Back Ache

My big belly is making it so hard to get enough sleep. I've tried all manner of pillow placement (between my knees, under my belly, etc.) but nothing works for long.

In high school I had to go to physical therapy because I was having back pain every morning. After hours of strengthening my stomach muscles, the therapist suggested that the problem was that my back just didn't like "remaining static" for 8 hours. Or that my bed was the problem. A pillow between my legs worked for a while. The mattress I was sleeping on at the time was my grandparents' OLD (and I mean OLD--from, like, the 1950s) and saggy. Knowing my dad's back acts up on soft beds I started sleeping on the floor because my parents wouldn't buy me a new mattress. After many, many months I FINALLY managed to convince my mom to let me get a new mattress. Ta da! My back was much happier...then I moved to college and had to sleep on nasty plastic soft mattresses again.

This time I know it is my belly. I completely wake up every time I want to roll over since it takes so much effort to do so (which is often since I'm a trasher). And I have to haul whatever pillow I'm using along with me.

Two-to-three times every night I have to pee, too, so I have to haul my big self off the bed (our bed is pretty high off the ground so it isn't easy). My back was bothering me so much when I got up for my regular 4:30am bathroom break that I seriously considered just getting up and doing something. I thought "is it crazy to mop the kitchen floor at 4:30am?" I decided it was.

The dogs have figured out this "Mama doesn't sleep well" pattern and they come up to my face for snuggles a lot when I roll over. Well, Ruby does. Potatoes sleeps right next to me, under the covers like a human, with his own head on a pillow. So he pretty much gets snuggled all night anyway. I swear, my dogs are not spoiled! =)

Potatoes will start crying/whining for breakfast as soon as it is light outside. Normally I get up with the light anyway (so I end up sleeping a lot more in the winter), but these days I'm so tired from crappy nighttime sleeping that I try really hard to ignore him and go back to sleep. I force myself to stay in bed until he stops whining because I don't want him to think that he can just whine and then get breakfast. =)