I'm sailing into the third trimester and the biggest change I've noticed is my inability to sleep. I used to be a chronic insomniac, until the first weeks of pregnancy hit me and I slept like a log whenever I could, wherever I could. Prior to pregnancy, however, I used to pop Valarian almost every night. And not just one..nooo… sometimes I'd take up to 4 just to get my body and mind to shut up a bit so I could sleep. And sometimes even 4 wouldn't work.
Getting back to last night, obviously I cannot take any sleeping pills while I'm pregnant. If my body feels tired, I'll sleep, if it doesn't, I won't. Sound weird that I distinguish my body from me? Well, it's my LEGS that twitch, and my BACK that hurts, etc. Add to that getting up an average of 10 times an hour for the first 2 hours after going to bed in order to pee. Is it my fault that I feel completely dehydrated in the evening, so even though the clock has crept past 9 o'clock, I'm still guzzling water? I don't think so. Not with the amount of water I drink in a given day already. *Phx's stomach sloshes in agreement.*
And again, getting back to last night, I did the up-down-up-down-flush-flush-flush for the first hour or so… then I just wasn't freakin' tired anymore. But I have this thing on getting enough sleep, so even though I felt awake enough to work on our finances (when normally I'm mathematically useless after 8 p.m.), I made myself stay in bed and tried to will my body and my head to shut up, calm down, stop twitching, stop aching so I could sleep.
No such luck. I even switched sides of the bed with Tomek TWICE (poor guy… keep I mind he's suffering from a gross sore throat, sore chest achy cold), thinking I was just sleeping on my "wrong" side. Then I got rid of my pillow. Then I closed the almost-always-open window. Then I got a back massage from Tomek (okay by now it's midnight). Pee pee pee some more, toss turn, the baby is awake too and letting me know s/he's not having any more luck than I am at falling asleep. Kick, kick, quiver, BOOT, mom rolls over on her stomach (bad, I know), rolls over on her back, to the side, snuggles up to Tomek, moves away 3 minutes later because he's a human heater and mom is starting to sweat. Ugh.
Tomek suggests that we should sleep on the futon. I'm game, because it's a much firmer mattress. We'd just have to shut the computers off first because I can't sleep with the incessant whiiiiiiiiiiiine of a computer anywhere near me. But then I remember how many internet windows he has open on his computer. At least 15. The time and effort it would take to bookmark them all makes my brain twitch. Mind you, I probably should have just done it. Because instead of lowering the futon, we pushed, pulled, heaved, slid, rolled, and cursed the futon mattress into our bedroom and on TOP of our bed.
Firm futon mattress on top of soft saggy mattress equals soft, saggy futon mattress.
I didn't have the heart to ask Tomek to remove it again. So I settled in and worked on convincing my body that the squishy mattress felt GOOD. Ha ha. It wasn't convinced. Now it's 1 a.m. and I'm still tossing, turning, twitching, craving some damn Valarian to put me out of my misery.
1:30 a.m. I stomp out of bed again and go pee. Where the hell is all this pee coming from?! Oh, yeah, I forgot. The entire stock of amniotic fluid is replaced every 2-3 days… this night must have been recycle night.
Then I remember a trick that has sometimes worked in putting me to sleep: eat crackers. Not too many, just 6 or 7. Eat them in bed. Don't wash them down with any fluids. Leave the cracker box on the night table. Lie down and try yet again to sleep.
So there it is, 1:30 in the morning, and Phx is sitting up in bed loudly munching Triscuits. Loudly, you say? Well, loud enough for Tomek to wake up and ask me what the hell I'm doing. Okay I don't think he said hell, but he fully deserved too. At least hell. If not fuck. Truly. I'm a miserable bed-mate. I told him I was eating crackers. Then I munched a few more… settled under the blankets, and…
fell asleep.
Yessss….
Tomek told me this morning he couldn't believe I was eating crackers in bed. Poor guy. This is just the beginning.
4 comments:
Do you have a body pillow? When my belly started to get bigger I had a hard time sleeping. Then Rally came home with a body pillow. The bed was crowded, but it helped me sleep - I would wedge it under my belly and rest my top leg on it.
Now, I have a small wedge shaped pillow (Kind of shaped like a door stop) that I stick under my belly and it works wonders, elevating my stomach off the mattress. And it doesn't take up as much room as the body pillow. I got my wedge pillow from Superstore. I think it was around $10. . . .
I can't touch Rally when I sleep either. He's shivering under all the blankets and I have the window open, the fan going and am sleeping under only a sheet. We are baby making machines - Producing more heat and energy as a result.
see..this is why if guys were to have the children, then we as a species wouldnt make it past one generation. poor girls.
Phoe: I don't have a body pillow-but last night I did try using a fairly flat pillow to support my belly, and it worked like a dream! I still didn't fall asleep till after 1 a.m. but I definitely had a more comfortable sleep. A wedge pillow sounds like a wonderful idea.
Last night I didn't even sleep with Tomek. I felt badly because he's sick and has been so sleep deprived because of me. So we put the futon mattress on the floor and he fell asleep on that so quickly that I just moved over to our bed, and having that space (and controlled temperature) along with the little pillow worked well.
I'm off to superstore tonight! Thanks for the tip!
ghost: why do you say that we wouldn't make it past one generation?
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