37wks - Can't sleep on my side

[sora]

Hi,

I'm usually a back sleeper. I've been told by my midwife that I should not sleep on my back any more. She said my baby is posterior and it will make it worse. But a couple of days ago, I started feeling burning pain on my left belly skin whenver I lie down on my left side. My midwife said that I might have pulled the muscle there. So I cannot lie down on my left so I try to sleep on my right side only and I end up waking up every hour as my hip and shoulder sore. I lie down my back to get the pressure off but I'm really stressed out about this so I don't get good sleep. When I lie down on my right, I put pillows between my knees. Is there anything I can do to ease the pain when I lie on my side? My bed is a wool futon and it probably contributes to the discomfort when sleeping on my side. Would it help if I have a topper to soften up the bed? My husband sleeps through the night on one side, but I usually toss and turn throughout the night even before pregnancy. Not being able to change the position is really killing me.

When I sleep on my back, I put a pillow under my knees. Is it that bad that I sleep on my back? Now that I don't have good sleep, I even caught a bad cold. Thanks for help.

[To-Fu]

I'm 32w pregnant and my baby is not posterior (that I know of!), but both of my MWs tell me that sleeping on my back is fine so long as I don't notice any shortness of breath, dizziness, or tingling in my legs. As long as I'm comfortable, it's fine.

The worry is that major veins will be compressed by the weight of the baby, and in theory I'd know if that were happening. I find myself waking up on my back a lot, too, even if I start on my side!

Hope you get some relief soon.

[Kelly1101]

Sleeping on your back causes the weight of the uterus/baby to cause a lot of pressure in your innards and could supposedly compress the blood flow to your baby. If you HAVE to sleep on your back, rather than put a pillow under your knees put a few behind your back so that you're sleeping on an incline, the problem is all that weight on you. If your belly hurts on your left side, have you tried putting a pillow under your belly for support?

[JessicaS]

When I was that far along I had to sleep on the couch propped up by many pillows

[7swans]

I bought a Snoogle at Babies R Us and it's a lifesaver. I couldn't comfortably sleep on my side before, but I've been using it since xmas and the one night I had to sleep without it, I was miserable. It may not work for you, but every one of my non-pregnant friends who has tried it (including DH) wants one of their own.

[etsdtm99]

at that stage, i had to sleep on a softer mattress/with a topper .. and put pillows between my legs, behind my back and under my belly .. i can't, even now at 16 weeks, sleep straight on my side because my hip/shoulder hurt.. i have to lean back on the pillows behind my back .. so i'm mostly on my side but now quite .. does that make sense? i also have a snoogle pillow but have to supplement with other pillows

[Oztok5]

Most of the advice that I've heard about the safety of sleeping on your back is that, if it doesn't hurt/make you uncomfortable, you and your baby are going to be fine. However, if the goal is to turn a posterior baby, I agree with your midwife that sleeping on your back is pretty counterproductive to that.

I agree with the previous posters about the Snoogle. I got one when I was about 29 weeks, and I love it.

I'm also trying to turn a posterior baby, so I've actually been using my Snoogle to sleep with my stomach hanging down. I curl my Snoogle up into a doughnut shape, and sleep with my stomach in the "hole" part. It's actually really nice to be able to sleep without the pressure on my hips, and I find I'm comfortable that way for about 3 hours or so. Unfortunately, I think I'll only be able to do it for a little while longer. If my belly grows much more, I'm going to start putting pressure on it, unless I can find a way to use more pillows and make my "doughnut" higher off of the bed.