Are You Pregnant And Wake Up Many Times At Night?

There are many women who, when going through their pregnancy, experience very noticeable changes in their rest. In the first months they suffer from drowsiness, but as delivery approaches, insomnia, strange dreams and nocturnal awakenings appear that fill us with restlessness and worry. Is it your case?

If so, you should not give it too much importance. In the first place, because your body carries out each process with wisdom and success. The complex thing is that nobody warned you of every detail, of every uncomfortable nuance that you were going to go through throughout these months. Being pregnant is not a bed of roses! …

The body changes, the emotional state varies and your rest is also irretrievably affected. This difficulty in reconciling a deep and restorative rest in recent months is due to a very specific reason: your body prepares for breastfeeding.

In “You are Mom” we want to talk about it and give you some simple tips with which to find a little more well-being.

The last trimester of your pregnancy

If there is a key stage in your pregnancy, it is the last trimester. It is undoubtedly a stage in which many changes are intermingled within the pregnant woman, the most intense emotions, the most complex physical fears and discomforts arise:

• You may notice incisive pressure on the sternum, however, as the uterus is lowered to prepare for delivery, this discomfort will stop being so incisive.

• Likewise, you will notice how it costs you a little more to breathe : the uterus has multiplied by 15 in its size, with which, the ribs compress the lungs and our breathing becomes a bit complicated (it is normal), with which you notice more exhausted than in previous months.

• You will have fluid retention, you will suffer cramps, numbness of the hands and your breasts, as normal, will undergo noticeable changes.

The night’s rest in the last trimester

Let’s see now what happens at rest during these last weeks in the pregnant woman. While it is true that not all women experience the same symptoms, a common fact is undoubtedly having awakenings, insomnia or even waking up in the morning with the clear feeling of not having had enough sleep.

• Even more, another singular fact is strange dreams. They are not nightmares, but rather unique daydreams where conflicting emotions sharpen, sudden images that make us wake up and fill us with anxiety for a moment. and then forget them the second.

• Do not worry. It is normal. The reason? Again, the culprits for these uncontrollable disturbances are hormones.

During the first months of pregnancy we usually experience the opposite. We feel more sleepy. This is because our body increases its blood volume and circulation in an almost prodigious way to promote the growth of the embryo. Hence, the woman needs more hours of rest.

This is important to know, because something as normal as going to work or doing our daily tasks is going to cost us a little more. We will but we will notice the change.

• Now, in the last trimester, something very contradictory will happen: you need to rest but your body does not allow it. The biological processes associated with breastfeeding are already at work.

• In addition, our brain already acts as a sentinel of parenting. It puts us on alert. It prepares us for what is to come: in a few weeks you will sleep much less because you will have to breastfeed the baby, and hence, even before holding your child in your arms your body is already preparing you for it.

Hence the strange dreams and those awakenings. It is as if our being, and that “maternal alarm” prepares you for what is going to happen. 

I am pregnant and need to sleep better: what can I do?

Being pregnant is not like you were told, you know. Therefore, it is necessary to follow a series of strategies to carry it in the best way. The last quarter is tough, but it is also very exciting. At this stage the nausea and that discomfort of the previous months have already disappeared, now, what you experience is heaviness, the desire to see your baby and the need to be able to sleep in a deeper, restorative way.

Take note of these simple tips.

• Sleep on the left side (the liver is on the right side of the abdomen, in this way we prevent the uterus from compressing it and causing us discomfort).

• Never fall asleep on your back.

• Place a pillow between your legs or in your lower back.

• Take a relaxing bath before going to sleep.

• Have an infusion or a glass of warm oatmeal with honey before going to sleep.

• Do yoga, it will come in handy.

• Share your worries or fears with other pregnant women or friends who have been through the same thing.