Sleeping - how the heck do you manage it?

[pippinleaf]

27 weeks and finding sleep really hard work. I have horrible hip and knee pain and whatever position I'm in it hurts. I have rib pain too. I also get leg cramps most nights at least once and can feel cramps coming on regularly and have to quickly change position to avoid getting it. I've tried pillows everywhere, shaped pregnancy pillows and propped up on a mountain of pillows too.

I simply can't sleep on my left side although I know I'm supposed to. I can sleep on my back a bit with my knees up but as soon as I fall asleep properly my knees drop and I wake up.

I can accept that I might be stuck like this, and worsening, for the next however many weeks. But maybe someone out there has felt similar and has some ideas. Anyone?

I have literally just posted something similar just a while ago about aching legs. I am also 27 weeks and have been having leg cramps the last few months. Have also tried pillows, being propped up and nothing works other than sleeping on my back which I know we aren't meant to do.

I'd appreciate some help too! Can we wait together?

I've had this for the last 8 weeks or so, I'm now 37 weeks and have taken to sleeping propped up on my recliner sofa!

Can you get hold of a triangle pillow to put under your knees so you can sleep in your back? My mountain of pillows worked til about 32 weeks...it's grim and feel your pain.

Recliner sofa sound great. Can I come and sleep at yours?

It's the only place I can sleep properly now, my DH is used to coming down in the mornings to find me fast asleep on the sofa!

Im 28 weeks and so uncomfortable. I would love to sleep on the sofa, sadly dd3 (10 months) still has 4 bottles in the night so no chance of me having a decent nights sleep ever!

For me it's the snoring! I sound like an hgv and keep waking myself up. Have moved into the spare room to save my marriage. I'm 37 weeks....

Sounds very familiar! It's pain in my back and, more recently, my bum and leg for me. I was advised to sleep propped up on something firm (like some books) with pillows over to help with the heartburn and found that by happy co-incidence, it's the best position for my back. I brought a back rest after a few days as the books weren't perfect. I've got one of those pregnancy pillows but it's just been used under my knees to prop them up too. I also have a heat pad about the size of my back which I sleep on to help the muscles relax when they hurt and to stop them stiffening up overnight. It's all quite a faff to get into position and get comfortable but it allows me to sleep! Being sleep deprived just makes everything so much harder to deal with so I gave up worrying about how I should be sleeping and just went with what actually worked. I hope that maybe one of these might help you and you get some good sleep soon.

I'm another who has set up camp on the sofa, need to sleep sitting up otherwise heartburn kicks in which sets off vomiting. 37 weeks and counting, hopefully only a few more weeks to suffer!

Get yourself a memory foam bed topper, saved me in the last few weeks. that and a dream genie pillow. I still turned like a large ship,in a small port but it was a bit more comfortable and the pain was a lot less.

I have this too - 27 weeks. I found that putting a folded soft duvet down on top of mattress helped a lot to be able to sleep on my side and not have hips destroyed. A paracetamol before bed also helps, as do pelvic tilts and lots of leg stretching every day.