sleep problems

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Too good to be true…

January 21, 2009 in Pregnancy, sleep problems by Petra

Yep, it’s just after 3 in the a.m.  You know what that means.  I’m not asleep.  Ugh.  I went to bed at 11:30, but have only slept a total of about 30 minutes.  My main issue tonight is the restless leg (and arm and head) syndrome.  I was just tested for anemia at the lab last week, and they told me that no phone calls meant everything was fine.  So what’s the story?!  (this can be a symptom of low iron).  Granted, Andy went back to work yesterday, so he went to bed earlier, so the order of how we were doing things changed a little (got the massage/did the stretching, then took my hot bath and ate my snack, then was still kind of awake, so I read in a book… then tried to sleep and kept waking up because of my jittery limbs).

Well, the 3 or 4 nights of real, actual sleep that I got yielded awesome results during the days!  We got so much done over the long weekend.  I was alert, I was feeling better, I was organizing… it was awesome.  Hopefully, I can figure out some kind of nightly routine, that goes along with the earlier hours of sleeping and that works for the rest of this pregnancy!

Before I got up and got on the laptop, I had blog ideas galore… my mind is a giant blank canvas now though.  That’s the way it usually goes. lol

I have noticed quite a few blogs lately, where they do things like devote Mondays to writing about food, Tuesdays to something crafty, Wednesdays to something about their kids, Thursdays to decorating… that sort of thing.  The listmaker in me loves this idea.  And I think having some sort of blog ‘schedule’ would be awesome in two ways: 1. it would keep me from droning on and on and on about whatever was going on in my life (i.e. sleep issues. pregnancy. gluten.), and 2. it would totally satisfy that OCD, list-making, crazy side of me.  But I can’t even begin to think of doing something like this until I know I am getting some regular sleep.  So for now, I’ll just drone on and on and on…

I got on here to google restless leg syndrome during pregnancy, but it didn’t tell me anything that I haven’t already tried.  So hopefully just getting up and getting the blood flowing for a few minutes was enough to calm my body down for some sleep.  I *really* was enjoying getting things done due to full nights’ of sleep, and would like to continue… I had high hopes for going through toys and kids’ clothes.  Monday night, I ate something that didn’t quite agree with me (Jacob had the same issue), so Tuesday was spent recovering from that… I was soooo hoping the sleeping-at-night would continue so that Wednesday (which starts in just a few short hours) would send me right back into the great cleaning and organizing mode I was in!

No, I can’t stop talking about it… I NEED SLEEP!!!

Bullets…

January 18, 2009 in Pregnancy, sleep problems, Uncategorized by Petra

No, not those kind of bullets… this kind:

