The last 2 nights I woke up groaning in agony because of a serious dizzy spell attack and a feeling horribly nauseated. I thought of the worse. I thought my postural vertigo is back to haunt me from my 1^st trimester days. Believe me, it is the worst feeling on earth. The room spins before you and you feel like vomiting everything you had consumed.

I knew that this could be another one of those common things that pregnant women have to go through. I looked it up on babycentre.com and sure enough, there’s an answer for every symptom, pain, ache and condition that I’ve experienced  in the last 6 months of carrying Muffin. Apparently, what I have is called supine hypotensive syndrome: When we lie on our back, our heart rate increases, our blood pressure drops, and we feel anxious, lightheaded, and nauseated until we shift our position.

In fact, about 8 percent of pregnant women in their second and third trimesters develop such a condition. Gawd, I’m in the 8%!!!

So what’s happening is that when lying on my back, my growing uterus can slow the circulation in my legs by compressing the inferior vena cava (the large vein that returns blood from the lower half of the body to the heart) and the pelvic veins.

Lying flat on my back can make this problem worse!!! GAH!

So tonight, and for the nights to come until Muffin joins us on Earth I have to lie on my side instead of flat on my back. Apparently either side is better than my back, although the left side is best. And that I should place a pillow behind me or under my hip to help me stay on my side — or at least tilted enough to keep my uterus from compressing the vena cava. Sigh, I’m just hoping it won’t happen again!