Sleepless Nights

I was leaving to go home from work today, I could feel my now puffy body aching from all that prenatal yoga stretching.  I had this assuring thought ‘yeah work that body, tonight I will knock out like a dead log.’  As it turns out, it is another one of those sleepless night which I eventually fall asleep at 3am.  Yoga or no yoga, I am still getting less than 6 hours of sleep.

Whenever I complained about my panda eyes from the dreaded sleepless nights, friends would smile and warn me it is only the beginning.  When the baby arrives, there will be more nights like these, hence  I have to manage my sleep patterns and my expectation of the amount of sleep I will be getting.

I used to wake up in the middle of the night from dreams (probably from the day’s work) or from leg cramps.  Sometimes, I can go back to sleep after the dreams but the cramps…. Oh they are really bad.  I didn’t have anyone to help me massage or stretch my legs so I quickly learnt the trick of easing the cramps.  Every time I feel a cramp coming, I will tilt my ankle and stretch my calf muscle (I can even do it when I am half asleep).

Having slept on my right side for so many years, I had to change to the left side so that I can generate maximum blood flow and nutrient will reach to my little one and the placenta.  Old habits die hard, to make it worse I have sleep in a wall of pillows (one in front to support my burgeoning tummy, one for the back and another one between my legs for blood circulation) and its hard for me to turn and toss to get into a comfortable sleep posture.

At 29 weeks, my baby is beginning to be more active; he likes to do the kungfu fighting at night and kicks so hard he wakes me up!  Sometimes, I will sing to him til I fall back to sleep again, other nights I will continue to sleep on (only if I m really tired).  When he arrives, there will be another set of problems.  The only thing I can do now is to pray hard that he will learn the concept of days and nights quickly (so that I can sleep well again).

Related articles

• Pregnant sleepless nights. (sumsmilesblog.wordpress.com)