  • Friday night, Andy was determined I was going to get some sleep.  He massaged me and helped me with some stretches we hadn’t done (baby sits on some nerves which cause some major issues in my back, hips and legs).  And I did the hot bath thing and making sure my belly was full (of food… it’s already full of baby).  So, I slept better.  I still woke up a LOT, but getting back to sleep wasn’t nearly as hard, and I managed to get probably a total of 7 hours – which was HUGE… I was like a new woman yesterday!
  • Saturday, Andy and Justice went out to run errands – a lot had accumulated.  They hit the library, Wally World, Fred Meyers (twice)… the second time at Fred Meyers (to return something that was 1/2 the price at Wal-Mart), Andy called me to let me know the van wasn’t starting.  This happened last week when I was on base, remember?  So he had someone try to jump the van, but to no avail.  I was feeling better from getting some actual sleep – so I jumped in the Jeep (okay, there was no jumping – I wasn’t feeling *that* good – ha!), and headed to Fred Meyers (which is a store similar to Wal-Mart, only much more expensive), and jumping the van with the Jeep worked.  Yay.
  • So we headed home to drop off the groceries that had been bought already, and I was like “okay, I need to get out of the house – I’m doing the rest of the chores WITH you guys!”
  • So we hit Qdoba (yeah, that got added when I joined their group) and had some yummy food.
  • Then we went to Ross, and they actually had some maternity clothes that I needed!  I ended up getting two pair of jeans (the baby recently hit a growth spurt and I’ve outgrown most of my pants), a pair of jogging pants, and two shirts.  Yay.  Justice also found two shirts on clearance.  Andy just held my coat and purse and helped me browse the maternity racks.  That wasn’t on their original list of errands either.  lol
  • On we went to WinCo – where we buy most of our groceries.  Andy was glad to have me there with him since when I’m not, he has to call to clarify things on my list.  I was feeling pretty good through all this, though my belly was done by the end of the grocery store.
  • We got out and the van wouldn’t start again.  Awesome.  We weren’t far from home, and Andy hadn’t had his daily workout, so he decided to just run the 2.7 miles to our house and grab the Jeep. We got it jumped and back home.
  • And now, we need to take it and see what the story is – why does it keep not starting?  Hopefully nothing serious or expensive!
  • Oh, and last night?  We repeated the hot shower/massage/stretches/food series (not in that order, but whatever), and… I SLEPT… I *only* woke up for going to the bathroom and switching positions – like every 3 hours-ish… which is amazingly LONG compared to what’s BEEN going on.  I stayed in bed sleeping for nearly 11 hours!!! My brain is working today.  Yay.
  • If only my body would cooperate (but that will come once this baby gets on the outside of me).
  • And that is the bulleted saga of our weekend so far… well, Darby also went ice-skating with her BFF and spent last night there… Jarvis spent the night with the neighbor… Andy and the kids got lots of cleaning done… Brittany made some yummy brownies… actually, so did Jarvis – but I didn’t eat the ones he made because they were for the people who can eat gluten… we didn’t go to church this morning, so we had a really good family Bible Study, led by Andy… we’ve watched a few episodes of Seinfeld… and we are happy there is no school or work tomorrow.

Until later…

Counting sheep doesn't work…

January 16, 2009 in Pregnancy, sleep problems by Petra

Around 7:15 this morning, I finally fell asleep after trying off and on for six hours to no avail.   I slept for about an hour and a half.  Then around 10:00, I slept until 12:30 (Andy was off today so he took Jacob off my hands and left me to try to catch a few more z’s).  I’m pretty sure that four pieced together hours of sleep is enough to put me in a mental institution if it continues this way.  I have tried different things, including making sure my body temperature is “just right”, stretching, eating protein, massages, reading, walking, drinking something warm, hot showers/baths, more blankets, fewer blankets… but it doesn’t always work.  I have gotten a couple of nights of decent sleep where 6 or 7 hours have made me feel like I’ve marathon slept (how sad is that???).  But last night wasn’t one of those nights.  And those nights have only made their appearance maybe three times since I started trying new things.

Things that are keeping me up:

  1. I’ve always had trouble with the actual falling asleep thing… sleep disorders have plagued me my entire life (I now know that goes along with the fibromyalgia). Having trouble STAYING asleep seems to go along with the pregnancy.
  2. I have something akin to restless leg syndrome, but not exactly; it’s hard to explain.  I thought being warm was helping with that, but it only seems to help sporadically.
  3. The baby is very low, or rather, my uterus is very low.  The amount of nerves and muscles that are affected by this are too numerable to mention.  Half my butt was numb most of the night.  No matter what position I move into (the only one that seemed to help with the butt numbness was up on my knees with my butt in the air – yeah, try sleeping like that with a giant pressure-filled belly hanging down!)
  4. I am hungry and/or have to pee every five minutes.
  5. The baby moves non-stop.
  6. I have a lot of back/neck/shoulder/hip pain, and I can only take Tylenol, which does nothing.
  7. I can’t exercise like I need to in order for my body to WANT to rest at night.  It’s a vicious cycle.
  8. Every noise, sound, or light wakes me up, and then I go through the “I can’t fall asleep” cycle again.

Tired of hearing me complain?  Well, make me sleep and I’ll shut up about it.  Right now, we’re lucky I’m functioning at all. :-P

Problems?

January 10, 2009 in sleep problems by Petra

If anyone has problems with the new site, please let me know.  So far only one person has had issues with the password, and one person wasn’t able to leave a comment.  We can’t have that, now can we??

