23 July 2009

Less than a month...

Yes, we are down to less than one month to go...exactly 4 weeks from today is my due date. People keep asking if I'm nervous, and I keep saying no, because consciously I don't feel nervous about any of it, however, my dreams are telling a slightly different story. I keep having very funny anxiety dreams about things like breastfeeding or not knowing what to do with the baby, right down to the concept of how to carry it. In that dream I actually put the baby in my pocket to bring her downstairs (yes, it was a girl in that dream too). Despite the fact that we still keep referring to it as "he" because we both feel like its probably a boy, it is still always a girl in my dreams. I did have a minor breakdown the other day about how crazy it is that we make all these important decisions for this little being that could affect its whole life and that I didn't feel qualified to be making these decisions. It started with me thinking about medical decisions, like vaccinations and circumcision, but then it turned into such decisions as what to name the baby. I mean, why are we qualified as parents to decide what this child is going to be called for the rest of its life. It just all of a sudden seemed so permanent and important. (And yes, we are still not sharing the girl name we've decided on and we still have yet to settle on a boy name).

So, despite all my no's to the question of whether or not I'm nervous, I suppose subconciously I have a few worries popping into my head. Other than that though, everything is going as great as possible. I still feel wonderful most of the time and the baby is very active and fun. As of tomorrow's midwives appt, we start going in every week to be checked out which makes it feel really close. I guess it IS really close now. According to the fruit chart we are up to watermelon size and that's about as big as it gets in the fruit world, so we must be close. Stay tuned for more updated belly photos. We've been good about remembering to take them more often now, but I have been less than good at remembering to upload them to the computer.

Speaking of memory...I'll share one quick and funny story from last night. One of my friends asked me what the most challenging part of being pregnant has been, and my answer was this, "Well, I think I'd have to say there are 2 things that I've struggled the most with. The first one is that I can't stand being this emotional about things. I feel like I'm usually a fairly rational person when it comes to emotions and judging whether or not I'm overreacting to things" (although I know some of you reading this may disagree :) "...but lately I don't have any idea what is a rational thought and what is just the hormones making me completely irrational and it drives me nuts not being able to distinguish the two. And the second thing is...hmmm, I know there were 2 things I was thinking of...what was the second thing?? ummmm, wow, I can't remember what the other thing was that's driving me nuts...(insert long pause)...OH YEAH, its that I keep forgetting everything and my memory is horrible"

And no, I was not just trying to be funny about it, I honestly could not remember that my memory issues were the second thing that's bothering me about being pregnant. Unbelievable.

07 July 2009

Moving and Nesting...




So, with 6 weeks to go, we finally realized that it might not make sense to try to buy a new house right now. We've decided to stay where we are at least until after the baby is born and to make better use of the space we have so that we can be comfortable here for several years if we need to be. We're actually very excited about the decisions and about our plans for renovating the porch and turning it into an office for Bev so she doesn't have to try to work from home in our living room while the baby and I hang out and have fun (or scream or cry or change poopy diapers) right in the same room for 3 months while I'm on maternity leave.

Also, in making that decision, we've officially begun the nesting process. We painted the baby's room (and by "we", I mean Bev); we did all of the little baby laundry that needed to be done before we put all the cute clothes and blankets on our little baby Pigeon (and by "we", I mean Bev, although this was coincidence and not that I couldn't wash baby clothes while pregnant); and we prepped all of the cloth diapers we have by washing them several times to get rid of the natural oils in the cotton and make them more absorbent before use (this one I actually did do myself...see, I can still do laundry). There are still a few more chores to get done, but we're on our way. This week's projects include making roman shades for the baby's room (yes, I'm actually using the sewing machine I asked for last Christmas), rearranging the furniture in the baby's room and setting up the crib, and most likely, getting the hospital bag packed and ready to go. Its totally stressing Bev out that we don't have the bag packed yet. :)

We decided on a tan/brownish color for the walls with all of our jungle themed greens and such to add some color. I'll post some finished product photos when its done. For now here's the work in progress:

Fully Showered...







We have officially been fully showered, with love and support and more gifts than we can fit into our little yellow house. In the month of June we were lucky enough to have 3 separate gatherings of friends and family to celebrate the coming of this little Pigeon. It is amazing to see how well loved this baby is before its even here on the outside, although its becoming more and more obvious that it is "here" already based on the size of me. :)

We'd like to thank everyone for such wonderful celebrations and I thought I would post a few photos of the events. Most of the photos are from the surprise shower that my family threw down in Massachusetts. The bottom photo was taken at the shower in Maine where many of our friends and Bev's family all got together to share in the celebration (including my little helper of the day Ryan). Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the third "shower" gathering that my frisbee friends arranged the following day where we got to see so many of LBP's future little friends (nearly all of them have kids under the age of 3 already).

I'd also like to give Bev a little round of applause for doing a wonderful job at helping and keeping secrets and organizing, and sitting with me to be the center of attention for all the gift opening. Thank you for that and HUGE thank you's to everyone for everything. We are very lucky and grateful to have you all in our lives and we can't wait for LBP to be able to meet everyone...soon, so soon!!