Well, THAT Was No Fun!

I finished my second final today- and boy am I exhausted! It went okay- not great, but I made it through and hopefully did well enough to get the credits to transfer to Berkeley. It has been quite a stressful couple of days- which went something like this:

I spent the weekend studying with the intention of falling asleep early on Monday night to prepare for my Tuesday Labor Law exam, which started at 9am. I was feeling really stressed on Monday- and tried to go to sleep at about 10:30, but just laid in bed looking at the ceiling, not able to sleep for hours and hours and hours. Also, someone kept kicking and lying on my bladder, so I had to get up to go to the bathroom every half hour to 45 minutes (seriously). Finally at about 2:30 I fell asleep for about 15 minutes. I know it was just 15 minutes because at 2:45 I woke up to go to the bathroom again! Anyway, that 15 minutes brought me the most terrible nightmare, but I was glad for the rest.

At that point I started having really strong contractions and thought I might be going into labor. So, I waited- and they kept getting stronger. I thought, "here we go- it's my fault that my stress level is inducing pre-term labor" and thought about waking Mr. Mustard up. After about 45 minutes, the contractions finally stopped. So, I laid in bed (getting up to go to the bathroom again several times) until 4:30- at which point I fell asleep for another 15 minutes and had another really vivid nightmare. Then I laid in bed, and got up with the alarm at 6:30.

The Labor Law exam was tough- I was really tired, and felt like throwing up before, during, and after the exam. There were two questions total on the exam and I had 3 hours to complete them. I did pretty well on the first question, but the second question I didn't do so great on mostly because I was tired, and my mind was racing. After the exam was finished, Mr. Mustard picked me up from school and I came home and took a 1/2 hour nap before starting to study for Remedies- today's test.

I studied most of yesterday afternoon, but by about 9:30pm, I was delirioius from lack of sleep. I laid down to go to sleep, but again, could not sleep. At about 1:30 am I got up out of bed, was really on the verge of tears from exhaustion, and sat with Hauser on the couch for awhile. I finally got to sleep around 3am- and then got up at 6:30 to go take the Remedies test. Mr. Mustard drove me to school, which was great because with that level of sleep I didn't think I should be operating a car. I got to school and my computer wouldn't work! We take our exams on laptop, so if your computer isn't working, it's a really big deal. I was so exhausted I about started crying, but eventually got the computer working.

The test was 3.5 hours, with 1/3 of the questions multiple choice, 1/3 essay, and 1/3 short answer. I'm not sure how I did- I feel like I was in a total fog for the exam and plugged my way through it. Multiple choice as a rule for me is hard because I tend to overthink things, and it takes forever for me to eliminate certain choices.

I'm not sure when we get our grades- but I do have to have better than a C for the grades to transfer- which is actually harder than it sounds, since all of law school grades are on a curve. So, only a small fraction of people can get an A or B. I think I have been stressing so much about the grades because if I don't get good grades this semester, then I will have to redo a whole semester next year- and Berkeley won't likely let me do it at UCLA again. It's really a lot of pressure for me to think about right now, which is why I'm so stressed out about it. It's a catch-22: I can't sleep because I'm stressed, but I can't perform well because I can't sleep.

This whole exam period has me re-thinking taking the Bar at 37 1/2 weeks because I really don't think the stress involved is very healthy. I am considering asking my doctor if he will prescribe me Ambien or something like that so I can sleep before the Bar if I do take it. One of my friends (Ann) said that her doctor offered to prescribe her Ambien when she couldn't sleep when she was pregnant with Benjamin. I've been really reluctant to take anything while pregnant, though- even Tylenol. So, I would like to avoid doing that.

I may just postpone taking the Bar until February. I don't mind putting myself through stress, but it's different with a growing baby. I really scared myself the other night with the contractions- because even though they were the false labor kind (Braxton-Hicks), they started to get a lot stronger and closer together in a pattern- which is NOT a good sign. I think stress has a powerful impact on the body and it's just too much to go through at 6 months pregnant like I am now- let alone going through it at 9 months when I'm taking the Bar.

So, I have one more exam to take. This last exam I can "schedule"- meaning I can take it anytime between now and the end of next week. Originally I was planning on taking it this Friday, but I need a few days to recuperate from my first two exams. Everyone has been scaring me telling me how difficult this last test is going to be- how horrible the professor's tests are and how hard of a grader he is. I don't really think that's helpful information. I'm going to do that best that I can do- like I always do. I am going to postpone taking the test until Monday so that I can have a chance to recover because I can't even think about studying or taking another test at the moment. So, Monday evening I will (hopefully- assuming I pass all classes) be finished with law school!

Next Tuesday Mr. Mustard and I are getting together with Mr. Mustard's mom to go to the Pasadena Show Home Tour- which will be a lot of fun. Then, next Wednesday, my dad is coming to visit. We'll be going up to Berkeley next Saturday for my graduation! I am very excited to graduate- but again, I won't really believe I've graduated until I get a diploma mailed to me in August. I've always thought that they should wait to have graduation until all the grades are in and the registrar has cleared you to graduate- but I guess it's easier to do it while everyone is still in town.

My next doctor's appointment is on May 15th (the day after Mother's Day). I think he's just doing a gestational diabetes (glucose tolerance) test that day, where I have to drink a sugary beverage and then they test my blood sugar. I know that pretty soon I will start having more frequent appointments- but I don't think that happens until the third trimester, which is still about two weeks away.