Remember when going to bed was easy? Perhaps not that easy, but it usually consisted of deciding you wanted to go to sleep, lying down, fluffing the pillow (maybe), and then letting yourself drift off to dreamland. Now those days are a distant memory—at least for now.
When you’re in the trenches of your third trimester, sleep becomes less of a restful experience and more of an athletic event. Here’s how.
Pillow Problems
Finding a comfortable sleeping position is impossible without the proper equipment. Enter: the pillow team. Your singular pillow that was fine and dandy pre-pregnancy isn’t enough anymore. The pillow team now consists of multiple members, and they’re all necessary. There’s the pillow behind the back, the pillow between the knees, the pillow under the belly, and the alternate pillow for whenever one of them just isn’t molding how you want it to and needs to be swapped out for the night. Sometimes the team can be downsized to one, which is the body pillow, but you may need a bigger bed to fully accommodate everyone. With this method, you’ll get a few hours of sleep—until you have to…
Turning Over Troubles
Turning over while pregnant isn’t the most graceful experience. Some may liken it to a full three-point maneuver that requires planning and momentum. What used to be a quick flip now takes the precision of parallel parking…not to mention readjusting the pillow team once you’ve completed the turn. That’s a whole experience in itself. Once you’re readjusted and ready to sleep again, culprit number three of sleep disruption enters the chat…
The Bladder Battle
You’re finally comfortable, but sadly not for long. Now that you’ve readjusted, of course it’s time for your bladder to shift and let you know that it’s time to get up and make the trek to the bathroom. Unraveling yourself from all the pillows is a task in itself, but you eventually make it there, make it back to bed, and then restart the “Let’s get comfortable!” process all over again. Once you’ve returned to your bliss and are just about to doze off, the final struggle is ready to be overcome…
Mental Gymnastics
If you’re not experiencing insomnia, you may be making every to-do list you’ve ever wanted to make at this point. You’re probably also questioning everything you did—or didn’t—do that day. Did I schedule my appointment? Do we have everything for the nursery? What if the baby never sleeps? What if I never sleep again? The thoughts go on and on sometimes, and it’s usually happening at the worst times, such as 2 a.m., or every hour on the hour.
Despite all of this happening, your partner is right next to you the entire time…having the best sleep of his life. Eventually…hopefully…you finally drift off to sleep though. It may not be the best sleep, but it’s all yours. At least until you want to turn over again.