sleep (also the most whiny and boring post ever)

This past week I have had a really hard time getting a good night's sleep and it is really starting to feel like I will NEVER sleep a full night again for the rest of my life, forever and ever, AMEN.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is the peeing thing, but that is something that I did before I was pregnant and have learned to live with it. Next, the eating thing is quite annoying because that means I have to get up, go to the kitchen, open the fridge (do you have ANY IDEA how bright the refrigerator light is at 5 in the morning?) make a bowl of cereal, then I have to wait at least 20 minutes before I can lay down again or it's in my throat. Then I have to brush my teeth again because I can't even take a nap during the day if I haven't brushed my teeth. (just another little quirk I have) By the time I finish all of this, an hour has gone by and I'm WIDE AWAKE! I refuse to give in a stay up at 5 or even 6 in the morning because I know I am tired and will have a horrible day if I start it like that, so I finally drift back off around 7-7:30 and don't wake up again until 9 or later. And that's just too late because to walk Chewy then means there is very little shade left to walk in and it is already over 80 degrees out so it's just a miserable walk and I usually cut it short and we all know that I need to walk as much as possible (27 pounds gained so far!).

The last reason I don't sleep well (and this is what contributes the most to the waking up) is my hips and lower back hurting. All the books say that I should be sleeping on my left side and to put a pillow behind me (against by back/butt) and another pillow in front of me to cushion the belly but I still wake up all the time with a stabbing pain in my left hip and have to roll over. I used to be able to roll onto my back and sleep that way for a little while to alleviate the pressure but now it hurts to lay on my back so I have to roll to the other side and within an hour or two, I wake up with the pain in the right hip and have to roll back and start over again. This contributes to the peeing thing (if I'm awake, I might as well go pee and I have had such fear put into me about holding it in too long so even if I only have to kinda go, I go anyway) and then by the time I get back into bed I'm wide awake and am either starving or just can't go back to sleep and the thousands of things I have left to do to prepare for this baby start running through my head and then who can sleep when I have all the problems of the world to solve? UGH!

Soooooo.... (long story even longer) Last night I put a pillow between my knees and OMG! It really helped a lot(!!) and after waking up at 3 and going right back to sleep, I slept straight through until 7:00! And at this point, I can totally deal with that. I also did some yoga yesterday afternoon which I'm thinking may have contributed to being sleepier and maybe a little looser so I will try both the yoga today and the pillow tonight and hopefully this will help me to sleep better, at least until another thing pops up that keeps me from sleeping (like a screaming child).
Also, Chris is going to NY tonight until Monday so I will have the whole bed and all 859 pillows on our bed to myself so I can completely wrap myself in pillows! Whoo Hoo!!