These past two weeks have been dominated by an attitude of gratitude. I’m just so overwhelmingly thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. My baby shower was held last Saturday and for as much as I hate baby showers and wasn’t exactly looking forward to it, I appreciate all the effort that went into planning it and for everyone who showed up to support me. I had a good time and am especially thankful that my friends respected my wishes and didn’t play archaic baby shower games that I find to be boring. They entered everyone’s name into a drawing and drew for prizes during the shower so the guests still got a chance to win a prize for coming but didn’t have to identify candy bars melted into a diaper by smelling them or resist saying baby or taste baby food or any of the other ridiculous things guests are often expected to do at these sort of events. I have to provide a disclaimer that I have hosted baby showers and I have required these things of others before but I was new to baby showers and those things seemed like fun at the time. After having been to many, which all seem to entail some variation of these activities, I now detest the thought of having to do so. However, if you like this sort of thing, no judgement from me. I just hope that if you attended my shower you weren’t disappointed with the lack of these activities. We had a taco bar, which was fabulous, the most adorable backdrop for taking pics, and I opened my gifts on center stage, another expected part of the affair that I’m not the biggest fan of. It was held at my workplace so the indoor playground provided entertainment for the children in attendance, which was nice. I’ll be sending out thank you cards very soon but if you attended or have given me a gift, please know that I truly appreciate your love and support; from the people I see every day (and love very much) to the family that I don’t see often who still came, and the friends that didn’t know anyone else but still showed up, I feel honored to have been your choice to spend some time with on a Saturday. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The beautiful quilt that Cheryl G. made for me. She’s a regular at my yoga classes. What a thoughtful gift this is, I know how much time goes into quilting. I’m so thankful!
*Hand made or store bought, every gift was appreciated! š„°
My greatest appreciation is for my husband, who is the best, hands down. I’m not even sure how to put into words how much he means to me and has helped make this new venture in our lives easier and exciting while also understanding my feelings and concerns. Even just the simple things that he does to make my life less burdensome are probably not a big deal to him but mean so much to me. Things such as helping me get dressed when I need it (who knew putting on a sports bra would be so hard?), finding the girls’ Kongs (that I fill with peanut butter/coconut oil treats that I make them and give them before I leave for work) and putting them up on the counter before going to his job so that I don’t have to search for them under the couch (because bending over is hard ya’ll!), and getting my shoes out and sitting them in front of a chair so I can sit and put them on when we’re ready to take the dogs for a walk. He never (seems to) gets tired of me just being tired or needing to rest and is so supportive and understanding that life is hard right now. I’m sure some of you are thinking that life is about to get even harder, and I’m sure you’re right but knowing that I have him to help me through it sure makes the thought of it easier. I know how lucky I am to have him.
You know you’ve reached a pivotal point in your pregnancy when people stop asking how far along you are and instead ask how much longer you have. Eight weeks. That’s it. Shit’s about to get real very soon. People love asking if I’m excited and I’m sure my answer leaves much to be desired. I honestly haven’t thought too much about what life will be life once he’s here until recently and really that’s only because we’ve had to go through his things and think about what else we need to buy, where we’re going to put stuff, etc. I don’t really know what to expect except that I’ll be tired and overwhelmed and maybe a little resentful that I’m a milk machine, if breastfeeding works out. I’m anxious to have my body back to myself, not because I don’t like sharing it with him (really I like feeling him move sometimes; just not underneath my ribsš”) but because I’m just not comfortable being this size. Most activities are hard; even walking up and down stairs wears me out. I’m still doing yoga but it’s not nearly as easy as it used to be. I’ve maintained my flexibility in my legs but any forward folding is difficult. Speaking of things I don’t like, I did my 3 hour glucose test this weekend. My one hour test produced a slightly high result; I’m genetically pre-dispositioned and over 25, which raises my risk of having gestational diabetes so the 3 hour fasting test was ordered. The drink they give you, which contains 100 grams of sugar=25 teaspoons, you are required to drink within 5 minutes. Ingesting that much sugar on an empty stomach makes for some awesome nausea, let me tell you. Four hours, 5 cups of urine, and 5 tubes of blood later and you can leave. I hope to get the results in my online health record next week but they’ll call me for sure if they are high. I’ve started bi-weekly visits with the doctor now but I won’t see her again until the week after next. Philip and I both had a Tdap vaccine at our visit this week to protect the baby from whooping cough. The doctor told Philip if he wanted one he had to go out to the front desk and register and she joked about him signing in for his gynecology appointmentš. The shot makes your arm sore for a couple of days. However, I prefer that to the pain my poor vein felt yesterday after being stuck 5 times. I think she kept intentionally putting the needle in the same exact place…is that normal, nurse friends? I feel like it could’ve been moved 1/16” each time without difficulty š¤·š»♀️.
