We’re still on a high after seeing our baby and getting to know her a little better. Rafael captured some cool shots of this moment…
Happy father’s day, daddy-to-be!
Season’s first harvest
I had the most amazing salad the other day. Where was it from, you may ask? My deck! I’ve got a potters full of lettuce and spinach growing right on my deck. All I have to do is walk out, snip some off, rinse it off and enjoy. Yum!
The other planters are holding tomato, jalapeno, cilantro, basil and parsley. Soon we’ll be having delicious pico de gallo…
We’re having a…
Girl! A baby girl. I can hardly believe it! Rafa was right 🙂
Even better than knowing the gender is that the ultrasound showed all good things – she’s growing great. She is breech right now, but there is plenty of time for her to flip around before delivery. She weighs about one pound and her heart was beating at 153 beats per minute. All the measurements are on schedule for our original Oct. 25 due date.
There are times that I forget that I am pregnant. Most of the time I feel pretty good and I can still see my toes. I only feel her move when I’m sitting very still after I drink something cold or eat some sugar. I get an occasional pang of round ligament pain at night or if I jump out of a chair too quickly. I’ve really been blessed with a very easy pregnancy so far. It’s crazy to think that she will be here in about 130 days!
We’re halfway there!
20 Weeks! It’s really hard to believe we are at the halfway point. In 20 more weeks, it will be time to meet our little chimuelo. Here’s a new belly picture:
Ever since the exciting miracle kicks, there has been daily activity going on in there. Last night, the baby started getting active once I laid down in bed. I told Rafa about it, and he put his arm around me and settled a hand on the general area. We were just laying there, cuddling and talking, when the baby interrupted with a punch.
“Whoa! Was that what I think it was?” The movement in my belly took him by surprise! It was a super exciting moment to share. I didn’t think he would be able to feel the baby move for another month at least.
Our next dose of excitement will be next week, we we have an ultrasound to check in on the baby…and find out the gender! I think it’s a boy and Rafa thinks it’s a girl. One of us will be right! 🙂
My favorite things
I haven’t had very many cravings during my pregnancy, but I have had a lot of new aversions to foods and smells. My sudden dislike of cilantro has put a severe damper on my former love of Chipotle. Rafa is counting down the days until I agree to set foot in there again!
Even though there are a lot of things I now dislike, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by some things I really, really like this week:
Flowers from our yard placed in our bedroom by my honey:
This song that I heard on the Chicago Code and I can’t get out of my head:
I Dream of Chicago by the Parlours
Sweets. Lots and lots of sweet, gooey sugar and carbs:
And last, but not least, driving around in Iowa with my honey. Sunroof open, windows down, on the way to the lake:
A miracle kick
It’s easy to get sucked into the plethora of pregnancy information that’s on the internet. By reading a few message boards, I can find out about every disease, pain, pitfall and potential problem that has ever happened to any pregnant woman, anywhere in the world.
While some of this information is useful (how to alleviate cankles, for instance), there is definitely some information overload going on here. Case in point: many of the posters on the baby forum talk a lot about when they do and don’t feel the baby move. It’s kind of the hot topic at this stage of pregnancy – when they feel it, where they feel it and how it feels.
I had felt a few flutters, but nothing substantial. As I read more and more about people and the kicking of their babies, I just kept wondering if I/we are normal. It wasn’t keeping me up at night or anything, but it was on my mind. I was thinking about it all weekend, hoping that I would feel some substantial movement instead of a tiny tickle that could just as easily be mistaken for gas rumblings.
Last night, I finally gave up my worry. Instead of continuing to thinking about it, I finally prayed about it. I told God that I knew this baby was a gift from Him. I thanked Him for letting me carry this baby. I gave Him my worry…which freed up space in my heart to give Him trust instead. Laying in bed in the dark, I smiled from the huge relief I felt from getting rid of the burden I was carrying.
At that moment, I felt the most incredible feeling I have ever felt inside my abdomen. I didn’t just get a kick – I got a tap dance recital/high-kick routine/black belt karate chops throughout my belly. I just started crying tears of joy. Yes, those miracle kicks were a really nice reminder of the child growing inside of me, but more importantly, they were an amazing, tangible reminder that my Father hears every cry of my heart.
