Backaches and Sleeping Issues in Pregnancy! HELP ME SLEEP!

Good morning, C.! Congrats on becoming a Mommy; its the greatest thing you'll ever do!! We have a 3 y/o daughter and a 9 month old son.

When I was pregnant, sleeping on my side with a king-size or body pillow between my knees and with my arms wrapped around it was very comfy for me. With my son, I also got regular prenatal massages and eventually ended up in the chiropractor's office. My back pain was much greater the second time around! BUT, the baby was bigger!!

Best wishes to you!

I had that issue too when i was pregnant. Ive slept with a pilliow in between my legs since i was 5 and that really didnt help me but what i did find to help was a sound machine on the stream sound. Hope that helps

A good maternity pillow does wonders! Amazon.com has a bunch, and Babies R Us has a few to choose from. I had this pillow with my first pregnancy and absolutely LOVED it, I can't recommend it enough! It provides great support for your belly after it gets bigger and awesome back support. http://www.amazon.com/Leachco-Back-Belly-Contoured-Pillow...

A friend of mine has this pillow and she loved it too: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Da...

You might also want to consider going to a chiropractor to help with the pain, they can also help prepare your body for labor. Just make sure they know you're pregnant, and it's always good to go to one that works with pregnant women frequently.

Other than that, and what you're already doing, these are just some of the normal aches and pains of pregnancy. Unfortunately, they stay with you until delivery.

I am a physical therapist who works with pregnant women often. The suggestion of pillows between your knees that the other women gave you is a great one. THis helps keep your pelvis level and takes strain off of your hips and back. I have included a link to my website that has some pictures of potentially comfortable positioning for you. http://www.legacytherapystl.com/ll_pregPositions.html

You've probably already heard this, but I got one of those cheap body pillows from Walmart and would put it between my knees and snuggle up to it. It would keep my pelvis/low back from hurting throughout the night (although it's hard to sleep when you want to flip over to your other side during the night).

Good luck & congratulations on your pregnancy!

I have to agree with the pillow between the legs. I have had to do that with two out of my three and it makes a world of a difference. I did not use a body pillow however. I got one of those travel size pillows and used that instead. It was easier when trying to turn over. If the pillow doesn't help after a couple of days, you might ask your doctor if they recommend a chiropractor that is trained to work on pregnant women.

Good Morning C., Congratulations!! So happy and excited for you.
Do you have extra pillows? like a body pillow? Place it between your knees if you lay on your side. Under them if you lay on your back. I am a side sleeper and always have a pillow between my knees, and its been a Very long time since I had our boys. The youngest will be 32 on Monday the 5th. WOW!
Even though you are only 3 mon along, your little one could be already laying on a nerve. Have that Wonderful hubby of yours massage your back, even if it doesn't help sure Feels Great!!!! :)) And the further along you get the more it helps to relax you. Plus the body pillow for your knees and tummy.

God Bless you and Congratulations again.
K. Nana of 5

I was an older Mommy with my 3rd child. I loved the bed pillow between my legs. I kind of made a "C" shape with it to help when the boobies start hurting also. Since DH works nights, it was nice to have something to snuggle with! Drink lots of water to help keep your body hydrated. Give yourself some relax time before going to bed. I have seen several pregnant women at my chiropractor's office also.
Good luck

Call around to different chiropractors in your area and ask if they specialize in pregnant women. It will change your life! My chiropractor gave me my life back, Unfortunatly I met him too late. I decided not to have any more babies b/c of all the complications but he got rid of them all and I could have had more if I had known what a chiropractor could do for me during pregancies. I went to 5 or 6 doctors who said to "live with it." It will make delivery better as well! Congratulations on your baby!

You've already gotten a lot of suggestions about using pillows, and I second that motion! I used a body pillow from Walmart and it worked great! Another great thing they have these days are belly bands. You can get them at Motherhood (only place I know to get them right now)...they look like a tube top (tight, stretchy material), but it goes around your belly, to help support it, and relieves lower back pain, as well. They worked great for me in the first trimester, but the further along and bigger I got, not so much...but that's mostly cuz I was overweight to begin with. But I've had friends who used them their entire pregnancy and swear by them. Also, as mentioned already, too...near the end of my pregnancy, I got a prenatal massage and I felt like a new woman coming out of that office! I'd had a LOT of water weight gain and was just swollen and miserable all the way around...but that massage was the best thing I ever did for me during my pregnancy! And yes, make sure they know you're preggy before you make the appt and make sure they do them regularly, because they can trigger pressure points that shouldn't be triggered, unless you are over due! Hope that helps! Good luck!

