I feel like I’ve come down with some weird, full-body illness. I can’t keep my eyes open, my whole body aches, my brain feels like it’s buffering, and my muscles turn to stone if I sit still for more than two minutes. Honestly, I don’t even know how I’ve managed to write this blog—it’s taken me a million years to get to this sentence. Brain not functioning.
The culprit? Sleep deprivation.
Before pregnancy, a strong cup of coffee could fix anything. Slept like garbage? No problem—coffee to the rescue. But now, pregnancy laughs in the face of caffeine. Even if I technically slept, but tossed and turned or woke up five times to pee, it feels like someone forced me to pull an all-nighter. My body knows. My soul knows. And sadly, coffee no longer saves me.
Don’t get me wrong—I’ve been mostly lucky in the sleep department. Sure, I get up five times a night to pee, but that became normal. The real issue is when I don’t sleep. That’s when the chaos hits. And not just tossing and turning like a normal person. I’m talking slow, achy, I-may-have-pulled-a-muscle rolling over. Weird (like, really weird) dreams that leave me feeling like I ran a marathon. And of course, waking up at 3:00 AM to overthink the most irrational thing possible. It’s a blast.
The worst part is caffeine barely helps, and we’re not supposed to have more than a cup anyway. So we drag ourselves through the day trying to be functional adults while feeling like puffy, hormonal zombies with the body temperature of a thousand suns. If you know, you know.
Sometimes I almost wish I’d had more sleepless nights before this, just so I’d be better prepared for the newborn phase. But honestly, there’s no preparing for this level of exhaustion. It’s a whole new world.
If you’re also lying awake at night, sweating through your pregnancy pillow, silently raging at your bladder or your brain—same, girl. Same. We’ll nap someday… maybe in 20 years.
In the meantime, here are some sleep tips I’ve shared before that might help you catch a few Z’s (or at least fake them): [Click Here].
Until then, do what you can. Rest when you can. Be kind to yourself. And remember—you’re doing amazing. Truly. I’m proud of you. You got this.
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