Waking up every night in early pregnancy

[Wonderwoman13]

Hello, everyone, I was just wandering if someone else is going through the same thing. I am 7 weeks pregnant and for the last 3 weeks I can’t sleep properly, I just wake up every night after 5-6 hours of sleep, stay awake one hour or more, than fall asleep again. This is so annoying. What should I do?

Congratulations, your body is now in training for having a baby and caring for that newborn!

Unfortunately it only gets worse. For a couple of months now I get to sleep between 1-2am, awake by 3am and then if I'm lucky I'll fall asleep at 6am to be woken by my DP going to work at 7am.
Only 5 more weeks to go, thank god.

I'm under no illusion that the sleep will improve as after my first, my sleep was still dreadful as I was constantly checking on her all night. It will probably be the same after my second is born.

I’m another with pregnancy insomnia - started at about 20 weeks. I wake up around 3/4am for a couple of hours for no particular reason. It’s definitely draining! Good luck.

It's pure crap....

What should you do?

Get used to it as it will probably get worse!
at its apex I was doing 2 hours max per night and it drove me slightly doolally.

I just slept when I could and tried to facilitate this.
I found I was generally awake 3-4/7-8 then tired again.
I adjusted bed time to earlier so 10.30/11 vs 11.30/midnight and I stopped any meetings pre 10am. This meant I got a bigger block of sleep first thing and I could get a second block and sleep 8-9.30
I also napped in the day if I felt sleepy. Literally just closed doors amd curtains and slept for 60 mins

Are you doing exercise / getting daylight during the day? I try and walk or cycle for 45 mins per day, ideally in daylight and do a light pregnancy yoga YouTube video in the evening. Fingers crossed so far this seems to be managing the insomnia for me so far this time.

I had pregnancy insomnia both pregnancies. Honestly there's not much you can do apart from learn to live with it. I was awake most days from 3 or 4am.

Me too up 3/4/5 for least hour or 2. Try nap if you can. No idea why I wake it must be body getting us ready for the newborn or something! I’m now 36 weeks and it only really became an issue in third trimester
Good luck

Hello, I'm 7 weeks and have had this since I found out at 3.5 weeks!! It's got a bit better the last couple of weeks actually, I think a lot of it was because I was wired for a while after finding out! However I do still wake at 3am every night, I'm usually awake til 4-5am and then do eventually manage to drop off and sleep til about 7.30am. I just make sure I go to bed about 9.30/10 and then I don't feel too bad the next day.

Thank you everyone. I can see it is somehow normal. At first, I believed it was because of the excitement but I wake up every night and start thinking about the pregnancy and what ifs. @orangesky1 I would love to exercise but I am a bit afraid to use the bicycle. It is fine? How do u feel?

I was the same, waking up at 1.30am on the dot. It got better for a few weeks but now I'm further along I'm waking up to go for a wee!!!

I am 25 weeks and cycling absolutely fine so far - I don’t do steep hills or anything too busy. I cycled through my last pregnancy even past my due date, and it was fine - I just had the handle bars and seat adjusted so I am more upright and can put my feet down easily. I have a proper granny padded seat. I think the main risk is from falling off so I am just conservative with how I cycle.

I switched to cycling mid way through last pregnancy as running was uncomfortable for me. I had pregnancy insomnia last pregnancy but noticed it was better on the days I exercised so making a big effort now in this one and it seems to be working so far, fingers crossed.

Also walks/swimming are other alternatives. There are also some YouTube pregnancy cardio videos that I find quite good as well.

Also I try and load up on water during the day - at least a glass every hour- and then I’m less thirsty in the evening / night which reduces the waking in the nighttime for wee

I had this in early pregnancy. I think part of it was morning sickness related - walking up feeling ill and then finding it hard to get back to sleep.

Some things that helped were making sure my bed was warm enough, so that I felt warm and cozy made it easier to get back to sleep. I also got a pregnancy pillow really early - about 12 weeks - which seemed to help too. That was mostly helpful for hugging at night to stop my boobs, which are really swollen and sore from dangling painfully. I also moved my evening meal a bit earlier and made it small and light, and made an effort to stay awake until a reasonable time even though I was very tired so that my sleep cycle didn't shift totally.

All those little changes helped a lot. I still wake up more often in the early hours, but I'm rarely stuck awake for hours like previously.

It's hormonal, normal, not a whole lot you can do really, nap when you can if you can.

I’m really sorry to hear you are struggling to sleep. In early pregnancy this was a huge issue and I was so, so tired.

Like @InvisibleDragonbought I also pregnancy pillow early in week 12 (currently 14w) as I was getting twinges in my groin and pubic arch.

Somehow this pillow has changed the game & I’m once again sleeping through. Fingers crossed it lasts…

Was there anyone else always checking breast to see if it is still sore? I feel like doing this daily especially cause sometimes they do not hurt that much and create panick