CAN T SLEEP BUT FOR A WEIRD REASON

6 Replies
eclectic66 - April 21

Hi all I am 36 y/o pregnant with 1st baby 25w along and I almost posted this as a reply to someone who said they are having trouble sleeping, but decided to just ask this question bc I am curious if anyone else has this problem. SLEEP? I know that the lack of sleep is NOT uncommon, but I have yet to find anyone that has had a problem with sleeping for the same reasons as me. My trouble is I developed a "restless leg syndrome" problem as soon as I was pregnant. I have never had trouble sleeping before. And rather than being exhausted and sleeping all the time in the 1st trimester, I was the opposite and WIRED and constantly feeling like I had to stretch...feeling restless. The other culprit to my sleep loss has been a racing and pounding heart. My OB says that I am just sensitive to the hormones and increased blood volume. And now I am 2 weeks away from my 3rd trimester and have the common sleep deprivation causes to look foward too. I finally broke down a cpl weeks ago from severe insomnia and she prescribed Lunesta (which has helped) bc nothing else has worked. I was just curious if ANYONE else has had this kind of problem?

 

Tracy88 - April 21

The fast beating heart will slow down eventually, it did for me, but I can't say the restless leg syndrome will. I have had RLS since December or January, and I understand completely where you are coming from. I've broken down many times and even scratched myself out of frustration. It's enough to drive a person crazy, because not only are you uncontrollably moving, you are exhausted and sleep deprived. Such a contradiction. I am one day shy of 36 weeks and I have wanted this baby out of me for months already just because of RLS. The other thing that sucks about it is that it can spread to the back and the arms, rather than staying strictly in the legs. My doctor would not prescribe me anything like Lunesta. I did; however, take the occasional Tylenol with codeine that was prescribed for bad headaches and such, just so I could get some sleep. Sometimes it helped and sometimes it didn't. The other crazy thing is that my doctor put me on bed rest two months ago for a short cervix, so if I didn't stay in bed, I was risking the baby arriving way too early. I did my best, but with RLS it was nearly impossible to follow doctor's orders. I got lucky because I seem to have a baby that likes her womb! She has not budged. Just know that you are not alone, and you are talking to someone who has cried night after night with this issue, just trying to stick this pregnancy out one day at a time.

 

eclectic66 - April 21

Tracy...ty so much for your reply :-) I am so sorry to hear that you too are so miserable too. And hopefully for both of us this will all be over after our sweet little babies arrive. Luckily you are right there on the home stretch :-) I too have the RLS everywhere (definetly not just the legs) that is why I thought I was going nuts when it first started bc I felt it in my arms, back, neck (pretty much anywhere I have muscles). I really had to do some research to find that there are indeed women that suffer from this due to pregnancy hormones. I guess we are one of those lucky 20% I was put on "home rest" by my OB due to some problems with my BP going up so it has been hard not going stir crazy with the RLS and just not sleeping in general. I really sympathize for you since you are being confined to bed. But at least you are very close to baby's birth day :-) so you can soon have your body and hopefully your sleep back again. I have to laugh bc I have told my husband that I am really looking foward to the baby arriving just so I can get some sleep bc in the grand scheme of things a catnap every cpl hours will be a lot more than what i am getting now ;-) Good luck to you and I hope you get some sleep soon and that that restless body slows down once those hormones have mellowed.

 

Tracy88 - April 22

See, I'm with you on the sleeping thing.....I'd rather work around a crying, hungry baby with cat naps than suffer from something that won't even let you take a cat nap when you are exhausted yet have all the time in the world to sleep! The good news is that I have had a really good week with the RLS, but the bad news is that it was because on Monday and Tuesday I ran a fever of almost 102. I have been so sick all week. So, it was a toss-up. I either suffered from the flu or the RLS! The flu wiped me out so bad that the RLS didn't stand a chance against it! There was a point at which I researched too and when I realized that I was one of 20% of women, it made me feel better, BUT then I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes too, and just got p__sed to be one of that small percentage of women too! Anyway, hope you slept well last night. I was good in every respect except my arms and hands kept falling asleep and I think I peed about 8 times! I'm 36 weeks today though, so inching closer to the end!

 

anne - April 27

It's from low iron (the RLS). Get a CBC blood test done to see if it's that. If it is, supplements will nip it in the bud. I can't sleep too and I'm on my second baby (6 weeks). I swear it's like our bodies try to prepare us for sleepness nights for when the baby arrives!

 

Tracy88 - April 28

Anne, I had my iron checked a while ago and it was a tiny bit low, so I was put on supplements. It didn't help to be honest. I still haven't let go of the fact that it may be iron-related though because I am doing much better now at almost 37 weeks, and I read somewhere that the baby isn't taking as many vitamins from the mother at this point or something like that. I don't know, I've been so tired that I forget half of what I read or say anyway!!! I still take the supplements, so it may very well be a combo of the baby not taking as much from me and my body getting the amount that it needs now. I may not have been taking enough????

 

eclectic66 - May 12

Hi ladies!! Well, I think you are right about the RLS being related to an iron deficiency. I started taking an iron supplement daily and have noticed the RLS has improved greatly!! It's good to know that there is an actual cause and effect rather than just going nuts....lol

 

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