Sleeping position at 28 weeks. Painful hips :(

[Booni]

Hi Ladies, I am only sleeping on my left side since I’ve started the 3 rd trimester. My left hips is in a lot of pain and looks swollen up every morning to the point it’s difficult to walk for the first few hours. I’ve bought V pillow but not sure it’s working for me. I was also referred to physio (over the phone because of Covid!) but don’t find it very helpful either. I will be grateful for any advice

• My left hip

I suffered quite badly in the third trimester too, would wake up because of hip pain / numbness. The only thing I could really do was alternate sides so my right hip took a bit of the pain to give my left a break. I found that I woke up every hour or so as I needed to change sides.
I also put a folded up duvet under the sheet on my side of the bed to make it a bit softer snd used a pillow between my knees but I can't say it massively improved things!

It’s a nightmare and there’s nothing you can do about it. Lie on the other side occasionally. The pain vanished as soon as I gave birth.

I’m the same OP, but I make a point now of sleeping on my back for a few hours a night just to at least get some sleep. I went weeks and hardly slept a wink and I had to weight up the pros and cons about if there was more risk sleeping on my back a few hours a night or being pregnant and getting zero sleep which in turn was making me feel horrendous.
I’ve read different studies about the whole sleeping on your back thing and to be fair different studies say different things.
Hope the pain subsides soon OP.

The NHS say that sleeping on either the left or right hand side is fine (it seems that there's only one study suggesting left is best, whereas there's more studies indicating evidence of side sleeping in general being preferable). The NHS website and Tommy's have more info.

With being able to lie on my left or right, I find I can at least switch sides when the pain gets too much. I also sleep with three extra pillows (one of which is a long pregnancy one but not sure it's any better) - one for each side (either resting my back or bump on) and a thick pillow between my legs. I think this helps a bit, but it's still painful. You have my sympathies!

I slept on top of a folded up duvet and rolled over every time I woke (about every 2 hours).

A pillow between your legs works because it aligns your hips more correctly, so definitely worth trying. I didn't find anything that worked besides that (and swapping sides like a pp said).

I feel for you, OP, I've had the same. Also had telephone consultations with physio (thank you Covid), and after some trials and errors found the things that worked for me.
I sleep with about 8 pillows (DH emigrated to the sofa eventually ). Start the night from sleeping on the left side then change positions after 1h-90 minutes when I wake up due to pain. I put a thick (double) pillow between my legs to align the hips, a pregnancy long pillow to support the bump and a pillow behing my back. When the pain gets too much, I sit up in bed. Your pillows have to be arranged so that you're at 45 degrees angle (or more) - this was suggested by physio. When my bump was smaller, I even managed to get some sleep in this position. Now I just sit and wait for about an hour or two till the pain goes away.
Also, got codeine to use ocassionally, when I get too sleep deprived to carry on and found it helpful, but don't want to use it more that absolutely necessary because of negative impact on the baby.
Good luck, OP.

The pillow between the leg trick did nothing for me. My pain mostly feels like it's from the little protrusion from the top of the femur - I think this is called the greater trochanter. I sleep on top of two pillows. I put them side by side, sometimes with a little valley in the middle where I can position the problem spot, and lie with most of my torso and some of my thigh on them. I also have a mattress protecter folded in half, but a duvet or two would probably do the same. You might need an extra pillow for your head as your torso will be a little higher than normal. Swapping sides also helps. Got to this through experientation over a several excruciating nights, and now I sleep well (pee breaks excluded!) most nights.

Have courage! I thought I was fated for weeks of increasingly poor sleep, but found that there was a solution for me. I hope you find what works for you. Xx

In addition to what the others have said, rubbing tiger balm into my hips before bed (wear a glove) can really help- not every night (go figure) but it can really take the pain away.

Duvet folded under sheet and pillow between legs is good. I followed official NHS advice and slept on either side but tried to avoid back.

I had this and went for physio to help. This was pre-Covid so I actually went to the hospital.

I was told that if I couldn't sleep on my sides to prop myself up on pillows and sleep on my back. The physio said that as long as I was 45 degrees upright then I would be fine. This really helped me!