Monday, May 18, 2009

Question of the Week - Sleeping Comfortably

In my very pregnant state, it is hard for me to get comfortable. Especially when sleeping. Even though we have this amazing king-sized bed with a soft pillow top, it's not enough. I am currently using seven pillows. That's right, seven pillows.

I have a husband pillow to supply the underlying support and structure. I have two king-sized pillows which I use for propping up at different levels (either sitting up or just keeping my head more elevated at night so I don't get the heartburn too bad). On top of those, I have a regular-sized feather pillow which I stuff under my head to get the exactly correct angle I need to sleep (or prop under my upper back when sitting up in bed). The regular-sized standard pillow is for between my legs when I sleep to keep my legs from angling from my wider hips (and to keep my laptop on when I'm sitting up in bed). Then there is the wonderful wedge pillow (by Bobby) to go under my huge belly when I sleep (I love this thing!). Finally, the last pillow I've added is a regular-sized feather pillow that I wedge against my back when lying on my side to keep me propped and comfortable. When I roll over to my other side, I trade the places of the wedge pillow and the last feather pillow, and it works well.

Now, this is not how I normally sleep. When I'm not pregnant, I pretty much just use one or two king-sized pillows (depending on how flat the pillows are). During pregnancy, I've raided the linen closet's extra pillows, the guest room's pillows, and even my wonderful husband's pillows. Luckily for the Pumpkin, I seem to have enough now.

I laugh at myself and my huge pile of pillows. I know it's just another pregnancy thing, just the way having an internal furnace makes me not sleep with any covers on, even when it's in the 60s inside our house. In fact, when I was pregnant with the Pumpkin during the winter (she was born in March), I had to open the windows a crack and keep the fan on even if there was snow outside. Poor Londo slept under about 5 blankets, while I could barely stand a sheet! It seems that pregnant women, or at least me when I'm pregnant, do some crazy things to try to be comfortable when sleeping.

But then I realize that I do have some oddities when sleeping non-pregnant in order to sleep comfortably.

Which brings us to this week's Question of the Week:
What odd/interesting/unique things to you do/need to be comfortable when you sleep?

Non-pregnant, I have always had to sleep with my feet sticking out of the covers (and no socks) unless it's crazy cold in the house. Also, I normally have to have my shoulders covered when sleeping or they get cold. This wasn't always true, but in the last few years I no longer buy tanktop-style tops to wear to bed because of my poor, cold shoulders. I probably have other oddities, but I can't come up with them now.

How about you? Is there a certain position you HAVE to be in? Do you need music, TV, lights, blankets, etc. a certain way to sleep comfortably? How many pillows do you need?

6 comments:

BisBink said...

I need a box fan in order to fall asleep and stay asleep. I can sleep without one, but it takes me much longer to finally fall asleep, and I will usually wake up alot during the night if I don't have the constant white noise.

As for pillows, I have one body pillow that runs along the headboard, one king sized pillow that I place on the edge of the bed, and one standard sized pillow that I actually sleep on. My DH calls it my fortress.

I also have to have my baby blanket, which I have had since birth.

KG said...

I like to have white noise .. A noisy air filter or something similar. Dead quiet bothers me.

PS - With my first pregnancy, I got one of those Snoogle things. It was awful! Like wrestling a giant earthworm!

limboland la la said...

used to be ear plugs but now i need a heavy pillow over my head.

I'm Not Skippy said...

I have to have a cold pillow to lay on. If my ears get too warm I can't sleep. And it has to be dark, sometimes even the light from the clock radio is too much.

Shellie said...

When I was pregnant, I needed the wedge pillows and all too and I still wasn't comfortable. Mostly, I just need to be covered, even if it's a sheet, but I can't sleep uncovered. Other than that, I think I can sleep no matter what.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was helpful to have pillows to hug and put under my belly, but the thing I really could have used was some good moisturizer. The thing that really drove me crazy and kept me up at night when I was pregnant was how incredibly much my legs ITCHED. I would scratch them raw.

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