I also had to sleep with a pillow between my legs and hugging another. I didn't like the body pillows, just two pillows for me. I would lay on either side, one pillow between my legs (that really helps with pelvic pressure), and hugging the other pillow

I had the same issues when I was pregnant starting early on, like you. I believe the pain was due to hormonal changes & due to our joints become "relaxed" & moving which kinda makes us pliable, which is great for child birth, but not if your joints/bones keeping moving around & causing pain to us mamas!! My back hurt & my pelvic area hurt, especially when sleeping on one side. I tried repositioning different ways, used a C pillow, put a pillow between my knees, and nothing seemed to help. I finally had to use my C pillow & coil it up (like a snake) against my headboard & sleep elevated! This was the only way I got relief! I also wish I would have gone to a chiropractor as I STILL have pelvic pain (my son is now 16 months old) off & on. I had never been to one & was too scared to try, but now I would definitely go. I did a couple of massages, too, which didn't really seem to help, but they felt good getting done! Try different positions & if all else fails, try sleeping elevated. I had to adjust to this, but at least I wasn't in pain & waking up hardly being able to move!

Well a couple of things...definitely keep up with the heating pad but I would also recommend a really good body pillow. I put it between my legs and just under my belly and snuggled with it as much as possible and that really seemed to work for me. If you don't do the body pillow at least use SOME kind of pillow between your legs when your sleeping on your side, it will help relieve some of the pressure off your lower back.

As for sleeping on your back, the only way to eliminate the pain there is to elevate your legs. This becomes really tricky when your pregnant because once your legs are elevated and the pressure is off you feel fantastic BUT you have a REALLY hard time getting out of that position without help...especially once you develop a belly.

The final thing that I would highly recommend to you is to find a good massage therapist in your area that specializes in massages for pregnant women. The massage is different from a traditional massage in that you are never on your stomach and the therapist REALLY must know what they are doing because there are pressure points that if they hit them, can actually induce labor (which is handy if you are in the 9th month and ready to go but baby isn't...we did this for my first born)... I found that when I did the massages when I was pregnant I walked in feeling horrid and walked out a completely new person with absolutely NO PAIN and a ton of adrenaline. Worth every cent you pay for it.

Another trick that was shown to me by a maternity ward nurse was a pressure relieving technique...sometimes the baby just sits funny on your bone and it will cause back pain. Stradle a chair (the wrong way) and get hubby to come behind you and use both hands and a gentle pressing upward from the buttocks up the lower back. It's an awkward position for him and he'll get tired of it, but it does a) get baby to move and b) take some of the pressure off the lower back.

And if you have trouble sleeping, you can take a Unisom at night. I found those helped too in just getting me tired enough to actually sleep all the way through the night. Congratulations and hope some of this helped.

I would ask to have the doctor do a simple urine test and make sure that your low back and pelvic pain are not from a bladder infection (UTI)?

Try sleeping with a good sized pillow between your legs, or knees, and one in the crook of your back.

RestEZ will work and it's all natural so you can take while pregnant...I of course, recommend that you always confirm with your doctor, but it does work wonders. I have 6 children so i've tried everything! Good luck to you!

The thing that helped me the most is very simple. I slept with a firm pillow between my knees. I think it releaves the pressure on you back and hips. I haven't gotten there yet this time but I feel your pain.

Women hold a lot of tension in their hips and pelvis. The added strain of pregnancy (and the early posture buster of sticking out the bump) doesn't help the matter. Consider some stretching exercised, like in the "what to expect" books. Something like a cat-back strech, where you get down all hands and kness and then pull the abdomen into the pelvis while curling chin into chest,could nicely stretch those tired lower back muscles and feel great. Oddly enough kegel exercises and simply holding in your abdominals DONT DO CRUNCHES OR SIT UPS!!! can also help keep tone and take stress off lower back. Added bonus if you find those kegel muscles, pushing in the delivery room will be a piece of cake.

I would also recommend seeing a chiropractor. I think that keeping my bdy in balance was the key to my great pregnancy.

Pillows, lots of pillows. Different sizes if need be. In some of my pregnancies I had just about every pillow I could find.

a body pillow and visits to the chiro helped me with my backaches :)