Week 17: Sleepless Nights...Already?

So, here we are at 17 weeks--just 2 weeks and 3 days until our "Big" ultrasound. On Monday we had another Dr. appointment and were able to hear the heart beat and discuss some of our concerns about the delivery with the doctor. She is very optimistic that a VBAC will be possible and is totally on board with my decision to go med-free on this delivery. That alleviated many of my fears and makes me love her that much more. I'm excited and looking forward to planning for the new baby. The excitement is some what secondary at the recent developments of sleepless nights. I might be mistaken but I don't remember having this much trouble sleeping this early in the pregnancy with Michaela.

At any rate, I'm cranky. I haven't slept in 2 days. I mean I'm sure I dozed off and on throughout the night both nights but I haven't seriously slept in 2 full nights. Here's the low down. Wednesday night I was so stressed after the worst possible day ever at work that I couldn't eat dinner and couldn't sleep. Last night, however, was a whole different can of worms. Let me share...

The day started like any other--dreading the thought of leaving my dear child to head into the corporate world. But I sucked it up and went to work--a relatively uneventful day (thankfully) followed by a leisurely dinner with the in-laws. At 7 we headed home put our child to sleep and Alex and I spent some time vegging in front of the t.v. Shortly after 8, I dozed off only to be awoken less than 30 minutes later with the worst imaginable itching all over my body. No rash, no bug bites, and no relief from scratching. After more than 45 minutes of scratching to no avail I had to find some relief and headed to Walgreens. Oatmeal, Calamine, Benedryl (I checked with the pharmacist--it's ok). After driving through what smelled like rotting flesh and sour milk on my way back home and nearly vomiting in my car, I made it back relatively unscathed but still itchy.

In the door, the phone rang and apparently I am the worst friend and bridesmaid ever because I totally flaked on the rehearsal that I thought was tonight but was last night. After apologizing my butt off because I felt terrible I headed to an oatmeal bath to hopefully relieve the itching. No such luck. Two benedryl down and headed back to bed. Soon the itching subsided and I was able to drift off.

Then crazy stray cat on our balcony decides that she wants into our house so on the other side of the screen she bellows for attention. Our cats answer the call and are curious what she's doing out there and a little ticked off that she's so close to their territory. I scare her off, only for her to come back a few minutes later. Again I shoo her away. About an hour later it sounds like the whole wall is going to cave in when crazy stray throws herself into the screen either in an attempt to break through it or intimidate our cats. At any rate I was awake...AGAIN! A cat fight through a screen is an interesting phenomenon. Once again we scared her off and that was the last of her last night. But obviously parched from this encounter, my obese lap cat decides that she is thirsty and the best location to get water is from the glass on my bedside table. Now since she is obese she cannot fit on the bedside table so she stood on my pillow and head in an effort to get a drink--mind you from a glass that her fat head can't even fit into. She then proceeded to whip me in the face with her tale and spill the water all over the floor. Of course being the brilliant animal that she is she came back a short time later forgetting that the water was now gone, to retrieve more. By this time I was ready to throw in the towel and give up on any efforts at sleep but alas I dozed off once more--and then Alex's alarm went off. It was like fighting a losing battle.

To sum it all up. I'm super cranky today. Feeling exhausted had soggy donuts for breakfast and forgot my lunch. And the cat was back this morning!