Sleeping medication and BFing

katie4253

Hey Ladies, 

Do any of you take Rx sleeping meds and BF?  I recently got a job and the anxiety over having to shift our entire lives in a matter of under 2 months is keeping me up at night.  I know that if I am not getting sleep, I'm going to be a bigger mess.  I've taken ambien in the past (before I got pregnant) and they actually gave it to me in the hospital when I was on bed rest and couldn't sleep.  

It makes me nervous to take it, but I need sleep!

Side note, please do not recommend: herbs to sleep, benadryl, tylenol pm, unisom, etc.  They don't work for me.  I've tried everything.

TIA! 

tokenhoser

Ambien is L3 = moderately safe. So it hasn't been shown to have any problems while breastfeeding, but it hasn't been studied a lot would be my guess. I would be comfortable using it occasionally (maybe during the week but skip it on weekends?). And, of course, no cosleeping.

katie4253

tokenhoser:

Ambien is L3 = moderately safe. So it hasn't been shown to have any problems while breastfeeding, but it hasn't been studied a lot would be my guess. I would be comfortable using it occasionally (maybe during the week but skip it on weekends?). And, of course, no cosleeping.

Thanks for responding.  I wouldn't use it much.  Maybe 1-2 times a week until I get through this stressful time.  I can do 4hrs of sleep if I get sleep other days.  LOL!   

katie4253

AmyG*:

With Ambien you really need to be sure you can dedicate at least 8 hours to sleeping, cause it's dangerous to get up to take care of a baby while on ambien.  Your dh has to be completely in charge of the baby during those 8 hours, as BAD things can happen.  People sleep walk, sleep eat, sleep drive, sleep take off all their clothes and walk in the snow, and may do sleep bad things to baby while they are under the influence of Ambien.  There are other sleep meds that I would recommend looking into, even narcotic type ones, due to that risk of you getting up to take care of baby but not being totally awake and giving baby a bath or putting baby in the oven or something totally wack like that. 

 

and yes, I'm serious that people have done some incredibly dangerous things while taking Ambien and I would not take the risk with a little baby in the house unless the other adult present was taking FULL responsibility for the baby even if you seem like you are awake to care for baby you might not be fully awake.

H always does the middle of the night feeding.  So, this wouldn't be an issue.  I've taken it in the past and he knows how to handle me.  I did take it and not go to bed once.  It was trippy.   (this was before I had the baby and before I was pregnant)