Hello everybody,
It's just gone midnight and yet again I'm having a real problem sleeping. I'm currently sipping some Hot Choc hoping it'll help!

I'm 37 + 3 days pregnant with my third and I'm having a hell of a time trying to get any decent sleep! What I find so annoying is that nearly every night I am woken up by either:-

a) my 5 year old daughter who gets up to go to the loo and then wants a 'grown-up to take me back to bed' or she's had some kind of nightmare

b) my 2 and a half year old daughter who wakes up screaming from either a nightmare or wants a drink

c) my husband who's a 'night-owl' and always comes to bed really late and it always disturbs me when he gets into bed (sometimes he'll just start to chat away hoping I'm awake.....which most cases I am!)

d) our dog who on occasion, has barked at something or other

e) my bladder

and once I have been woken up.....I CAN'T switch my brain off again. I start to think about the most trivial things and most of the time (like tonight) I get a tune in my head which I can't turn off!! It's like a stuck record! (Tonight it's Alesha Dixon's "Breathe Slow"!!) I just know that once I get upstairs again, my DH will be asleep and he'll no doubt be snoring - which keeps me awake even more!

Nearly every night I end up in the spare room but surely I shouldn't have to DO that!!!

I'm so frustrated by this.

In the past I have suffered from the odd insomnia and practice what Madonna once said she did which was to keep some paper and a pen beside her bed to write down any thoughts - you can always throw that paper away in the morning - I have found it works but when you have a tune that plays over and over and over again (especially an instrumental one!!) what can you do?!!!

Well, I've finished my Hot Choc - I am also suffering with indigestion which won't help me sleep either but I'll get another Rennie!!

Let's go and have another go!!

Cara

Yikes Cara sounds as though you have no chance at all, no hope of getting to sleep. Is sleeping in the spare room really so bad? My late husband snored so loudly (so do I actually) that we ended up in separate bedrooms, the only way we could get to sleep!!

It would be worth trying to work out why your two girls seem to be having nightmares. Kids tend to have scary dreams but sometimes it is because something is bothering them. Calm reassurance at bedtime - that mummy and daddy are around and that their bedroom is "safe" - is often all that is needed.

Of course, a few more weeks and there will be another reason for sleeplessness!