Well, it’s official. I’m an Easter egg.
And, thankfully,
I’m only one month from my due date. YEAH!
I’d be happier if I had only two weeks left, considering how large and uncomfortable I feel, but
it’s nice to know I’m so close to the end.
Yes, these last few weeks have been rough. I may have had it
easy for a good long while, but things changed pretty quickly. No more tiny
baby bump for me. I’m poking out now and I’m feeling it, feeling all that
stretching and aching. Sometimes it feels like I pulled a muscle in my abdomen
because I’m so stretched out! I can’t stand right or walk right because of the pain. Heck,
I can’t even sleep right. Rolling over in bed is a painful chore, as is
getting OUT of bed, which I do frequently to get up and go to the bathroom. All in all, I feel like an achy old woman whose
body is breaking down, like I’m doing intense workouts every day, but instead
of getting fitter, I’m getting fatter!
My doctor wasn’t exactly encouraging either. I met with him
a few days ago and told him of my aches and pains. He smiled and said, “That’s great! And they’re gonna get worse!”
Yippee for me! If that’s the case, I guess it’s time we get our new hot tub
working. Some days, a good soak is just what I need.
Yes, we have a hot tub, along with a backyard and a house! We moved on April 30th into our
very first home, which is very exciting. But moving has been quite a
process. Normally, I get us right in, put everything in its place, and have everything
designed and decorated within a week or two. Atmosphere is huge for me and I love to
create an inviting space in my home, to make it feel like we’re all settled in.
But with our new home, there’s so much space to fill and it’s
a little overwhelming, especially being so pregnant. I’m trying to do as much
as I can before the baby comes, to get things furnished and get some paint on
the walls. But I know we won’t get too far. Many of the walls and rooms will
remain bare and unfinished for a little while. It’ll have to be a work in
progress, put together piece by piece. That’s not my style at all. I get
obsessive about projects, get hyper-focused and work on it ‘til it’s done! But it's too big of a project to approach that way so I’ll have to learn to take
it slow and steady.
Slow and steady. Ha ha! Yeah, that’s not me. But I’m happy
to have fun projects to work on and have the space to work with. And Nick is
too. What a blessing for us, to finally have our own home!
We have gotten a
few pieces of furniture and made a few decisions on design, but most of our
progress has been in Gavin’s room, which has turned out very cute. I only need
to put up a few photos and get him some curtains, but otherwise his room is
done and he loves it. Of course, we
went with a Cars theme, since he’s
quite obsessed with that movie, and with cars in general. In fact, we just
watched Cars last night and he was quoting the entire movie, line by line, as
he was watching it, including the songs. To think that a year ago, he wasn’t
even talking yet!
Now I’m on to the baby’s room. I’ve been thinking of doing
an ocean theme. I want to create some of my own art pieces for the room and figure
that’s a fun subject with lots of possibilities, though I’m also considering an
elephant theme since they’re so darn cute. It’ll be fun to have the boys’ rooms
done,
feel like I have one area of the house all complete.
Some of home design is fun, like when you run across that
perfect piece of furniture or decoration or color. I can’t say that painting is
fun, though. We painted Gavin’s room and discovered what a chore it can be,
especially all the detail work. Bending and reaching and squatting are not too
fun when you’re weighed down with a baby belly, either. I’ve decided that painting isn’t particularly suited to large pregnant
women. Nor is it suited for young children. We had to do all our painting
at night while Gavin was asleep, to avoid whatever can and will go wrong
when you put a toddler and an open paint bucket in the same room. I can only
imagine.
On top of the moving and home design and pregnancy pains, I
spent a good chunk of this last month battling a horrific cold, with all kinds
of symptoms coming and going and keeping me up at night. I had trouble
breathing, I had a terrible ache in my teeth, a violent cough (which is
especially fun when you have no bladder control, by the way), and the most wicked
sore throat. This went on for three unbearable weeks! I finally went to an
instacare and they gave me some antibiotics for a sinus infection. Thankfully, I started feeling better
and have gotten some of my energy back.
The sore throat has persisted, though, especially at night.
In fact, my throat will clench up throughout the day, which is quite a bother. I’ll
be talking and get interrupted because my throat is constricting. I thought it
might be allergies but now I’m wondering if this is some form of acid reflux,
as I know that’s very common in pregnancy. It
doesn’t feel good, but I suppose I’ve come to accept it after how horrible
I felt for so long! All I have is a sore
throat? Okay, I can live with that! I’ll ask the doctor about it at my next
visit, though.
