I have always been a girl that NEEDS sleep. Like a lot of sleep. I've never been someone who can sleep a solid 5 hours and wake up totally refreshed the next day. I seriously think I need double that. hahah. Ok not double, but at least a good 8 hours. Having kids changes your sleeping habits and I literally thought I was going to die when I had Damon and he didn't sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time for almost the whole first year. I remember praying every night, to "just let this baby sleep for 4 hours and I would be so happy! Please I need sleep! I'm going to lose my mind! " and once he was sleep trained, what did I do? Have another baby. Luckily, Rafe was a decent sleeper and before long they both slept through the night and were decent nappers an life was ok. And of course as a mother, you just adjust and get through it.
Damon stopped napping around 3 and Rafe stopped napping around 2 because Damon never napped and he would freak out if he was the only one who had to sleep. So they both go to bed around 8 and wake up around 8:30 which works great for us. We have had that schedule for over a year and half and I'm pretty used to it. The idea of going back to a newborn who is going to wake me up every few hours is freaking me out a little. I was just in the zone when I had Damon and Rafe so close together. I was used to it. Now I'm used to kids who sleep all through the night for a solid 12 hours. It's going to be interesting adjusting to a newborn for me.
The only thing that MIGHT save me is my sleep now sucks. For the last month maybe 2 months my sleep has just been so crappy. When we were living with my parents, we slept in seperate beds because I could sleep better. And I would pop a unisom and be out. Well I stopped taking those because then I was so groggy all morning and felt like I could sleep all day.
Then we moved and I was so excited to get my mattress back and get some good sleep without the unisom. Turns out our house doesn't have A/C so our room was a nice 75-80 degrees at night. If you know Dan and I we like it cold. Like year round 68 degrees in our house. So my sleep continued to suck. Then our lives were saved when Betty and Jerry gave us a floor A/C unit for our room. We have been in heaven ever since then and sleeping in a nice cool 68 degree room every night.
The last few weeks I have been fighting sleeping on my back. I am most comfortable on my stomach but my belly has gotten too big to really do that. I can sleep at an angle an mostly on my side but then I wake up and my shoulders ache and I'm never really comfortable on my side. When I sleep on my back I'm restless. All night. I don't know why! It's obviously the best position for being pregnant. But I just toss and turn all night. Get up and pee. Get up and get a drink. I Just can't get some solid sleep.
So this morning I woke up just feeling like I got hit by a truck. I feel like my body just wants to shut down and sleep for like 3 days straight. I am so tired! But I'm only 24 weeks! I didn't get this feeling with either of my other boys until I was probably 34 weeks. So I'm stressing. This is going to be the longest pregnancy if my sleep is already out the window. I think just moving and being on my feet and unpacking and organizing is slowly wearing me down and then adding crappy sleep to the mix and I just am exhausted. And I always feel like such a BABY when I'm telling Dan how tired I am because he wakes up before me and goes to work all day at a job that's pretty stressful and I know he's tired too. I just have no energy today and am feeling a little panicked about going through the rest of this pregnancy with such low energy then having a newborn and two little men to keep up with all day. I'm just going to be a zombie. And I don't want to be.
So! I need some help. What helps you sleep when you're pregnant? Unisom was a lifesaver for me in the first trimester but it ends up making me feel tired all morning. I'm active during the day and am on my feet a lot keeping after the boys and the house and stuff. Any special drinks or pillows or lotions or music or something I could be using to help me? I just keep waiting for the point in pregnancy where you get a second wind and start nesting and you feel cute and pregnant and have energy. That normally hits about 10 weeks ago and so the fact that I haven't felt that yet is freaking me out.
