Feeling less than great.

Hi! Remember me? I'm that girl who used to blog. Now I just take naps and go to the doctors office instead. Oh, and I'm growing a human being. Which takes a lot of energy. And some planning/preparation. As it turns out.

But I wanted to take a moment to update you all on my fabulously boring life. Because I know you are all dying to know the latest and greatest. And I want to whine.

A few weeks back I started a little program called, "Feel Great in 8." It's really a competition, but I have no expectation that I'll win, seeing as I'm pregnant. Just that I'll feel great. Basically you are on teams and have a point system, and the team with the most points at the end of 8 weeks wins. Points are awarded for exercise, eating good foods (negative points for bad foods), eating 5 fruits and vegetables, reading your scriptures, praying, drinking water, not eating after 8, weight loss, and the "daily calendar." The daily calendar has things like write a thank you note, take a bath, read for 20 minutes, etc. We started right on my 32 weeks pregnant mark. So, provided I have this baby by my due date, I'm expecting a HUGE weight loss right at the end. To make up for all the weeks of not losing weight.

Overall, I've enjoyed doing this. I do feel better, and my heartburn issues have all but resolved. I think an overload of sugar was causing my woes. And I have noticed it's curbed my weight gain, which is great. Especially since every week when I weigh in at the doc's, he makes a note when I gain more than a pound. Not because he thinks I'm fat, but because he is constantly worried that an excessive amount of weight gain could mean a fluid build up, which could mean heart failure. So watching my weight is a good thing in the end. Within reason, of course. Anyway, I generally feel great. Except when I really really REALLY just want to eat a bisquick biscuit, and I can't because it has white flour. That's the hardest thing, the no white flour rule. Kills me.

Also, it has been motivation to actually buckle down and read my scriptures every day, which is wonderful. It makes me happier, it makes me more patient, it lightens the load. If that was all I got out of this, it would be totally worth it.

So this week one of the things we are supposed to do is get 8 hours of sleep (or at least be in bed long enough to give your body 8 hours of rest). I thought I'd give it a go last night, and was in bed, glasses off (ie not reading) by 10:00. Julia generally doesn't get up before 6, so I thought I was safe.

Well, I was in bed for 8 hours. But I don't think that you could really say that I got anywhere close to 8 hours of sleep. Did Julia wake up in the night? No. Was I just so uncomfortable from being pregnant that I couldn't sleep? No, though that didn't help. The culprit was, once again, my neighbors' stupid dog. Whining, barking, generally making lots of disturbing noises. Right outside my window. All. Night. Long.

This is not the first time I've wanted to kill that dog. Oh, no. Last week I believe the neighbors were out of town for a a few days, maybe even a week. And that dog sounded like it was dying. Dying a cruel, cruel death. Actually, it sounded like an elephant was dying. But really, I think it was just lonely. It got so bad that after night #3 of no sleep (plus dealing with sick Julia one night and sick Clark another [who is seriously the loudest barfer you have ever heard, I'm surprised the dog wasn't shocked into silence]), I finally called the police. Was that the right thing to do? They sent someone over to check on the dog. I don't really know what the result was, since I declined to have the officer tell me what was going on (it was 10pm and I was going to bed), but my guess is he saw the dog, the dog seemed fine, and there is nothing else he could do. The neighbors came back the next day, and I figured that was the end.

BUT NO. I don't know if they left again yesterday or what, but I am not a happy camper this morning. And we didn't even have the windows open last night! Windows closed, and I still heard that dog yapping it up, disturbing my slumber all night long. I will not be happy if this continues. Tonight, or even in the future, when I will have a newborn and every ounce of sleep will be vital to my sanity.

So, gentle reader, what, if anything, can I do about this? Perhaps it should be noted that we have never actually met this neighbor, other than the one time we kicked a ball into their yard. She seemed nice. But I don't know that introducing ourselves with a, "Shut your dumb dog up!" would really encourage neighborly behavior. And my guess is this is only a problem when they aren't there, because surely, SURELY, they wouldn't be awful enough to let their dog howl like that when they are home, right? Any thoughts?