ZZZZZZs, please...

I have always been good at sleeping. Maybe too good. Put me in a comfy bed with no alarm clock and no one to bother me and I could sleep the night and next day away. I love sleep.

I knew that venturing into parenthood would change my life as I knew it. I also knew that adding a kid to the mix would mean no more sleep. However, I think that it is downright cruel that pregnant women have a hard time sleeping in their last trimester. This is our last chance to sleep and we've been robbed. Our husbands sleep soundly next to us oblivious to our predicament, which is even more maddening.

For several weeks I was getting up religiously at 3am and 5am to use the bathroom. This wasn't much of an issue because I'm used to getting up at least once anyway (always kind of have) and can basically sleep-walk myself through it. Well, I guess that hurdle wasn't challenging enough so for the last week I've been waking up every couple of hours. If it was just to pee, it wouldn't be an issue. Now it's a mixture of discomfort, insomnia, headache, hunger, thirst or just plain awake and don't know why.

Last night I was exhausted when we went to bed. Per normal routine, I got into bed around 10pm and despite how tired I was feeling I laid awake until almost 11pm. My first wake-up came about 12:15am. I wasn't awake too long. I just needed to use the bathroom and find a different position to sleep. Then at 1:30am I woke-up hungry, thirsty and uncomfortable. Hindsight as it is, I probably should have gotten up and found food and water. But no, I refuse to leave the comfort of my bed and digest anything besides water (which I forgot to bring up with me) because I don't want to eat something and have it "wake me up" and then leave me lying there trying to fall back asleep. So, I forced myself back to bed to awaken at 3am with the same scenario. This time I peed, tossed and turned to try and find comfort and eventually at 3:20am checked my emails and friends' Facebook statuses. Finally around 3:45am I feel asleep. I woke once more for a brief minute at 5am and again at 6:15am to find yet another sleeping position and told myself I must stay asleep until Shaun woke me at 7am.

The other thing I do well is shower. That sounds weird, I know. I'm not a coffee drinker. I LOVE the smell but cannot stand the after-taste. Yuck! So, I am someone that only functions after a shower. (unless it was during college when I was on the fire department and that high pierced tone would waken me from a dead sleep and shoot adrenaline through my body at high speeds). So, this morning I dragged myself out of bed and headed for the next glorious space of the morning. However, even my shower was almost ruined as the scalding water caused me to dance around the shower to avoid the torture I was putting myself through because I was so tired that I kept turning the knob the wrong direction. Once I got the temperature figured out, I was so content and happy that I FINALLY figured out how my best friend in elementary school mastered the art of falling asleep in the shower. I get it now. I did not fall asleep but I now see how this can happen.

So, now I'm here at the computer with my eyelids hurting to stay open while I make myself late for work. Maybe I can close my office door and take a nap under my desk or in my closet at some point if it makes getting through the day any easier.