This time, I can't even blame it on our idiot neighbours drinking outside or the kittens attacking my feet or the baby kicking me.

I was having crazy dreams again* when I woke up coughing from a dry throat. Apparently I've become a mouth breather lately since all the extra fluids in my body are making me quite stuffy. I got up to get a drink of water** and noticed my left hand was a little puffy. Like my feet have been puffy for weeks now. Like, can't make a fist without feeling just how much the skin is stretched outwards puffy.

This is not generally a good sign during pregnancy.

I've been going through all the causes of this in my head... too hot, dehydration, sleeping with hands and feet below the heart***... I'm just hoping it's not the big bad blood pressure. Since I had white-coat hypertension early on, I've been monitoring my blood pressure at the grocery store twice a week to make sure we're not missing anything bad when it spikes at the office. Something that will land me in hospital until we get it under control with medication and neccessitate a C-section when it's time for the baby to come. Sigh.

I'm pretty sure it's not the blood pressure... there are too many other logical causes (and the swelling is going down as I'm typing), and I took my blood pressure today and it was 126/79. But when the warning signs of dangerously-high blood pressure have been drilled into you, waking up with a puffy hand is enough to wake you up all the way very quickly. Much better than coffee. Better even than a kitten biting your head.

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* My grandma took me to the Nutcracker but Joss Whedon was there in the row ahead of us and he would not shut up even though the girl next to me was throwing my jujubes at him. Plus also Alberta Ballet looked like a high school production. They added a bratty parent/child narration team for all the people who hadn't bothered to tell their kids the story ahead of time. It was not good.

** I've discovered the kittens sleep in the bathroom when they've been booted out of the bedroom for bad behaviour (ie. attacking us all night long). I turned on the light and they both looked up at me from the bath mat like, What the hell? We're sleeping here, dammit.

*** I was using the pillow fort again. You can't sleep on your back while pregnant because the weight of the baby cuts off a vein coming up out of your legs, making you all loopy and your feet extra-puffy. When I just can't deal with sleeping on my left side again, I build a pile of pillows to prop me up in a semi-reclining position that is supposed to relieve the pressure on that vein. Sleeping on the left side is normally OK but lately I've been waking up feeling like someone's been beating me on my left hip and shoulder all night.