Pregnancy insomnia, time off work - one thing after another

[Betty94]

Hi all,

I don't want to cry woe is me because I know pregnancy is hard on most people but I just feel like absolute rubbish.

I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant.

I've had loads of time off of work, I'm my first trimester I had HG (which wasn't my favourite) and still now in my second trimester I get sickness every few weeks meaning more time off work but now I have really bad pregnancy insomnia - I was thinking of asking for reduced hours but I only work three days a week (10 hours a day) but then on Thursday and Friday I attend university but luckily it's online sessions that they are recording so if I'm too tried to join in on the session I can always watch the recording later and email my tutors if I have any questions etc but I'm finding work difficult, I only work on the phones so it's not a demanding job, I get some shouters but meh but I'm just so exhausted and I think that's making some of my systems worse so I'll feel more sick because I'm tired and I won't eat because I'm tried, I'm also feeling very depressed because of it all. I keep thinking about speaking to the doctors because this can't be good for baby but I'm worried they'll suggest even more time off work and I think my employer hates me enough but I guess I don't have any other option - does anyone have any tips or advice with dealing with this before contacting doctors? I'm even considering taking maternity leave at 29 weeks, I know it's less time with baby but I am so exhausted, I can't see it getting any better. :(

I had awful HG in my pregnancy and I was miserable. Luckily I had an amazing boss.

Have you got antisickness tablets? I found the more tired I was the sicker I felt and it definitely made me feel worse. If I got too hungry I felt sick too. You sound like I did and it was the start of my post natal depression although i didn’t realise at the time. HG and the tiredness is awful!

I would speak to your doctors, they might be able to suggest some different medications.

I know it’s awful and I felt like it was never ending. Is there any charities you could speak too for some counselling?

Have you any annual leave to use up? Use all of that before kicking in Mat leave if you can.

@pandarific

Have you any annual leave to use up? Use all of that before kicking in Mat leave if you can.

I have three weeks left so I'm gonna use that as well

Sorry you’re feeling so unwell. Just make sure if you do get signed off sick/ go on SSP you know when your qualifying week is so that it doesn’t affect your maternity pay

If you're doing phone work could they set things up for you to work from hom? Then you don't have the commute either side of your work day and you can sleep a bit later in the mornings. Alternatively, could they slide your shifts so you're either starting later or finishing earlier, depending on when you're most tired? For example, doing 8am to 4pm or 10am to 6pm instead of 9am to 5pm.

@Chocobohead

If you're doing phone work could they set things up for you to work from hom? Then you don't have the commute either side of your work day and you can sleep a bit later in the mornings. Alternatively, could they slide your shifts so you're either starting later or finishing earlier, depending on when you're most tired? For example, doing 8am to 4pm or 10am to 6pm instead of 9am to 5pm.

I work from home luckily but I work 8-6pm which is our offices opening time to close so there's no other shift I can do sadly, at the moment I'm just suffering loudly haha