Oct 29, 2010

The middle-of-the-night pattern

Insomnia is nothing new to me. But for a short while, during the first trimester I experienced something wonderful: the ability to put my head on my pillow at 10pm and fall asleep and stay there until about 9am the following morning. Sure, I was feeling more exhausted in general and I'm really glad that the second trimester is not proving to be as debilitating.


Unfortunately, the second trimester also brought back the insomnia. In a slightly different format than usual. Typically, I can still fall asleep, but I wake a few hours later. Tonight, for example, I was in bed by 11.30pm but woke up around 2.30am, after hours of restless tossing and turning and half-sleeping. And when I say woke up, I mean: really awake.


I tried to make myself more sleepy by reading some of my e-book. I finished it, and sleep is still eluding me. It's now nearly 4am and I feel wide awake, and hungry again. I can't sleep when my stomach is growling, especially not on top of the baby-party that seems to be a regular occurrence in the middle of the night.


I don't mind so much. It's a new kind of insomnia, and secretly, I'm quite enjoying the kicking and pounding that's coming from the little one. Besides, it's Friday morning - finally the end of a long and arduous week of work. The end of October earmarks a slight change in work routine for me, and I'm seriously hoping that it means way fewer meetings and class preparation and way more research and rest.

1 comment:

  1. Your body is training you to wake up in the middle of the night as will be the regular occurance when baby arrives and needs to eat every couple of hours. The weird aspect happens between 6 months and 1 year old and you have to train your body to sleep through the night.

    There are so many fantastic things about being a parent, but sleep deprivation is not one of them. :)

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