Sleep Deprived

The photo on the left is a week overdue.  I took it last week on week 33...today, Friday the 13th, is week 34!

In June I wrote about my wife's difficulty sleeping.  At that time it was bad; she slept in 2 to 3 hour segments.  As her stomach expands, which it has been doing at a (circumference) rate of about 2.5 cm a week, her periods of sleep have diminished.  She rises hourly, normally, simply to roll over.  That sounds like a simple task, but it involves a great deal of activity.  She can't just turn and face the opposite direction; it's nearly impossible for her to swing that giant belly without experience extreme discomfort that she describes as a feeling of ripping or tearing.  She actually has to switch poles, meaning her head is at the foot of the bed and her feet are at the head of the bed (it was a terrible surprise the first time I kissed her good morning after a switch).  She's decided that I need more sleep so her intention is to perform this turn about maneuver on her own, without waking me (ha!).  The first step is flailing her arms and legs like a turtle trapped on it's back.  This must eventually work because somehow she ends up standing beside the bed.  In step two, each pillow (7 in total) is picked up, noisily fluffed, and then dropped back on the bed like an atomic bomb.  She then crawls back into bed, which I am assuming she does from a high diving board.  The final move is to place a roof on her pillow fort to keep her warm.  She does so by grasping our shared sheet and with a quick tug, like a magician removing a tablecloth from a fully set table, frees the sheet from any constraint (me) and allows it to fall gently across the top of her pillow world.

After several nights of sleeping in hourly fits, and days of zombie like existence we discussed options.  The discomfort is caused by sleeping on her side and her need to switch positions.  My wife is a back sleeper, so side sleeping already feels foreign to her.  A pregnant women is never supposed to sleep flat on her back.  Sleeping on her back can cause the full weight of her uterus (maybe 35 pounds now) to crush down on her spine, intestines, and some major blood vessels.  Pinching off the blood vessels can cause a disruption in blood flow, killing the mother or child.  If you have to sleep on your back, Doctors recommend sleeping on an incline greater than 40 degrees (or not greater than 140 degrees depending on how you are measuring the angle).  We came up with two solutions...more pillows that could be used to prop her upright at that appropriate angle, or an overstuffed, recliner chair.

We were told about a specially designed pillow that basically looks like an armchair missing the seat.  It has an overstuffed back support and arm rests.  We were able to find one at Home Outfitters at a cost of about $20.  The idea was to place this pillow on the bed and then build the rest of her fort around her.  We tested it out in the store on one of their bedroom displays, but found that it was forcing her to sit upright, rather than at an angle.  As well, the back support was to short to allow her to rest her head comfortably.

With the pillow failure, we spent the entire day yesterday looking at recliners.  The big problem with this solution is that we have no room in our very small house.  It's already packed up tight with baby goods and more pour in everyday.  Any recliner we purchased is going to have a home for about 2 months, and then it's going to the curb (1 month until the twins arrive and 1 month while my wife convalesces after her c-section).  For our use, the recliner could not actuate using the weight of the occupant.  Using stomach muscles now (any pushing and she's going to shoot one of the twins out), or after her c-section was out of the question.  For the same reason, we needed to be able to reset the chair (from reclined) to it's default shape using something other than body weight.  We found a suitable model at the Lazyboy store.  The chair was operated using a lever that was within easy reach while seated.  My wife found the chair comfortably stuffed and of the appropriate size to fit her.  For $500, the store manager was kind enough to sell us the floor model, rather than making us wait for the 4 week order to arrive.  $500 is a lot of money for something that will be sitting out by the curb in a couple of weeks, but without it all we had to look forward to is sleepless nights and groggy days.

We set up the recliner in the bedroom, jammed between the bed and the crib.  We added extra pillows, a blanket and a splash guard (in case her water breaks on the brand new chair) and said our good nights.  I actually got 2 hours of sleep before the first pillow bomb went off next to me on the bed.  Apparently, the twins don't like mommy sleeping on her back.  Upright time means play time...

Anyone looking for Lazyboy recliner?