>Cough and Hack Attack
>Trying to sleep while pregnant is damned near impossible.
According to the experts, we knocked up women shouldn’t sleep on our stomachs, for obvious reasons. Nor should we sleep on our backs or our right sides, because of some shit about cutting off blood flow to the baby.
So my nights are spent hunched on my left side, wiggling and sqirming and trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable. Just as I’m dozing off, an inner alarm sounds. You’re on your stomach! You’re squishing the baby! Shit! I jerk awake and roll back over onto my side. 15 minutes later, I’m finally asleep when, Ding Ding Ding! Back sleeper! The baby can’t breathe! Do something! In a panic, I sit straight up, gasping, then resolutely lie back down on my (left) side.
This goes on all night long until I hear Baby on the monitor chanting “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” at the ungodly hour of 6am. Suffice it to say I have been a little, ahem, grumpy lately.
But if you think sleeping while pregnant is hard, try sleeping while pregnant and while your husband coughs up a lung beside you.
Babydaddy has a chest cold and last night, he treated me to a symphony of hacking. Since he does everything with great passion, of course his coughing was no exception. His attempts at phlegm removal sounded like multiple pipe bombs exploding in a row of mailboxes. I am sure that our neighbors felt the vibrations from their own beds and wondered what the hell was going on.
During the few times that I managed to fall asleep, I would dream I was lying in a foxhole (on my left side) in the midst of an attack by enemy forces. So today, I’m both exhausted and shellshocked, not a good combination. I swear my ears have been ringing all morning.
So that’s the news from the Suburban Turmoil war zone and quarantine. Hope your day’s going better than mine.
>Well I have heard of all the advice “they” give about sleeping positions and pregnancy. However, I’m not all together sure I followed any of it, aside from the stomach position (which was my position of choice back then). My kids came out breathing and healthy…all three of them. So maybe you can find comfort in another, less recommended, though probably not too threatening, position. As for the BabyDaddy…nothing a balled up sock and some duct tape can’t fix! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hang in there and Sweet Dreams.
>Dude, that left side thing? Totally only for the late second trimester on. Your little, teeny cletus the fetus can breathe. So, sleep left, right, back, and if you can (with some serious kudos) on your stomach. Also, invest in a body pillow. They’re God’s gift to the pregnant woman!
>What mir said. You have months to go before worrying about the left side thing. But it will still suck! 🙂
>But apparently, I’m supposed to start “training” myself now. I guess it’s a good thing I’m training myself to withstand lack of sleep, too…
>Make the hubby sleep on the couch. A pregnant lady needs her rest!I also agree about the body pillow- a great investment and good husband replacement.
>I can’t even imagine how any of us were born back in the days before the internet. Our moms smoked, drank, slept on their backs and ate tuna right out of the can. And we turned out ok.Well, maybe I’m not the best example. YOU turned out ok!
>Oh my gosh, I have been going through the exact same thing. I am 23 weeks, and I cannot stay on my left side. I try. I promise I really try. But I also wake up to alarms sounding “YOU ARE ON YOUR BACK or YOU ARE ON YOUR RIGHT SIDE” (I can’t really sleep on my stomach anymore for obvious reasons.) My left side is getting sore!
>pillows and separate beds! We keep the guest room all set up in case one of us is sick. I go in the guest room ‘cuz he needs the alarm clock & the shower in our room. But I don’t tolerate keeping anyone from their sleep, especially ME! And if I’m the sick one, I’m “considerate” and go read a book.
>I could only sleep on my stomach, so I ended up buying one of those special pillows that are shaped like a horseshoe. My husband called it my nest because he couldn’t see me in there. I loved it.
>Once,When I was pregnant…I ate….SUSHI….GASPlighten up 🙂 sleep as comfortably as you can and forget ‘training yourself’ because lets face it, during the second and third trimesters, it doesn’t matter how you sleep, it’s NEVER comfortable.
>Don’t worry about “training “yourself now. I remember that by the time it mattered, I was so big it would have taken a crane to turn me over – no worries about accidentally turning over in my sleep.By the way, *congratulations* on the coming baby! (Not yikes. 🙂
>Good on ya! You described my Hub’s lung issues perfectly, but way more poetically. Right there with ya, sistah!
>I slept with a body pillow on either side of me when pregnant to prop me up and supprt the belly and the knee. Didn’t leave much room for Misterpie, but hey, it’s all about us and the belly, right? Tell the neighbours you were making good and sure you were preggy by planting some extra… And that was the headboard they heard. Heh.
