Pillows, Pillows Everywhere

I've had insomnia in some form or other since a week before we learned we're pregnant. Then, I was waking up roasting, something I eventually remedied by pointing the heat vent away from me. Now, my hips hurt. They've hurt for several months, causing me to flip from side to side to relieve the pressure on the lower hip, every interval between flips getting progressively shorter.

Since the 20th week or so, the hip pain has taken on a new dimension. It starts a few seconds after I first lie down. A tingling begins in the upper hip. It's a very distracting tingling, but it disappears and, once I can shut off my mind, I eventually fall asleep. Several hours later, I wake up with pain in both my upper and lower hips. It's not excruciating, but it's enough to keep me from falling asleep again without a stretch of the upper leg and another shift of position. I so badly want to sleep on my back, but I can't. So I came up with a solution: pillows.

It took some experimentation, but I believe I have finally found a pillow combination that works for me (so far). I sleep with a fat bed pillow between my knees to keep my upper leg aligned with my hip. I shove another smaller pillow in my back so I can roll back just enough to relieve the pressure on my lower hip but not accidently end up flat on my back some time during the night. Voila! It works. I only woke up three time last night and twice the night before instead of the usual five or six!

I feel for my poor husband. Even with the strategically placed pillows, I continue to wake up during the night. Every time I do, I need to flip. Flipping was easy when it was just me. Now, I need to push down the covers, remove the fat pillow from between my legs, flip, replace it, move the small pillow now sitting in front of me to my back, and pull the covers back up. It's impossible to do this without waking that poor man. To top it off, I'm now spreading on to his half of the bed, and with every flip, stealing the covers.

How DH doesn't insist on one of us sleeping in the spare bed is beyond me. I'm thankful. I don't want to have a bed to myself. I can't fall asleep without him there.

Pregnancy, thus far, has been an adventure. The extent of the aches and pains and twinges and discomforts is something I didn't expect. I don't mind them in the least bit. They continue to be a reminder of how lucky we are. I'll tell you one thing, though: if it weren't for the infertility, I would not appreciate being pregnant. I'd be wishing for 40 weeks to hurry up and pass so I could get my body back to myself. Infertility has at least this one redeeming quality. Just this one.