Unemployment is a full time job. OKAY?!

(Talking to a friend):

"How was your day, what'd you do?"

"Oh, I worked, ran some errands, went to dinner and now I'm making tomorrow's lunch before I review a couple reports for my morning meeting. You?"

"I updated the font on my blog and found my doggie doppelgänger."

(Silence).

Ok, so I'm embellishing the conversation a bit. I didn't JUST find my doppelgänger - I uploaded it to facebook, too.

Kidding again. On the contrary, the life of the unemployed is indeed everything it's cracked up to be. I have the time to prepare things for the baby that I would have to rush through at the day's end to accomplish otherwise. My workouts are more consistent and energetic, and I have the flexibility to see friends and family more. Also, I now have the time to do the volunteer work I've long looked forward to . . . .

Hospice of Arizona is an organization near to my heart. I interned there during my masters program and fell in love with the work - counseling patients and their bereaved loved ones. My time with HOA filled a space in my heart set aside just for this type of work, and I'm excited to start providing volunteer services to them once again until it's time to have our little bundle. My hope is to spend 2-3 days per week at their Scottsdale "butterfly" inpatient unit and possibly be on their vent release team - a group of professionals and volunteers trained to provide support and service to HOA families during the moments before, during, and after a patient's vent is released.

In baby news  (you knew it wouldn't take long to get to the BABY NEWS), Josh and I have now completed three baby prep classes: breastfeeding, infant CPR, and now the first of a three-session "birthing basics" course. We've been provided with boatloads of information on do's and don'ts, rights and wrongs, the latest findings on infant safety, the very latestEST findings on infant safety that supersede the last batch of info, episiotomies, and SIDS. Each impending mother in attendance got a reassuring pat on the back by the instructor as she left the seminar, snuggly holding on to her husband (or, in my case, digging my nails into his flesh for "doing this to me").

BabyK's activity level may have reached an all-time high during class. Rocking and rolling from head to toe, I nudged Josh to get a load of our kid. We watched in continued amazement. My OB is having me count his kicks daily, and so far, he's surpassed all expectations in his "need to boogie". Which brings me to an interesting first for me on this Kaplan Journey. . .

For the past three months or so, I have only been sleeping on my sides, as tummy and back sleeping positions are no-no's for baby's safety. With the help of my pregnancy pillow-monster-thing, I tuck myself in on my left side and fall asleep, until an hour later I am awoken to the shooting pain running from my tailbone down to my calf. Gravity wins this showdown as the pain gets bad enough for me to flip over pillow-monster-thing and then do the same with myself (a 3 minute adventure in its own right), ending up on my other side to attempt another hour or so of slumber. Rinse and repeat. God help me when I also then need to get up to potty.

This has been a fairly consistent routine for me, and it's come to be expected. Except last night, when like clockwork I woke up from the pain and attempted to flip to my other side . . . and I couldn't. The baby WOULDN'T LET ME. However he was positioned, cozy and wrapped up in there, was too bulky and stiff, and completely interfered with my ability to roll the other way. So I'm lying on my back, not physically able to assume the desired position, and having no momentum to hoist myself back onto my left side. Oh I'm rocking, and I'm trying, but I'm stuck like beached marine life. Helplessly staring at the ceiling fan, it hit me: this is the first moment in my life where my baby is calling the shots. Right then, my world conformed ever so slightly to his dictation. "There's so much more where this came from" I thought to myself,  sighing and smiling sleepily.
Then I remembered that too much time on your back can constrict baby's circulation, and flung myself back onto my left side with superhero strength.