Impossible to sleep in the third trimester?

[Latecomer131]

I am 31 weeks, and since around 29 weeks I have found that I just cannot get comfortable at night due to a combination of:

1. the amount that the baby kicks as soon as I lie down,
2. constantly needing the bathroom, and
3. waking up with a sore hip because of the weight of everything when lying on my side rather than my back.

I still have 5 weeks left at work, but I am so tired from not sleeping properly that I am considering starting my maternity leave earlier.

Anyone else?

Realised that I forgot reason number 4) restless leg syndrome.

Yep!! 37+3 here.

I miss being 31 weeks haha.
I actually hate going to bed as I the nights feel so long at the moment.

For me it’s the hip pain! I can cope with the multiple toilet trips.

I didn't sleep when I was pregnant. I actually went into labour in the middle of the night, on no sleep! I think by the time I had a nap again, after having my baby, I'd been awake for about 50 hours

32 weeks here and between needing to pee and hip spasms, im actually looking forward to a crying newborn lol I'm convinced ill get far more sleep with one 🤣

No advice but I’m the exact same, no amount of pregnancy pillows, normal pillows, or anything else people tell you to do or use helps. If one more person tells me to “get plenty sleep” I’m going to slap them with a wet fish!

Yep I'm 38 weeks and would say I maybe get 4 hours sleep a night on average due to same reasons. As PP said, its the hip pain from lying on my side that is the absolute pits.

I've found 36 weeks onwards particularly tough in terms of general discomfort and fekng very fed up with it all. Thankfully I know he's coming out at 39 weeks so only one more week to go! 🤞

Yess to all of this!! Currently 34 weeks and waking up 3/4 times a night just uncomfortable, leg & hip pain so have to keep turning over & last couple of nights hot sweats have arrived!
The ‘get plenty of sleep’ comments 🙄 I wish I could!! Can’t remember the last time I woke up and thought that was a good sleep I feel energised 😂

Yes, I’m 38 weeks and have all of that. For me the hip/ thigh pain is the worst… plus heartburn sometimes.

For hip pain, I cut back as much as possible on physical activities. I think it’s still important to walk and move around, etc., but I cut out long dog walks (husband now goes alone), long trips in town/ around shops, intensive cleaning, picking things up from the floor, as much as I could. Still do all of those things but at a shorter/ more relaxed pace.

I still get pain every night but I do notice a difference - where I’ve been more active during the day, it hurts more at night.

I also tried a maternity belt / band during the day which did seem to help a bit too.

If you have a commute to work or if your job requires you to be on your feet at times, I’d definitely consider starting mat leave sooner.

@ViaRia, No commute, thank god. My workplace is only starting to return to the office a couple of days a week, and my line manager has told me that I don't need to bother as I have a very long commute and am only a few weeks from starting my maternity leave.

Thanks to everyone who posted - I feel less alone in dreading trying to get to sleep each night. It's interesting that the lie on your side advice causes hip pain for so many!

30 weeks here.

I am suffering from SPD, so when it's bad not only do my hips hurt, but just lying on them is agony - I can get half comfortable on my back - but we are advised not to sleep on our backs...so I spend all night fidgeting.

I (if I'm lucky) get about 2 hours sleep before I either need to get up for the toilet, or wake up with horrendous heartburn.

30 weeks and similar!

In my last pregnancy someone told me "once baby arrives the quantity of sleep goes down but the quality goes up" which I found to be accurate . . .

@OverTheWater yes, I agree with you and what a PP said. At this stage, I would strongly prefer comfortably getting to sleep, but having it broken by a crying newborn over being so uncomfortable that sleeping itself is difficult.

Yep and it gets worse as the weeks go on. When I was about 33 weeks I thought I couldn’t possibly feel anymore uncomfortable I’m almost 37 weeks now and relived I’m having a c section on Monday!

Yes, me too. I'm 30 weeks and there is no position that isn't painful and won't wake me up after a while. Can't wait for the next couple of months to be over, as I know it'll only get harder!

I have ALWAYS been a side sleeper except when I'm pregnant. So sleep on your back if that's how you're comfortable or you can try to sleep on your side but if you roll over it's ok

Almost 34w and feel the same! Heartburn also wakes me in the night 😑

@grey12 , when not pregnant, I mainly sleep on my side, too. However, I would be able to switch sides easily by rolling over and I didn't have the weight of uterus plus the baby concentrating on the side I was lying on. Side sleeping never hurt my hips before I was pregnant.

Re sleeping on my back, I know that the evidence for the increased risk of stillbirth is a bit questionable, as it is based on womens' recollections of how much they slept on their back, but the baby seems to go absolutely crazy with kicking if I dare lie on my back for more than a minute, so that gives me an additional reason to avoid it.

Yep! 34 weeks today & I haven't slept well in weeks! If it's not back pain, it's needing the toilet 100 times or baby kicking or heartburn or crazy thoughts going through my mind . 😂 looking forward to baby being here

Pregnancy insomnia is the worst! I think your body does it so when you have the baby and are having disturbed nights you are grateful because you are still sleeping more than when you are pregnant.

I also really struggled with restless legs. A magnesium supplement is the biggest thing that helps but takes a good few days to take effect.

You can get cooling gel from the pound shop which helps if you rub it into your calves or the weight of a cold hot water bottle on my legs really helped too.

@Latecomer131 mine were always quite quiet, tbh, their kicking didn't disturb me. Actually I think the last one was too quiet apparently her cord was a bit short. I was worried but she's developing ok, almost walking at 10mo