Friday 1 November 2013

Feeling tired?

I know it seems a little odd to dedicate an entire blog post to feeling 'tired' but honestly, I need to talk about it. 

The exhaustion I suffered for around 9 weeks of my pregnancy can only be compared to extreme jet lag. I was lucky enough to be taken by The (new at that point) Hubs to Hawaii for our honeymoon. On the way home, we had a nights stopover in Las Vegas (a combination of convenience and nostalgia as it's where we got engaged). After 3 weeks of relaxation and pampering, we faced a night flight, followed by a night in Vegas, followed by a night flight... 

Don't get me wrong, it was and I imagine will always be the greatest holiday of my life, but the tiredness I felt upon arriving home was extreme... 

Little did I know but at that point Baby J was firmly planted in my belly, and I was about to experience that 'one off' feeling of exhaustion on daily basis for many many days...

The Hubs always says that I exaggerate, and I do. I often think a story is aided by a little 'poetic licence'... but in this case, I am not exaggerating at all. I was dizzy, nauseous, moody and emotional and couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

It started when I was around 12/13 weeks pregnant. Every afternoon after lunch I would start to feel a lull. You know that feeling of sleepiness you feel after a big meal? A really big meal? One where you feel like lying down is really the  only option? That's sort of how it felt (I imagine it was aided by my growing appetite and increasing meal portions) although perhaps a little more extreme.

As the days went by, it got worse and worse... I remember one particular day when we ventured to the new house (pre-move in) to meet the electrician and decorator (it's an old house so we're having a bit of work down) 

After an hour or so I had to park my bottom firmly on the stairs (there were no chairs in the house at this point) as I was starting to feel dizzy. The day was Sunday, I had technically been 'awake' all day, but had not done very much...  At the house, I had literally spent an hour walking around discussing light fittings, paint types and plug sockets I was done in. Literally done in.


Embarrassingly, our decorator (she's lovely) was actually worried about me... She got me some water and asked in a very concerned voice if I was ok? I of course knew nothing was wrong just that it was tiredness...  when I coyly told her, she totally understood as her daughter had just given birth at the time and had suffered a similar symptom early no in her pregnancy. 

As you should know by now, I like to research and love a bit of fact finding. From what I read, tiredness is common in pregnancy but I didn't read anything really explaining how bad it could be.

The other problem I encountered was restless nights, that feeling of desperation when you get into bed and lye there all night, wide awake watching the hours pass by. I've always been a bad sleeper, I used to take herbal sleep remedies but since falling pregnancy obviously can't... I did double and triple check this!

If you're suffering like this, this is my advice:

 - Try if possible to fully empty your bladder before getting into bed
- Take a hot bath (but not too hot, remember you should never make the bath water too hot when pregnant)
- Massage mosituriser into your body all over (it really helped relax me)
 - Turn the TV off at least an hour before bed

In terms of fatigue during the day, I have little to offer in terms of advice as I found that nothing really worked... Remember that your body is working so hard at this stage in your pregnancy that it's really not surprising that you're feeling tired! 

Someone told me at this point that a pregnant woman burns more energy sat on the couch than a man does body building in the gym (I have no idea if this is true but it's a fact I quite enjoyed, and told many people!)


Try your best to stay hydrated and grin and bear it. I am now over the hump and am starting to feel fabulous. Whilst the feeling of exhaustion did last for a good while, it did pass so please try and remember that! 

Now that it's over I sleep like a baby (I still do all the things listed above), especially now that I'm finally off the camp bed! (the joys of moving whilst pregnant...)

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