3-21-11 - Pregnancy Sleep Woes

It's no secret that most pregnant women don't get a good night's sleep basically from the moment they find out until... well, ever, probably.  (Am I right?)  I'm an awesome sleeper though.  I'm also a really light sleeper, in general.  You would think those two things wouldn't go hand in hand, but it works for me.

You see, my conscious and sub-conscious work together to determine what I should be concerned about when sleeping.  A loud thumb in the night? Or perhaps Murphy making low, threatening barks?  I wake up instantly, and am pretty much fully awake.   But DH putting the dishes away in the morning, people talking in the next room, etc.  I sleep right through it.  It's awesome.  There are also a few random things that set me off instantly even if they're not necessarily threatening, including dripping water (one drip and I'm awake!) and mice feet, to name a few.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I normally sleep quite well at night.  I sleep soundly and don't even notice when DH wakes up and leaves the room.  I can easily sleep for 10-12 hours per night if given the opportunity and when such an opportunity arises, I take full advantage of it.  But obviously, a lot has changed in the last few months.

First it was just the waking up to go to the bathroom.  Hormones, increased fluid intake, and a growing uterus have all put the pressure on my poor little bladder, which was already sort of weak to begin with.  What's most frustrating though is that even though I am waking up all the time to go to the bathroom, it's not like my "output" - so to speak - has increased.  Why can't my bladder just wait until morning??? It wasn't like it was so full that it couldn't stand to hold anything more. 

My second sleep woe is caused by this constant nasal stuffiness that is also apparently pretty normal.  In fact, DH politely likes to tell me that I "breathe like a horse."  Of course, that's only when I'm not snoring, which I've suddenly starting doing as well.  I'm so conscious of the effect that my heavy breathing has on him that I often wake up when I am breathing particularly loudly, and then I can't fall back asleep because... well because I'm still breathing loudly and there's nothing that I can do about it.   Sometimes he'll sleep in the spare bedroom so that he can get a good night's sleep, but I feel bad for essentially forcing him out of room, although admittedly I usually sleep better then as well.

Finally, I have recently developed a fear of sleeping my back, and as a back-sleeper by nature, this has been a hard habit to break.  When I sleep on my back for extended periods of time, my legs, arms and even my neck and scalp turn to pins and needles.  It is horrible painful and uncomfortable.  I fall asleep on my side and wake up on my back with feeling only existing in my torso region.  I figure that if sleeping on my back creates such severe circulation problems for my limbs, it certainly can't be good for the creature who relies on me to survive (although thankfully said creature is located in that torso region that generally doesn't seem to be affected.) 

All of these factors mean that sleeping has become a luxury to me, so much more so than even before.  I still adore sleeping and want to do it all the time, but it's become harder and harder to get a good night of uninterrupted sleep.  I'm pretty sure most parents would just tell me to "get used to it," as I have a feeling interrupted sleep is going to be in my future for at least the next couple of years.