Another byproduct of being hugely pregnant is having strangers make remarks about your very obvious condition. Luckily, they’ve all been nice and no one has attempted to touch. Sympathetic mothers ask about your due date. Some have told me how cute I look and that I’m “all belly.” One said the other day that she knows I don’t feel cute right now but I look it. I was surprised by her empathy to my feelings, which were spot on.
We made good progress in the nursery this weekend. After the shower last Saturday Philip reopened all the gifts and we took the tags off the clothes and got them ready to be washed. They finally got sorted and put away the past two days. I’ve bought clothes as they’ve gone on sale (mostly at Peebles because Lisa loves to tell me when they’re having a 50% off clearance sale š) so we have a range of sizes. We bought some under the bed totes and I made labels for them on my Cricut so that we could separate them and not have to dig through stuff to find what fits. Philip’s mom bought us a really nice camera for over the crib and he got that installed also. The only thing is it comes with an app that alerts you when there’s movement or sound in the crib and since it’s empty and I keep getting notifications, I’m beginning to think the crib is haunted. That, or Sophie jumps up in it. Could go either way. She was the definition of jealous while we were trying to sort the baby’s clothes: laying on them, trying to get in our faces to make us pay attention to her, etc. It was quite pathetic but slightly amusing. She’s gonna be a handful when he finally arrives š¤¦š»♀️.
Utilizing space under the crib to store totes.
And also under the dresser.
Sansa has been sleeping in there for months so I expect that to continue. Typically she lays in her (as we now refer into it)/his room until I go to bed and then comes into our room and sleeps on the small sofa we have by our bed. He won’t sleep in there at night anyway so she’s probably better off to keep on. If he continues the sleeping pattern that he has now, I may join her š. Philip says he feels the baby move every night while I’m sleeping when he comes to bed so apparently we’re on opposite schedules. It’s funny how him moving used to keep me up and now I don’t even know it’s going on. Philip is still the only one to feel him move because this kid doesn’t move on command for anyone. That reminds me that while I was stuck at the hospital for 4 hours for my 3 hour glucose test I had taken my pregnancy journal and thought that would be one way in which I could kill some time. I filled some of it out but one of the questions it asked was what qualities do you hope your child has and what do you hope he/she doesn’t have? The only one I could think of for doesn’t have is stubbornness. That’s a silly want really though because Philip and I are both stubborn as hell (him more than me š¤Ŗ) so I don’t think he has a chance š©.
Our other children have been their normal goofy selves. Soph is chewing on her ear beside me as I type this š. They got their own gift at the baby shower and it took them (really Sophie more than Sansa) about 5 minutes to destroy their new toys. However, Soph is still carrying around the carcass of the pig so I think it’s safe to say she really liked it.
Thank you, Valerie and Stephanie! š
“Mess? What mess?” š
“I love you, Mom.” She’s really good at apologizing.
Attack of the Sophie monster. She LOVES having the blanket put over her head, seriously. Then she tries to attack Sansa. She’s the goofiest dog.
“Invading Sanaa’s space? No, I don’t think I am..”
These dogs sure make life interesting.
I have a busy day tomorrow so it’s sleepy time for this Momma. One day I’ll write about my hobbies again, I promise! š
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