Insomnia is hell. Either laying there staring at the ceiling or your tablet wondering how many days you can function on less than x amount of hours of sleep before your mind cracks and you're left a shell of a person who happens to be holding a cup of tea or coffee.
I have always had insomnia, and now with the pregnancy, sleep had become the elusive dream I aspired to. Not only are you achy, grouchy, and just overall blah, but you are now a zombie on top of it. Sleep deprivation can wreak all kinds of havoc on your physiological and psychological self. It can exasperate all of the symptoms that you experience normally during pregnancy, turning what should be a time of growth and wonder into a 9 month nightmare that leaves you wondering how the hell you will cope once baby is here if it's THIS bad now.
My midwives are absolutely incredible, and since it's a free standing birthing center, drugs aren't usually the prescribed way of handling the common uncomfortableness of pregnancy. When I came to my last appointment, the stress of my lack of sleep got to me and I just lost it during our talk. Both the master midwife and the apprentice stepped right up and kept me calm and suggested some herbal and natural supplements to try. They explained that the body can become immune to whatever it is receiving, especially while you are pregnant, so it's important to have an arsenal of things on hand to keep your body responding positively.
This stuff is amazing! It's a magnesium/calcium mix in powder form. Just take 2 teaspoons in either hot or cold water and sip away! You start feeling that delicious sleepy feeling within an hour or less.
Homeopathic sleep spray. I found mine at Sprouts Market, but it can also be found on Amazon. Just a few sprays in the mouth an hour before bed, then again at bedtime. Be warned, this stuff can seriously knock you out!
Lavender essential oil. The mom I nanny for is a doTERRA Essential Oil teacher and salesperson. She gave me this to try when I told her about how bad the insomnia was. Worked like a charm, just rubbed a few drops on my tummy, thighs, and collar bone and slipped into dream land.
Other things I do include: warm baths, deep breathing exercises, and some relaxing yoga sequences before bed.
All of these things can feel like a chore at first, but after awhile you will find that you just feel unsettled if you don't have your nighttime routine. Here's hoping you find some relief like I did!
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