Girly stuff... beware

**warning... this post deals with 'girly/womanly" stuff. It may contain TMI, though I will be keeping it pretty low detailed :-)

Okay... so here's my story.

Yesterday, I was grumpy. I am fortunate that when I am pre-time of the month, I don't suffer with a week of PMS. I get grumpy for one day -- and that's it. Not too grumpy either, but grumpy enough that I tend to try to separate myself from everybody so I don't fuss unnecessarily. {I tend to do loads and loads of laundry on this day -- just to have a reason to go downstairs a lot.}

Anyway, that's not really my story. Since having so many babies, I have gone from moderate cramps to oh-my-goodness-I'm-doubled-over-in-pain cramps.

They're bad. They remind me of uterine contractions you get AFTER having a baby, especially during those first few days of breast feeding when the contractions tend to be more intense (and somehow your uterus is directly wired to your milk let-down). I never sleep well the day of starting. The lack of sleep doesn't help the grumpiness, either...

So, I never sleep well... until last night. I slept like a flippin' baby! What was different?

{Here's more information than you may want to know...}

Rob and I spoon to sleep.

But he doesn't just spoon up behind. He does what we call "The Lock-In". Imagine his arm across me, wrapped around and his hand then locked under me. It's like an old-school lap belt in cars.

Well, this combination of warmth behind and around my tummy was like a sleeping pill. Amazing. I have my own human heating pad.

Now... why did it take me this long to figure this out? Well, I started thinking this morning. In our {nearly} eight years of marriage, between pregnancies, breast feeding {sans-period} time and deployments, I think I have probably had less than 10 periods while Rob has been here. Pretty sad!

But now I know the trick to sleeping with cramps!