I'm Thinking of Becoming an Entemologist

We have had a disturbing number of bugs in our bedroom recently. Not dangerous or gross bugs, but twice in the past couple of weeks, I have woken up in the middle of the night with a bug crawling on me. Ick.

Now, normally, I am not really all that afraid of bugs. I am perfectly happy to kill and/or dispose of most insects and spiders without the help of anyone else. In fact, this is one of those areas, along with opening jar lids and reaching things on high shelves, where I am proud to know that I can take care of myself without the help of a man. However, although I am fine when there is one bug, I am not okay when there are multiple bugs; I think I have a fear of being swarmed by insects, thanks to the movie Arachnophobia and an episode of MacGuyver (the one with the ants--remember it?). I also do not enjoy having bugs crawl on me, but then again, who does?

After a sleepless night on Monday, I was anxious to go to bed early last night. I know that soon sleep will be a huge luxury, so I am trying to follow the advice of all of the pregnancy books and get as much rest as possible before the baby arrives. Well, within two minutes of going into the bedroom last night, I found two bugs--one landed in my water glass (I had just set it down!) and one in the blinds on the window above my head. I got freaked out and went back downstairs to wait for Hank to come to bed and help wrangle all the bugs.

So, at 10:30 (I was soooo tired by then), we both went back upstairs and checked for insects. Of course, there were none to be found. I was a little freaked out because the one I had seen in the blinds earlier had disappeared. Hank told me I am crazy and got in bed. Within two minutes, our cat Neo was messing around near Hank's feet, and we realized he was hunting a bug that was in the bed. Hank and I both jumped up and Hank tried to kill it. Although it was very resilient, after about nine swats and the combination of a magazine and a shoe, the bug finally died. We shook out the bed and the pillows, checked the walls and the blinds, and finally got back in bed. Then I found another insect in my water glass. We saw a teeny tiny one crawling on the ceiling. I went to the bathroom and found a spider. I came back and a big moth was flying around (Hank killed it, but we didn't know where it landed--eek!). Another mosquito-looking insect was dangling from the ceiling. In all, I think we saw eight bugs or spiders, all of them different!

You know how when you start thinking about bugs or having them crawl on you, you start to feel itchy all over? Yeah, well, I was feeling that way for a long time last night. Just when I would start to relax, I would freak myself out and feel like I had something on me. It was awful. I was literally almost in tears and could not understand what had happened that our bedroom is now infested with insects.

Eventually, we figured out that these problems have started only within the past few weeks. It dawned on us that about a month ago, Hank had installed a window air conditioning unit in our bedroom, and there are tiny spaces that aren't sealed. This has to be how all of the bugs are getting in, since they are all different species. Hank has promised that he will seal the window tonight before we go to bed. Hopefully, that will prevent any more unwelcome visitors. I just hope that we don't have too many that have decided to move in and start making themselves comfortable.

By the time I was finally able to turn the light off and go to sleep, it was after 12:30. Unfortunately, a gigantic thunderstorm woke me up a couple of hours later. I swear the thunder and lightening were happening right on top of us, and I laid there terrified that a tree would fall through the house and kill us. The power was out when I woke up, which meant that the air conditioner was off and I was sweating like crazy, and I was worrying that we would oversleep without our alarms working. After what seemed like two hours of being awake, and a long time after the storm had passed, the electricity finally came back on. I realized then that the air conditioner had flipped the breaker, so it and our alarm clocks still had no power. I got up to get a fan, got back in bed, and still laid there worried about oversleeping.

And, oh yeah, when I was able to sleep, did I mention I also got up at least three times to pee last night?

So, I am exhausted today. Two nights of horrible sleep in a row, and here I am at work, having already transferred all of my responsibilities to other people, literally just collecting a paycheck until I can go out on maternity leave. Suffice it to say that being tired and extremely pregnant is making today a very rough day.

Wish me luck that we can get our insect infestation under control and that maybe, just maybe, I can get some rest tonight. In the meantime, I will be trying to catalog all of the species, as we have a collection that would enthuse any entomologist.