From the Terminator's Bedmate

This last week I kept wishing I was a great cartoonist because I had all of these images popping into my mind based off of the joys of pregnancy. Since Natasha is such a good sport and doesn't complain enough, I decided to take the honors. For those who don't know, Natasha gets about the worst of all the typical symptoms: nausea, acid reflux, mood swings, loss of appetite, cravings, and of course the Tantalus curse of wanting to sleep on the stomach. At 17 weeks the worst has finally started easing off, but it still creeps up from time to time. Surprisingly, contrary to the typical "morning sickness" the morning is usually her best time of the day, it's the day evening and night that are the pits for her. As we perplexed over the irregularity, I had a revelation--our baby is half American, so of course makes it's fuss according to AZ timezones and all the more intense due to the whacked out circadian cycles! What were we expecting?! So a word of warning for anyone considering a transcontinental pregnancy.

That also reminds me of when we were thinking over names, which is always an amusing subject, because whatever we choose, it'll be subject to some hazing. There isn't the same spectrum of normalish names we have in the melting pot, same for nicknames, or alternate spellings. The patronymic (the middle name which always means "son/daughter of") name by itself is goofy Kevinovich/Kevinovna, so you can't just choose a traditional Russian name hoping to make things normal, it ain't so easy. So Natasha tells me she likes the name Lisa, but not the name Elizabeth. I, being well cultured in Garfield comics, advised the name Lizard, as a good alternative. The funny thing, is that there's a Boy's name Yasha, and the word for lizard in Russian is yasharitsa, so we figured we could stick with the lizard theme for either a boy or girl, and maybe use both for a brother and sister: Yasharitsa Kevinovich and Lizard Kevinovna Gray.

Anyways, back to the Pregnancy stuff. We got the bathroom door fixed. Now Natasha can close the door when she's throwing up, so it doesn't bug me as much. But, there's still a problem--We share the same bed. I had been suffering from poor sleep, and not quite sure why, but suspecting it had to do with Natasha. When she was gone to Moscow, I started taking ice baths before bed (10 minutes of gradually submerging in ice water 1 hour before going to bed) and that definitely did the trick, surprisingly enjoyable and relaxing.

So that you'll understand the next part, I have an amazing ability to be half-awake in my sleep and have no memory of what happens after. Once while staying at a hotel after a long day of work with Kimber I crashed, while he went out for ice cream. I wake up in the morning notice an empty carton of icecream in the trash, and complain that he ate a whole carton without saving me any. He looks at me with owl eyes. That's right, I got up, ate a bowl of ice-cream and went back to bed without completely waking up, and no memory.

So after I'd spiffed myself with my icebath routine and temporarily cured my usual "ability" to blank out memories, Natasha came back. I saw what she really does in her sleep, and I was conscious for it. Two images come to mind. The first is of Japanese cartoons where there's a giant robot of destruction and death with a little guy inside controlling (think power rangers, gundam wing, etc..) Natasha's sleeping body is the transformer, and the baby is the guy at the controls. The other is of those balls you put gerbils in so they can have a blast jumping against the walls sending the ball flying in all different directions. Whatever image suits you best, this little rascal used Natasha to wake me up at least 10 times. We're talking, elbows in the eye, ribs, blanket plundering, shoving, you name it! The surprising thing, is that I finally got some rest, woke up a little earlier than usual and felt perfectly fine. It occured to me this is what she does every night. So, first off, I decided I'm better off losing a couple hours and sleeping a little worse just so long as I have my usual ability back so that I don't remember anything. Ignorance is bliss. Second, I'm not so upset as this little guy, as I am jealous. No wonder all of the anime idolizes having a giant robot to control, that'd be awesome! It's probably just their subconscious desire to be reunited with their mothers. hehehe, enjoy it while you can, little guy, but I guess it's not like I'm going to get more sleep once he's out anyways, ehh..