If this keeps up, the next few weeks are going to be rough.

Night before last, I didn't have too much hip trouble, but I spent all day yesterday feeling like my butt was completely squashed flat. It got to where I was more comfortable standing up than sitting down. At least that meant I didn't have too much trouble going to the grocery store with Matt.

(Speaking of the grocery store - we bought a watermelon to have for the 4th of July. After warning Matt that jokes were not necessary, I immediately became quite amused by the idea - the watermelon I picked out was indeed about the same size as the bulge of my belly. I meant to get him to take a picture, but forgot. Maybe tonight or tomorrow, before I cut it up.)

But sleep was just about out of the question. I made a grand effort at getting to bed early, and wound up turning off the lights at about 10:45. At least it was earlier than the previous few nights!

But then I woke up at 12. And 2. And 4:30. And 5. And 5:30. And 5:45.

Each time, I had to sit up (no easy trick, when you can't roll onto your stomach, your abdominal muscles are stretched thin, and the reason you're awake in the first place is that one hip or the other hurts too bad to sleep through - it's got to be done entirely through arm effort and momentum) and then stand up (which is easier but not less painful) and walk around a little bit. The first few times, I went to the bathroom, but even with Pregnant Woman Bladder, it seemed a little ridiculous to go to the bathroom the last few times.

Maybe from now on, I'll just give up and get up for the day if I wake up after 5.

This morning, after I'd fed the cat and made our lunches, I decided to see if the guest bed was any more comfortable - it's a much softer mattress, and I thought maybe some extra give under my hips would help relieve the pressure and pain. It helped a little, but not a lot - and being softer, that bed was a lot harder to flail upright in. So I might use it for naps, but I don't think I'll be switching to sleeping there at night.

I guess I could start waking Matt up, when I wake up in pain, and asking him to do the pressure-point thing we learned in Lamaze class that seems to actually get my sciatic nerve to line up correctly for a little while - just long enough to get some relief from the pain.

Yep. All those times earlier in the pregnancy when I refused Matt's help, saying I was saving it up for the end, when I'd need it more... It might be time to start calling in those saved offers of assistance.

(Four more weeks, after this one, and I'll at least be out of work, so I won't have to worry so much about getting enough sleep at night - I'll just start taking a lot of naps.)

Weirdly, even though some of her movements have become quite strong and occasionally uncomfortable, I've still never woken up because of the baby herself. I'm not complaining, mind you. Far from it!

And this morning, as I was getting dressed, I came to the conclusion that if my fingers were swollen enough to make it difficult to get my rings on that early, then there was no way I would get them back off tonight. So for the first time in over a year, my wedding and engagement rings are back on a chain around my neck.

On the plus side, my company's Leave Desk (which handles all long-term leave/vacation requests) sent me the maternity packet yesterday without me even having to call and prompt them again. Of course, I have a few questions, but fewer than I'd expected. I'll try to call them back again this morning.

Maternity leave, in my company, works like a limited short-term disability. I can leave work up to two weeks before my baby's due-date. The first five working days of that I don't get any benefits for - I have to go unpaid or else use my personal vacation time. And then the disability pay kicks in, and that keeps going until six weeks after the baby's actual birth date. (Eight weeks if I have a C-section.) Any time I want off beyond that has to come out of my personal vacation again, or go unpaid.

Our disability is kind of funny, though. Generally, short-term disability pays 50% of my usual salary. (Well, there's a maximum, but it's well more than half my salary, so I'm not worrying about it.) On the advice of the Leave Desk, when I had to re-enroll for my benefits this spring I chose to pay an extra $3 a paycheck toward a disability "buy-up", which means that I'll get 65% of my usual salary. It's not really worth it if you're in good health and such, but since pregnancy is a guaranteed disability for at least six weeks, it's worth the extra $75-ish a year to get the extra 15% pay for those six weeks.

So I've been anticipating living for a couple of months on a reduced budget. But the maternity packet I got yesterday says that the company also has what it calls an Enhanced Short Term Disability, which is a number of hours, based on the amount of time the employee has been with the company, that can be used any time the employee is on disability, with restrictions on how many hours you can use in a week. Those restrictions plus the STD buy-up mean that I'll be getting the full amount of my paycheck for about seven weeks, until my Enhanced STD hours are used up.

And now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about my company's maternity/disability package, I'm going to go have breakfast.

--Liz