Is anyone else having trouble sleeping?!? Help!

[Twinkletoes78]

Hi ladies! Just found out I'm pregnant last week and my due date is 5/3/09. As far as preggo symptoms are concerned, I've only experienced slight breast tenderness, frequent urination, & mild headaches.

The worst thing I have been experiencing, however, is insomnia - which I don't think is a typical symptom of pregnancy. At first, I thought it was just anxiety/nerves & having to get up in the middle of the night to pee. But I wake up several times during the night and I'm wide awake - not groggy. I'm starting to get frustrated because it's hard waking up in the morning and then I'm cranky throughout the day due to the lack of sleep.

Has anyone else experienced this and if so, what did you do to encourage sleep? I'm praying that this insomnia disappears - all I want is a good night's sleep!! :yawning:

[russianthistle]

See here:
http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=958806

I'm up every night for at least an hour, after I do the nightly pee. Now, last night I kept myself up for an excessively long time, 'til 1 am, and I didn't wake up until 6 and went right back to sleep after the pee.

It's definitely a pregnancy thing...preparing you for all those sleepless nights ahead

[Max'sMama]

insomniac here too. I have been going to be no earlier than 1 am and popping out of bed anywhere between 6:30 and 7:15, which is unheard of for me.

Not cool.

[MotherMama]

Unfortunately insonmia is a typical pregnancy symptom for me. :yawning: That is how I suspected I was really pregnant this time, started with insomnia about 7DPO. I've had with all my pregnancies and I hate to report it's only gotten worse for me as the weeks pass by. Right now I'm up for a half hour or hour here and there and I suspect by the end of the pregnancy I might not be sleeping at all lol

[sundaygirl]

Yes! And it's driving me nuts. I'm out of bed 1-3 times during the night to pee, eat, or both. Or waking from a freaky dream and not being able to go back to sleep. I'm fighting the urge to nap after work and just trying to go to bed earlier at night. The downside is that I only get to see my husband about an hour a day this way.

[jeliphish]

IT SUCKS!!! : I am waking up constantly at night and just cannot get comfortable enough to get back to sleep.

[burm_keep]

This has been happening after I get up to pee as well. I can usually get back to sleep while counting backwards from 100. Sometimes it takes a couple tries.

[Twinkletoes78]

Thanks

Thanks ladies! This forum is so supportive and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who can't sleep at night! Isn't it interesting how majority of the pregnancy books omit this 'symptom' which we are all experiencing?! In fact, most of them say the opposite - that you will sleep more! Keeping my fingers crossed for all of us that we have a good night of sleep tonight!

[carla1979]

Me too! I've never had this with my other two pregnancies! And, I'm not even getting up to pee (yet!).

[RomanGoddess]

Me too! I get up to pee at about 3AM and then I can't get back to sleep again.

[fennelseed]

i'm in the same boat. right now. 3:25am. i woke up shortly after 2am to pee, and am wide awake.

i am usually a late night person, going to bed between midnight and 1am. but since i've been pregnant, i'm often asleep by 10pm. and then i wake up sometime between 2am-4am and can't get back to sleep. i read. check my email. eat some crackers. i try to relax my whole body. the thing that seems to work most nights is moving from the bed to the couch. for some reason, the change in atmosphere seems to help me fall back asleep.

i am very freaked out because i am also a doula and have a client due any day. i want to be well rested when she gives me that call!!!!

what i found worked really well over the weekend was taking a long nap in the late afternoon, and then going to bed later, like around midnight. i was then able to get at least six or seven hours of solid sleep in the middle of the night. but the nap is hard to pull off on workdays.

i have to get up in three hours to get ready for work, prepare my daughter for school, etc. this only adds to the anxiety of falling back asleep.

[CookAMH]

I only woke up once last night, and pre-preg, I would rarely wake up. We found out Saturday, so Saturday night, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday had me waking up a few times a night (DH too). I am not necessarily thinking about the baby and am not sure what it is. I think it's getting better though. We had the fan on higher last night so it was colder. We like it that way and sleep better.

[~Katie~]

I'm still having insomnia, I'm normally an insomniac when not pregnant. A few weeks from now the exhaustion will set in and I will sleep better than I have in my entire life, I hope it's the same for you!

[RasJane]

Me too. I get up with ds and then I'm just awake. Sucks. It's getting a little better.
Dh went through a long bout of insomnia and shared a bunch of his "sleep hygiene" stuff with me. Lots of good information. Some of the things that have helped me are

• listening to a relaxation cd before bed
• keeping some paper/journal by the bed where I can write worries so I don't have to think about them
• relaxation breathing if I do wake up
• if I can't get back to sleep after ~ 20 minutes, get up with low lights and read a boring book
• giving myself permission to think about things later. This one takes practice!

I too, am pretty annoyed that I knew nothing about this symptom. And when I when I went searching for it, everything I read talked about late pg insomnia.: