So far my biggest complaint about being pregnant is trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. From everything I've read and been told, my best position for the baby is on my left side. That's fine for a while, but if I stay in that position all night, I wake up with horrible aches in my left hip. I have a body pillow, but I haven't figured out how to best use it yet. I've also tried putting a small pillow between my knees, but every time I've tried it, I've woken up with horrible cramping in the top calf.
I have had a couple of good nights: once with a flat, soft pillow supporting The Belly and once, surprisingly, at my dad's on his ancient king-size bed that I've never slept well on because it's too soft. I haven't yet been able to duplicate the these successes for two nights in a row.
Posted by jfer at May 31, 2004 10:44 AMI do admit that I am taking great delight in sleeping on my back these days!
The hip aches happened to me too. I just switched between my left and right sides each time I got up to go to the bathroom in the night. A few times I found it helped to place a toddler pillow (or a folded towel) underneath my waist.
Re the leg cramps, which again I too had, the advice I got was to up my water intake as well as my protein. I did so and they did go away. I also did a little calf stretching--remember your legs are bearing more weight than they were (and it's distributed differently than if you just got fat), so it's not surprising they're complaining a little.
Posted by: Elizabeth on May 31, 2004 11:11 AMThe only time I get the terrible calf cramps is when I sleep with a pillow between my legs. My solution is to not sleep with the pillow between my legs ever again.
Posted by: I on May 31, 2004 1:55 PM