Please can the lovely ladies of Mumsnet help me?
I'm finding it hard to get comfortable in bed at night and keep waking up with aching shoulders, back and ribs. The other morning I woke up in so much pain I could hardly turn over. It doesn't help that I have a medical condition which has given me a distended belly (I look about 6 months pregnant, but it's diiferent to being pregnant because it's not a heavy bump), I think it might be throwing my posture out when I lie down. I usually sleep with one pillow under my head, in the recovery position - i.e. partially on my front with one knee bent. I've never liked sleeping on my back (and snore when I do!). An extra pillow doesn't help, no pillow is really uncomfortable. And a pillow under the bump makes no difference either.
We also have a new bed with a firm mattress which I don't think is helping either (I don't know if this is relevant but we slept on the mattress on the floor for about a year before getting a bed base to put it on and I swear it's more uncomfortable on the bed base). Sometimes, if DS falls asleep in our bed, I sleep on a very old soft mattress on the floor (and it is ancient - my parents gave it me, it's the mattress from my first ever bed bought circa 30 years ago! It dips in the middle) and I tend, though not always, to have a better night.
I'm sitting here now and my ribs are still aching slightly from last night's tossing and turning. This has been going on for a few months now. I want to be able to sleep in the same bed as my DP, and also don't think sleeping on the 30-year-old mattress is going to do me any favours in the long run!
I get backache in the daytime too, but have done ever since DS was born.
Any advice? I have a feeling if I go to my GP they either won't take this seriously, or just prescribe sleeping tablets and/or painkillers, which is not going to get to the root of the problem.