I didn't drown, does that mean I was swimming?

I woke up this morning about 6 minutes before the alarm. I like it when that happens because I guess it means I'm really done sleeping, but I hate it because that's six whole minutes I could have been sleeping! Recently Paul made a comment to me that I've been tired for the past 17 years and I guess in a way he's right. Before I got pregnant the first time I was a pretty poor sleeper, it took me a long time to fall asleep and then I would often wake up and have a hard time going back to sleep. However, something about that first pregnancy changed my sleeping habits and now I can fall asleep almost instantly and I could sleep through the night great, except now we have kids that don't sleep. Oh well, that's life.

Anyway, I woke up and just didn't feel like going to the pool. I stayed in bed for about 5 minutes actually arguing with myself about whether I should get up and swim, go to the gym instead or just skip it and sleep. I got up to brush my teeth, use the bathroom etc and realized my gym clothes weren't an option because they were in my bedroom and I'd wake someone up going to get them. Going back to sleep wasn't an option since I'd already brushed my teeth and was wide awake. The only options left were to go to the pool or just shower at work and get to work early. I decided to put on my swim suit and head to the pool but for some reason I still didn't want to go. I got to the parking lot and actually sat there for a few minutes still not wanting to swim. I finally said to myself, out loud "Stop being stupid, you love swimming." and I got out of the car and went to the pool. As soon as I got in the water I was glad that I had gone, I do love to swim. However, it took me only the first 100 yards to warm up and then my cold started rearing it's ugly head. I stopped breathing out my nose for fear that I'd turn the pool into some colloidal suspension of water and my snot. When I stopped breathing out of my nose it actually became quite difficult to swim well. I did a few more full laps and then went to kicking for a little while. When I felt better I grabbed my pull buoy and decided to do a few pull laps. After only a few strokes I realized I was having a really hard time holding onto that buoy. That's when I realized that because of the cold weather this week my skin was cracking like crazy, so I've been putting lotion on. The coconut lotion residue on my legs made it really hard to hang onto the buoy, but at least it added an inner thigh workout that's not part of my regular swim routine. I did some more 100s of full swim, kick and pull.
Then another woman joined my lane. Now I'm no swimming Olympian or expert but I was just not prepared to see what happened next. She said there were no free lanes so she'd like to join me and I said sure, no problem. I was kicking at the time and she got in. When I turned at the opposite end of the pool I almost laughed when I saw her. I think she was doing the butterfly, but no part of her body actually broke the plane of the water. Her arms came forward but they were still in the water so a ripple of water was pushed out in front of her and I believe the force of pushing against that water was pushing her backwards. It looked like she was doing snow angels on her stomach- in the dead center of the lane. To her credit as I got closer she did stop the arm movement so I could get by without getting hit. I felt bad for her because she was obviously working hard but I think that her first 50 yards took over 3 minutes, and I'm not exaggerating. After the first 50 yards she switched to breaststroke, which looked equally as tiring since I think she must have taken 60 strokes per length of the pool. She was fine to share a lane with space-wise, so I'm not really complaining. just surprised.
I lasted 30 minutes in the pool, didn't even know how far I had swam and decided I'd just get out and head to work. Not drowning is about the best that can be said for that "workout", although drowning would have been bad so I'm also not really complaining. At least I got some sort of workout all five mornings, even though this cold is still hanging on.

Two personal notes- today our dogs turn six years old. It's Friday pizza picnic night anyway so the boys get ice cream for dessert but I'm going to stop on the way home from work and pick up a snack for the dogs and a new toy or bone for each of them. We always said that even when we had kids we'd still pay the same amount of attention to our dogs. I admit we don't- not even close really. But the boys do love them, too, and they're such good dogs we try to remember to keep them involved with the family and let them know they're loved. Happy birthday, puppies! And, today is the 16th anniversary of when Paul and I started dating (well, for the second time but that's a long story), I never would have thought it would lead to this life, but I'm so lucky that he gave me that second chance. While he's not perfect, neither am I, but I think we're perfect for each other.

Pregnancy status: 13 weeks, 5 days; 184 days to go.