Your Pregnancy: Week 28

Advice from Dr. Shari E. Brasner

What a difference a trimester makes. One week a pregnant woman can be feeling wonderful – filled with a sense of well-being and freed of both nausea and fatigue – and then the next week, the third trimester hits. Now the pregnancy begins to take a profound physical toll. The presence of extra weight tends to induce musculo-skeletal pain. The fatigue returns, too, often with a vengeance. It’s as though the second trimester were merely a reprieve, a furlough, and now it’s time to return to the serious work of creating another human life.”

Babble recommends Dr. Brasner’s pregnancy book, Advice from a Pregnant Obstetrician.

Mom-To-Mom Advice: What I’d Do To Sleep On My Stomach: The Discomforts of Late Pregnancy

Everyone is telling you to “Sleep now while you’ve got the chance!” but it takes you forever to get comfortable enough in bed to fall asleep, and once you finally do drift off, you’re up again to pee. By the time 4 a.m. comes around, you’ve given up all together and dragged yourself to the bathroom to wash away the stomach acid back-swill in your mouth. Sleep now! Grrrr.

Why is this happening? The best theory we’ve heard is that the miseries of late pregnancy are nature’s way of actually making you want to go into labor. The feeling of being sick of being pregnant can actually be a good motivation for the difficult work of giving birth. But a lot of the reasons for this discomfort are also signs that your body is preparing for labor. All kinds of small but important changes are going on to smooth the way. Perhaps your inability to sleep on a perfect diurnal (day vs. night) sleep schedule is a way to prepare you for the newborn period where sleep comes in smaller increments around the clock.

But if you’ve had enough of the explanations and just want to get some rest, here are some practical ideas that might help just a little bit:

• For the spinning thoughts: Try relaxation breathing and/or meditation work (taught in some childbirth ed classes or prenatal yoga) or a good, mind-focusing novel.
• For heartburn: Try papaya enzyme (at your local health food store), sleeping with your head propped up and frequent, small, non-greasy meals.
• For discomfort: Use lots of pillows in creative arrangements.
• For peeing every five seconds: Drink small amounts all day as opposed to huge gulps at a time (this is also good for heartburn).
• For aches and cramps: Try a prenatal massage and eat foods high in potassium, calcium and magnesium.
• For all of the above: Exercise (even just taking walks will help), get fresh air and take warm baths.

Babble recommends From the Hips, by Rebecca Odes and Ceridwen Morris.