Mom-to-be waking up in the middle of the night

[Anonymous]

Hello Ladies,
I'm wondering if anyone else is finding themselves awake at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. For the past few weeks I notice that I wake up around 3 or 4 a.m. and just lie awake for what feels like an hour before I'm able to fall asleep again. I'm not anxious. I'm not staring at the clock. I'm just awake (and a little annoyed). Last night my little one was keeping me occupied with the strangest kicking all the way to the right side of my body, but other than that there was no reason to be awake--didn't have to pee, wasn't hungry, etc.

Does anyone have advice on how to get back to sleep faster? I'm guessing this is just part of pregnancy in the 3rd trimester but it never hurts to ask.

[Meconbear]

Totally normal. Happened to me with the first pregnancy and I'm going through it again with the second. I just read until I fall back asleep. There's really not a lot you can do about it.

[Anonymous]

Argh, its been happening to me as well!

[Anonymous]

this is totally normal and it's your hormones and mother nature preparing you for the night wakings and nursing that your newborn will require after birth...just go with it and know this is preparing you for the next phase!!! best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Another vote for totally normal. Its just preparation.

With my 1st the insomnia was really bad the the doc prescribed a very low does of Ambien, it was a charmer except when I woke to pee, it was REALLY hard to get up.

Now w/#2 my toddler doesn't always sleep so such has been sleepless for the last 3 year and probably more years to come.

Adios to 8 hours.

[Anonymous]

Happened to me too...awful, but it does get you used to being up all the time. I did Sudoku's or read to pass the time, although the drawback to this was that I did SO many that when I went into labor and tried to focus during my contractions, all I could see was numbers!!!

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

read something that relaxes you, listen to some calming music, white noise, etc. Don't do anything to stimulating like search online or crosswords. That gets your mind racing and thinking to much! Good luck returning to a normal pattern!

[Anonymous]

I've been awake at night for my entire third trimester. It is brutal! I usually go to bed around 10:00 and then wake up at 1:00 watch some tv or read and then fall back to sleep until about 4:30. How much more sleep deprived could I be with a baby?

[Anonymous]

this is totally horomonal and it stinks. It has happened to me more since my late 20s early 30s, but it is really bad during pregnancy, when I'm really stressed, or if I had even a little bit more than my normal 1 cup of tea for caffeine in the morning. Seriously, if I even have a coke or something at lunch, I will wake up in the middle of the night. Alcohol also makes this worse. I usually have no trouble going to sleep around 10pm, it's just that I wake up in 3 hours!

What I try and do is, limit caffeine and alcohol (I know it's hard when you didn't sleep well!), even in the morning.
Try to exercise or do prenatal yoga in the evening a few hours before bed.
If you don't fall asleep after 20 minutes, go into another room and read a book or magazine until you feel sleepy.

I usually find that if I have a bad night's sleep, I get through the next night sleeping no problem, so at least I catch up there.

It did teach me that as long as a I have a few 3 hour stints of sleep (a la when you have a newborn!) I could function the next day.

[Anonymous]

This may not be the solution to a problem, but I am at 27 weeks now and have had waking up for no reason during the night on and off. I also got up to pee 4 -5 times at night. About 2 weeks ago a friend of mine gave me the body pillow she used while pregnant. Its one of those U-shaped pillos that is almost as long as your body. All of a sudden, i feel so comfy and cozy all the way around now, that I only get up to pee 1-2 tops, and I haven't waken up for no reason at all for the past 2 weeks. Who knows, maybe it will come back, and maybe it has nothing to do with the pillow..but that is just what I had experienced.

[Anonymous]

The only thing that helps me is to read until I get sleepy. Works like a charm. A few times I've gotten up and used the computer to do some house hunting searches, and that got me totally awake so it was not good. Ended up almost falling asleep at work in the afternoon.