Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Night Sweats

Woah. Woah. Woah.

No one ever told me I'd sweat like an Eskimo in Death Valley after my baby was born. I vaguely remember reading online that women lose water weight by sweating post partum. But I do not recall any book/website/unsolicited advisor telling me that I would sweat buckets while I slept at night.

I feel so gross! I'm fine during the day- even walking around outside in hot weather. But each time I wake up at night to feed Jacob, I find myself covered in a thick sticky layer of blubbery water weight sweat. My hair will be drenched. A pool of sweat would have collected between my massive Astroboobs- is that a flea doing the backstroke in my boob pool? When I sleep on my side the layers of clothing between my legs are sopping wet. In desperation, I used the edge of my bedsheet to try to wipe the warm, smelly sweat drops off my forehead. Hours later, that part of my sheet is still pretty damp.

This is seriously insane. It's HAS to be wrong for a human to sweat this much. This isn't a mild symptom to be casually included among a list of post partum discomforts...this is the kind of thing that deserves a whole page-worth of mentioning in a baby book.

I've been trying to beat the night sweats by sleeping in as little clothing as possible. The only outcome is that the sweat that would have drenched my clothing just pools all over my skin. Good thing Jacob doesn't care what his mommy smells like at 3:00am in the morning. I sure wouldn't want to suckle off a hot sweaty boob for my breakfast.



8 comments:

FSD said...

What an unpleasant experience! Can you even sleep under those conditions? Have you tried making your room cooler? That would annoy me because I hate being hot while I'm sleeping. I usually keep the thermostat set at 69 or 70 at night. My husband jokes around that he can see dead people in our room at night. LOL. I'm sorry you're experiencing this strange symptom. Something for me to look forward to....lovely. :- )

LEO said...

You (and other bloggers) are better than any baby book... who would have thought! Hopefully it doesn't last much longer, but I guess at least you know it's for a good cause (can you imagine how much more unpleasant it would be if you knew that you were sweating that much so your body could gain weight?)
Also, since I have already commented every time about how cute Jacob is, I thought I would change it up this time and say, in addition to that, that you (or your husband) are really great photographers. The shots you get are precious!

CM said...

Oh, is THAT what that was? And here I thought it was some weird side-effect of breastfeeding.

I used to sleep in a giant T-shirt to soak up the sweat, and I'd have 3 or 4 T-shirts next to the bed so that every time I woke up, I could pull a clean one on.

Andrea said...

Yeah, no one tells you all the disgusting stuff about pregnancy and postpartum. I often felt like I was running a fever, because one minute I'd be freezing and the next sweating like I was in a sauna. I thought it all had to do with breastfeeding too.

The other fun thing was my boobs randomly exploding in the middle of the night. I started out with so much production, I could have fed quadruplets. So, not only was I covered in sweat, but boob milk too.

Hang in there, you'll feel like a human being again soon!

Downsized Attorney said...

Well I've never been pregnant, but I sweat terribly at night as well. I can't imagine it being as bad as you describe though. Yet another thing for me to look forward to when I have children.

MJV said...

Ice water, ice water, ice water. I was like a camel when I was breastfeeding. Yeah, it makes you pee a lot, but it sure makes you feel better and lowers the sweating some!

kendallfelix said...

Goodness gracious girl, you are just like me! My son is 4 months old now and I am still using 4 beach towels layered on top of one another, flipping my pillows and running a high powered fan every night. I have to strip off all my clothes and change at least once. I thought this would stop after a month or so. I realize your post is old. Would you mind sharing when the sweats went away? My baby is EBF and I'm curious if that is affecting my estrogen/hormones and the whole super soaker bed phenomenon. It's kind of killing my bedroom mojo and I'd love to know when I can expect things to get back to normal.

Unknown said...

I'm curious, too! My little one just turned 1 today, is still breast feeding and I'm still sweating it up at night.