{"id":596,"date":"2018-08-06T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/?p=596"},"modified":"2018-08-06T20:35:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T20:35:32","slug":"insomnia-pregnancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/blog\/insomnia-pregnancy\/","title":{"rendered":"Insomnia & Pregnancy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s frustrating really. I write this at 11:50 pm which is several hours after I went to sleep. It’s my 3rd pregnancy and I am just over 10 weeks along. I never struggled with insomnia with my first pregnancy but I did with my second. It makes me wonder if we are having another girl*. With our second baby, Ivory, I thought it was because we had just bought a house and my mind raced with excitement thinking about all the changes we want to do; wallpaper to tear down, new counter-tops, chalk paint…and endless to do list really. I would lay awake sometimes for 3 hour stretches tossing and turning, my body crying out for rest, my eyes heavy, but I was unable to sleep. If you’ve been there, you know what that’s like! It’s not fun.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Insomnia is the perception of inadequate or poor quality sleep. It can be caused by a number of things including: hormones, having to pee more, heartburn, a growing belly, back pain, anxiety, or dreams. It turns out a whopping 78% of pregnant women struggle at some point of their pregnancy with insomnia.1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0So I know I am not alone, but it’s still frustrating.<\/p>\n

I need sleep, especially since I have 2 small kids that need me! It seems like the night’s they are sleeping great, I am not. And the night’s they wake up, I had been sleeping. What’s up with that!?<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are a few things I have tried and will continue to try:<\/p>\n

#1<\/h2>\n

Limiting caffeine and any I do have, have before 12 pm.<\/h4>\n

It seems caffeine really affects me and if I have any even in the morning I struggle to take a nap.<\/p>\n

#2<\/h2>\n

Essential oils before bed!<\/h4>\n

Lavender and Serenity being my faves.<\/p>\n

#3<\/h2>\n

Try not to look at screens an hour before bed.<\/h4>\n

Yes I know I am writing this in the middle of the night but it seemed timely. I do however listen to audiobooks but realized they can’t be too entertaining or I want to just keep listening and they keep me awake for even longer.<\/p>\n

#4<\/h2>\n

A warm bath.<\/h4>\n

A bath is always great at relaxing the muscles, mind and soul.<\/p>\n

#5<\/h2>\n

Daily exercise.<\/h4>\n

Exercise makes you tired and helps you sleep deeper. It also is a stress-reliever.<\/p>\n

#6<\/h2>\n

Trying not to plan things in the night.<\/h4>\n

Sometimes I find my mind filled with thoughts about the next day or week, blog ideas, my kids, you name it. It seems hard to sleep when my mind is working.<\/p>\n

#7<\/h2>\n

Being comfortable…<\/h4>\n

in the amount of pillows I have in bed, in the pajamas I wear to sleep, and in the temperature of the room.<\/p>\n

#8<\/h2>\n

You can’t force yourself to sleep<\/h4>\n

If I know I am awake for 30+ minutes, as much as I don’t want to, I wake up and try to read for 15-20 minutes and then try to go back to sleep.<\/p>\n

#9<\/h2>\n

Sleep begets sleep<\/h4>\n

I try to take a nap over Calvin’s lunch break or at least lying down to rest. It makes up for a bad night and as the old adage goes sleep begets sleep.<\/p>\n

It’s also something to note that doctors can prescribe something if it gets too bad. I would personally rather not go that route, so I am going to keep trying these things and hopefully catching some zzz’s along the way.<\/p>\n

What about you? Have you struggled with sleep insomnia while pregnant? What helped you get some rest? I would love to hear from you!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Update: We now know we are having a boy \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>1<\/sup> http:\/\/americanpregnancy.org\/pregnancy-health\/insomnia-during-pregnancy\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s frustrating really. I write this at 11:50 pm which is several hours after I went to sleep. It’s my 3rd pregnancy and I am just over 10 weeks along. I never struggled with insomnia with my first pregnancy but I did with my second. It makes me wonder if we are having another girl*. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[139,133,137,106,136,138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theholisticpursuit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}