[eliemob]

Hi- I am a 26 year old first time mother (stay at home) with a 6 month old boy. Lately I have been having extreme mood swings and feeling depressed. This started maybe 2-3 weeks ago. I have been feeling stressed, irritable, angry and resentful. I've been short tempered with my husband, maybe because I get burnt out with being the only one doing most of the housework and child care. Since I stay home, I assume most of the home responsibilities but the way I see it, he works an 8 hr. shift whereas my shift is 24/7. My husband will help around the house occasionally when asked without too much complaint though. I feel guilty for being impatient and snappy to him.

The thing is.. these feelings have started just recently. All of a sudden I feel tired all the time, angry at the world, lonely being home all day with a cranky baby, and have been getting frequent headaches (daily for every other day). Sometimes I feel hopeless, tearful, and want to crawl into bed all day. Then in just an hour or two it is completely gone, I feel ok and go on with my housework, or go on a stroller walk, etc.

My question is how do I know what is normal? Most new mothers are tired, have no energy, and feel overwhelmed and frustrated. But these feelings are abnormal for me and they seem to have come on suddenly. Could it be the changing of seasons, the days are getting colder and shorter, or maybe my period is getting ready to come back now that my son is sleeping through the night/eating solids thus breastfeeding has decreased and I have a nasty case of pms. I've also read that frequent headaches and depression are symptoms of hypothyroidism which some women can get after pregnancy and my family has a huge background of it. Although I had my thyroid checked before I got pregnant and it was normal.

How do you know if the depression is normal or not, and what do I do about it?