Auto-Pilot

I wake up for the second day in a row 10 minutes before the alarm goes off. The urgent need to pee pulls me out of bed, past the rotating fan which has been keeping me cool and over a pile of laundry from last night at the end of the bed. I take note to the fact that the cat has taken residence on the bed directly on top of my husband and is staring at his face while he sleeps. I giggle as I stumble past the half open bedroom door into the cool dark living room and immediately knock over a soda can someone left by the side of the couch the night before.

When I bend over to pick it up I remember just how urgent that need to pee was and I pick up a little speed waddling my pregnant body to the kitchen door and across the cold tile. I drop the can into the recycle bin as the cat races past me into the restroom. I have no kids but I already pee with an audience most mornings. I notice the laundry room door is open and I make a mental note to shut it when I come out of the bathroom.

The laundry room is covered in big windows that face the direct sunlight most of the day. Closing them keeps the house cool. I have taped a note to the door to remind people. Unfortunately, the cat can't read and she can open a door knob.

I stumble into the bathroom and find the relief I was looking for. By the time I am finished the cat is bored and meowing to get back out of the bathroom. I set her free and shut the laundry room door. I hear the alarm go off in the bedroom and listen as my disgruntled husband stumbles to turn it off. Well, I guess that's done.

I step back into the bathroom and start the shower. Hot water at our house takes at least 3 minutes so I pull the rubber band out of my bed head from last nights pony tail, remove my grandma nightgown (which is the only comfortable thing I can sleep in now that I am pregnant) and take note that my boobs look like they belong to someone else now that I am in my 29th week.

The glaring light from the small window in the bathroom makes it impossible to use the bathroom mirror for much before 7:30. It's only 7 am so I hold my hand up to attempt to block some of the light while I look closely at my face. Pregnancy does strange things to your face. Although, I don't have acne yet I seem to look flushed all the time. "The glow", I could live without that.

Steam finally starts coming from the other side of the shower curtain so I step in to start my daily routine. Finally, I am awake enough to actually think. My first thought... this won't be my routine much longer. Two weeks from now my routine will be in another house, a house where I don't have to walk the entire floor plan in order to get to the bathroom. Then, just a few weeks after that there will be a baby. Someone down the hall that wants my attention before I pee, before shower and before I wake up enough to think.

I wonder how long it will take for that new routine to start running on auto-pilot as I begin shaving my legs in peace...a luxury I don't plan on having for much longer.