Anyone have experience with sleep apnea in pregnancy?

[Blanca78]

For a long time I've been diagnosed with very mild (as in, so mild it's not really worth treating, according to my doctor) sleep apnea. I don't have any risk factors, I was just born with a small airway. The main bother of it is loud snoring that bothers my husband but not me.

Anyway, I saw the sleep doctor today and all of a sudden she seems all concerned that now that I'm pregnant it could get a lot worse and cause problems for the baby by affecting its oxygen levels--it freaked me out! I've tried a CPAP machine before and HATED it, but she wants me to do a sleep study now and depending on the results possibly put me on oxygen. Yikes...

I'm going to ask about it at my 24 week appt tomorrow but just wondering if anyone else had this concern raised to them, or has experienced problems with snoring/apnea in pregnancy--if so, did you treat it? What did your doctor/midwife think?

[Buzzer Beater]

 Oh gosh I had a horrible horrible time with apnea the last month of my pg and then for weeks after. I had terrible insomnia because of it and it drove me batty. midwife and doc were stumped by it and no help at all. I could not fall asleep without gasping for air and just about jumping out of my skin. I was such a mess.

I hope it doesn't get worse for you.

[Blanca78]

So you didn't have to treat it with a machine or anything like that? Did they ever express concern that it could affect the baby? I just really, really don't want to have to go back on a face mask machine, but if it's considered a threat to my baby, I will--it's just I felt like that machine interfered with my sleep far more than the mild apnea ever did. It's true I've been waking up a lot with a dry mouth lately, but my first hunch is that it's allergies, not apnea.

Sorry you had such a rough time of it...I've always been neurotic about sleep and so the expected sleep disturbances of later pregnancy and new motherhood are really freaking me out.

[Buzzer Beater]

They didn't tell me my baby was at risk ever. They were more worried about getting me some sleep, and I couldn't rest at all through it. Literally some nights I didn't get a wink, some I wrestled sitting up on the couch. They kept telling me it was "normal" and the result of water retention, and that it would go away after delivery- well it took six weeks or more. The only way we got through it was dh was home the whole time and he does all of the nighttime parenting.

Can you rest during the day? Is it better then?