"I wouldn't want to be pregnant in this heat."

That's what the regional American doctor told me on Monday at my check up. Thanks, Doc. He's traveling through, so I did my monthly check up with him instead of the local nurse. He's leaving his post soon and he wanted to see the pregnancy for himself. (While he's seen me before in person, that was pre-pregnancy. He's been handling my pregnancy via email.) His replacement will be just one more member of my pregnancy team, spanning several countries and two continents. (All for one of the safest, healthiest, most boring pregnancies ever, aside from where it's happening.)

When the doctor asked how things were going, if I was having any problems, the only thing I could find to complain about was the heat and that's when he agreed that it must be rough. I generally run cold and I've been finding the equatorial climate quite pleasant actually, until just a few weeks ago. Yeah, I have some achiness and tiredness sometimes, but it really has been the heat that knocks me down and makes me useless. I try to be grateful that I work in an office with air conditioning, but that air conditioning really only works about twenty percent of the time. The electricity fluctuates so much that the air conditioner is always the first thing to die when the flow weakens. I strip down to as few clothes as appropriate for an office, try to drink as much room-temperature water as I can, try to catch any sort of breeze, and wish I knew a magic spell to get the air conditioner running again. As soon as I get home at night I lock myself in the bedroom with the air conditioner on a high as possible without blowing a fuse at the house.

And this air conditioner obsession is all new for me. I usually can't stand them and prefer windows open with fans. But fans aren't cutting it right now.

Today was a surprisingly, blessedly, rare sunless day. It rained for several hours and stayed cloudy all day. Now I have all the windows open, letting the cool breeze blow through the house. I wish I could bottle this cool air for tomorrow, because it's not going to last for long.