It is 4:00am on a Tuesday morning. I am 3 days overdue & have given up the battle with sleep for what seems like the ump-teenth night in a row. As I sip on my lemon honey tea I reflect on the last few sleepless (not by choice) months. They say it is Mother Nature's way of training me for the many sleepless nights to come with baby. But how much training does one need, really?
It started with heartburn, which has been an ongoing battle for most of the pregnancy, but started waking me up every few hours as there became less room in my midsection for Wonder Baby & all my organs. OK so I get it, the science behind it along with the Great Mother's ways & came to accept it as it is. I became accustomed to the ways of fragmented sleep & daily afternoon naps & decided it wasn't so bad. Combine that with increasing frequented need to pee (which usually waited until I was up to take a tums anyway), but I quickly learned to fall back asleep in no time.
Then a few weeks ago I started experiencing aggravating pain in my left jaw due to a hypersensitive tooth. Convinced I would need a root canal but refusing to go to the dentist at this point in my pregnancy I decided to tough it out, frustrated. I was up every night for an hour or two walking around trying to settle it down (does this sound like something I might be repeating soon, as a new mother?) using heat or tea or TV to help calm the storm within. After a week or so, to my delight, the pain eventually stopped its nightly check ins & I was sleeping a bit more regularly again (note that the heartburn has not gone away but has become less frequent as the baby has moved down - the need to pee on the other hand has only become more frequent, of course).
Then my due date came. And it passed. The minute I was overdue (let's say that was 12:00 midnight for convenience sake) I rapidly developed the worst cold of the year. It hurt to breath, cough & talk. Mucus took over my airways making it impossible to lay down. Hello Mother. I was doomed yet for another night's sleep. That was 3 nights ago. I have been doing everything (safe) I can think of to fight off this cold so we can get on with this baby business. The next night I thought I did pretty good as I could breath through my nose & got a better sleep than I had in weeks & decided the worst was over. My body must have really needed a break so Mother Nature cut me some slack - for one night. Now here I am, the rest of the world fast asleep (if you are lucky) a snot machine, a snot factory, unable to find a vapor trail through my nasal passage. My lips are swollen & jaw is sore from breathing through my mouth. I am sure I am not the first in the history of conception to feel this way at this point, & I am usually not much to complain (well my husband could probably counter that argument - but that's a whole other point). However at 9+ months, basketball belly & lacking sleep, I have given myself full permission to complain. I suspect I will look back at this after all is said & done & wonder what the heck I had to complain about. But in the meantime thank you for listening...
On a more positive note, feeling this sick sure takes my mind off any desire to deliver a child right now. Could this be Nature's way of distracting me until Wonder Baby is ready to join the world? I suppose I should entrust & accept this fate, as the Great Mother herself probably knows a thing or 2 about the process of becoming a mother.