In other news…

  • Andy rigged my glasses with a ‘sports strap’ so they stay straight on my face.  It’s sexy!  But hey, at least I don’t have to put my contacts in all the time I’m awake.  Pretty sure I’m going to get some glasses as soon as possible… the new phone can wait.
  • Speaking of phones – I need feedback… do you have an iphone?  Do you have a Blackberry?  Do you like them?  Which is better?  And why?  I’d like having full internet capability on my phone (I have the limited “media net” that comes with cingular phones right now, and that’s nice, but ya know – not enough).  And I want a full alphabet keypad – three or four letters per button is just too much when sending a text or updating my facebok status (which I don’t do a TON from my phone, but enough to make it a hassle).  Fill me in peeps! ;)
  • Two nights ago, I slept like a log – it was the heaviest I have slept in months, maybe even years.  I was stoked.  Then last night – I laid in bed for about six hours but only got about two hours of sleep and that was broken up into 20 minutes here, an hour there.  So I just took a really long nap and slept hard during the nap.  I think being warm helped.  I still felt kind of cold last night even though the window was closed – so there really might be something to the whole ‘my body isn’t staying warm enough and can’t sleep’ thing. The combo of fibromyalgia, pregnancy, and on-again/off-again blood sugar issues kind of makes things difficult to figure out sometimes.  Eh, what can ya do?  I’ll just keep trying things until something works! As good ole Winston said, “Never never never give up!” (that’s Churchill, for those who didn’t catch the ‘Winston’ reference)
  • And now I shall work on the appearance of the blog, and I’ll try to throw the other January posts on here in case you missed them.  I’m going to attempt to put them on here as the date they were originally posted.  We’ll see how that works out for me.  Heh.  :)

"Cheeseburger please do not be angry / he'll eat and be back here for luuuuuuuuuuunch…"

January 8, 2009 in answered prayer, Pregnancy, sleep problems by Petra

I was going to just post a comment, but figured I’d take the extra two minutes to do a blog entry.

I was supposed to get the one-hour glucose test this morning, but they had a two-hour late start at school due to local flooding (we’ve had more rain than usual lately, and some actual storms – which is quite a novelty, since it’s usually just gloomy drizzle with no noise). So, last night, we were trying to figure out what to do… Brittany and Justice leave an hour and a half before the younger kids, plus Kylie comes over in the mornings. I didn’t want to just leave Kylie, Jarvis, and Darby here for an hour and a half with everyone’s parents at least 45 minutes away. I didn’t want anyone to skip school. Andy couldn’t go to work late. So, I was like “maybe they’ll let me do the glucose test after my appointment instead of before – if not, then I’ll just have to go down there on Friday morning and do it.”

So, Jacob and I pulled out of the driveway as soon as the kids’ bus left, and I made it barely in time for my midwife appointment. Which went well. I saw the midwife that I love (which I already mentioned I was going to), and she was very helpful. I was about to tell her I had missed the glucose test, and she was like “I see they had you down for the one-hour test, well, you need the three-hour test. It would be a waste of time to do the one-hour, because you already failed that earlier – no matter the results they’ll make you do the three-hour.” Wow. What a relief! I told her I had planned on the one-hour that morning and shared what a blessing it was my kids had a late school start this morning so I missed the lab work! She said “That IS a blessing!” She has had kids, so she knows how awful the sugary drink and blood work is. I do have to do the LONG test now (I’ll probably go Monday, and I do have to fast for this one – the lab doesn’t have appointments, I just go within a certain time frame), but at LEAST I didn’t end up doing the one-hour for NO reason!!! God is good!!!

The pressure and the contractions and the other icky, fun pregnancy stuff that is going on with me is all normal for someone who is on their 6th baby (not including the miscarriages I’ve had) and someone whose uterus is wearing out and falling. I just have to stay off my feet when the contractions come (and that has been working so far – the contractions go away when I lie down), and also to avoid the not-so-fun stuff that the extra pressure causes when I walk around too much.

