55 thoughts on “What keeps you awake at night?”

  1. These days my kids are older and their worries are very grown up and scary which is definitely grey hair inducing for me. When they started driving I couldn’t sleep until I heard their car engine turn off in the driveway outside my bedroom window. They are three years apart and I went through that scenario twice!

    • Oh gosh, I won’t sleep either. That stuff will stress me out. I have a babysitter two days during the week and even knowing that my kids are driving around with someone else FREAKS me out {even though she’s a beautiful driver!}.

      Oh gosh. If only we could escape back to the early years and remember that stress-free life!

  2. What don’t I worry about??? My partner is passionate about dirt bikes and wants to get one for the kids. I am against but don’t know how I can talk him out of it.

    • Oh man, my brother is in to dirt bikes – and he does endurance rides a lot. Actually a lot of my family is, and their small children too.

      I guess sometimes you have to surrender, but perhaps you can put limitations on it a little? I would freak out too.

  3. These days I’m just not sleeping 🙁 pregnancy insomnia, I’m sure you remember the joys! Today Olivia woke me at 4am for a wee then I couldn’t get back to sleep 🙁 I can fall asleep fine at night time but if I get woken, chances are I’m not going back to sleep. And it’s killing me slowly

    • Oh gosh, it was epic for me. I bet you’re knackered. 🙁 I hope you’re looking after yourself in the daytime.

      It’s so frustrating that you have a baby soon, and that you still won’t get good sleep.

      BUT you’ll have a baby. SO CUTE!

  4. First time mom with a 4 month old at 47. Thoughts of all the changes in my life in just these short 4 months after being surprised with my little miracle. Am I doing things right, can I do things better, is she okay, Lists of what I need to do, what I should do and what I want to do run through my head.

  5. OMG! 3am is the worry hour – I wake up, mostly I worry about things that haven’t happened… about my mum dying and me not getting there quick enough. Or home invasions. Or that hubby has stopped breathing… at which point I lie almost on top of him until he wakes up and I can tell for sure but it’s ok because goes back to sleep within a nano second 🙂

  6. What isn’t on my mind – I’m an insomniac from way back – it got better when I had baby/kid exhaustion but as they’ve grown my lack of sleeping has just gotten worse. 5 hours in a row is a HUGE win for me! xx

  7. At the moment my main worry is my son who is 6 soon. He had a ASD assessment done last year, which came back negative but also inconclusive. Now he has started prep and they are recommending a cognitive assessment and he also has a follow up ASD assessment in April. I’m so worried about what all this will mean for him and his future. We live in a country area and getting him help has been ridiculously hard, and something I’ve been dealing with since he was 2 yrs old. I worry about this all day, every day. During the day, I can distract myself, but at night, I’m alone with my brain.

      • He is a happy, healthy, funny, loved little boy. I remind myself of that every day. The problem with support is that there are too many kids needing it, and not enough services. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking at the same time knowing you are pushing and doing everything you can for your child, but the system is failing him, and so many others families as well. We will get there, I have faith in myself and my son. ❤️

  8. Worry and insomnia don’t stop as the kids get older. My son is 20 so some of the worries have change, though some stay the same. Having a child with a licence is terrifying prospect! So far he has failed his road tests and while I’m sad for him, I hate to admit that it’s a wonderful relief and reprieve for me! I take him to work every day and worry that he could get hurt, or that he might get fired (although there is no reason to think that he would). I worry about what he”s going to do with his life. He quit college after one year to spend some time trying to figure out what he wants to do. I worry that he won’t go back and will be content to spend his life moving boxes around. We’ve gone away a couple of times and left him home alone. He’s 20! There’s no reason not to do that! But “what if…”!! Kisds get older, but they” re still your kids, even when they’re not really “kids” anymore!

  9. Sorry to say that it’s anxiety and my mental health relating to Dad passing at the moment. I’ve started seeing a psychologist this week, and even that got my anxiety ramped up. Miss A has hit the “terrible twos”, isn’t eating well, fighting bedtime again. We’re not sure if she’s getting ready to drop her day sleep. So, while I may fall into bed exhausted, I wake some nights either having nightmares or just because my mind has decided to go into overdrive.

  10. I’m in the early stages of my second pregnancy, so waking up for a wee is a currently a common event each night. Once I’m awake that’s it, my mind goes through all sorts; what if something happens to this baby? How will my 3yr old cope not having me to himself anymore? How will I cope with the exhaustion, newborn and an energetic child? Will I be able to love this little one as much as I do my son? Will breastfeeding be such a struggle as it was the first time? To add to the fun we’re about to begin a big house extension/conversion project so I then go through the whole set of worries related to coping getting through and finished before the baby is born. My sane mind knows that these are all things which will work themselves out, life will be good and I’m lucky to be in such a wonderful situation. I just need to remind my 3am brain of this each night.

