Sleep

I haven't had a hard time sleeping during this pregnancy at all.  When I'm not pregnant I am a pretty good sleeper.  Sleeping in the back of the warm auditorium during physics class every day in my freshman year of college was my speciality.  How I got an A is still a mystery.

Pregnancy sleeping is a little different.  Different parts of my body need different kinds of support that was never needed before.  Solution: body pillow.  Oh body pillow, how I love you.  You support my arms, belly and knees all in one elongated shape.

My only problem with sleep recently is our lack of doors.  Lack of doors?!  Yes.  Apparently when you get new carpet over wood floors your doors don't close anymore!  Ha!  And that means cats can come in and cuddle with your face!  Stupid cats!

Hopefully our door problem will be solved this weekend and normal sleep patterns will resume.

Nesting

We are getting new carpets installed on Tuesday and our upstairs needs to be prepared for installation.  That means cleaning and reorganization.  I would say that Lucas and I aren't the tidiest of couples.  We're not really dirty, but we leave things around a lot.  Today, though, I'm feeling very into cleaning - vacuuming, reorganization, getting out the bleach and wiping down long neglected counters.  This must be that nesting thing everyone is always talking about.

Dreaming of labor

I dreamt of my labor last night.  And as dreams go, it was not accurate, but it felt so real.  I was outside for most of it.  The person helping me was a doctor I had never met.  And of course, as in most dreams, I didn't feel any pain (ha!).

I felt the baby moving, turning, descending.  I loved pushing.  And in the end I had a baby.  A baby.  I held that baby in my arms and I felt complete.

When I woke up this morning, the last wisps of the dream fading away, I was fully disappointed to find that there wasn't a baby to hold in my arms.  Not yet anyway.

Pregnancy progression

I visited a friend of mine who is in her second trimester and kind of hating pregnancy on Saturday night.  She said she had naive notions that pregnancy was supposed to be all glowy and wonderful.  Especially after the first trimester.  And she keeps waiting for that to kick in.

Despite my joking post earlier about how awful pregnancy is, I have to say mine has been pretty awesome.  No nausea in the first trimester.  Just fatigue.  Now I feel great, just with a bigger belly.  I move pretty easily, I have minor aches and pains, I sleep really well.  I get a kick out of the baby moving, which happens all the time, so I'm pretty happy most of the day.

I'm really excited for this baby to come.  We're finally redoing our floors in anticipation that it would be a lot more complicated to redo them with a newborn.  I don't feel like I've started nesting yet: we haven't rearranged the furniture to make our office into the kid's room.  I haven't really started collecting any clothes or anything.  I think I'll do more nesting after my baby shower in early March.

I passed all my tests with flying colors, I'm not a gestational diabetic.  And we're still enjoying the bradley class.  It's pretty great to practice relaxation every day.  There's nothing hard about that.

I anticipate things will get a little harder as the baby gets bigger, but for now, things are going really well.

Updates.

Last friday night I went to my first show since being pregnant.  I have unreasonable fears of deaf babies when I think about going to shows, as if the clothes, muscle, fat, and amniotic fluid that are between the baby and the music was not enough to protect his/her ears.  But I hadn't seen Lucas' band play since the summer and I really wanted to go.  The baby was moving like crazy when the music started and would stop moving between songs.  It was pretty wild!

Yesterday I was the pregnant model for some med students learning how to ultrasound.  I managed to make it through another ultrasound without finding out the sex!  Hooray!  And the ultrasound tech said the baby already has some hair, which was quite unexpected.  I thought for sure we'd have a bald baby despite Lucas coming out with a full head of hair.  We'll have to see what we get when the baby comes out!

Today I do my third trimester lab tests.  Part of that test is a glucose test to see if I'm at risk for gestational diabetes.  It means I have to drink a really syrupy-sugary drink.  Everyone says they hate the way it tastes but I don't think I'll mind it.  I guess we'll see!

Dear Cricket,

Last night was our first Bradley Birthing Class.  We squatted and kegeled, we talked about pain and laid on the floor.  I had a lot of fun doing the exercises with your dad.  We couldn't stop giggling.  Your dad said I was the class clown.  You were jumping all over the place during class.  I kept thinking someone would see my belly move.

Your movement has become my constant companion, a reminder that I'm growing a brand new life.  I had no problem being alone before you became a part of my days, but it's nice to never be without someone.  You're there first thing in the morning and your activity accompanies me to bed.

Cricket, I look so forward to meeting you.  I have such high hopes for what kind of little person you'll be.  I hope for more than that you're healthy. I hope you're interesting and interested in life, that you're productive and funny.  I hope you're smart and talented, that you find happiness, that you love life.  I promise to do my best to give you your best beginning.

I love you already, Cricket.

Love, mama.