The odd couple: Pregnancy and sleep

Oh, sleep, how do I love thee and how I have missed thee these past few months.

You might have heard that when you're pregnant, you're supposed to sleep on your side, for medical reasons that I won't get into. It's been a difficult adjustment.

I became a back sleeper about 10 years ago after hurting my back while moving and then sleeping on a horrible mattress night after night (ah, college). Sleeping on my back resulted in less pain the next day, so I adapted.

Adapting back to being a side sleeper has not been an easy task. Night after night, I'd wake up on my back and force myself onto my side. Then, unable to sleep, I'd wonder whether I should persevere or just put off the challenge until I absolutely had to start sleeping on my side.

I bought some accessories to help me along. First off, I bought a feather bed topper for our mattress, using the reasoning that it would probably be easier to sleep on my side if I had some softer cushioning beneath me. I suppose it is, a little.

I also bought a Snoogle body pillow. I think it will be helpful later in my pregnancy, but in the earlier days, it felt more like a contraption designed to make my middle-of-the-night bathroom trips even more difficult than they already are. Having to extricate oneself from the Snoogle and then maneuver oneself back into it (and the rest of the bedding) at 2 AM while wearing head-to-toe flannel footie pajamas is a challenge that I dare even the bravest amongst us to accept, pregnant or not.

Eventually, after my tactics proved to be less than completely successful, I decided to chill a little on the sleeping position. It was a good decision, for several reasons.

At my last doctor visit, I asked about when I needed to start sleeping on my side. She said not for another month or so (which is around now). I explained that I was having difficulty with it, and she said that I didn't actually have to sleep completely on my side, and that if I just propped one hip up with a pillow, it was good enough.

For the past few weeks, I've been attempting the pillow trick, and while I don't stay on the pillow the entire night, I can always adjust the pillow back when I wake up (an event that happens frequently throughout the night). And interestingly enough, I find that it is now much easier to sleep on my side than it was before--perhaps it's because I've been trying to train myself all these months, but more likely it's because my body knows that it's best.

I'm not sure if I'm sleeping any better, but I am resting easier.

How pregnancy feels

Before I became pregnant, I used to wonder how pregnancy felt. I'm not talking about the symptoms I described in an earlier post. I wondered whether I'd be able to tell if I was pregnant, and if not, when I would be able to tell.

Five months in, I can say that, unfortunate symptoms aside, being pregnant doesn't feel much different from not being pregnant, from a day-to-day perspective, anyway. However, I have experienced the following physical changes.

Skin that is even more transparent than it was before
Ok, my skin is not really more transparent. The change is that my body is creating lots and lots of extra blood, making my arteries and veins stand out more and making my skin seem more transparent.

(You would think that all of this blood would make me warmer, or at least less susceptible to cold. I am neither.)

In fact, my more-noticeable veins in the palms of my hands were the first sign that I was pregnant, before the pregnancy test said so. Of course, the books and online resources don't offer this tidbit as a "helpful early pregnancy sign" so I ignored the change.

A significantly less glamorous walk
My strides have always been long and focussed. I place one foot in front of the other as if I am walking on a straight line and can place my feet only on the line.

It has become harder and harder to maintain this walking style. Early on in my pregnancy, something in my lower back felt like it was was...widening. This change made me want to modify my walk so that my feet didn't quite make it to the line. My feet preferred plodding along parallel lines in a walk that could best be described as a...waddle.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night as I drag myself out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom, I give in to this waddling tendency. However, when I am fully in control of my senses, I do my best to maintain my previous walk, or at least a semblance of it.

I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to keep this up, but I am not ready to say goodbye to my old walk yet.

The end of running up stairs
Continuing with the less-glamorous changes, I feel...heavier. I have gained around 10 pounds since August, and this weight along with my more sedentary winter lifestyle probably contribute to my becoming out of breath earlier than I would have before. However, it feels more like I'm carrying around something heavy in my belly.

Perhaps because I am.

Anyway, I don't feel it when I'm walking or lying down or anything like that. I only feel this increased heaviness when I try to do something a little more active, like run up the stairs. Even walking up the stairs two at a time is no longer possible; I can't lift my legs as high, and I just can't generate the necessary momentum to keep myself moving up an entire flight of stairs.  

Baby movements
This change is definitely the most fun. For a few weeks now, I've been able to feel the baby moving.

How does it feel...well, sort of a cross between gas and other "intestinal activities." Except more magical, of course, since it's a human being rolling around in there.

But magic aside, it really just feels like gas.

You can feel the kicks and movement from the outside, too, so B has been able to feel the little guy rolling around in there. Some kicks are a bit more aggressive than others. Apparently, they're only going to get more aggressive as he gets bigger. That should be interesting.

Just before I go to sleep and whenever I get up in the night, he starts moving. And I feel him rolling around periodically throughout the day. If I am very active (for instance, going for a long walk), he is definitely less active; I read that my activity rocks him to sleep.

I suspect that getting him to go to sleep will not be as easy after he enters the world, so I am enjoying the power that I have for now.

Yes, these are maternity pants

Maternity clothes and I have an uneasy relationship. Maternity tops...I'm not there yet. However, I have dipped my toe into the maternity pants pool. 

I haven't fit into most of my real pants in quite some time. My Bella Bands have allowed me to make them work, for the most part.

I have worn a pair of Old Navy maternity jeans. They are not ideal. Either I need to get bigger, or they need to shrink, or perhaps they're just not meant to stay up. A belt did not help. I have considered throwing them into the dryer to bring about some shrinkage, but I worry that they then wouldn't be long enough. You can get away with too-short maternity pants in the last month, when people should just be happy that you showed up to wherever you are, but I'm not there yet. I still have to make some semblance of an effort. Perhaps suspenders...

My other stand-by maternity pant is from the Gap and is that stretchy black yoga-y type material that I see all the time in my doctor's waiting room. These pants arrived in the mail, and I wore them every day for...well, quite some time. These pants might not be dressy, but they're so darn comfortable. And because they don't really look like maternity pants, I'll be able to wear them in the weeks after the Rooster arrives.

But it's much harder, mentally, to start wearing the tops, perhaps because they are all so obviously maternity clothes. I think part of me is pretending that if I ignore them, I won't have to wear them. And by "part of me," I mean most of me, even the normally rational part (though I haven't started crying over them...yet).

However, it's time to face facts. B hasn't asked me (jokingly) in quite some time, "Are you sure you're pregnant?" because, well, I'm starting to look like I am. I've bought some tents maternity shirts, and they're hanging in a closet. Eventually, I will have to try them on and remove the tags and maybe even wear them.

In my defense, at my last visit, my doctor agreed that it was too soon to wear them, as they are still too big for me. For now, it's best to continue wearing my baggier tops, which I tried to stock up on in preparation.

If you're considering pregnancy in the upcoming months or years, now is the time to start buying some less tailored clothing. You can wear Bella Bands and low-cut maternity pants after you start getting bigger, but it's so nice to have pants that give a little (my favorite is Lucy's Walk About Pant, which come in long sizes). And if you're reluctant to wear maternity tops, make sure you have some not-too-fitted tops that will stretch. Open cardigans and empire-waist tops work great and feel like better investments because they're not specifically for your pregnancy.

How long can I last wearing my normal clothes? Only time and my growing belly will be able to answer that question...