Sleep

After several nights of barely sleeping at all, I asked S. if he would research "pregnancy pillows." He cares deeply about my comfort, so he looked into solving the problem. Also, I'm keeping him up at night, so solving the problem will also prevent him from going stark raving mad from lack of sleep himself. But, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and let him have the non-selfish reason first.

Basically, I've suddenly been finding it impossible to get comfortable. I'm used to sleeping on my stomach, but my uterus has reached a stage where it's uncomfortable to lay on it. Also, my new (and still growing) porn-star breasts are kind of getting in the way. And sleeping on my side was hurting my lower back, hurting my hips, and seemed somehow "unstable." Piling normal pillows around me and under me was of limited help, since S. has a tendency to steal them all for himself in the middle of the night. Hence, the need for some sort of supportive pillow, hopefully big enough that it would stay out of S.'s unconscious grasp.

Being the thorough (and more than a bit nerdy) guy that he is, S. did quite a bit of research. Once he was sufficiently overwhelmed by the options, he also emailed several of our recently-pregnant friends. This resulted, most notably, in two things. First, friend E. loaned us her pregnancy pillow, after being (unhelpfully) surprised that I would need one this early; note that this comment left me feeling like the weakest woman in the world, totally unprepared for the rigors of pregnancy, much less the physical trials of actual labor and delivery. Second, friend L., upon learning that I didn't already have a pregnancy pillow by now, and fearing that S.'s careful research would take too long, went on-line and bought me the one that she loved; she followed this up with wonderment that I had survived 16 weeks without a pregnancy pillow, since she got hers somewhere around week 13. Thank you thank you thank you for putting my mind back at ease, L.!

The gift pillow from L. has not arrived yet, but I have been using the loaned pillow from E. for a few nights now. Ahhhh, sweet sleep. I'm still waking up several times each night, but I am now miraculously able to fall back asleep again. I'm still getting the occasional mild backache, but the headaches are definitely easing up, so life is good.

We've also been warned by many, many couples that, by the third trimester, the bed became too small for husband, pregnant wife, and pillow to comfortably occupy at the same time. Every couple we know that's been pregnant in the last 2 years apparently sent dear husband (or, in one case, dear pregnant wife) to sleep on the couch for the last few weeks. Since S. and I both generally sleep much better (and happier!) when we are together in bed, we have pinky-promised to try to avoid separate sleeping arrangements if at all possible. Check back in July and see how we're doing....