Oh Insomnia, How I Hate Thee

Every now and then, I get horrible bouts of insomnia. I have no trouble falling asleep at bedtime, but if I wake up for any reason in the middle of the night (usually between 2 am and 3 am) then forget it: I'm up for the day. Absolutely nothing can help me go back to sleep and believe me, I've tried.

Experts say to get out of bed and read something boring until you feel drowsy again. That doesn't work because we don't keep boring reading materials lying around the house. I don't buy boring books and I don't subscribe to boring magazines. And since we have the Internet, we throw out phone books so we don't even have those around.

The old wive's tales say to drink a glass of warm milk to trigger sleepiness. This doesn't work because I don't like warm milk unless it has cocoa in it and that has caffeine which defeats the purpose of the warm milk. And even if I did like warm milk this wouldn't work because I've cut all dairy from my diet due to Liam's gastrointestinal sensitivity to cow's milk.

Doctors say to take sleep aids. A few years ago my doctor gave me a prescription for Ambien and it worked wonders. However, I cannot take that (or anything else for that matter) until I'm done nursing Liam. Heaven knows we don't need his sleep cycles to get anymore messed up than they already are.

I used to practice the breathing techniques I learned in my yoga class and that seemed to help clear my mind and allow me to fall asleep again. But, alas, those don't seem to be working anymore so here I sit, at 5:58 am typing this blog. I've been awake since 3 am, by the way.

So, if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I'm sure my family would appreciate them as well. A tired mommy is a cranky mommy.