Restless Nights

Unless things change soon, I am going to blame my growing inability to get a good night's rest on my pregnancy. I have pretty much always, with the rare exception of when I cannot get my mind to slow down enough to allow me to fall asleep, been able to lie down and fall asleep in short order, up until this week. After being restless and taking awhile to fall asleep on Monday night, I have taken to staying up until I feel tired rather than turning in when I feel that it is "appropriate" to do so. The method of staying up until I am quite tired seems to help only minimally, however. Even though I have been having a problem falling asleep lately, once sleep and I meet, my slumber is wonderful, at least at this time. In addition to my finding that it is more difficult to fall asleep lately, I routinely wake up around 6:00 am, finding that a bathroom visit is necessary. Normally I do not have a problem falling back asleep after this waking, but this morning I never returned to sleep. Thus, I find myself running on approximately five hours of sleep. I am not feeling too tired today, but I know that I did not get enough sleep, and that it would not be best to run on five hours of sleep per night for the next three months. I have been using a body pillow in an attempt to make myself more comfortable at night, though I do not think comfort is the major issue here, as I am comfortable sleeping on either my stomach (despite its enlarged size) or my side. Any advice or insight from those who have ever dealt with sleeping problems (particularly pregnancy-induced sleeping problems) would be appreciated. My new plan of action is, if my body will accept it, to turn in early tonight, and hopefully my body will not wake until its usual 6:00 am-ish. I would not mind resetting my sleeping clock, particularly if that is what it takes for me to get a good night's rest. Additionally, I really like the early mornings, they may be my favorite time of day. With a baby on the way, this sleep schedule would probably be wise to adopt anyway. Any way you cut it, I am hoping to catch some better zzzz's in the near future.