Sleeping and laying

[Jessieb97]

Just wanting some advice really

I’m 14 weeks tomorrow

So I’m finding it hard to get comfy on my left side,

I am having a pillow behind me to try and stop me from laying on my back

I know not to sleep on my back or my right as it can do damage to baby and me

But is laying on my right or back the same?

So I wake up in middle of night and struggle to get comfy to go back to sleep

What do you all suggest

TIA x

[Wishingfortheday]

I found my left side less comfy too, but it's a good idea to try to get in practice now spending as much time as possible sleeping on your left. You needn't worry too much until after 20 weeks, as your bump begins to get heavier. The bigger your baby gets, the more pressure will rest on your arteries and organs. The left side is safest to be on, and so if you try to build up the time you rest on your left now, by the time your baby is getting heavy you'll hopefully be more used to it x

[LKT1]

Hi Jessieb97 below is the link to nhs sleeping advice. It actually says sleeping on the left is recommended in later stages of pregnancy so you should be fine for now. I’m 16 weeks and I sleep some of the night on my left side and some on my right as my hips get sore and I have to switch. I have interpreted the nhs advice that there is little evidence to say sleeping on your right is dangerous for the baby, you just naturally have better blood circulation if you sleep on your left. I wouldn’t panic if you fall asleep on your right for now but as you get to the later stages you may want to keep turning back to your left. I’m sure for now it would be worse for baby if your body is stressed out from lack of sleep. Have a read of the NHS link and it may put your mind at rest xx

nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-c...

[Lovefood1984]

I switched from left to right when I was pregnant, I don’t think it’s feasible to stay on one side all night and is more preferable to your back when baby is bigger. The advice is to sleep on your left but they have also said if you find yourself on your back it’s fine, just correct it when you wake and notice, it’s all about minimising the risk, you can’t be perfect all the time 😊 Hopefully this has put your mind a bit more at ease. You’ll find when baby is here you’ll be worrying about other things that you aren’t supposed to do but have to do sometimes (we had a baby with a milk allergy and as a consequence silent reflux......needless to say we were co-sleeping with her on my chest upright for a long time in the early days before we got her diagnosed and the silent reflux to sort itself out, it was the only way we got some ‘sleep’. Was I happy about it, nope! Did it need doing, yes! I’m happy to report she did eventually sleep in her own bed on her back 😀) x

[NewPharma in reply to Lovefood1984]

How did you get her to go into her own bed? I've got into a habit of sleeping upright with mine on my chest because he went through a stage of night time reflux. Now he's better with that but isn't keen on sleeping in his next to me cot at night!

[Lovefood1984 in reply to NewPharma]

I can’t say I did anything magical, I just couldn’t sleep like that any longer. She started to settle more in the day once the reflux was under control and I moved her onto her side with me in the bed for a week or two. One morning my husband got up and I was tired and wanted space so I moved away from her and stretched out and she slept on her back so I knew she could so from then on I put her in her next2me and it somehow worked 🤷‍♀️ Before that I even tried cuddling her in her next2me with no joy! Oh and I’d also bought a softer mattress (still sids compliant but not as hard as the one it comes with!) which I put on top of the normal one, got it off Amazon. I figured she might prefer the softer mattress that’s on our bed 🤔 maybe the stars aligned, I’m not too sure 😂 but boy was it good to stretch out and roll over at will! I hope you manage it too x

[Cjaythom]

Have you tried swapping side of bed? I did this and it felt a lot better! Don’t worry to much though you gave plenty of time. Keep practicing 😘

[Hidden]

I echo everything said/suggested above! Also, look at getting yourself a pregnancy pillow; it’ll really help. My other half referred to it as my nest 🥰

amazon.co.uk/QUEEN-ROSE-Pre...

[Baypony]

Sleeping on the side is recommended in 3rd trimester onwards. I am a flat on the back sleeper so it was really difficult for me to side sleep. I’m more comfortable on my right and my midwife said this is fine.

I also got a dream genii pillow which gives more support as you sort of sleep in it with support on both sides. I got one from ebay for £15 and it helps a lot.

[Annakarissa]

I too found it difficult to consistently sleep on my left side especially since I was a stomach sleeper. I bought myself a good pregnancy pillow that provided my back with support and allows me to hug it with my legs and feet. I felt supported during sleep and it prevented me from rolling over, sometimes I would wake up and be on my back or right side- at first I panicked But my doc told me not to worry so much that it’s all about precaution and to do the best I could.

35 weeks and beyond it was so hard to get comfortable that I slept some night on the couch with my back against the backrest. You are doing great mama!