As for my insomnia… she was helpful with that too, after ruling out that I wasn’t stressed (it always surprises people that I have five kids and am not stressed out, just laid back and go with the flow), we covered that I’ve been trying the baths before bed and the snacks full of protein, and massages, and doing stretches before bed, etcetera. But – I’ve been waking up, or not being able to fall asleep in the first place, with my limbs all jitterry and feeling like there is NO blood flow to them… And it keeps me up for hours sometimes. Plus I just have a hard time falling asleep anyway because of all the aches and pains and not being able to get comfortable. She suggested the warm bath and drinking a hot drink – so that my body would be warm and it would encourage blood flow to my limbs… I was recounting this to Andy, and it dawned on us… uh, we sleep with the window open… and the window is RIGHT above my head… possibly the cold air (which I love cuddling in a warm blanket in a cold room when I sleep) is causing my core to be too cold so the blood is rushing to my trunk and to the baby to warm me – thus the “empty” feelings in my limbs that cause me to be so jittery! I don’t *feel* cold when I’m up, but that doesn’t mean I’m not. So we’re going to try sleeping with the window closed. Now I might wake up sweating and having nightmares from being too hot!!! But hopefully it’ll stop that REALLY annoying feeling in my limbs that has been keeping me wide awake!!! Because I hate that feeling!

So after my appointment, since I had no lab work, I called Andy and he was about to have a lunch break, so we met to chat while he ate and I snacked on what I had brought with me – then we got gas together (so he could pump it for me, because hello – if he was going to be at the gas station already, why not get my gas too, ya know? :) ). After he was done, he was like “bye” and headed off – I turned my key and NOTHING… I yelled after him, and he came back. He jumped the van and it started – I guess the battery was drained. Ugh. I just drove straight home so I wouldn’t have to deal with finding a stranger to jump the van if it wouldn’t start again. Hopefully that was a one time thing! I’m just thankful it started quickly with the jumper cables!! :)

And now I’m hanging on the couch with Jacob while he watches a movie.

And that’s my day so far. How’s yours going?

I wonder how many times I will type/write 2008 before I get the memo that it's actually 2009…

January 3, 2009 in Pregnancy, sleep problems by Petra

Just a quick note along with the January blog update. I do have great plans for teching up my blog a bit, such as adding an RSS Feed so people can view my blog in google reader and similar places, revamping the comments section so each post has it’s own comments, going back and making the archives easier to read and search (and getting them ready to print for myself), etc. Who knows when all this will actually take place, but it’s one of my lofty goals. :)

I’m going to leave December on the front page for a few more days, since some of my readers will want to get caught up after the holidays… because I’m nice like that, and I know what a hassle it is to click on “older posts” and then the month that you missed. Seriously. ;) And those other posts are coming soon. I promise.

I’ve had to stay off my feet more and more lately, which you know frustrates me to no end, but alas, I do what I have to in order to incubate this baby as healthily as possible. I am extremely grateful for my helpful husband and children!! They do such a good job of taking care of me and each other, cleaning, cooking, running errands… the list goes on. I’m sure they all cannot WAIT until I am back to my self and in my full role as wife/mother/homemaker (nor can I!), but for now – they are holding down the fort quite nicely. I am blessed.

Please be patient while I update the links at the top. A couple of them are fine like they are, but the rest need some help. I’m only one woman, okay? And I’m incubating a baby!

Speaking of baby… I cannot wait until she gets here so I can get some sleep! I mean, I know I’ll be all tired from getting up with her every couple of hours? But when I’m ready to sleep, my body will allow it! Right now – sleeping is such a struggle… I finally, around 8:30 this morning, got some sleep out of sheer exhaustion… and slept until 1:30 this afternoon. Of course, Andy and the older kids are home so I was able to do that. Once school and work start back on Monday, I’ll only be able to sleep when my body AND Jacob allow me to do so. She will be so worth it, though… in just three months, I’ll be holding a precious, tiny, soft newborn – and there is NOTHING that compares to that!

And she still has no name. I think I’ll go check out the baby name book that I left off at “M”… maybe N through Z will enlighten me. :)

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