Deprived!

I asked the Mrs recently and she confirmed that this last stretch of the pregnancy is the hardest for her. It definitely beats the earlier whole day sickness, throwing up as well as fatigue. If she was to decide whether or not to have more kids based on how she is feeling now, I am positive Baby will be a rather lonely child with no siblings.

The reason for this "torturous" time is her sleep deprivation. The Mrs has not had a good night rest for the last 3 weeks already and she had not laid flat on the bed whether facing up or to her sides for the same period of time too. She has been “sleeping” while sitting up at a 20 to 30 degree angle all this while and very rarely she gets to sleep for a few hours straight without feeling any pain or discomfort.

For most parts, she will switch from position to position which each supplying her with only about 10 – 15 minutes of relief. Before we know it the discomfort kicks in and she had to move the pillows around again. There are currently 4 regular pillows, a small kids pillow, a bolster, a sofa cushion and a body pillow on our bed. All of them are at her disposal to try and build that comfortable “nest” to sleep through the night. She will usually ultilise most of them except for this one occasion when she only needed 2 or 3 of them and she chucked all the remaining ones to me. Funny thing was she must have been so tired that she forgot she had rejected them the night before and she “accused” me of taking away all her pillows the next morning. I had to refresh her memory and told her I had a hard time keeping the pillows with me so that they will not disrupt her sleep and at the same time not dropped any of them on the floor for Ah No. (You see, Ah No sleeps under our bed and is ever ready to pounce on any excess pillows his Master and Mistress are kind enough to “share”)

On the few occasions that the Mrs can sleep for a few hours peacefully, she had to wake up in the middle of the night to empty her bladder. So with the combination of these discomforts and late night toilet visits, she is really having a hard time now.

The fact that she cannot take her maternity leave earlier due to shortage of staff does not help too. Last night was one of the extremely rare nights that she could sleep from about 1am straight to 6am before waking up for her toilet routine. By the time I wake up at 7 she was still sound asleep. I thought to myself if only she can continue sleeping but alas she had to wake up and go to work. While driving to work I told her that I am beginning to understand why there are some MTB who started their maternity leave 2 weeks before the EDD. They probably experienced the same problem but were lucky enough to exercise their maternity leave in order to gain some rest prior to giving birth.

Her lack of sleep got so bad that whenever she dozed off in the afternoon or at night, I had to be very careful and remove all phones from the room. I had to get up and really gently for fear of waking her up. When Ah No follows me out of the room which he usually does cause he is rather busybody, he will be kept outside in case he makes any noise with his wagging tail and wakes the Mrs up. I also learned that it is best to leave everything else such as lights and TV volume as they are since any sudden change will result in waking her.

Although I am not feeling the discomfort and pain, I am not having an easy time too. Most of it is down to me feeling helpless and guilty. Helpless because seeing the Mrs suffered so much and yet there is nothing I can do. I can only help her up and adjust the pillows around for her. The only other thing I can do is to try and stay up with her whenever she cannot sleep but this has also proven to be rather hard. As much as I would like to stay up and accompany her, I always end up falling asleep hence the guilt.

I know all these sleepless nights are taking a toll on the Mrs because I woke up in the middle of the night once only to find the Mrs sobbing away uncontrollably. This was largely due to the fact that she had not slept at all the night before and was having the same problem that night. She was so tired and sleepy but she just could not sleep. Seeing her like that really breaks my heart. I wish I can bear some of the “sufferings” for her.

Last night the Mrs was talking to Baby and she said that it may not be a bad idea for him / her to come out earlier. I think the Mrs does not want to consider having to hang on till the EDD which is at 9th January.

Well, if Dr N’s calculation is anything to go by then we may not have to wait that long for his prediction is Baby will be out before the end of the year. He told us to get ready for the 28th or 29th of this month and in case you're wondering he is not going away for the New Year.

I don’t know why but I keep thinking it will be Boxing Day but whether it's 26th, 28th or 29th, they are all next week!!!!

Speaking of Dr N, we went to see him last Wed and he sent the Mrs to do the CTG to check on Baby's heartbeat and I had recorded the sound from the machine and also the picture of the Mrs’s tummy which has grown by the way. She was gained about 2 Kg since I lasted posted pictures of her tummy.

We are due to see Dr N again this Wed, the 19th. Maybe he will have a better indication / prediction on the due date.