My Hips Don't Lie... They Just Scream in Pain

Even though I'm just barely into the second trimester of my pregnancy, I've already felt a lot of the effects (read: sucky parts) that I hadn't anticipated until much later, including, but not limited to: relaxed joints and ligaments, which makes stairs a lot of fun; relaxed bowels, which allows my body to get more nutrients than it might have before since food sticks around longer, but which also leads to bad gas and constipation; poorer eyesight, caused by hormone levels making the level of fluids in my eyeballs fluctuate; swelling in certain joints, which means I basically have pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel in my wrists (which I'm told will go away soon after baby arrives - numb fingers are crossed!); and one of my favorites, an actual increased amount of blood (I have about a pint more than I used to) which allows for better circulation of nutrients to the baby, but also tends to make it very uncomfortable to stay in one position for any length of time.

This last one has become the bane of my existence in the last couple of weeks, because I'm so tired all the time, but I can't sleep well because my hips start to ache abominably after about half an hour or so of lying on one side or the other while trying to sleep at night. So I wake up in pain, turn over, fall asleep, and after an hour or so, wake up in pain again. I have tried putting pillows all around me to prop up various body parts in an attempt to alleviate pressure, but to no avail.

Finally, Aaron hit on a possible solution:

Remember Lovesacs?

If you don't, they're a product that came out on the market 8 or 10 years ago, and they're basically beanbags, but bigger and better. They're stuffed with shredded furniture foam instead of styrofoam 'beans,' so they're way more comfortable.

Sleep on a giant overstuffed pillow? This sounded like heaven to me, so Aaron started hunting, but the ones available on Craigslist were still beyond what we were willing to pay; people were trying to sell them for $300 to $600! But just when I had given up hope, Aaron came home from work one day and told me that his boss Vicky had one, a really big one, that she wanted to get rid of. We told her we'd buy it for $100, and she turned us down - she insisted we take it for free, saying she was just 'paying it forward,' and she was sure we'd do the same someday.

So we somehow managed to get our new "Ton-O-Lovesac" into our apartment, and I tried it out last night.

Yup. I was right.    .....Heaven. I haven't been able to sleep on anything else since.