I think it's funny when you hear people say, "You'll never sleep through the night once the baby arrives!" Yeah, that's just spiffy, but I'm not actually sleeping through the night now. I know part of it is because I work in the night, and my sleep time is shifted from 2am to 10am, but it's just gotten worse since I've been pregnant. I mean, between the nausea and the extreme discomfort (I HATE being touched!), it's practically impossible to sleep at night.
I need 8 hours of sleep a night. If I get more or less than that, I'm drowsy and totally useless. However, the way things are going now, it's impossible to get 8 consecutive hours, so I sleep for an hour or two before Addison wakes up, four hours after he leaves, and a random number of hours in the evening. Plus I need to nap everytime I lose my lunch, and since I'm so overtired, a nap can sometimes accidentally span several hours in the evening.
And, of course, if I'm TOO nauseous I can't sleep no matter what. So that's making things worse too. I am not really sure what to do to regulate my schedule. I mean, I know that I should be getting more than my 8 hours, since fatigue is normal during early pregnancy and taking naps can be beneficial, but I still wish I could regulate it somehow.
As I mentioned, I hate being touched, too. For the most part. Sometimes I need a hug, but other people's natural scents is really bothering my stomach, and if I'm warm or sore I just don't want to be touched. This is making it so that it's nearly friggin' impossible to sleep with Addison in the bed! I can't wait for his alarm to go off in the morning so I can have the whole bed to myself! Grrr. This double-sucks because I LOVE Addison and want to be close to him emotionally, but can barely stand to be with him physically!
Thoughs? Suggestions? Other mother's advice would also be beneficial.
Kaytlyn
PS: I've changed the settings on my blog so that you don't have to sign up to leave a comment - this'll be great for people like my parents! Also, I've added Addison as a contributer to this blog, so hopefully I'll be able to convince him to input some of his thoughts. Give him so comment love to encourage him, too! -K
While I don't personally have any experience with pregnancy and nausia I do have two best friends who have babbies. They both happen to be on vacation right now but I'll direct them towards your blog when they get back. One, Sarah, didn't have much sickness at all. She's lucky, the other one was sick through her first trimester and I think into the second. She had a rough pregnancy all around really. She would probably be more help or at least better in commiserating.
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking for stuff on line, there's a forum that I used to go on a lot called Mothering Dot Com that isn't as good as it used to be but still a pretty good resource. The website is www.mothering.com/discussions/index.php Just "don't drink the kool-aid" as Sarah says. And take all advice with a grain of salt.
Hey, the fatigue...can't really help there. I'm 11 years since my first pregnancy, and still overtired. Sorry! I do understand the don't touch me part. That's no fun. Just rest when you can. You'll get used to life with spurts of sleep. They tell me at some point it all adjusts after kids are grown and gone...time will tell. Congratulations, by the way. Babies are nice! :)
ReplyDeleteThe scents thing - unscented body wash makes it bearable to be next to someone over night. The smell of handsoap, body wash, shampoo.. it all killed me. No scents is the way to go for the preggo! I did a separate bed sheet under a shared blanket. No skin to skin, so if you have a high thread count sheet, use it and give Addison the more coarse one haha
ReplyDeleteSleeplessness - Pee. Seriously. Lay down, read or etc, get up and pee and get back to bed for sleeps. Knocked me out cold each time. I didn't realize this until much later into it, so maybe it doesn't start until babby is big enough to push on your bladder. Either way, it helped me immensely.
Also, invest in a body pillow. Usually 5-10$ at Walmart. If you can sleep on your side, prop your belly on it. The pillow will be part under you/part propping you on your side so you don't hurt your shoulder over time with the pressure. Mucho comfy. I usually had it under the belly and between my knees.
Fatigue - Have you had your iron tested yet? You might need an iron supplement. There is iron in most prenatal vitamins, but some women need a complete supplement of just iron alone. I was having a hard time being awake for more than a few hours, and my tests came back with absurdly low iron (I don't eat much meat/was bringing all the hard to digest foods up). I was working the overnight too, so it was pretty bad.
They usually do your iron test along with STD+other diseases+gestational diabetes, so if you've given blood without results, it might come back then.