Steamy Dreams

Oh, the joys of pregnancy! I am reveling in them, truly. Who wouldn't love neck zits or all day nausea or irrational, insatiable cravings for a very specific store brand of brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts!?! I mean, NECK ZITS!

But if I can just single out one specific pregnancy symptom that has been really, really getting my panties in a bunch, it would be dry mouth. Oh, the agony of dry mouth! It plagues me in a way I can hardly explain. 

During the day it's no big deal. If you know me in real life, or you've been around for a while, then you know I am never without at least 32 ounces of pure H2O. I currently have two bottles on hand, so any time the old pie hole is feeling a bit dry I just take a swig. 

But at night? Well, that's a different story. There is no way to continuously imbibe water when you are asleep. And there is no way to breathe when the desert that is your soft palate is sticking to the equally parched back of your throat, now is there? Which means that I am waking up at least a dozen times every night to take a drink. Which inevitably leads to more bathroom trips. And all this fragmented sleep is making for one cranky wife, mama and mama-to-be.

One little trick I've discovered that helps marginally is keeping my sleeping quarters as moist as possible. Because of this, I have not one, not two but three humidifiers churning out puffs vaporized water all night. I even positioned them directly next to my side of the bed, and I try and sleep facing them. Additionally, I also sleep cuddling my camelback bottle, since it has a straw and doesn't leak. That way I don't even have to reach over to my night stand when I desperately need some liquid in my mouth. 

Unfortunately, my means of achieving a marginal night's sleep are difficult for my husband to abide. Specifically, it's the three humidifiers. He feels as though he's trying to sleep in a steam room, and he's probably right. However I've become so acclimatized (some might say dependent) to the environs I have created, I can no longer sleep even a wink in any room with less than 80% humidity. I dream about buying more humidifiers. Every. Single. Night. I am not even kidding.

I hope that this, like most pregnancy symptoms, is a passing craze. I have an appointment on the 19th, and if I am still trying to recreate the rain forest in my bedroom at night I might have to talk to the doctor about it. They'll probably have me committed, but at least then SOB will get his bed back!