21-year-old single mama desperately struggling

Photo byAlexander GreyonUnsplash

I’m a 22-year-old single mom, and I feel like I’m barely surviving. My one-year-old daughter fights sleep every night and wakes up throughout the night, and it’s been that way since she was born. I’ve tried everything to get her to sleep, including sleep consultants and training, but nothing seems to work. I’m at my wits’ end, and I feel like I’m just getting by.

To make things worse, I have no family or friends to turn to. They’ve all either moved away or stopped talking to me because I’m a young mom. I lost touch with some of my friends because they couldn’t relate to my situation, and others distanced themselves from me because I couldn’t hang out with them as much as I used to.

My fiancé helps as much as he can, but he’s usually at work, leaving me to take care of our daughter on my own. I feel like I’m drowning in responsibilities, and there’s no one to turn to for help.

I’ve been seeing a psychologist, but even that has been a struggle. My daughter’s sleep issues often interfere with my appointments, and I’ve had to cancel or reschedule several times. Recently, my daughter fell ill and had to be hospitalized, which made me late for an appointment. I couldn’t reschedule right away because I didn’t want to risk exposing my daughter to other sick children.

When I finally had a chance to call and book the appointment, my daughter refused to nap, and I had to deal with her being overtired and cranky for the rest of the day. It’s hard to do even the simplest tasks when I’m sleep-deprived and running on fumes.

I love my daughter more than anything in this world, but her sleeplessness is taking a toll on me physically and mentally. I feel like I’m barely keeping it together, and I’m worried that it’s only a matter of time before I break down completely. When other moms tell me that it gets easier, I feel like they’re lying to me. It hasn’t gotten easier, and I don’t know when it will.

In addition to my daughter’s sleep issues, I’m dealing with a lot of other things in the background, and it’s all weighing me down. I’m doing my best to hold everything together, but sometimes it feels like it’s all too much. I know I have to keep going for my daughter, but it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.