the joys of the bump

it's 1:15am PT right now, and i'm sitting here with wet hair eating a bowl of honey bunches of oats and fresh cut strawberries (gotta love Cali's fresh fruit). it was a long day, and i fell asleep somewhere around 9:30pm. yet a small while ago, i found myself extremely uncomfortable and unable to sleep. one of those joys of pregnancy. so what did i do? i got up and had an extremely hot shower - and was oh so very tempted to soak in a hot bath, but my aversion to rental bathtubs and the germs therein (even though i scrub ours regularly) kept me 'at bay.' of course afterwards i was hungry - hence the bowl of one of America's favorite breakfast cereals. yummy... when you're in the mood for it.

i honestly feel like i've doubled in size within the past 7 to 10 days. is that possible? the above picture is of me just shy of 30 weeks and the ryderman... as proof. (if you haven't done so already, check out ryder's great facial expression up close. man, you've gotta love this kid!)

there are a lot of interesting things pregnancy brings out of me, besides the obvious of sleepless nights, body aches and pains and a growing abdomen. here are just a few.... for your information:

• a serious craving for oreo cookies. i never ate them before, but now.... wow, they're good.
• speed walking (like my mom and kathy would exhibit on whitegate when i was in junior high) is actually a worthy form of exercise.
• long mid afternoon naps receive the green light - when ryder is sleeping and when i should be working or doing dishes or something else productive.
• already existing sunday naps just grow in length, which is hard to believe when they were already at 3 hours. todd is so good to me.
• homemade dinner rarely (if ever) happens. i'm really bad at this as of late...
• another serious craving - this time for fresh, hard, cold, red seedless grapes. with ryder it was oranges, but this boy has me loving grapes. yummy.
• there was a period of time early in the nine months when i ate at least three english muffins a day. that craving has subsided but was very good while it lasted.
• i'm able to fall asleep soundly at night even when the dishes aren't done, clean laundry is thrown all over our couch, dinner dishes are still all over the table, and there are a pile of wet diapers by the front door. for those of you who know me well, this is huge.
• major 'nesting' - i know this is a somewhat common symptom of pregnancy, but i'll list it here none the less. for me, this feeling never goes away - no matter what i do. i always have an urge to clean out something or put something else in 'better' order.... as if the baby will even notice when he's born. but i guess i will.... and my mother and mother-in-law. (although, neither would really care about the state my household... they're great like that.)
• i hate brushing my teeth. please don't tell todd. i love the feeling of clean teeth, but the taste of any toothpaste makes me very nauseous. yuck!

i'm sure i'll think of some others as soon as i hit 'publish post,' but i guess you don't need to know everything about my life in pregnancy. overall, it's going well. we've got 10 weeks to go (only 8 if i take my doctor up on her offer to induce me at 38 wks... but that's unlikely.) i just hope the next 10 weeks don't entail too many 2am 'feedings.' i'll have plenty of those after the baby comes!

(ryder sharing in my bad habit... am i a great mom or what?)

("who me? what'd i do?")