Insomnia

Good morning. I've been awake since 3 a.m. And here it is 6 a.m. with nary a sleepy bone in my body.

Over the past week or so, I've had the worst bout of insomnia. Everyone says it's because my body is gearing itself up to be woken up every two hours when the baby comes, but I think it's because I have too much on my mind. I mean hello?! The date is set for Tues, Sept 6 and all I can think about is "I hope I can make it that long. Come on body, don't fail me now!"

I haven't been able to shut my brain off. Which leads me to the following...

Things I won't miss about being pregnant:

• Waking up at 3 a.m.
• The bloatedness
• The man hands (see bloatedness)
• Stuffy nose that never seems to clear
• Aching hips
• Not being able to walk for long periods of time
• Feeling like one of those morbidly obese 1,000-lb people that have to be unglued from their couch
  
• Hearing that I look great, when I feel miserable

This week, Jon is staying home with me to help me out in my final week of pregnancy. And of course, I'm taking full advantage of it by having him haul me everywhere. Yesterday, we went to Hobby Lobby to get a few decorative touches for the nursery and afterward went over to Macy's to pick up some stuff for me. I way overdid it. Not only was it 106 degrees outside, I haven't walked that much since I can remember. As soon as we got home, I collapsed onto the couch and didn't move for three hours. I hate being debilitated.

So here I am at 6 a.m., thinking about how my life will change in so many ways this time next week. For one, I'll actually be able to walk again. And secondly, well, that part is obvious.

The girl who cried preeclampsia

Here's the thing about having a high-risk pregnancy -- you're constantly filled with anxiety. Even if there's no reason to feel anxious, it's always there eating away at the back of your brain. Your thoughts always drift to the worst-case scenario or to memories of what got you into this high-risk category to begin with.

So it is with me. I haven't been able to relax throughout this whole pregnancy, try as I might. Which means, I've more than filled my frequent visitor card at my doctor's office. Anytime anything feels a little off, I'm there. The front desk and nurses know me by name.

First, there was the whole collapsing at the office incident. Well, this past Friday, I had yet another scare. It was a particularly stressful morning. I offered to take Jordan to school since I had to meet up with a coworker anyway to discuss some final wrap-up plans. The morning involved Jon and I scrambling about, trying to get ourselves and Jordan ready for school. Which means, I didn't eat anything, similar to the morning I had with the most recent incident.

At Jordan's school, I completely forgot the front door code. I sat there for a good minute or two just blankly staring at the keypad. "I should know this; I do it everyday," I thought. And I freaked.

Why? Because that's how my seizure started last time. Total confusion.

I told myself to calm down, and fortunately, a lady let us in. I told myself to just hold it together long enough to get Jordan into his classroom. As I walked down the hall toward his room, the walls started closing in and I felt really lightheaded. Fortunately, I dropped him off without incident.

Afterward, I headed over to Starbucks, where I was set to meet my coworker, and immediately ordered something to eat. Once I got all settled, I called my doc, who had me come in at 11 a.m. Sure enough, my blood pressure was at 140/88. I'm sure it was because of the stress of the morning and what I now call "symptom stress," or rather, stress over things you perceive as symptoms.

All in all, everything turned out ok, and my doc ordered me to stay away from work. No problem there since I'm taking the following week off anyway. Still, I'm sure I'll find something else to worry about. I always do.

Nursery? Done.

I have to thank my lucky stars sometimes for giving me the best friends.

Remember how I said I had nothing ready for the nursery? Well, Krista heard the call, and as a last minute trip, decided to come to Houston to help us paint. And by us, really I mean Jon. Poor Jon has been stretched so thin lately, taking care of me, Rocco and the monkey. So when Krista offered, we more than jumped at the offer.

Ultimately, we picked a blue shade that honestly, I would've never have gone with on my own. That's what I love about Krista; she really helps expand your creativity. She has such a visual eye. That same day, Jon and a friend of our's went to pick up this awesome modern crib I found on Craigslist for $200. Not only did we save $300, but we didn't have to wait a tortuously long three to four weeks to have it delivered.

While Krista and my former coworker and friend Kristina painted away, I lounged around like Cleopatra. Ha! Afterward, Jon made everyone a steak dinner. It was the least we could do to say thanks.

In the end, it all came together rather nicely. I can't believe we finally got it all together. Thanks, no doubt, to the fantastic friends we're so lucky to have.

Owls and deadlines

At 34 weeks, you'd think I'd have everything set. Nursery in perfect order, clothes thoughtfully put away... But no. In fact, we just came up with a nursery theme this past weekend.

I got the inspiration from HGTV's website. We're going with a retro modern owl/bird theme, as seen here. Now, I have to be careful with this theme since it could verge on creepy, so I've made it my mission to try to find all things woodsy yet modern.

We finally bought a dresser last weekend, a modern two-toned white and wood dresser from Ikea. We plan on ordering the crib shown in the picture.

As usual, I've proven to be deadline-oriented. And as such, I've found my latest obsession, albeit a little late--putting the nursery together.

Bedrest

I've been meaning to write this entry for a while, but I've been so busy doing nothing!

That's right folks; I'm on bedrest. I knew this day would come, and quite frankly, I'm ok with it. I really did need a week off from work.

However, the circumstances around it were, once again in true Giselle fashion, a bit dramatic to say the least. Last Thursday, I was chatting with my coworkers at their cube and as I was walking back to my cube, the room started spinning and I started seeing dots. Great, I thought to myself, here we go. I quickly walked over to my friend Kristina's desk and asked her to call 911. Just as I was saying that, my knees buckled and I fell to the floor. Fortunately, I didn't quite pass out, but I was pretty damn close.

The EMTs came pretty quickly (and btw, they were not as hot as the first EMTs in Austin) and once the loaded me up and took my blood, informed me that my blood-sugar levels were at 58. A normal glucose reading is over 70. Moreover, my blood pressure was 168/110. (again, a normal reading is 120/90)

My doctor came over to the hospital right away and by that time, I had been stabilized and was fine. But, she knew what was going on. I was too busy to eat that morning, just like every morning, and the stress from the job was getting to me, particularly because of my work load and the fact that we have a writer leaving. "What you need is a week off of work. Bedrest. For a week. I want you to do fun stuff, not work," the doc ordered.

Great. Boss is gonna love that.

After the initial shock of, "Wait, I can't miss work!! We have a writer leaving at the end of the week!" I thought to myself, "You know what? Eff it. The job can suck it. This is so much more important. And it's not like lives are dependent on my stupid, lame-ass job." Besides, I hate that job.

So here I am. On "bedrest," which is a total misnomer. I'm not confined to bed, thank god, but instead was instructed not to do anything stressful, like groceries or, well, work. I've done a lot of laying around, which has helped tremendously, but I've also just taken the time to do things I wouldn't normally be able to do, like wash all the baby clothes and organize baby stuff.

Next week, I'll probably work from home just to get a paycheck. But if I find my blood pressure going up then the doc will most likely yank me off of work. And I'm ok with that.