Sleeping for moms... Pregnancy

Having just woken up at midday from my 'recovery' after last nights tossing and turning, I decided that a post on pregnancy based insomnia was in order. Its day three of the non sleeping, I'm finding myself waking up at exactly 1:34am every night, and resembling nothing more than a flesh eating terror of epic proportions! I'm ready to try anything at all, and am certain that there are other women suffering in the same situation. So here are some reasons for this torture and possible tricks to help.

Apparently many women struggle with getting to, or staying asleep during pregnancy, this can be caused by any number of factors; Backache or breast pain, anxiety or worry about pregnancy, birth, family matters or even money! Your baby is more likely to be pretty active between 10pm and 1am as well, all of these things coupled with a bladder the size of a cashew nut add up to a poor nights sleep. You can also expect to be having weird and vivid dreams caused by (what else) building hormones, my personal favorite was the dream about walking talking crocodiles wearing synthetic blonde stripper wigs, chasing myself and Hiro from Heroes through an adventure training compound... Nail biting stuff let me tell you! 

But you already know that you cant sleep, what you want to know is how to beat it and get some much needed z's, so how to do it? well here are some ideas:

Try not to go to bed too tired; as ridiculous as that may sound, if your body is over tired your brain may struggle to turn off at bed time. You can combat this by trying to sneak in a nap during the day, if you have small children try get your feet up while they nap. If you work a day job try sneak off to a quiet place during your lunch break for a quick forty winks. Another option is to try and arrange one day a week where you can work from home so as to give your body and mind a rest away from work.

Try get some exercise during the day; studies have shown that taking some gentle exercise on a daily basis helps you sleep at night, think about going for a walk outside but don't overdo it. If you can get the blood flowing nicely without tiring yourself out to the point of exhaustion then you should find yourself nodding off by bedtime.

Have a warm bath before you go to bed; Not to hot of course but throw in some luxurious bubble bath, maybe light a candle or two and have a relaxing bath. Once you've lounged for a while and towelled off with a fluffy towel, you will almost certainly be looking forward to sliding into your comfy bed for a good nights sleep. You can use some aromatherapy oils but you have to be careful what you use as some are unsafe during certain stages of pregnancy, check out the link for which ones to use. Lavender's a goodie for sleeplessness though!

http://www.aromaweb.com/articles/aromatherapyduringpregnancy.asp

http://www.essentialoils.co.za/pregnancy.htm

Warm drink before bed; This is a tried and tested method for anyone suffering from trouble sleeping, whether its warm milk, chamomile tea, or hot chocolate, a nice warm drink taken while your lying in bed can help your body get itself ready for sleep. Stay away from heavily caffeinated drinks for obvious reasons...

Pre-bedtime meditation; Even if your not an advocate of meditation there is no denying that taking some time to lie down and clear your mind and relax you body helps you to relax, so if you do it in bed before you sleep it stands to reason it should help you drift off. You may find in fact that you fall asleep during the process! 

Lie down on your bed, I would suggest getting under the covers just in case you do fall asleep. Once your comfortable imagine a ball of light above your head, make it any colour you like, something soothing and comfortable. Imagine that light passing through the top of your head, filling your head with that warm soothing colour, slowly the light passes downwards, filling your body with warm soothing light. The light clears away your worries and troubles as it passes through leaving you peaceful and calm, concentrate on this soothing, warming, cleansing light passing through your body until it has passed through your entire body and out of your feet. If your still awake at this point slowly bring your awareness back into yourself and settle down to go to sleep, it can be lovely at this point to concentrate on your baby inside you, especially if there is movement at the time.

Good luck moms! I hope this helps a little, as always please feel free to comment as everyones advice and experiences can help someone else, and thats the aim of this blog. Here's hoping that you all have sweet, uninterrupted dreams. (preferably without the talking crocodiles!)

Sleep Training from AAAAAARGHHHHHH to ZZZZzzzzzz

Sleep training is one of the major problem points for parents, there are many different ways of getting your kid to sleep, and every baby will have different triggers.

My husband used to wake up daily with the baby in the bed with us in the beginning, it was so much easier for me to feed my son in bed with us when he woke up at silly times, and then he'd fall asleep in between us and lets be honest... Who's going to wake up a sleeping baby at 3am? Not me, thats for sure.

Well when my boy was  seven months old we decided that it was time for him to get into a better routine so I did some research. There's two main theories out there, the 'cry it out' method, the exact opposite of that is the 'no tears' approach, and there are a few variations on these methods. This time were going to focus on the cry it out technique!

The 'cry it out' method or 'Ferberising' is when your baby learns to self soothe, so you have to let your baby cry. Its hard to do I know, but for some babies it works really well. However your not supposed to allow your child to become hysterical, that's clearly not going to be beneficial for them.

The Doctor responsible for this method is Dr Richard Ferber, and his theory is that you use this method as part of a daily bedtime routine. So try something like giving your baby a bath, maybe following it with baby massage, (I like to use the johnsons bedtime baby oil with lavender), then a last feed, and a bedtime story.

Next comes the hard part, you have to put that baby down and walk away... The first night you can go back in to give comfort after set intervals, like 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, gradually building up to longer periods of time in the hope that the child will fall asleep. Bear in mind your NOT supposed to pick the baby up when you go in, just offer comfort and a gentle touch.

I used this method with my son at 7 months and it worked wonders, well except I didn't go back in after I had put him down and he cried for half an hour the first night and fifteen minutes the second night, and that was that! He has slept for ten to twelve hours nightly (excluding sickness or extenuating circumstances) ever since.

