Month 6: Fatigue fighters

Yeah, yeah, we’re supposed to live off raw veg and do Pilates to be super-energetic during that gruelling last lap of pregnancy. Meanwhile all we’re craving is doughnuts and sleep marathons. Here are eight (and a half) easy(ish), offbeat(ish) ways to keep your energy levels up.

Boy, can those final weeks of pregnancy drag. You’re exhausted, heavy and uncomfortable, but you struggle to sleep – the cruel irony! – because of the aches and pains in your pelvis, the 12 trips to the loo you need to make every night, and a baby acrobat who chooses 3am to bounce around in your womb. What to do?

1 POP A PILL

What? You’re hardly allowed a Panado, so which “mother’s little helper” are we talking about here? Iron tablets, actually. Pregnant women are often irondeficient (your doctor can do a skin-prick test to find out), and anaemia is a great culprit for fatigue. This is why dark-green veg, red meat, oily fish, eggs and beans are important in your diet too, but pair them with something like orange juice, because vitamin C helps your body absorb iron. The tannins in your coffee and tea, on the other hand, actually restrict iron absorption... So your percolated beverage might actually be making you anything but perky.

2 SLEEP ON THE JOB

At lunchtime, sneak into the car park and get horizontal on the back seat for the most fun you’ve had since high school... a nap! Seriously, even a very short snooze can pick you up and help you through the looming afternoon. That’s what Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher believed, and we’re not about to disagree with her. If you’re home with older kids, stick on Barney and close your eyes. Your toddler doesn’t need you to empathise your way through every episode, and anyway, he’ll prefer the happier, friendlier version of you once you’ve had a bit of shut-eye.

3 DON’T POO-PAH THE POO

It’s true what that lady with the steely smile on the TV hints at when she sells her cereal: a regular daily bowel movement makes you feel less sluggish. The problem is, pregnancy makes lots of us constipated (and as if that weren’t enough, gives us piles!) Très glamorous. Try a low-GI, highfibre breakfast (all the brown and whole wheat breads and cereals, basically) for sustained energy release. The fibre will help combat constipation. Then have the doughnut at tea time if you must (just for the top-up short, sharp rush of the sugar high, you understand). If your doctor approves, you can even sprinkle soluble fibre powder on it...

4 EXERCISE MORE (YAWN!)

Your feet look like ticks, they're so swollen. The last – the very last – thing you feel like doing is taking them for a brisk, preppy-pregnancy walk. But of course, getting the blood circulating up to your head instead of pooling in your feet is exactly what will make you feel less tired. You know all this, but jeez, you struggle to convince yourself to get to the gym when you’re not pregnant. Do what you have to do: bribe yourself with chocolate, watch TV while on your exercise bike or stick that dusty old pregnancy yoga DVD in the machine. Just. Get. Moving. (By the way, even that yawn will start swishing the blood around your head and wake you up. In fact, yawns are nature’s way of telling you to move. They’re like exercise for your face. So start there.)

5 DOWN YOUR DRINK

Yes, it’s important to keep well hydrated, and it also makes you feel less tired! But if you’re up all the time at night weeing, it can be tempting to avoid your two litres of water. So trick your body by drinking your allotted quota all up earlier in the day instead. Stop having liquids a couple of hours before bedtime; you might just find you have a less interrupted night.

6 NEST, NEST, NEST

Your nesting instinct will kick in during this trimester. Use it wisely. The urge to vacuum the house will be completely overwhelming, and it’s excellent exercise, so don’t fight it!

7 NOW FEATHER YOUR NEST

When you’re feeling fat and ugly and are missing your normal wardrobe, you can get into a negative spiral of listlessness, overeating and inaction. Pick yourself up with a little pick-me-up. Shoes and accessories are great because they fit during pregnancy and beyond... And they’re expensive enough to feel like a proper treat. Hey, you’ve come this far in your pregnancy, you deserve it.

8 USE YOUR GREEN CARD

Pregnancy is your lifetime’s one chance to get out of poker night with hubby’s awful friends, in-law visits or fishing trips, guilt-free. Whenever there’s a social occasion you don’t feel like going to, don’t! Don’t even apologise. Sleep instead. Everyone will understand and even feel sorry for you. Me-time plus sympathy: perfect!

›› AND LASTLY... THE GRASS IS GREENER WHERE YOU ARE

Very soon now, you’re going to be able to kiss lazy afternoon naps and uninterrupted nights of sleep goodbye. Next time you’re feeling tired and grumpy, silently shudder about how your life is about to implode, then turn over, and pull the duvet a little closer. Very soon now! ●