Sleep struggles during 2nd trimester

[mehvish29]

Hi.. i hope u mumas will be able to help me. Im 16weeks and 3days pregnant. I have a 3years old daughter. As soon as i hit the secound trimester i struggle to sleep at night. Some nights il sleep for 3hrs and wakeup and cant fall back to sleep and some nights im in bed not a single min of sleep. I just cant swtich off my brain!! And im like a zombie the next day tired and depressed all day. I try to sleep during the day but its the same. I rang the midwife the other day she wasnt really helpful insted of giving me a sloution she told me the reason why i cant sleep is ' must be because my hormones are increasing' and she hung up. Iv tried everything, reading, showring before bed to doing all deep breathing exercises. But nothing works! Im not really stressing about anything or have anxiety.. i dont know what to do anymore. If any of u mums have been through the same?? Anything i can take or eat to get some few hours sleep? I will really appreciate your advice. Thank u

Hi @mehvish29,

I have been in the same exact situation! I wake at 2:30/3am and fall back asleep around 5. Unfortunately my three year old wakes at 5:30/6, the new change in sunrise times has confused her, even blackout blinds don’t work for her body clock. So, I’m up and full steam with my two girls (3 & 5) by 6am. It’s exhausting ... I had the same with second pregnancy and honestly you just have to ride it through.

I don’t use my phone as the screen keeps me awake longer. I use a small light and read from my book or look through my magazines. They help me become drowsy again. Just stay away for screens. I try not to get up except to wee and an occasional cup of herbal camomille tea when I’m seriously wide awake.

My “solutions” are lame but it’s the best I’ve managed so far (20+3 weeks). I began the sleep disruptions around week 12/13. 🙄🙄

I hope you manage better than me. x

I'm the same, I've been trying to go to bed early as I've a 13 month old (and 19 weeks pregnant) but can't fall asleep until around midnight, then I wake around 5 and find it so difficult to get back over to sleep. I'd love some tips too!

Bless you op, that is difficult. I’m 16+5 now and I started getting pregnancy insomnia from week 12. Weeks 12 and 13 were my worst as tiredness was my biggest trigger of MS which was still lingering, so I felt horrendous. I’m starting to get a bit better with falling asleep initially, so only really waking up in the middle of the night now.

However it’s probably easier for me to cope as this is my first so I don’t have children waking me up the moment I get back to sleep.

I generally fall asleep Around 11pm, wake up around 2.30am then am awake for 2-3 hours then get back to sleep until 6.30/7am when I get up for work (have to say lockdown has somewhat done me a favour here as I’m WFH and don’t need to get up at 5.30 to drive to work).

I think the thing that really helped me cope is learning to not let it frustrate me when I do wake up. I generally sit up and read, or have occasionally got out of bed to do something else until I feel drowsy again. I find it makes it worse if I’m laying there trying to get back to sleep. I try and see it as ‘me time’ and since I’ve seen it as that I find I can get back to sleep quicker. Probably sounds odd but it’s worked for me.

Don’t have any easy fixes unfortunately. Could you have a soak in a luke warm bath rather than a shower before bed? I find this helps my body relax. I also get really hot in the night so I’ve now got a large fan next to my bed and this has definitely helped along with buying a pregnancy pillow to make sure I’m as comfortable as possible.