I feel pregnant
It took awhile, but I am finally okay with feeling pregnant. I “popped” almost two weeks ago, but I wasn’t quite ready. I just kind of felt fat(ter). I tried on a maternity tent-like shirt and did not like what I saw.
But now, I’m there. I wore a maternity shirt to work today that showed off my baby bump. And I liked it. And no one told me I was huge or anything like that. Check it out:
Yes, I took a photo of myself in the bathroom mirror at work 🙂 Maybe I’ll let Rafael try again with the real camera at home tonight!
Whenever it comes
Happy non-post-apocolyptic Monday. Or just happy regular Monday, I guess. I wasn’t expecting to meet Jesus this weekend, but that didn’t stop me from hoping it would happen anyway. I always have a prayer in my heart of Maranatha (Lord, come quickly) because I’m really looking forward to that day, whenever it comes.
Just because  I didn’t meet Jesus in person this weekend doesn’t mean I didn’t talk to him a lot. Grandma C. was airlifted to Mayo on Thursday because she was having a stroke. I went to see her on Friday and told her that if she wanted to come to Minnesota, she should have just come to my house instead. Ha. She shook her head and cried.
Her progress since her stroke on Thursday can only be described as a miracle. Several doctors have used that word too. She has progressed from not being able to speak or use her right side to having full control of her arm and leg and being able to speak again. She still have a path of recovery ahead of her, but she told me she knows God is with her and she asked for continued prayers. She wants to go to J’s wedding this summer and see all her great-grandchildren born this year. I will be having the fourth one in just 2011 – and the 28th great-grandchild born overall.
Of course, Grandma wasn’t the only event of the weekend. I threw a shower for J on Saturday in NH. We had 32 people come to celebrate her upcoming wedding. The shower went great. I had to say thank you Jesus for helping me pull it off. I had everything ready so that I didn’t need (much) help from mom – she just had to show up and take an afternoon off of caring for her mama.
Hawkie was having problems too. He has an absessed anal gland (yes, it’s as gross as it sounds) and had a minor surgery. He has to wear a cone for at least another week! He woke us up throughout the night accidentally hitting us with his big plastic cone around his head.Â
Throughout all this, my wonderful husband took care of our house and primed the baby’s room. Then cleaned and cleaned to get ready for house church last night. I arrived home 10 minutes before it was supposed to start. I walked in, gave him a kiss, then went downstairs to run through the worship music before it was time to begin. I ended the weekend so thankful for my wonderful husband who took care of everything so that I could have a weekend with my family and spend some precious extra time with them.
We can wait
In the interest of trying to manage our finances like the mature, responsible adults we pretend to be, Rafael and I tried something new for a semi-major purchase: delayed gratification. Over the past four months, we have been hiding small amounts of money in an ING account in preparation to buy this:
Yes, I realize this tiny, non-descript box really isn’t very impressive, but my husband assures me this fancy camera lens is 100 percent worth every penny.
Finding out that we can wait was so fun-slash-rewarding that we designated this micro-saving strategy for some other fun things, like future vacation, a someday new car and fixing our deck.
I’m also helping it will inspire our savings in the areas that aren’t quite as fun (right now, anyway) like replacing our furnace, paying off student loan debt and the education of our future children.
Dia de madre
It’s sorta kinda my first mother’s day. To Rafael, mother’s day is on the 10th of May, not a floating Sunday. I’ll go with it…adopting the Latin American date makes me feel very multi-cultural. So feliz dia de la madre to me!
There are some awesome and not-so-fantastic things that I have learned so far…
Awesome list:
1. Giggling with excitement with other soon-to-be mom friends.
2. Planning the nursery with my favorite art director.
3. Pouring over lists of names and imaging what he or she will look like.
4. Enjoying date nights extra now because we know our life will be different soon!
5. Stretchy pants. If I get my appetite back, I am going to a buffet or something.
Not-so-fantastic?
1. People who think it’s okay to tell me that I look fat. I still have feelings, people!
2. Afternoon tiredness. I could seriously take a nap every day. Maybe they won’t notice if I hide under my desk?
3. Already stressing about daycare.
4. Getting nauseous if I don’t eat, or if I do, or when I’m driving, and when I’m riding. And sometimes when I’m thinking.
5. Having to wait! October 25 can’t come soon enough.