>I agree with the whole who cares until month 6. And I’m 20 weeks.My midwife also told me that if I absolutely had to sleep on my back I could wedge a pillow or rolled up something under my right hip just enough to lift it a bit and keep the circulation going.Also, when I was in labor once I kept trying to lie down on my right side, and they kept yelling at me and turning me over to the left because it’s “better”, and then I would sit bolt upright and vomit. (Every single time) Then we hooked up a monitor. Every time I lay on my left side the heart rate went way down, every time I lay on the right baby was fine. So I say trust your instincts ’cause who really knows besides you anyway, right?
>I agree, bugger the sleeping positions for now. And then when you get to the 2nd trimester and are meant to do the sleeping positions, well your body goes and decides to give you Pregnancy Insomnia. Nice. Apparently getting you in practice for being awake all night when baby arrives. Why? Why on earth do I need to practice being awake? I’m going to be awake when the baby is here anyway! Dumb body.
>I think any way you can sleep is the right way. I had bruised ribs (from baby kicking!) on my left side. I could only sleep on my right.
>This is the advice my first OB gave me, and he was by far the best:THROW AWAY “WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU ARE EXPECTING”!!!!It has every random thing to worry about, and none of the explanations. Like, apparently, this whole left-side thing, which basically reached critical mass from that book. APPARENTLY, it only applies in incredibly rare and highly unusual instances. Most women, no worries. And if you had that problem, he told me, you would know.So sleep anyway you want and throw that stupid Not The Bible Afterall out!!!
>Hang in there, you know that it’s only going to get worse before it gets better – so take advantage of your mobility at this point and get a few hundred pillows for your 3rd trimester! I feel for you though, I had all of those thoughts during pregnancies, and even woke up more than once on my left side – no damage done!!! :)Carrie
>I love all this pillow advice!The only thing horrible about sleeping with all those pillows? The heat. Isn’t it about 110 degrees where you live now?
>LOL… Get Hubs some Sucrets Complete. They did the trick for me last week when I had the same problem! Either that or kick him off to the couch!! Momma needs her rest!With the back sleeping thing, my doc told me to prop a butt-cheek on a pillow, so as to fix whatever it is that cuts off blood flow to baby. I did that & slept on my “back” lots when pregnant. As far as I can tell my boy came out OK! ;-)Do you have a body pillow? Godsend!
>My dr. never told me how to sleep, but he DID tell me to throw out ‘What to Expect…’He also told me it was ‘time to back away from the buffet’. (I gained about 17 lbs in less than 2 weeks…)
>I do have two large pillows from my last pregnancy (nicknamed Ned and Ed) that I put on either side, and they help a lot.My last pregnancy, though, I slept like a baby the first trimester and often took two naps a day (Now I can’t BELIEVE I had time to do that!). This time around, I can’t go to sleep. I’m glad I have so much more energy during the day, but at night, it’s a pain.And it’s hot here, but not as hot as it was a few weeks ago, so with a decent air conditioner, we’re all right. 🙂
>Hmmmm….it truly amazes me what you girls go through these days with all the “can’t dos”. I had five children, all healthy, and I slept anyway I wanted. Did use a big ole body pillow with the last one.
>Kick your hubby out of bed (he’s hacking hairballs ANYWAY, so he shouldn’t be near you) – get a body pillow to hug (much more pliable and infinitely more QUIET than a hacking, snoring hubby) and you’ll stay on your left side more easily, and sleep better in peace! Been there, done that TWICE, won’t be doing it EVER again!
>You’ve got plenty of advice already, but I agree with the masses. If your husband is going to cough up chunks of lung all night, tell him to go to the guest room or even the living room couch. You need your rest. And big-ass body pillows.
>Toward the end of my pregnancy with The Preschooler Formerly Known as Busy Baby, I had to actually get up out of the bed to change directions to turn over.That really has nothing to do with anything, does it?
>I work labor and delivery… Sleep anyway you want babe. The baby will survive. Their strong little blessings. 🙂
>and I bet there is the typical male drama of “i’m the sickest person in the whole, wide world and nothing can compare to the misery I am in.” That is what we get here….Good luck on that sleep thing!
>One word: Snoogle. Get one, Get one NOW.
>I’m tired just listening. I’m gonna go take a nap.You too.
>We guys have no idea what it’s like, but we can and will do the right thing.I’m with the crowd- send him, o so lovingly, to the nearest couch or guest room. You’ll love him for it, and that’s most important.If he balks, give him the old ‘this is not just for me, but for your child’ bit. Always worked on me…