Sleep Deprivation

I've always thought it is a little ironic that whenever I am pregnant I find myself sleep deprived. It's one of the more frustrating things I've experienced in life, and it has happened with all three of my pregnancies for different reasons. Right now I am 7 months pregnant and feel like I am entitled to a good nights sleep, because I know that I won't be getting one for the next year once this little baby comes. But that isn't happening right now for a couple of reasons:

1- I have a 4 year old, and she is sleeping in a toddler bed. My 4 year old is very tall, and therefore the blankets on her bed will not stay on her little body throughout the night. As a result she comes into my room every night around 1:30 and tells me she needs her blankets put back on. I'm more than happy to do this once, but lately it's been happening several times a night, and by the 3rd or 4th time, things can get pretty ugly. Neither Shawn nor myself are very pleasant people when someone starts messing with our sleep. No worries, a new bunk bed is in order and in a few more months hopefully this will be a thing of the past (at least Lucy waking up).

2- Our house is located in a valley between the rocky mountains, and a large foothill (or small mountain). As a result, the wind is funneled through our neighborhood at an alarming speed. The first night we spent in our house (a year ago from tomorrow) I was certain it would blow away. The wind starts in the fall, and lasts all winter and through the spring, but the summers are perfect. The last few weeks we have a nice breeze throughout the day, but as soon as the sun goes down, the winds honestly jump to a constant speed of at least 60 mph, and I know we have several gusts a night that are well over 100 mph.

Because of this wind, when Lucy does wake up in the night, she can't go back to sleep. Sometimes the wind is the reason she is woken up, and not her blankets. So I usually take her back into her room and tuck her in again and turn on her "ni-night songs" to drown the howls out. A couple nights ago she came in and asked Shawn if he could go close the cupboard downstairs that was making noises. It was just the wind, and our creaking house. I usually let her climb into bed with us once a night for a while, but with Shawn, me and my ever growing belly, and Lucy things are a little too tight. And once I get Lucy tucked in, I usually have to go into Jack and calm him down, and turn on his humidifier to drown out the wind.

Once I do get the kids tucked in and all calmed down, I go lay back down and listen to the howling wind myself. The howling doesn't bother me, but I usually can't fall back asleep because every minute or so we get a big gust that rattles our sky light in our bathroom, and causes me to brace myself for it to come crashing down into our shower which gets my heart racing. Then when we get a REALLY big gust, I lay in my bed and feel the walls of the entire house shake. At this point I logically tell myself that the house can't blow down, it's withstood these winds for more than 15 years now, and it will do it again. But with every house shaking gust I am certain that pieces of our house are going to start blowing away and exposing us to the the elements. Then I decided to roll over and hug my big, strong, brave husband, but whenever I'm about to do this, he rolls over and hugs me with his whole body quivering.