tiggymalvern (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiggymalvern) wrote2022-02-16 08:43 pm
tiggymalvern) wrote2022-02-16 08:43 pm
The Body Pillow (or how Kuro learned to stop grumping and love the lump)
I've had a lot of issues with low back pain over the years, especially in bed. It's really annoying when you wake up at 6am and want to keep sleeping, but your back won't stop aching until you get out of bed and move around. I've had all kinds of different mattresses and pillows, and I decided to try out a body pillow. So I looked at reviews and bought this thing:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZ9WYDQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title
It's not as big as the picture makes it look - the model is short! I tried sleeping with it like in the picture, but it wasn't comfortable for my neck, it was far too thick. So I reversed it and put the U down at my feet, with an arm sticking up either side of me. That way, there's an arm to prop my top leg on, whichever side I sleep on.
It worked really well. I've been waiting a while to say anything, because there are good phases and bad phases with spines, but now it's been a month and I haven't had a back ache in bed. I am pleased!
The same could not initially be said for Kuro, who for fifteen years has been sleeping curled up in front of me, propped against me. He was APPALLED to find that his spot on the bed had been taken by this lumpy THING. He wowzled. He kneaded HARD, and failed to reshape it. For several nights, he came to bed with me, wowzled, grumped around, and then stalked off in a huff. Sometimes he would return later in the night, and wowzle and knead and grump some more before leaving again, all rejected and humpy.
And then a few nights after I turned the bed pillow upside down, he discovered the U at the bottom. Which, in being designed to fit a human head and neck, turns out also to be precisely cat shaped. He curls into it beautifully, with support on both sides of him, and this support doesn't even wriggle around in the night. It is FAR better than sleeping propped against a stupid human!
So now Kuro is happy. And I am mostly happy. I have a really good body pillow. As long as I arrange my feet around a sixteen year old cat.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZ9WYDQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title
It's not as big as the picture makes it look - the model is short! I tried sleeping with it like in the picture, but it wasn't comfortable for my neck, it was far too thick. So I reversed it and put the U down at my feet, with an arm sticking up either side of me. That way, there's an arm to prop my top leg on, whichever side I sleep on.
It worked really well. I've been waiting a while to say anything, because there are good phases and bad phases with spines, but now it's been a month and I haven't had a back ache in bed. I am pleased!
The same could not initially be said for Kuro, who for fifteen years has been sleeping curled up in front of me, propped against me. He was APPALLED to find that his spot on the bed had been taken by this lumpy THING. He wowzled. He kneaded HARD, and failed to reshape it. For several nights, he came to bed with me, wowzled, grumped around, and then stalked off in a huff. Sometimes he would return later in the night, and wowzle and knead and grump some more before leaving again, all rejected and humpy.
And then a few nights after I turned the bed pillow upside down, he discovered the U at the bottom. Which, in being designed to fit a human head and neck, turns out also to be precisely cat shaped. He curls into it beautifully, with support on both sides of him, and this support doesn't even wriggle around in the night. It is FAR better than sleeping propped against a stupid human!
So now Kuro is happy. And I am mostly happy. I have a really good body pillow. As long as I arrange my feet around a sixteen year old cat.