Pregnancy Sleep

Or lack, thereof...

I remember long nights of tossing and turning and unpleasant dreaming and severe discomfort from last time. I don't remember it starting this early, though. It's been a good 2-3 weeks wince I've gotten a full, restful night of sleep.

Part of the issue is that I'm just not cut out to be a side sleeper. I'm much more comfortable on my back, but of course at this point 10 minutes laying on my back is enough to feel like I'm suffocating. So onto the side, it is. Left side, to be specific, thanks to the recommendations from the American Pregnancy peeps and all of the OB\CNMs I've ever seen. I build a wall out of pillows every night to keep myself propped up so that I can almost trick my body into thinking that I'm laying on my back. Two hard pillows jammed into my side, one pillow between my knees, and another one under the belly. That's usually enough to get the sleep started.

Still no rest, though, thanks to the hormone-induced incredibly vivid and disturbing dreams. This weekend - we lost Charlie in some weird sand tunnel maze in the rainforest, someone broke into our basement, my aunt and I won the $200 million lottery but someone stole the Ace of Clubs that was the "winning card," we celebrated my birthday in a flying machine that took us underwater and greatly upset Dwight from The Office because we stole his invention, I stayed in some bizarre old-fashioned hotel with no elevators, oh, and a brief unexplained appearance by Charlie Sheen. The real-ness of the pregnancy dreams is incredible - I wake up in the middle of the night completely disoriented and unsure whether those things actually happened or not. I could feel my chest tightening and the panic rising when we "lost" the kid and I was totally elated when we won the lottery.

Plus, baby girl has grown larger and the power of her punches has increased. Since she's laying in a v-shape, I can feel the kicks and punches on both sides simultaneously, which is both really cool and really disturbing, plus really difficult to sleep through.

Not only that, but I managed to sleep with my ear folded down and that hurts like a sonofabitch when you unfold it. Also, my elbows hurt in the mornings because I sleep on top of my bent arm and then I can't straighten them. I try to change positions in between freaky ass dreams, and it's like a monumental feat of strength. How can I go out and run 11 miles in the morning and then get so out of breath trying to roll over at night? It's mind-boggling.

I feel like an old lady. I don't know if it's because I'm bigger, faster this time or if it's because I'm 5 years older, but either way it sucks ass. I'm tired, which accentuates my crankiness, and I know that the worst hasn't even come yet. Whee!

I guess the bright side of all this is that I'm usually already awake when the alarm goes off for early morning runs.