Herbs to Help Sleep While Nursing

Please check with your health care provider and ask for your thyroid to be tested. If you are hyperthyroid, it is hard to sleep/stay asleep...
Congratulations on having a 3 month old baby!
Try some lavendar oil applied on soles of feet, insides of wrists, side of neck... this is calming and relaxing and can be found at Whole Foods or ordered from the internet.
Also consider yoga...if you are in Naperville, check out www.universalspirityoga.com and see that there is "baby and me" yoga on Tuesdays in the middle of the day...also some classes evenings and weekends just for adults...
I used to wake up and check on my sleeping baby so this may be partly a mom instinct.
Also consider the age of your mattress and pillows...if they are more than 10 years old, is it time for a new one? Is what you are sleeping on too soft or too firm? Are you sleeping on your side? your back? your stomach?
Are you drinking caffeinated stuff right before bed?
C.
Mom of 3

can always use bennadryl
it's quickly out of your system and works

I remember your pain. My ob/gyn gave me 2 choices: Prozac or 1200mgs of calcium at bedtime and a daily walk in the sunlight. I was real anxious that the baby was going to cry at any moment. Best thing to do is to consult your ob/gyn and see what choices are best for you. It doesn't hurt to try the calcium though; it has a natural calming effect (like a warm glass of milk) and you probably need it after giving birth. Good Luck!!

S., you can try lemon balm (melissa) or cammomile tea.You can make them as separate teas or mix them together. They are gentle and have relaxing properties. Cammomile is considered a weed so test it first for allergic reactions. good luck.

J. K.

I would also check with a lactation consultant. They may have more ideas and also let you know about safety of herbal supplements. The lavendar is a great idea as well as the walk in the sun and cutting off caffiene after noon or so. I would caution you against benadryl and other such sleep aids. While they are okay on occasion they actually interfere with healthy sleep.

http://www.kellymom.com/herbal/index.html

Check out this site, it is a great resource for breastfeeding moms. I'm not sure that a pill would be better than herbs. I would tend towards the nore natural first. Check out the other post today on mamasource about herbs and breastfeeding. Their are some responses that might be helpful to you.

C.

Ironically, diphenhydramine, the substance found in Benadryl and most sleeping aids is better than most herbs. So is Doxylamine. These are both found in most OTC sleep aids, and I personally recommend Unisom Liquigels. I have that 'Medications and Mother's Milk' book, and it is the lowest risk category. This is the book referred to by LLL and most pediatricians. It's like a breastfeeding PDR.

Herbs are not in any recognized books, and cannot be consistently categorized because they're not regulated by the FDA (too bad), and are not consistently formulated or dosed. Since the dose can't be regulated, it's difficult to approve an amount to take, and there are also no randomized, double-blind clinical studies on efficacy because there is no one to fund them since the manufacturers are all small and have different manufacturing standards.

Blah blah blah. Take some sleeping pills. Good moms are rested moms. I feel your pain, and suggest you just try it and see how much better you feel!