I’ve always been amazed with pregnancy, that a woman’s body
has the capacity to carry this growing life inside of her. I remember the first
half of my pregnancy, knowing that the baby was below my belly button, in the
lower part of my abdomen. Now I can see and feel him moving all the way up
under my chest. It’s a little bit freaky to think of him taking up that much
space in my body, crowding out all my other organs. My doctor confirmed that I’m running out of room. He measured me
and said so, said that my uterus is all the way up to my rib cage, to my
xiphoid. Yep. That’s why I feel so achy. This guy has been really stretching me
out!
Then I see movement and I wonder, ‘Okay, was that a hand, a foot, an arm? I don’t even know! But it’s my
son and he’s nearly here!’ It’s still pretty unreal and I suppose it’s
because I still have a few weeks to go before he makes his big debut. But
another part of it – perhaps a bigger
part – is that I really don’t know him yet, not even at all. That’s the
thing about having a baby. You really have no clue who’s coming into your
family, not even what he looks like or anything about his personality. It’s
like having this present wrapped up and sitting next to you for nine months.
All the while, you have no idea what’s inside of that box,
not until you open it. You know you’ll
love it, you know it’s going to be good, but other than that, it’s a complete
mystery. Makes it a little hard to anticipate anything, to envision any of
it or prepare yourself in some way. You just open the box, see what’s inside,
and go from there!
In the meantime, I’ve felt myself get closer to Gavin, felt
a stronger bond with him. He’s at a cute stage anyway, so it’s easy to do. But
I’ve felt a little sad knowing it won’t be the two of us anymore. It’s fun to be so close to him, to
have him as my little buddy throughout the day. And I’ve seen him develop a
closeness to me too. Now I know we’ll
have to share that time together with someone else. I’m very excited for
him to have a brother and to see that relationship grow. But it’ll never be the
same once his brother comes so I’m trying to enjoy my special moments with him,
my cute little adventurer.
Not only will he have
to share his time with me, but Mommy will be in zombie mode for a little bit,
and this
mommy doesn’t do well with minimal sleep. Who knows what’s in that box and
what kind of a night I’ll be having once the baby is born, whether he’ll be an
easy baby or a tough cookie. We definitely had a rough start with Gavin, who
was never a good eater and kept us up at night with all his squeaking and
grunting noises. He was a light sleeper too and would scream bloody murder whenever
we’d put him to bed. Thank goodness THAT has turned itself completely
around, since he’s now the most willing bedtime kid you could ask for! As for
this baby, only time will tell!
Speaking of time, we’re getting very close and it’s almost
time to get ready for delivery. I talked
with my doctor about scheduling an induction. I mentioned before that I
have a lot happening in June and July and I can’t have him be late, and I have
this inkling that the baby would cook extra long if I let him. So I got it all
figured out and decided that the weekend of the 18th and 19th
was the best time to get him here. That would be close enough to his due date
(June 22nd) to give him a good chance to come on his own, which I’d
prefer since I already had the induction experience with Gavin. Going into labor on my own sounds a lot more fun
and exciting.
Well, the doctor messed me all up because they don’t do
inductions on the weekends. Scratch that plan! You can’t schedule an induction
more than a week before your due date, so I won’t be delivering this baby any time
before June 15th, and my doctor doesn’t work on Wednesdays, so those
days are out. That leaves me with four
induction dates – June 16, 17, 20, or 21.
The 20th and 21st seem too late. We have to drive
to California on the 29th and I’d like plenty of time to heal before
leaving. And my birthday is the 27th so it’d be nice to keep some
distance between birthdays. On the other hand, I worry that the 16th
and 17th are too early, that I’m not giving him enough time to come
on his own. Maybe if I’d have waited, he’d have come on that Father’s Day weekend
anyway and that would have been more exciting. Ya never can tell!
So I’m a little lost on what to do. And it may all be a
pointless anyway. He may come tomorrow for all I know! But let’s hope not!
But I do wonder. Is 6.16.16 too many sixes, or is that a
cool date?
Let’s see:
6.16.16
6.17.16
6.20.16
6.21.16
Are any of those sticking out to you?
What I wanted was 6.19.16. What a fun Father’s Day that
would be!
But we have still have a few weeks to sort it out. In the
meantime, I’ll be bonding with my little buddy, getting the house ready as much
as I can, and trying to manage an ever-growing body
with ever-increasing discomfort. I’m
excited to get closer and closer to the due date, to feel like it COULD happen
any day. And I’m excited to get everything ready for the baby, to have his
clothes put together, some tiny diapers set aside, a little bag for the
hospital, a cute room to come home to.
It’s definitely time to start getting ready!
