depression? or just tired

My baby is 1 month old but I'm having a hard time trying to cope with baby feeding and exclusively pumping. Yesterday baby woke up at 4am to feed half way and fall asleep. Woke up at 5am to feed again. Then I had to pump from 5-6am. Rested another 30 min and baby started crying for next feed. Half the night I couldnt sleep and wonder how am I going to cope with a new day ahead. At times I just wan to give up and leave, at times when I'm frustrated I man handled baby a little. I'm wondering am I just a bad mom, or am I depressed. Thinking of next pump that might coincide with baby next feed gives me so much anxiety. And I have been crying alot whenever I cant cope with pump + baby crying. Do I need help??

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I’m an EP mum and went through the same. First things first - depression is normal and you should seek all the help you can get (in terms of helping out in baby caregiving as well as emotional support). Don’t ever feel like there’s something wrong with you or that you’re not a good mum. As for the night feeds, I did fixed intervals so it was every 3-4hours ie I wake baby up to drink milk if he doesn’t wake up by 4 hours. Husband takes the shift up till midnight, then I take over from there, meaning earliest feed duty for me is 3am. So, I will pump around 9pm, go to bed around 10-1030, wake up around midnight to 1am to pump (depending on whether I want to drag out my pumping interval). Then wake up at 4am, or earlier if baby wakes earlier, feed baby plus burp (yes can take up to 1 hr), then pump for 15min, then sleep. Then repeat 3-4 hrs later. In between, baby may fuss and I will put pacifier, pat pat or carry to put him back to sleep. In the day, try to sleep when baby naps. And even though everyone says this, it usually only means you get 1-1.5hr nap if you’re lucky, because you still need to eat, pump, have some me-time etc Jiayou!

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