Sleepless Night

We finally made it out of the house yesterday - a neighbor blew out our driveway just enough to get one vehicle out. Our street wasn't plowed yet when we ventured out (they came later in the afternoon) but we managed to get to the main road, and then hit up Tar.get and Who.le Fo.ods to get our usual weekend grocery shopping done. It was amazing to just get out of the house. I will cop to a major waddle at this point, after feeling rather smug at keeping the waddle under control for a while... now I pretty much have a baby head between my legs so there's no other way to circumambulate, really.

Later in the day Mr. I decided to go to his parents' house to borrow his stepdad's snowblower and finish up our driveway (my car was still barricaded in the garage by a huge snowdrift). Revealing how utterly stir crazy I had become, I asked to go with him so I could visit with the in-laws. I was truly starved for human interaction by that point. Anyway, it was fun because we exchanged our gifts while we were there.

My mother-in-law offered us each a cup of coffee - I believe it was around 3pm. At first I assumed it was decaf since that's what she's been making for us since I got pregnant. But when she poured out two cups from an already-brewed pot, I realized it was probably regular coffee. Since I hit second tri I've been having a small (6-8oz) cup every morning so I'm not that strict... but I haven't had more than that in a very long time. Probably not in over a year, except for a brief couple of weeks between pregnancies when I had whatever I wanted. But coffee sounded good and it was Christmas(ish) and I was punch drunk with getting out of the house, so what the hell, I had a second cup of coffee for the day - a pretty small one at that. What could it hurt?

Maybe you can see where I'm going with this. I could NOT sleep last night. We got in bed at the usual Sunday night time of 9 or 9:30 and I had the fidgets something awful. I tried to mentally run through my relaxation meditation and I couldn't go more than 3 seconds without being sidetracked into a totally random stream of consciousness. At least an hour went by in that manner, during which time Mr. I fell asleep, and then I realized I was totally caffeinated and WIDE AWAKE. I gently roused Mr. Ibis just to tell him that I was not having the baby, just getting up because I couldn't sleep, and I went downstairs. I learned long ago that trying to force myself to sleep does not work. So I got up and read a book on the couch until about 1am when I feel tired enough to catch some sleep.

I slept for about three hours and then Mr. I woke up to pee. This woke me up and once again I was wide awake. We both laid there pretending to sleep until the alarm went off at 5:30 and we got up to start our day. This time I skipped my morning coffee and I did manage to catch a nap on the couch, after Mr. I went to work, for about an hour and a half. It's not like I have much to do today but as I stayed up last night reading I was just worried that I could go into labor on zero sleep and not have the stamina to make it through drug free. Late last night I was feeling considerable pelvic pressure, which at this point feels good to me because it's exciting, but really hoping the baby could wait just one more day to make his exit.

Now a TMI ALERT - do not read further if you're easily squicked out, but I will say this is a pregnancy blog so if you're easily squicked out you're probably not still reading. I think I am gradually losing my mucus plug now... starting yesterday. I can tell this is not just ordinary pregnancy fluids (I hate the word discharge and refuse to use it) because for one thing, I haven't had any through the whole pregnancy, and for another, it is rather distinctive. We'll leave it at that.