  11. Wow…that is a tough one. Lets see…my job that is 60-80 hours a week right now since we are in the throws of tax season; my mother’s health and dementia that seems to be getting worse…do I put her is a skilled facility or still try to care for her at home; my younger sister who is currently fighting leukemia and awaiting a bone marrow transplant; health issues that friends of mine and dealing with;
    getting bills paid off; are my health issues caused by bigger issues than I think?;whether or not I will ever find a point in my life where I am happy and content again…the list goes on. So many sleepless nights…I feel lucky to get 3-4 hours of sleep.

    • Oh gosh Susan, that’s a lot on your plate.

      My Nanna had dementia and everyone tried helping her. We all tried having her stay with us, and it just didn’t work out. She ended up in a beautiful nursing home, and it worked best for us that we could spend as much time as possible with her in that environment instead of having that pressure and stress caring for a person with dementia can have on a family {I know that sounds selfish, but her needs were more than anyone imagined, and the toll pretty big for us}. xx

  12. I am worried about the poor poor refugees. Are they cold, are they hungry…. I want to bring all 42,000 of them into my home… then my mind flips to something trivial such as Oh Man PLEASE let the two expensive sets of bunk beds I have bought fit into the space I have. I was greedy for opting King Single –when really choosing single size would have saved me some grey hairs.

  13. Being 35 weeks pregnant with my 3rd child a big part of what keeps me awake is peeing lol but then I wake up (pee) then lie awake for ridiculous amounts of time freaking out that I am not going to make it to the hospital in time as the hospital is an hour away and my doctor told me to expect a quick labour. To add to that stress two local women didn’t make it there recently, one having her baby in an ambulance on the side of the road and the other having hers in our local hospital which has no maternity ward ?

    • Oh gosh! You need to set up camp in the town with the hospital! I hope you make it. I hope baby surprises you and you have a show, then get to hospital with enough time to get comfortable. Anything is possible. xx

  14. I worry about the world I have bought my children into, one where people aren’t connected except via phones, where those same phones record teenagers and adults fighting each other in the street, where people a too scared to help a stranger because something might happen to them, where drugs like ICE are turning our community streets into a scary place to be alone. I worry what the world will look like for my children when they become teenagers and then adults.

  15. 3 boys , 25,20 and 13. Parties, girls, women, drugs, alcohol, p plates , fast cars, fights, King hits, going out at night, not answering their phones , work issues, school issues. How much time you got Chantelle ? These are the first ones that came to mind. I haven’t had a full night sleep or more than 6 hours for so long I can’t remember .

    • It never ends, does it? I know I’ll worry about drugs, and cars, and fights, and strangers.

      I wish we’d appreciated sleep when we were young. I hope your worry results in nothing, and you get good sleep soon. x

  16. SCHOOLS! My daughter is coming up 5 in June and last year I applied for an out-of-zone school. Sort of just expecting that it’d all be fine and we’d get in. But we didn’t! And now it’s too late to apply for ANY other school as outofzone enrolments close October the year before. I never expected or realised how stressful and hard it would be getting her into a suitable school for her! I hate the idea of changing schools on her so want to feel happy and secure in the decision I make but it’s not coming easy and I am not left with much of a choice!

  17. This was very insightful reading through a few of the below comments. Makes you appreciative of what you’ve got – problems and all. It is true what they say… throw everyones problems in a basket and bet you’ll grabbing your own back outta there (or something like that!)

  18. I’m going through terrible depression at the moment about my kids growing up. Particularly my eldest who is in his last year of high school and then who knows what? We live on the Sunshine Coast and he’s talking moving to Brisbane or further afield to go to Uni. I’m not ready to let go. How do other mum’s cope with this? Why do they grow up so quickly? I wasn’t quite prepared for this and it is really occupying my thoughts constantly.

