Practice, practice, practice...

The first weekend of May we had a bbq at our house to celebrate Bev's sister Lesley's graduation from her masters program. Yippee!!! Luckily, the family visit offered Bev the chance to do some practicing on all the fun tasks she'll get to be a part of once LBP finally joins us on the outside (makes it sound like the little one is in prison, huh?!). Meet Odin, Bev's nephew, who was very cooperative in letting Bev polish her long lost baby skills on him. We determined that the last time Bev changed a diaper was probably when her sister Kim (Odin's mom) was a baby over 20 years ago. Aside from a little struggle with getting his shirt over head, I think she did alright.

The zucchini belly

So, I'm a little late in posting, but apparently the baby was recently the size of a zucchini, and the day we read that, we happened to be having zucchini for dinner that night. As you can see from the photo, the zucchini would most definitely fit inside my belly right now (and I mean that in reference to the size of the baby, not to the fact that I did eat the whole zucchini that night for dinner and it did indeed end up in my belly). We are now at about the size of a papaya, in case anyone is wondering. Funny thing though about the fruit from here on out...depending on where you're getting it and what season it is, many of these things can come in very different sizes. According to this website, a lemon is bigger than a peach and an avocado is bigger than an orange. I think I'd order them differently if I were thinking about the fruits I see in our grocery stores. Oh well. Its still fun to picture.

I can't believe we are over halfway there and I just noticed on my ticker that we only have 125 days to go. That seems like a very short amount of time. All of a sudden it feels like we have a lot to do. We did have an amazing appointment with a pediatrician this week who shares in my philosophies about health and illness and whose practice is very holistic and nature-based. That's one huge decision off my plate that I feel really good about. I walked away feeling completely confident that I could trust her with my baby and not anticipating that I'm going to have to research every decision on my own to be sure I agree (which I know I would do with most other doctors and which really takes up a lot of time and causes unnecessary worry).

Next big decision - daycare providers. I'm suddenly fascinated by how anyone finds someone they trust enough to spend that much time with their children. There are some open houses this weekend, which sound promising, so I'm not going to worry too much about it until after then.

Ultrasound photos

I don't have time at work to write too much now, but the quick and simple is...Costa Rica was wonderful. Details and photos will be up sometime in the near future. The ultrasound was this morning and went great. All parts are in good shape on our little baby and it cooperated well with getting some good photos. Here's a quick sneak peak at the little Pigeon. More details to come later when I'm not trying to catch up on 2 weeks of emails at work. :)

Sleeping in Laughter

A month ago today, Nana Pigeon passed away. She was a woman who lived her life in laughter as often as possible. While I was home for a few days to attend the services, there were several gatherings at my aunt's house where the whole family would get together and hang out to prepare and go through old photographs and talk about all the old stories and memories we had of her. Inevitably, we'd all end up laughing remembering all the good times and funny stories.



And throughout those few days, I had to stay aware that at this point in my pregnancy, my energy level was much lower than normal, and my tolerance for noise and overwhleming stimulation that my family exudes may not be the same as it usually is. I made sure to take time and go to the other room and sit for a few minutes in the quiet, with Cooper, who was always hiding from the noise as best he could. It was during one of these "breaks" that I became aware of a very strong memory of my own from when I was really little. It was that very familiar sense of being put to bed for the night or for a nap while the rest of the family was still hanging out and of hearing the distant laughter rising and falling the way the cheering at a sports event does in rhythm with what is happening at the time. It was just far enough away to be pleasant and not distracting and I can remember how soothing it was to fall asleep to that sound of laughter.



I sat in that room, cuddled up with Cooper on the floor and let myself dwell on that sound again and really appreciate the happiness and security and love surrounding it. And, it brought me to tears (emotional pregnant lady shines through) thinking about how my kids are going to have that sound to fall asleep to. They are going to get it when we come home to visit the family, and they will get it when we have our friends over, who are our family away from home, and they'll get it when we spend time with Bev's family because although there are less of them, they are so similar to us in their appreciation of laughter and family. It was a wonderful enough thought that I wanted to share it and to remind people to never take for granted the laughter that we share. We are all lucky to have each other in our lives. And, while our babies are all sleeping in laughter, we can rest assured that those we have lost are still immersed in that laughter as well.



(I know I said that the next post would have the ultrasound picture, but I had to throw one more in here before I left for vacation. Next one...I promise.)

Movements

So, for the past week or so I've been randomly getting that weird feeling you get in your stomach when you go over the top of a roller coaster hill, just as it starts to drop. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but the more it has happened, the more I'm realizing that its actually this little baby in there moving around and basically tickling me from the inside. What a bizarre feeling. It just happened again while writing this. So much fun.

We had a midwive appt. yesterday and got to hear the heartbeat for the third time. This time, while she was looking for the spot to get the best signal from the heart, we heard several loud thumps coming from the monitor. With each one the midwife said "ooh, that's a kick" or "whoa, there's another one". So, apparently this kid is very active right now. The heartbeat was still strong (139bpm) and sounded a bit farther away than before, so I think the baby has shifted positions and its legs and arms are now toward my belly button. Its just so cool that its moving around. Apparently it will still be several weeks before people can feel the movements on the outside, so you'll all have to wait. I get to enjoy this for myself for a bit.

We're off to Costa Rica on Tuesday, and by the time we get back, it will be ultrasound day. The next post I write will have a cool photo of this little one inside of me hopefully. We'll try to bring some warmth and sun home with us as well. See everyone soon.