Help I need to relax!

[SquealyB]

It is fair to say I am a fairly highly strung person at the best of times. I work in a high pressured job and generally am not very good at just relaxing.

Pregancy is making this worse. I am 25 wks preggers with DC1 exhausted but can't sleep at night or nap at the weekend. I am stressing out about the millions of things that need to be done by January and my stressy-ness is boiling over into general homicidal rage against DH who is trying his best.

I know this stress level isn't good for me or my little one. Any tips on how to just chill out???

I have heard very good things about this CD

It is for use in delivery but I have hears it can really help with stress and sleep as well.

Thanks I will definitely check those out.

I used that cd for ds and have listened to it a couple of times this pregnancy (am 38 weeks and meant to have listened to it far more by now!) as I found it really helpful last time. I just used the Effective Birth Preparation: Hospital cd which is essentially a calming woman's voice going through some relaxation techniques with some chilled out music / sound of waves in the background. I kept falling asleep during it (which apparently is fine!) but it did make me feel calmer and felt like bonding time with ds, where I could just relax and focus on the baby inside me. I also felt completely calm throughout my labour - at no point did I feel "I can't do this" despite 2 hours of pushing!

Definitely try to make some time for yourself, whether it is going for a swim, having a facial or your nails done, or taking yourself off to a coffee shop with a magazine or good book. Hope you feel better soon x

I had a stressful job during my first pregnancy and had trouble winding down and sleeping. I did a pregnancy yoga course and it really helped. I had never done yoga before but it was 1.5 hours of just focusing on me and the baby. And was so relaxing that I always had a good nights sleep afterwards.

I agree yoga is excellent, both at keeping you flexible & relaxed.

What do you do normally when you have too much on your plate? You could have a million suggestions here, but if they don't work for you, its worse than nothing!!

As a 34+wk pg woman with a 2.5yo DD, I hope I can give you a bit of friendly advice and a reminder. There are VERY FEW things that NEED to be done by Jan/your EDD. It is perfectly natural to feel stressed & your hormones are making it worse, and I say this as someone who has had DM incredibly stressful week at work & baby's bedroom is nowhere near done. I finish for maternity leave on Fri and have very little time now to get everything done but heh, it'll all work out I'm sure.

So, my tips;

1. give yourself some me time and do something you enjoy doing
2. write a list of essentials for baby and aim to have all the things on it by the next 12wks (remember baby will be in with you, & other than clothes & nappies, & milk, baby won't need anything straight away that you can't get from the shop/online). It might make you feel better if you can see things being crossed off bit by bit.
3. spend some quality time with DH, doing nice (non-baby) things together
4. cut yourself some slack. It's ok to be stressed/overwhelmed/frustrated etc and people give birth to babies all over the world, in war zones & more stressful situations than yours, & they're ok. Yes, it would be better to relax but if you're not that type of person, or you're in difficult circumstances, feeling stressed AND guilty isn't going to make you feel any better!!

Good luck. It'll be fn

Sorry for the typos & lack of word 'fine' at the end, stupid phone was being 'helpful'...

Try reflexology, most of my clients find it extremely relaxing :-)

Sounds counter productive but get some exercise. I feel like this when I haven't been particularly active. If your body isn't physically tired it won't want to sleep, and then your brain will start whirring, making sleep even less likely.

A decent brisk walk in your lunch hour will work wonders.

Hi all

Thanks for the tips and advice. Have signed up for yoga and downloaded a hypno birthing app so am going to see how that goes.

Pre-pregancy my down time was usually going out for nice dinners and drinks. Obviously the drinking is out and in truth my taste buds have really changed and I tend to just eat plain things and veg at the moment! So have to try and find new options so I am very grateful for all the suggestions!

I've been going on a date night every week with my DH - would recommend.

Also second relaxation CD (don't listen to it in the car!), massage and swimming.

I'm 31 weeks btw and apart from a second hand moses basket without mattress and some plain babygrows I got in an NCT sale I've not got anything sorted so you're not alone!