Pregnancy Insomnia... one of the joys

And so it begins... again. Early on in pregnancy I had sleep troubles which was an adjustment for a bit. I've always been a heavy sleeper, though because of the jobs I had in college I've been very good at being woken up in the night and being tired and still functioning fine (this will serve me well in the future as a mom) And working at the birth center certainly keeps me nicely conditioned. But then I had a second trimester full of deep sleep (still waking up tired), not waking up to pee until morning etc. which I happily welcomed. It seems those days are over. I am back to waking up, and now the real treat is, I can't fall back asleep! This morning I made it until 5:00 which is great, and then I tried reading, relaxing, and other techniques to fall asleep for the next hour... but no luck. So here I am at 6:30 and doing something semi useful with my time. I got excited that I had hit an appropriate breakfast hour so I couldn't even relax in bed anymore, I was in the cereal cabinet in no time at all. Maybe this will be the start of a new productive time for me, we'll see! I'm thinking after I write a bit I may have time to clean the downstairs quickly before going up to get ready for work.

The rest of the long weekend was lovely up here. No snow fall, but the snow remains all around us, and the cold has felt very refreshing. The best part is, I've come out two days in a row and my car has been perfectly clear in no need of scraping. Perfect! Christmas was wonderful, and we had no babies on the day so everyone was able to enjoy Christmas. Christmas at the birth center would have been wonderful too and I'm always happy to be called in, but it was nice to follow the plan we were sort of hoping for. I woke up Christmas morning and Eric made me french toast (not part of the plan but instead a lovely surprise). I claimed I wanted one piece and one piece only, but that of course did not happen and I stuffed myself on the deliciousness. I chatted with Kate, chatted with Rach, and then we opened gifts at our house. Eric got me the most wonderful bag that I have been wanting for over a year. I found it on ebay last month and after my first ebay bidding experience-- more of a bidding battle, I won and bought the bag while Eric watched the scene I was making at the computer. I think he is hoping I won't become an ebay regular after that. I made the house fall quiet while I tried to outbid everyone in the last 6 seconds... I then proceeded to do a happy dance and I tracked that package every day thereafter. Finally now it is here, and I never thought I'd be so excited about a bag. Those of you that have seen me often for the past 3 and a half years know my wonderful tote bag that I have used. It was $12 and recycled and wonderfully perfect, but it now has holes from all of the love I (and my 13 pounds of crap I haul around) have given it over the years. So it is retired for the time being and I'm surprisingly excited to have something different. I was also surprised with a pair of brown leather keen boots that I saw at REI and loved. I have wanted some new boots for a very long time and I'm so excited to have them! Mom was happy when I showed her on skype, to see that they are flat... so hopefully no more slipping pregnant lady. Although I can't make any promises as far as that goes, because I do recall the woman in the REI shoe department telling me that those boots are slick even indoors... and she's not kidding. I put them on in the house and pranced about for a bit, and sure enough slid on the carpet and spilled Eric's coffee on the floor. In my opinion the coffee shouldn't have been there :) but I guess I'll be wearing yak tracks with these boots as well! We have carpet at work so I hope I don't slip there. I also got a set of 5lb weights so I can do some of my exercises at home, earrings, and David bought me something fabulous and useful. It's an ivory hat that has earflaps that are actually a scarf-- does that makes sense? The sides of the hat extend down far enough to go around your neck as a scarf. It's really neat and will be great for going out because sometimes I forget a scarf and then regret it when my nose starts to freeze off. Denny bought me some funky and very cozy gloves and earrings that I love, and I felt at home when opening the stocking mom sent me. I'm so excited to try all of the things that came in there! I threw laundry in the machine right away and tried out my new dryer balls :)

I surprised Eric with cross country skis, which he has been wanting so badly and he was able to take those for a long ride during the afternoon. I'm very happy he's so excited about them.

Last night we spent a few hours at one of the midwives' house, Barbara, with her husband, her daughter/my friend/coworker Claire and Claire's boyfriend Mike. We were fed the most delicious dinner of salad and cioppino (tomato based soup filled with seafood-- mmm!) We then had dessert and chatted for a long time and then decided Barb should feel which way our little baby is facing because he is no longer sitting breech (yay!) we could feel his little tush but it was hard to tell where his head was, so we are thinking he must have turned head down like a good boy, but we decided we'll take a little peek this morning on u/s at work.

As far as our little Henry goes, he seems to be doing very well! They are guessing he's about 2 pounds now, and I feel him every day though he seems to be a calm boy for now. I feel him rolling around bed time, and when I wake up, and if he is truly head down then I am feeling his hands tickle under my waist band every day. I haven't been getting the usual kicks under the waistband, but it feels like a tickling/squirm so we think he is doing that with his hands. He doesn't seem to love the band of my pants but there isn't much I can do about that. I'll probably continue to wear pants for the duration of this pregnancy :) Mostly I feel his tush push out and then some little kicks on my right side.

We are in the last week of the second trimester, next week we reach the home stretch! I'm anticipating many new changes and looking forward to them (minus the less fun ones but those are part of the process) I was happy today to look at my legs and see my ankles looking normal. I should just only look at my legs in the morning, 5 am is a great time for them as opposed to late afternoon when it looks like I have consumed my weight in salt that day.

Well, I have 15 minutes until my alarm goes off which is just enough time to do a quick sweep of the downstairs... it's amazing, I JUST deep cleaned this place. You would never know by looking 2 days later.

Happy Monday to all, let's hope the day goes quickly for everyone!