Our Days Together

Luke turns 7 months old today.

He sleeps through the night now, and I wake up at 3:00 a.m. not knowing what to do with myself.

He has two teeth.

He likes to test his vocal chords by yelling and growling.

Sometimes he likes to eat food. Yogurt is his new favorite food. He also likes little bites of bagel with cream cheese.

He moves in a circle on his hands and knees.

He plays with his toys and waves both hands in the air. He likes to bang things together.

He gives me open-mouth kisses on my chin. Sometimes he bites down.

He loves to snuggle and hates to be left alone.

I like to sing him songs and read him stories.

I watch him sleep.

I imitate his sounds.

I talk to him all day long, so much so that my voice starts to get sore.

I play with him on the floor.

I take him swimming at the Y once a week.

We walk to the park or the beach.

When/IF he naps, I like to read my own books, cook, watch t.v. or nap right along with him.

Our days are full, and sometimes mundane, but, more often than not, interesting and bright.

In case anybody still checks my blog, "Look! I've posted!"

Okay, so it's been almost an entire year since I've posted anything here. I really wanted to get rid of the lovely belly shots that come up every time I look at my blog, which admittedly isn't very often.
So, here is my "welcome back to blogging post", although I still can't guarantee much, not with a 6 1/2 month old crawling around my feet. I had a boy. His name is Luke, and he's incredible. At first I didn't know what I would do with a boy, and now I don't know what I would do without him. He's very cuddly, and he doesn't really cry. He yells whenever he wants something or needs us. He also growls and makes other scary noises. He sits up, eats, sleeps, poops, and giggles a lot. He doesn't miss a trick.
In other news, Zoe, the family dog, died this past Sunday. She was almost 11 years old and had a very good life. It's still sad. I'm 400 miles away, and it still makes me cry. No more walks and howls when I walk through the door. She was Ashley's dog, so I like to think that the two of them are together again.

Here's to hoping I can post more often.

26 Weeks

 

Belly Shots

16 Weeks


20 Weeks

I am now almost 22 weeks, and quite a bit bigger. The baby, a boy!, is pushing outward now. I've gained about 10 pounds, and he's already about 1 pound.

I haven't started taking pictures of my belly yet, but here's some other baby stuff

I now have an excuse for making mistakes, and I don't mean being blonde. Actually, I am (usually) disturbingly organized and on top of things. Lately, in the office, I've been making goofy mistakes, like mistaking the "M" or "F" written after a child's name for Monday and Friday. My director laughed at me when I asked her if those were the days the child was attending the after school program. So we determined that the baby is sapping me of precious brain cells. I keep trying anyway. I've done gone and booked myself solid with appointments over the next three weeks-ob/gyn, WIC, visiting nurse, and dentist among others. This will be my first dental visit in 7 years, that is if I remember to go. Wish me luck.

In other pregnancy news...

*Women at work who never so much as glanced in my direction are now telling me pregnancy and birth stories. I'm about three months along, but am not even showing yet. What will happen once I have a belly? I'm bracing myself already for all the stories I will hear from strangers and all the unwanted hands I will have touching my belly. Actually, I don't mind the nice and funny stories. I haven't heard any real horror stories yet.

*I've been eating dinner at 4:00 the past few days, and I love anything with tomatoes and ketchup. I haven't experienced a lot of hunger yet, but I get glimpses of it. I definately have cravings and food aversions.

*My bust is about 3 inches larger than normal. Wow.

*My waist is about 1 inch larger.

*I get up a lot in the middle of the night to pee. Already.

*I'm still really tired, and I haven't run in over two months. I walk instead.

Pregnancy Update

Zach and I have been on Cape Cod visiting his family for the past 4 days, and we'll be here until Sunday, the last day of our vacation. Monday Zach starts teaching and I have to go into work for the first time in over two weeks to start planning for the fall afterschool program. I keep reminding myself every morning to enjoy the moment and relax, and then maybe I'll feel ready to go back to work. I'll let you know how that plan works out.
In the meantime, we've been visiting Zach's family, including his very-pregnant (37 weeks along) sister and his cousin who is 2 months postpartum, adjusting to life with a two-month old and an almost-2-year old. I still find it hard to believe that I'll be that pregnant in as little as 2 more months, and that I'll have a real, live baby in less than 7 months. I haven't gained any weight yet. In fact, I lost about 2 pounds the first two months, but I may have regained that by now. According to some weight tables about pregnancy, I'm underweight. My bmi is about 18, and should be 20. It has never been 20 in my life. I was a bit anxious about it all for the first few weeks, and I was eating frequently trying to make up for it. I eat until I feel Thanksgiving- day stuffed, and then I'm uncomfortable. I don't think I'm eating that much, it's just the gas and bloating that makes it feel that way. I'm eating a healthy diet, and I think I need to trust my body and let it do what it knows how to do. I'm sure the weight will come, and then I won't want it.

Lake Winnepesauki

 

An Eeyore kind of day

Yesterday I went ALL THE WAY (not a bad one to two mile walk, when you're not pregnant. I drove half way and walked half way.) up to campus in order to deposit a few checks in the campus credit union atm. My work doesn't have direct deposit, and my bank is 130 miles away. The computers were down at the bank yesterday, so the machines were all off line. **sigh** A useless trip. I went up again today, and this time I was denied the deposit transaction, although I could still take money out. I just activated my new debit card yesterday and cut up the old one. Argh.
Next I decided I would fill up my car with gas, because Zach and I are driving out to Cape Cod on Sunday to visit his parents for a week. The gas tank door is jammed shut again. We had it "fixed" a few days ago at the Toyota dealer. Apparentely a spring had gone bad. You can't just open the door like on a normal car. Instead you have to release it by a small lever inside the car next to the trunk release. It's not working.
So then I thought I'd call my new health insurance company (because it's always calming to speak to a health insurance co. agent, no? I just wanted to get it out of the way.) to see what mental health coverage they provide and if I can still continue to see Janet, my therapist, when my new coverage begins. It turns out Health America is switching to a new provider who probably won't cover any of the $100.00 sessions. I currently pay $30.00 a session. I'm sure she and I can work some payment plan out, or maybe this is a good time to terminate, as they say in the mental health field. I think I've gotten as much as I could expect out of 4 years of therapy, and I'm happy with where I'm at now. Sometimes it's just nice to have that weekly or bi-monthly hour-long session to sort things out.

Despite it all, I can still see the bright side, the Pooh side, of things, too.

There are plenty of things that have gone right lately. I signed up for WIC, and am now getting $10-$20.00 worth of milk and juice each week, and cheese, cereal and peanut butter each month for free. I also got 4 $5.00 checks to use at farmer's markets for fresh produce. Today I bought a yellow and green pepper, a sweet onion, garlic, and hot peppers to make a chicken stir fry for dinner. I also picked up some DVDs from the library, and if I don't feel too nauseous tonight, maybe I can stay up until 10:00 watching them with Zach. Did I mention that I'll be in Cape Cod for a week? That's worth something. I'm surprisingly calm about all of the things that have gone wrong. They could be worse. But just to make it all better I'm eating the last chocolate chip cookie (the last 3, actually).