Experts reckon that short periods of crying alone will do NO damage to your child and will instead teach them quickly and efficiently to soothe themselves and become healthy happy sleepers. I have to say that while I do know that this method will not work for some children, it worked wonders for mine. It all depends on what kind of person your little one is in themselves, but rest assured as long as your not leaving your child to get so hysterical that there beside themselves, your not going to traumatise them. I promise!

Next time Ill be looking into the 'No tears' method of sleep training, but in the mean time here are some links for this technique. Wishing you happy sleep times!


http://www.sleep-baby-sleep.com/ferber-method.htm

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/sleep-10/nighttime

http://cryitoutmethod.com/

Please be aware that while it IS important to get your baby into a regular routine early on, they will NEED to wake up for feeds and things throughout the night for the first few months, so it is NOT  a good idea to try sleep training your child too early, they reckon the optimum age is four months old.

Different things that people struggle with, from birth and beyond!

From feeding difficulties and ideas to Sleep training, there are TONS of problem areas and every baby is different. My oldest is struggling with potty training but he is a fantastic sleeper. Its not a failure if your baby cant quite get to grips with one thing or another, and you shouldn't take it as such. There are literally hundreds of methods and techniques for everything so it stands to reason that there will be SOMETHING that will fit you and your particular problem.

Please feel free to post any requests for topics, if there's anything that you wanna talk about, or your freaking out about being covered in food that's been spit up in your face. This is a safe place for you to ask for and get help!

The Aches and Pains of pregnancy..

I had a terrifying scare when I was in my twelfth week of pregnancy, I was having a cup of tea and a natter at a friends house when I started to get this weird aching in my groin going around to my back.
It quickly gained momentum, and before long I had to call my husband to come fetch me and take me to the doctor! I had to have a painkiller injection and it was really scary, but it turned out to be round ligament pain.

When the uterus pops up out of your pelvis the ligaments anchoring it strain and stretch, it can cause real pain and be really frightening. But you have to remember that its normal and it usually passes, I am going to give you a few different links and diagrams so you can read it for yourself.

If your experiencing round ligament pain please try not to worry, its just one of those yucky things that go along with the growing and nurturing of that new life inside you!

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/antenatalhealth/physicalhealth/achinglowerabdomen/

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/pregnancy_round_ligament_pain/article_em.htm

http://www.justmommies.com/articles/round-ligament-pain.shtml

http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/symptoms-and-solutions/abdominal-achiness.aspx

Okay, so there's a few links for you to peruse at leisure and put your mind at ease!

Morning Sickness... Its NEVER just in the morning.

Morning sickness.
What a joke.. I am almost entirely certain that whoever coined that term was having an almighty giggle at some poor pregnant persons expense. I like to think of it as 'every second of the damn day' sickness, and having just completed my second round of the dreaded vomiting part of pregnancy I would give anyone suffering it any tips I can to help them. It sucks to go through, but it is the way of the world to say 'this too shall pass'.
At one point about eight weeks into my second pregnancy, I genuinely thought I would die. I had thrown up about a hundred times, and had just enough strength to drag myself from the toilet bowl to the bed. All my limbs were agony and I couldnt even keep down water, I was on the verge of getting the anti-nausea drugs from my doctor and I felt like my baby was sucking the life from me at a rate of knots. I tried EVERYTHING! Some stuff worked, some didnt, I will be using this post to give you some of the methods I used, and some stuff from friends of mine too. I will also be incuding links to websites I used as well, trust me, Iv been there, and I have complete sympathy.

Ginger tea.
(I used Purity mammas Ginger roibos tea, worked wonders, but only AFTER my first puke of the day, still its worth a try)
Purity mammas also make the most fabulous ginger anti-nausea lollypops by the way, available in most supermarkets but heres the purity link.
http://www.purity.co.za/Mother_Nutrition.aspx

Dry crackers.
Provitas worked for me,
(if I had them next to the bed and nibbled slowly choking them down before I got out of bed then I could sometimes avoid puking entirely.)
It is widely acknowledged that dry crackers help to settle the stomach, give it a go until you find your brand of biscuit. stay away from anything with chocolate, trust me when I tell you that chocolate is a womans biggest enemy on the way back up.

Motion sickness bands.
Holy cow these things saved my life, it said on the back of the pack to put em on before you get out of bed, I slept with mine on when my sickness was at its worst. They were brilliant, they didnt cure me completely, but they made a HUGE difference.
http://www.biobands.com/nausea.htm

Lots of water.
I carried a sports bottle around with me everywhere I went,

Mints.
I found that sucking on mint imperials or something similar helped supress nausea, and also they help with nasty puke breath. So win win really!!

Eating small healthy meals throughout the day.
I know that sometimes when your exhausted from puking and the rest, food is the farthest thing from your mind, but it really does help to eat little and often. I downloaded the weekly meal planners from Baby Centre and found the meals on them really easy to make and eat without them coming back up. They have them for each trimester so its definately worth a shot. here's the link!
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/nutrition/meal-planners-by-trimester/

While I know that when your in the middle of the 'morning sickness' phase, it seems endless and as though there is no end in sight. Unless you are very unlucky it will pass, I promise, usually by 12 weeks, sometimes by 14-16 weeks. Its trial and error but I bet if you experiment with a few of the home remedies for morning sickness, you'll find something that works for you.

So go forth and conquer your nausea my friends, and please leave your comments about what proved effective for you, in a bid to help others overcome it. It sucks and its gross, but you can make a difference to someone else in their hour of need!