Sleeping Like A Baby

Sleeping is a big topic in the pregnancy and baby world.

I was once told I would make a good mother since I don't really need that much sleep. I have never particularly liked sleeping. Sleeping (not the other things that can happen in bed) is boring. Don't get me wrong, being well rested is a wonderful feeling but I never really prioritized sleeping. I was even known to blithely quote the saying "sleep when you're dead".

Now lots of things about pregnancy seem either intuitive or perverse. Like the heightened smell ability, what a great way for pregnant women to protect themselves and the baby from food poisoning. Same with the predilection for bland foods, another way to protect the baby. Breast feeding- nature's genius design. All intuitive.

But what about the pregnant sleep? Growing a baby from my flesh and bones and hormones, from the same energy with which I ran my own life obviously takes a lot out of me. So I am more tired than I have ever been. And fatigued. I never knew what fatigue was until I became pregnant. (oh look pregnancy is already building that motherly compassion in me.)
Perversion #1: The paradox is that at the moment I am most tired in my life, I have the most difficulty sleeping: Perversion #1. Sometimes I am not comfortable. I have a huge belly in the way. Sometimes I am too hot- incubators stay warm. Round ligament aches and stomach pains plague me after my brain quiets at night and keep sleep from arriving. Add to that one or more trips to the bathroom at night to relieve my compressed bladder. Plus the need for middle of the night snacks- apples with peanut butter are my favorite- when the baby rumbles for more foods. It adds up to less than a full night's sleep.

I end up having to drag my baby-laden body through days fogged by fatigue. The only remedy for the fog that I know of is coffee. Perversion #2: Cut back on coffee while pregnant. Read: Cut back on coffee when you are the most tired and ill-focused and think that no one at work will mind. What? I didn't have a coffee every day before but now a small cappuccino is mandatory. I would drink three if I was not warned its no good for my growing baby.

So I guess God/Goddess/nature has a sense of humor. You would think that in advance of many nights dedicated to caring for a newborn, I would be allowed the blissful sleep of innocence. Some say that this is preparation for those interrupted nights of baby feeding. I don't buy it.

Someone please send Mr. Sandman my way. I'm leaving my window open.