pregnancy insomnia, planning ahead & mornings!

October 27, 2017

I will be 34 weeks tomorrow.  Since I have planned to go into labor 12/7 on my last day of work at 39 weeks and 5 days (seriously, sending this carefully thought-out wish into the universe because it just would be sooo perfect and would avoid a potential long traffic-ridden drive filled with contractions and pain and anxiety and all that) I am hoping that I have approximately 6 weeks until delivery!

That is starting to sound like . . . not a lot of time.
And there’s so much happening between now and then!  At work, things are incredibly busy as I try to fit in many of my patients and to participate in the interviews for our first class of residents.  I have a big presentation (American Diabetes Association) coming up that I will be giving at approximately 37 weeks.  I have 11 days of call (not excited about that).  There’s Halloween next week (how did that happen!?) and then of course Thanksgiving and we have tickets to TWO plays and also Lady Gaga (if she is recovered enough to perform).
I can’t tell if part of my inability to sleep is just being anxious about cramming everything in prior to my due date, or if it’s just hormones, but it’s REAL and it’s so unlike me.  I have been waking up many nights around 3:30 am, just unable to do anything but lie there.  One night earlier this week I was awake at 1 and finally just gave up and read for an hour (thankfully, I did fall asleep after that).
I don’t remember having such issues in prior pregnancies, though my 40 week post from 2012 mentions it — but I was just 2 days from delivery when I wrote that, so not quite the same.  
ANYWAY.  The up-side of my insomnia is that my mornings have been rather full, even if I’m ready to crash at 8 every night as soon as the kids are in bed.  Today I:
– journaled
– did a brief meditation (trying that again . . . to help with sleep perhaps?)
– did some podcast planning
– completed my time logs from yesterday 🙂
– organized my Dropbox files (it was a mess!)
– wrote this post
. . . and it is now 5:42 AM.  I’ve also been getting more reading done — currently into Crossing to Safety which I am loving for my current mood – it’s a peaceful, lyrically-written novel so far and therefore an excellent fit for middle-of-the-night reading jags. 
Things I need to do at some point before baby arrives:
– buy bassinet
– buy breastfeeding pillow (no longer have the My Brest Friend I used with A&C!)
– get pump shipped (rented through my insurance; I’m going with the Symphony again) – I like to have this right away after delivery so I can start hoarding building my stash as soon as possible
– make sure to link work in-basket with NP who will be covering
– wash/weed out newborn-sized baby clothes (my old dear friend just shipped back a box of Annabel’s stuff I had sent her years ago!)
We have installed the car seat already (!) as Josh wanted to confirm we could REALLY fit 3 carseats in the back of the Prius (YES, this can be done! 2 Diono Radians and 1 Chicco KeyFit 30) and have also closed on our new big-family car (went with a Highlander Hybrid as we had planned!) — so we will have that by next week.  
I have also thrown some newborn diapers into my amazon subscribe & save haul for the month.  
What am I missing?  heh.  I am going for minimal buying-ahead this time!  Also, I am not doing anything about creating any sort of ‘nursery’ (which is going to involve moving A+C together) until maternity leave.  I’ll have more time then plus the baby will be in our room for quite some time anyway.  

6 Comments

  • Reply Ana March 10, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    I’m so sorry about the insomnia, but glad you can make it for it by an early bedtime. I liked that book. The language is soothing. I read another one by him that I didn’t like as much…something about traveling out west and digging mines.

  • Reply Colleen March 10, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    Long time reader (now listener), infrequent commenter. I’ve followed along with your previous BF / pumping saga and have a similar story myself. I used the Medela PISA for my first and then with my second I tried the symphony, the ameda hospital grade, and the "new" Spectra. I LOVED the spectra and can’t encourage you to try it enough (had I not loaned mine out, I’d ship it to you!!). My second ended up in the NICU and the LC there said she recommends it to everyone there over hospital grade pumps. It was this amazing "vibration" vs. just the "bad cow" pulling from other pumps. It’s relatively inexpensive (compared to the Medela products) so I’d encourage you to check it out or at least read the amazon reviews. It’s AMAZING!!

    Here the amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Spectra-Baby-USA-Rechargea

    And i suffered from the same preggo insomnia with both my kiddos. I embraced it as a chance to nest / get things done! Hopefully you can too!

  • Reply Irene March 10, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    Please report back on how you like the spectra! I am 10 weeks behind you and I hate hate hate pumping (not totally sure I’m even going to do it this time…) I was always a crazy slow pumper and any thing to speed up the process would help.

    Thankfully no major insomnia yet but it may still be coming…it was bad near the end of my first pregnancy. I hope you get some sleep soon!

  • Reply Cheryl March 10, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    Thanks for including the part about fitting 3 car seats into a Prius! We are also a Prius-driving family, hoping to have a third kid at some point, but I had always assumed we”d have to get a different car to fit 3 car seats in the back seat. I”m so stoked to learn otherwise! Does the year and model make a difference, I wonder? Ours is a 2012. I can”t wait to tell my husband about this!!

    • Reply theSHUbox March 10, 2019 at 7:08 pm

      Mine is 2011! I”ll take a pic 🙂 it works with two Diono Radian XRTs and one Chico keyfit 30 infant seat. Not sure but think maybe even 3 Dionos would fit. They are super narrow but kids are fine in them!

  • Reply CardioGod.com March 10, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    While reading your experience, I recollected in my mind mine

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