Why am I awake right now?

Good morning. And by morning, I mean 3:24 a.m. in the morning. For some reason, the entire Rice family is awake at this ungodly hour. I fell asleep at about 10:00 as usual, watching a re-run of Bill O'Reilly and staying up just long enough to see if maybe he would read one of the 25 e-mails I've written him this year. He didn't read anything from Kelly from Oxford or Anne from Taylor, MS, but I won't give up. I just need to try extra hard to write a super witty email that either criticizes him (I would never do that) or compliments his new book, but I haven't read it yet so that won't work either. Apparently those are the only kinds of emails that Bill reads on his show. So we all need to be patient, because the day will come when he not only reads an email on the air from Kelly from Oxford or Anne from Taylor, MS, but takes a few seconds to even comment about it. It's going to be great, and I can say I have accomplished one of the top 25 things to do before I die. 

Back to why the Rice's are awake at now 3:34 a.m. I'm not sure what woke me up. It could be the fact that I get up minimum of 20 times during the night to use the restroom. I'm told this is normal for pregnant women, but how inconvenient. Maybe I should quit guzzling 200 ounces of water a day at work. But I'm so talented...I've learned how to get up, out of bed, use the bathroom, get back into bed all without completely waking up, and resume sleep like nothing ever happened. But for some reason this night that didn't happen. I woke up at 2:30ish and here I am. What better to do in the wee hours of the morning than blog? 

Why is Jake awake at this hour? Who knows. When I came in to the living room to get my computer he was just chillin' under the coffee table munching away on a bone. I asked him why he was awake and he hardly acknowledged me. Now that I have positioned myself nice and comfy on the couch, he ditched the bone and joined me and now he's sleeping peacefully right here next to me. How lovely, Jake. Rub in it that you get 20 hours a sleep a day and can fall asleep whenever the heck you want to. Aaron and I have always speculated that Jake gets really gassy at night, but secretly I always just thought it was Aaron being gassy and he was just blaming Jake for it, but now I know. It really is Jake. There is something about the onset of night that just allows him to cut loose. So for your visual image pleasure right now, picture me and Jake on the couch at 3;44 a.m. in a cloud of Jake's gas, but neither of us budging to avoid the smell. It's ok, Jake. In just a few short months there will be another guy in this house who adds to the terrible smell and we can pass the blame from you, to Aaron, and then to Clark if nobody claims it. By the way, why are growling in your sleep right now? You're such a peculiar pup. 

Speaking of Clark, he's awake too. Well, he was about 20 minutes ago because I felt something equivalent to a kickboxing jab in my gut. So I'm assuming he was awake and now he's snuggled up in my belly, but I can't be certain and say he's asleep quite yet. Or, I suppose he could be asleep and just be a jitterbug while he sleeps, similar to the way Jake growls in his sleep. Some website articles out there claim that Clark is sleeping for about 14-16 hours a day and he's awake and just chillin' the rest of the time. What does he do in there for those remaining 8-10 hours? His eyes are fused shut so it's not like he can look around and admire my inner belly. I feel bad that I can't entertain him or let him play with Jake to save him from such a boring routine. 

This weekend will mark the 22 week point in my pregnancy. That is 22 out of 40, which means I am over halfway there. I have an appointment tomorrow, or today rather, where I get to listen to his heartbeat and the doctor will weigh me and measure my belly and spend about 3 minutes in the room asking me if I'm ok. I'll say "yep" and he'll say "great" and then walk out the door smiling because he just made a boatload of money for 10 minutes of work. We are reaching the point where we actually have to start planning things, as in childbirth classes, hospital tours (because neither of us have actually ever been to this hospital and wouldn't have a clue where to go once we walked through the door), nursery details, health insurance for Clark, budgeting for baby, and the list doesn't end there. And when I say "we" are reaching the point where "we" have to start planning things, I think its pretty clear that means me. I will tell Aaron when we have to go to class, when we are touring the hospital, how we are going to arrange the nursery, etc. And he will just smile and say "Ok, mate." This makes for a happy pregnant woman which makes for a happy Arnie. I'm pretty sure post-baby, he won't be as willing to let me do or say whatever I want, so I'm taking advantage of it now. 

Now it is 4:13 and I'm sure everybody wants to know why Aaron is awake. Unfortunately I can't offer any reasons for him, because like Jake, he hardly acknowledged me when I asked him why he was awake. Our internet has been out for about 2.5 weeks so Aaron hasn't been able to keep up with the New York Post, Washington Times, Real Clear Politics, and the 500 other online journals that he reads everyday. It started working yesterday so he has been reading his online articles furiously trying to play catch up. His only news source as of lately has been Bill O'Reilly, Hannity, Greta, Shep, and Huckabee. In case you couldn't tell, we watch a lot of Fox News, and they pretty much just repeat each other everyday, so Aaron has been salivating at the mouth for some nice juicy online political jargon. But that may not be why he is awake right now. It could be because law school started up again this week and he has to split his online time between political news journals and law journals. On any given day, I can promise you that the political news journals are going to win the majority of his time, but he's already had to read quite a bit on topics such as evidence, corporate law, civil procedure, and I can't remember the rest. As a second year law student, he was able to choose his own classes, and so far Aaron is one happy little boy. Unlike his first year, he is enjoying his classes and has a great schedule that includes only one class on Friday mornings, which means he pretty much has three day weekends this entire semester. Lucky duck. Just to throw out a small cliche real quick, I'd like to point out how fast time has flown since we've lived in Oxford. We've already been in our house for over a year and in under two years, there will probably be a For Sale sign in our front yard with Clark's toys spread out all over the neighborhood. That is a strange thought to me. 

Back to Aaron. He's doing great. He is quite possibly the cutest dad-to-be in the history of dads-to-be. He's so excited to meet Clark and he talks to him all the time. He calls him "Buddy" and always has his hand on my belly waiting for Clark to give him a high-five. Clark actually responded a couple of times, and the way Aaron's face lit up after he felt that little kick/punch/whatever it was could have lit up the whole world. I can't wait for the two of them to meet. They are really going to be smitten over each other - I can already tell. 

I'm going to try to get at least an hour or so of sleep before I have to wake up and be semi-productive at work. On my phone at the office, I have a DND button that stands for Do Not Disturb. How great is that? I'm really only supposed to use it if I'm away from my desk or I'm so swamped that if I took another phone call I would burst, but tomorrow, I think I'm going to enjoy my DND button and take advantage of it for exactly what it is. I may even bring a little pillow and just catch up on my sleep right there on my keyboard. It's going to be great. I don't know about the rest of the Rice family, but I'm going to bed. Good night.