5.5 MONTHS and took prescription meds, had a few drinks and NO prenatal care and my son is fine. Can you take some Melatonin?

Hi M. A.,
I know how you feel (kinda). I always have been a light sleeper and by the middle of my first pregnancy I was not sleeping well at all. I had a little anxiety, and a lot of pregnancy discomfort. I told my doctor that I wasn't sleeping and that it was making me feel a lot worse. She told me that taking Benedryl or Tylenol PM was safe during pregnancy. I didn't want to take it, but I wanted a good night sleep even more. I ended up taking the Benedryl throughout all of my pregnancies (with the doctors recommendation of course). I've been very blessed with 3 very healthy children!

I didn't take anything for it. Instead, I just stopped fighting it and decided to stay up all night and get work done that I wasn't able to finish during the day. I was working full time at the time too. So I was living on 3 hours of not-so-great sleep to boot.

Funny thing is, I was okay. Not sleeping didn't have any negative effects on me. I stretched, took showers, took a walk or would stay up and watch my favorite movies, have a fruit salad and read a book, had lots of hubby time ;). And as I said, I got a lot of work from the office finished too. I was a total machine, and because I had the cleanest, most organized house ever, I actually liked it! For me, just working with the inability to sleep lessend the anxiety...a lot. I took advantage of that adrenaline or whatever IT was and I was fine.

My doctor wasn't happy about it, but I didn't want to take any drugs during pregnancy. In the end, the baby and I turned out fine. Delivery went smooth, I wasn't too tired. In fact, that pregnancy had the easiest and fastest recovery too. I didn't have insomonia with the others. Just my first.

Oh, so sorry for you. I had this during my first pregnancy and I was in graduate school.
Finally, the day before my scheduled induction, my doctor gave me a narcotic. I slept only 2 hours. But my son was born sleepy!
However, he was and always has been healthy.
If I had know how bad my insomnia was going to be, I would have sought help.
Try massage and get plenty of exercise.
This website may have some ideas or info for you. http://www.squidoo.com/pregnantinsomniac
Good luck and God bless.

I've had several bouts of insomnia in my life time. It is one of the most frustrating and stressful things you can go through. Take the Ambien and don't feel badly. Chances are it will pass in a week or two especially once you are not stressed from no sleep. Also consider taking a warm bath before bed, avoid any stimulating conversations/drama with friends/family at least two hours before bed time and remember that this is not forever. You will get back to sleeping regularly. It happens to all of us from time to time. Hang in there, sweetie.

This website was helpful to me.
http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/aap-approved-meds.htm...

Ambien is listed as Level B for pregnancy meaning: NO EVIDENCE OF RISK IN HUMANS: Adequate, well-controlled studies in pregnant women have not shown increased risk of fetal abnormalities despite adverse findings in animals, or, in the absence of adequate human studies, animal studies show no fetal risk. The chance of fetal harm is remote, but remains a possibility.

Updated

You are not alone. Insomnia is due to the increase in progresterone. It does get better by the second trimester. I imagine you talked with your physician again this time around, since you have an active prescription. You need to feel comfortable with the decision the two of you made.

I did want to add that I am a pharmacist, and Ambien is pregnancy category C. Which means that effects are not known. It did specifically say that there has been known effects in neonates when taken in the 3rd trimester. I see where KellyMom.com got their info, but I could not find more info online to support it. I got my info from the manufacturer package insert. I did see that some sites say it's Class B, but not sure if that is different than FDA pregnancy categories. I can't think of any sedative that is a pregnancy category B.

Good Luck! You will get through it.

Hi,
I feel like I didn't sleep during my entire pregnancy. Since day one I could not fall asleep at night, then would wake up multiple times during the night once I did fall asleep and would be up at 6am. It never got better for me but it was good preparation for when the baby got here! My doctor told me it was okay to take Benadryl or Tylenol PM once in a while so I did that sometimes but sleep aids always leave me groggy the next day so most of the time I just sucked it up, which was not fun at all. Sorry I can't offer much advice, only commiserate. Herbal teas also help sometimes (like Chamomile or Sleepy Time) and those can be taken in moderation.
Good luck!