    • Hey Deb. Big hugs. I will absolutely, without a doubt, struggle with this as well. I hope you find help in processing it all. Personally I love counsellors, so that’s where I would go. Lots of love. xx

  19. my daughter nearly 13 is going through some pretty high anxiety attacks which is very uncharacteristic of her. It is frightening and sad for both of us. For me because it doesn’t matter what I so or do nothing can help her. For her because she is so young and should be carefree and happy but isn’t she is having to have psychiatric help to learn how to “cope” with anxiety at 12 FFS. I haven’t slept for nearly 7 weeks . I know she is going to be ok and she is improving with coping amazingly well, but to see her so frightened and not being able to do the things she so loves like dance and play dates with girlfriends or even at the moment walk the dog along a familiar path. I NEED SLEEP but nah not yet. Not until she is coping 100% until then… Ill watch over her whilst she sleeps . thanks for this Chantelle. xx

  20. I’m just not a good sleeper full stop. What plays on my mind at the moment is whether to keep trying to have a child or not. We’ve tried for about 5 years, including 2 rounds of IVF a few years back. Then I fell ill for 18 months. Now I’m fit and well again thank goodness. My partner just had a tumour and a kidney out, he is thankfully recovering well. So, I’m 39, he is 55. No that age matters at all, apart from my fertility running out, hence I mention age. But do I really want to go through the stress of IVF again, maybe still without results? Do I even know what having a child will mean for me, us? What would life look like without children, ever? Will I be ok with not trying anymore? Reading all your mother comments makes me wonder whether it may just be too much for me after all – perhaps accepting it won’t happen is the best thing, and not pursue it with any more IVF. It’s one of those biggies in life eh!

    • Oh gosh, don’t be put off by my mum comments. It’s the single best thing I’ve done become a mother. I can see how my life would be rich still without them, but I wouldn’t change my motherhood role for anything.

      BUT I don’t have struggles with fertility, and I can’t completely understand or comprehend the emotional toll that trying for a baby unsuccessfully would have.

      Big love. I hope that whichever way it all goes for you, you have peace and support. xx

      • Thank you Chantelle. I do imagine it must be fantastic to be a parent even with all the hard work. So I’m crossing my fingers and we are going to that IVF appointment tomorrow and I’ll make an IVF process plan so I can hold my head high, stay calm and positive in the process. I think we will be great parents (if I must say so myself) if we get the chance. xxxx (and thank you for a great blog)

  21. Last night I lay awake thinking about the wall that is adjacent to our bathroom, but is also the wall of the kids room, this wall is giving me a headache, we have done everything possible, but it keeps molding up.
    So I worry about my kids becoming ill of toxic inhalation, even if I see a small dot of mold I freak out. I see 40 years in advance where they are grown men with lung issues, because of a wall.I lay there thinking about that for over 3 hours. During those 3 hours my thoughts ranged from, we should move to a different house, but it is so expensive to why is everything so expensive and that I shouldn’t forget to print a photo for show and tell of my son and his fish. We should get someone in to come fix the wall again, maybe the CDC. I then started blaming myself, because maybe I don’t clean the house enough, am I a bad mother…then I thought well it is also the men in my house that shower too long, so the wall stays damp and I got angry at that and looked at my husband sleeping next to me and wondered if I slap him in his sleep if he will wake up. Left that idea and got up to check on the kids and the evil wall, I put on my phones flash light to inspect wall. Came to the conclusion we are all going to die and started crying and praying for Gods protection over my children’s health and I am sure I struggled to breath. At that point I was completely drained and decided to read Facebook to get my mind off my troubles, I ended up googling the dangers of mold and saw that it can cause irritation, coughing and aggravated allergies. (Then my son coughed from inside the room)….I decided there is absolutely nothing I can do about this situation at 00:45 and eventually fell asleep. This is but one night, I will save you from having to read more.

      • I would love to tear that wall down, unfortunately we are renting that place 🙁 LOL, perhaps next time I will slap him and if he wakes up I will pretend to sleep then he will think it was a dream. lol lol

  22. I stress about anything and everything… stuff that is real and stuff that hasn’t (and probably will never) happen… From money to my families health, how I would cope if I lost my husband (this is a big one since I nearly lost him to an embolism 2yrs ago) to what high school to send the kids to (they are in kindy and yr 1). I often wake in the middle of the night start thinking about something and then I can’t get back to sleep. I wish I could just switch off…

    • I am so glad your husband survived. I’m sure meditation helps with the middle of the night stuff… Lately I’ve been so tired that I sleep longer than usual. I don’t miss the night wakes. I’m sorry you have them. x

  23. 1 boy 7. Am I doing enough for him? Am I too hard on him, am I too soft on him? Is he going to turn out to be a decent human? Am I being enough of a partner…am I devoting enough time to my partner and nurturing our relationship? Will I find a job that’s more fulfilling and what do I even want to do???? Constantly ticking….no wonder it takes hours to fall asleep at night :I

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