I have been using all my blogging time lately to catch up on sleep. For some reason my pregnancy hormones are going a little wild lately and I have been up a few hours each night unable to sleep. That is my excuse for not being around here over the last few days. Appreciate your prayers. It is challenging to lose sleep especially when you still have a household to maintain and a little one to care for. I am thankful that God is teaching me ever more of my dependence upon Him and the wonderful gift of sleep. I would love to hear any tips you may have to offer?
By the way, over the weekend we set up a fun little Passionate Homemaking Amazon store through which you can find many wonderful resources for your family, including books on Biblical Womanhood, the family, and resources for safe baby care, natural living and many household products I recommend. Check it out through the top navigation bar and help support this blog!
As for now…I am blogging at 2:00am…quite fun!
Blessings upon you!
Lowering your body temperature by 10-15 degrees will induce the hybernation/ sleep cycle. Of course lowering your whole body would be too chilly – and babies prefer to stay toasty warm. You can “trick” your body into this by lowering the temperature of your feet. Not with an ice bath though! By warming your feet by 10 degrees or so, and then allowing them to cool, you are effectively lowering your body temp (albeit regionally) by 10 degrees. The best way to do this is with an old fashioned hot water bottle. If you don’t have one, take a clean tube or athletic sock, and fill with unpopped corn kernals, rice, buckwheat or beans. You can add some dried lavender too for scent. Knot it closed, then toss in the microwave or oven to warm (a few minutes only – this is not dinner!).
Place your Toasty by your feet when you go to sleep. Your feet will warm then cool and you will gradually get sleepy.
Note: a heating pad stays warm, so this is not a good option.
I second tea. Camomile tea is good. Have Aaron give you a nice long back rub, or a nice soothing bath before bed. some drops of lavender oil would be good in the bath water.
Limit any caffeine (if you drink any). And, I know you don’t take any over the counter meds unnecessarily, but if you really need some sleep, Benadryl is safe to take during pregnancy.
And prayer for a good night sleep usually works for me! When it can’t sleep I find using it to be in prayer, or reading the Word helps me relax.
Hey,
Am a regular reader of your blog and i like it very much. God is using you to touch many women like me…(from India too..:)). Praise God for I am also carrying a lil one and I too are facing the difficulty of insomnia hardly.. Please do suggest me the tips that you use to overcome this to my mail id…Love you and God bless you, your family and the lil one inside.
A Regular Reader and Sister of Yours
Any chance you might be running into low blood sugar dips at night. Sometimes the body will wake you up in order to eat something, even though you might not be aware of this or feel hugry. You may want to try a protien/carb snack and see if this helps you get back to sleep in a more timely way. This is often what I suggest for the clients I serve who are awakening at night and are not sure why.
Just wanted to share that we were gifted to attend a lovely family who birthed there bottom first baby into the gentle water last night.
smiles and warmth,
brenda
I had pregnancy insomnia with my last baby. Taking Cal/Mag before bed helped. Also taking a hot shower and warm tea made me relax more. I never was able to stop it totally so I sympathize. The bonus (if there is one) is when baby comes, getting up in the night isn’t as exhausting… your kinda used to it
)
I am newly pregnant with our fourth and we used disposable for the last 3…we are probably going to use Bumgenius this time around…I would be thrilled to buy them through you if it benefits your little family…when the time comes, of course!