What is Sleep?

Sleep. The magical time when you get to recharge your battery and rest your mind. When people become parents, sleep becomes a thing of the past.

The misconception about becoming new parents, is that sleep deprivation starts when baby is born. Oh, how wrong you are! Lack of sleep starts as soon as the pregnancy test comes back positive. When a woman gets pregnant, the body goes into overdrive. The uterus starts to thicken and the body starts to produce the HCG hormone (the hormone that gives the positive in the pregnancy test). This is also what causes nausea and fatigue. In the beginning stages, this fatigue is much more manageable than in the third trimester.

As I write this, I’m so freaking tired and currently 30 weeks and 4 days pregnant. My oldest gets on the bus for school at 6am, so I’m up by 5:30 making sure she gets ready. Sometimes I can go right back to sleep, and most times, I stay up scrolling through social media. Today, in particular, I stayed up so I’m ready to fall asleep where I’m sitting. (Been so tired that this is taking me 2 weeks to write).

The things that keep me awake: baby, heartburn, snoring husband, smells, uncomfortable bed, and frequent urination.

Baby- Experts say that it’s best for a pregnant woman to sleep on her left side to help with better blood flow to the baby and the position of your stomach makes heartburn less likely. While all of this is true, I am so freaking tired of sleeping on my left side. I’ll roll over to my right side, and for what? In some instances, heartburn is instant, but for me, it’s mostly baby, rolling around, nudging me. And for a tiny human, those nudges can be a little painful. So, this haves me uncomfortable and rolling back to my left where the nudging subsides.

Heartburn- There’s a great old wives tale that says if you have a lot of heartburn, you’ll have a hairy baby. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but nope. It’s a myth. (If you did have a hairy baby, it’s due to genetics or by chance). The reason why heartburn is so common in pregnancy is because that tiny human is taking up space in your body and moving your insides all over the place. There is a lining that keeps the acid, that breaks down your food, within your stomach. Sometimes, it depends on what I eat that will determine how bad the heartburn will be. For me, it’s garlic and onions, which sucks because I love both (I only eat cooked onions!) I sleep with Tums right next to me. There was a night or two that heartburn has woken me up and I’ll chew a few and go back to sleep.

Snoring Husband- This is what keeps me up most nights. There are times when I’m so sleep deprived that I’ll tell him that I want to rip his tonsils out. Ever since I became a parent, I don’t sleep heavy. It’s like women have this innate ability to wake up to any little sound. For my husband though, he snores mostly, laying on his back, which is always and happens to be his most comfortable sleeping position *eye roll*. Since we got together, I asked for permission to give him a little kick so he can roll over to his side and I could sleep in peace. There have been times where I’m so tired that I’d kick him a little to hard *oops*. Now, it’s getting a little hard to nudge him while facing the opposite way with this big belly, so I have to invest in some ear plugs.

Smells- I really don’t like that being pregnant, your senses are heightened. It’s rather annoying especially when it comes to smells. I smell everything, good and bad smells. I live in an apartment building and sometimes I can smell the neighbors’ seafood dinner *gags* or the neighbor smoking cigarettes *coughs*. I also smell the garbage in the kitchen, even after the bag has been tied to be taken out in the morning. I’ll use some air freshener and go on about my sleep.

Uncomfortable bed- What is there more to say? I just find it mind boggling that, in the morning you don’t want to get up for squat. That’s when the bed is most comfortable. My mom recently got me a full body pillow and that has been a huge help.

Frequent Urination- *eye roll* Sometimes I do it to myself. I’ll chug a bottle of water or cup(s) of juice right before bed. For the pass two nights, I woke up around 2:30 AM to go to the bathroom. I get angry because I would have to be up in 3 hours to get my daughter ready to get on the bus. Frequent urination is annoying in general because it just keeps you from things, watching an entire movie from beginning to end, missing your name being called at the doctor’s office. Sometimes I feel the baby headbutt my bladder and I feel like I’m going to pee myself. Oh, and my all time favorite, is going to pee, and you think you’re done, but you were wrong so you’re back in the bathroom 2 minutes later. So. Much. Fun.

So these are the things that keep me up. The bigger baby gets, the more uncomfortable I’ll be and sleep will be a thing of the past. Once it’s time for baby’s arrival, that just makes it worse, because I’ll already be tired, then to muster up the little bit of energy I have to push him out. Then, I’ll have this amazing new born that I’ll just want to fawn over and worry about.

Oh, the joys of mother hood!