The Great Escape

My original plan was to work until I could work no more (aka - went into labour), but I was slowly convinced by experienced mom's that I should take some time off before the baby arrives. I eventually decided to stop working the week before the baby was due - partly due to the advice of others, but even more because I was tired of struggling to get into dress pants in the mornings. I had two weeks of overlap with my replacement and while a couple of weeks ago I was terrified of leaving my job to someone else, I was more than happy to pass the buck on Friday and walk away. I love my job, but it's busy and stressful and the kind of job that makes you wake up in the middle of night to jot down a to do list.

So now I'm done work and I won't be back for at least 7 months. Everyone has been telling me to relax and take some time for myself. I actually have zero idea how to do this since I can't remember the last time I had anything that resembled a vacation or time off. During my Master's I did my field research in the summer and then started working full-time before I finished my degree. I didn't take any vacation time this past year from work because I've been saving it up for baby's arrival. So here I am - almost 39 weeks pregnant with no idea when baby will arrive and I have nothing but free time. I love when people tell me to sleep as much as possible now because I won't get any later. I think this is so bizarre, especially when women who have been pregnant tell me this. How can they forget the impossibility of sleep when you're 9 months pregnant? I wake at least once an hour for a trip to the bathroom. I wake when I need to roll over. I wake when Tickey decides to throw a dance party in my belly. And yes, all of this makes me very tired and about once a week I down a gravol so I can at least get a three hour stretch of deep sleep.

Last night I managed to fall asleep reading with all the lights on while Kris was in the shower. When he came to bed I asked him where the cat was and he said he must be under a bed. I thought that was strange since he only sleeps under the bed during the day, but I ignored my mothering instincts and fell back asleep. Later in the night when I woke up for a drink and a pee I gave a quick look around for the cat again, but didn't see him. I knew that neither Kris nor I had been outside since the last time I saw him, so I brushed off the idea that he'd somehow slipped out. It was funny though - because earlier that day I thought of how insane it would be if something happened to the cat and the stress of it caused me to go into labour. I have no idea why I thought this. Our cat has escaped once in his life and he made it about four feet from the door before I cowered in a corner until we scooped him up and brought him back inside. And while he loves to watch the birds and squirrels and the eight hundred neighbourhood cats, he's never expressed much interest in returning to the great outdoors. So how insane was it when at 3am, Kris's own mama bear instincts kicked in because he jumped out of bed and ran to the bedroom window. "Kris?....Kris? What is it? What's wrong?" He wasn't even totally awake because the sound of my voice startled him but he told me later that he was trying to figure out how to tell me without freaking me out. That's when he said "the screen fell out of the window - it's wide open." And then we went into team mode. I jumped out of bed and we both threw some clothes on. Kris ran to the kitchen to grab two bags of kitten snacks and I yelled "are you doing front or back?" as he raced out the front door and I flew out the back. Kris figured that he was half way to Mexico by then so he headed down the street. I figured he was closer and noted that two of the most ancient neighbourhood cats seemed to be guarding our house - one out front and the other at the side (we live on a corner lot). I followed one of them who led me straight to our cat, who was casually sitting in the driveway like he owned it. I hollered down the street for Kris (to the sheer delight of our neighbours, I'm sure) and he came running. We managed to scoop up our cat and get him inside with relatively little difficulties and when all three of us were standing there staring at each other in the kitchen at 3am like, "what just happened???" -  that's when I knew that Kris and I are going to rock this whole parenting thing.

We've both got mother bear instincts and we work together like a well oiled machine.