Week 11: Insomnia

Ever since my last pregnancy, the ability which I have known all my life -- to sleep through the night -- seem to have left me.

And then, it's the first year of having a baby, even when you want to sleep through the night, you are not able to.

Finally Jack-Jack started consistently sleeping through the night since he was 15 months old, in his own bed, which is roughly three to four months ago.  It really made a huge difference to our lives.  The pink complexion finally returned to our faces, we are able to have more or less a normal life, and the idea that "we can live through this again and have another child" seems less insane.  It is rather cute to hear his little thumping footsteps in the morning when he wakes up, climbing off his own bed and come in to our room for a morning cuddle when he wakes up, all smily and cheerful.  No longer do we hear the crying in the morning nor have to rush to him in the darkness of the night.  I guess those were also the brief moments I enjoyed a solid sound night's sleep.  Given that Jack-Jack can sleep about 10-11 hours at night, our early to bed routine also means we enjoyed at least 9 hours of beauty sleep a day, plus the bonus time to read a bit before bed.  As a result, I finished about 15 books in that month alone, finally able to enjoy my reading habits again!

And then, I got pregnant.

I have no idea why insomnia always accompanies me during my pregnancy.  On the good nights, I am only up for 30 mins to 1 hour around 2 - 3AM, on the bad nights (i.e. last night), I have been up since 2:30AM and at 7:30AM finally gave up the tossing and turning and decided to get up and just get on with my morning and catch my power nap later.   Sometimes it's the nausea, sometimes its getting up to pee, sometimes its a sudden thought of something on the to-do-list, sometimes its dreaming about what I can/cannot eat the following day.  Sometimes its my body's crazy broken thermostat -- I am radiating heat, yet the aircon just brings the chills to my bones, making no temperature a comfortable temperature to sleep in.

By now, the to-dos are largely done.  I already hired my confinement lady (and this time I was able to hire someone I really like, so hopefully it will be better than the last one around).  We just signed up a new helper who will be starting with us in late July after our old helper has left us to get married.  This took a really long time, and was something that was really bothering me for some time but is also finally done.  I am going to pay the deposit at the hospital after my next doctor's visit once its confirmed everything is okay after the basic genetic screening tests.  All seems to be in place and I should have no more worries yet I still cannot sleep.

Oh well, let's hope as the hormones settle, the insomnia will go away.  At the end of the day, I better build up a decent sleep surplus now getting ready for the sleep deficit that will soon come in 6 months time.

p.s.  The coconut water magic is gone again and I am in search of the next thing I can drink......