Insomnia

To say it's getting old would be an understatement. I guess it's not so much "insomnia" as it is "can't sleep because my feet feel funny." I've had this problem before. I don't remember having it quite so much with Mikayla, but I recall many sleepless nights with Aaric. Toward the end I pretty much gave up. I'd just stay up, playing around online all night. I have distinct memories of noticing sunlight peeking through the blinds and realizing that I should probably get a bit of sleep. Most "nights" I was heading to bed around 3-4 AM. Then, I had the additional problem of my bed not being comfortable anymore. For the last month of the pregnancy, maybe more, I slept on a blanket on the floor of the office. When I slept, I had a pillow under my head, a pillow under my protruding abdomen, a pillow between my knees, and at least one pillow elevating my feet. The multitude of pillows might also be what forced me out of the bed. There was more room on the floor than on a full-sized mattress. I also had awful heartburn, making me eat Tums all day every day.
This time, its not quite so bad. At least not yet. But I can see it quickly heading that direction. For one thing, insomnia is pretty much the norm in our family anyway. If you get online around midnight and had us all on your yahoo messenger, you'd most likely see at least one of three people online - me, my brother, or my mom. We just don't sleep well. I discovered last year that while caffinated drinks don't keep me awake, lots of sugar does. So, those bowls of chocolate ice cream with the fudge ripple with a large moat of hot fudge and caramel at 10 PM had to stop. I've been very careful about that during pregnancy. I've been eating less sugar all around, but especially in the evenings. I think its made a difference.
The big problem, like I said, is my feet. I don't get leg cramps. I sometimes have restless legs at night. But even if they aren't all twitchy, they feel funny. Not tingly, but maybe semi-tingly. Elevating them really isn't helping much, though I know its supposed to. It always seems like rubbing them will help, but it doesn't. I'd read that calcium would help, and my midwife had also recommended it for my hip issues as well, so I've been taking a calcium/magnesium pill every evening. Since that's not doing jack, I read some more, and found that in women, restless leg can also be due to an iron deficiency.
So is there anything I'm not deficient in these days? And if I ever get enough of those vitamins and minerals, will I be able to sleep at night?
Probably not. As demonstrated last night, I just don't sleep well when I'm pregnant with boys.
We got into bed early - around 9:30. Michael wanted to watch I ♥ Huckabee's, so he put that in the DVD player. (Notice here that I can no longer go to sleep without the TV on, and thats because if I can distract my brain from my feet, its easier to doze off) Then he fell asleep within about 10 minutes. I wasn't really into it, so I got up and flipped through the DVD selection and settled on Chocolat. To go to sleep, I like movies that I've seen enough times that I know the plot and don't feel the need to stay awake to see how it ends, and ones that have a simple plot so I don't have to follow along closely in order to catch everything. (Ready to laugh - I've seen Ocean's 11 probably 11 times and still have to follow it closely every time or I get confused.) The disc that Chocolat is on is a Johnny Depp collection disc from Iraq. A few minutes into Chocolat, I decided that I wasn't tired enough to fall asleep yet anyway, so I switched it to From Hell. After that was over, I went back to Chocolat. My feet were driving me insane. Halfway through, I decided I was hungry, so I got up and ate a bunch of ham. Then the DVD kept skipping because cheap DVD players bought in Iraq aren't great at marathons, so I finally turned it off and tried to sleep. I think I'd just barely dozed when Mikayla came to my bed. I finally talked her into returning to her bed, and then I was wide awake again. It was almost 2 AM. So I turned the DVD player back on and finished the movie. I STILL had a hard time going to sleep at 3.
Then Michael came in at 8, from PT, and had fallen and hurt his leg and needed me to get him an ice pack. (he told me the story but I was half asleep so I have no clue what happened).
So, maybe, after only getting 5 hours of sleep last night, I'll be able to get to sleep at a semi-normal hour tonight. But somehow, I doubt it.


I MUST end this on an unrelated note. My child just said one of the most horrendous things I think he could ever possibly say. Are you ready for this?
While flipping through all of the channels (none of which come in, now that Michael played with the antenna to keep them from turning on PBS all the time), he exclaimed, "OH!! I love this show! Leave it there! I LOVE Dr. Suess!!" Except that it wasn't Dr. Suess - it was Dr Phil.