I woke Monday morning to the blaring of my husband's alarm. And by "my husband's" I mean, it sits less than 2 feet away from my head and I am responsible for turning it off and tapping/pushing/kicking him out of bed over the next 1-2 minutes. He got up rather easily at that time and left our room, taking the dog who was awake with him and closing the door behind him. Approximately 2 minutes later, I heard the skies open up and the rains deluge. I was drifting back to sleep when I realized that some of my father's construction equipment was outside in said deluge. And I didn't know if, in his sleep-filled state - my dear husband would remember this bit of info. So I got up. And I searched the house for my dearest love. I knew there was no way he could have gotten out the door and been far enough away from the house on his run to be delayed in returning in the 5 minutes it took for my brain to process this situation. Finally, I looked out back where the equipment was and heard a clanging. I went outside to help my now-drenched beloved. And then we both wiped ourselves off and climbed back into bed with the words "bed is good" being muttered by one of us...
Some time in the next hour, I vaguely remember being uncomfortable with a not-so-fun combination of headache/toothache/heartburn and struggling to fall back to sleep. I also vaguely remember hearing a cell phone ringing from the next room, and for some reason assuming it was my husband's work phone and some random co-worker was calling in sick.
When he arose at 7, I muttered "I heard your phone earlier" and rolled over. Fifteen minutes later, he came back in, listening to MY phone's messages. It was my dad. He was in need of someone to work the morning shift - at least while he did the runs to the other store - since the girl who was supposed to cover for the next 2 weeks' worth of vacations didn't come in. This did not bode well for my week.
Long story short (too late!), I ended up working the bulk of a 6 hour shift in 90+ degree heat (that's w/ the AC on full-blast), on my feet, 8 months pregnant, with a toddler in tow. This was not ideal. And in normal circumstances, I could have helped him out this one day and said, "sorry dad, make your alternate arrangements," and left him to find someone else to work the mornings and he could cover the afternoons (which he has done for months and months, so this is not a huge deal.) BUT! With 7 weeks until my baby's birth and major construction (for us, anyway) going on at the back of my house - mostly being done by my dad - I have to help out more than I'd like in my current condition.
The heat and stress and "on-my-feet"-ness of the job caused me to have several more Braxton Hicks contractions than I'm currently used to. The lack of decent drinking liquids available (the soda machine is long gone and my dad has only been stocked Diet Pepsis lately - his drink of choice, but I can't handle the NutraSweet and on Monday, the water cooler was broken/frozen over, so that was out) made me swell up for several hours in the afternoon.
We can use the money and I really do want to help out my dad when I can. And, surprisingly, he's being great about whatever help I can give him. I think he's realizing that my body just can't handle the stress of working like I used to (and I did this for years. Often for 6-8 hour shifts with many a 10-12hour day thrown in for good measure), especially while being THIS pregnant and still having to deal with a 2-year-old both during and after working hours. He's shown concern for my physical well-being during this pregnancy, which is nice. I'm not sure he realized what women go through to grow a baby - I seriously wonder if he thought that all that they did was to "get fat," but I have been educating him with as much tact as I can (I don't go into the graphic details - he's my dad after all - but he knows a lot more now than he did 30 years ago when it was my mom enduring the discomforts!)
I agreed to cover Tuesday (why not?) and Wednesday (I have a babysitter for Fuss that day, so that takes care of SOME of the stress) mornings for him, and he has stated that he will be sure to be here to work on the house on those days that I am able to relieve that burden from him. I'm not sure what I'll do next week, as that, at least, will be in a slightly more comfortable environment (not our plant, so the temperature is much more conducive to being controlled at normal levels), but for this week, 3 days is all I can promise at this time.
I am exhausted. Truly. My legs and feet and back hurt (more so that before) and I have ZERO energy. My contractions have upped and my headaches. I want this to end.
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