January has been a difficult time for my family and I. My granddad passed away earlier this
month, following a long battle with congestive heart failure. Being pregnant during this period made it
even more difficult to stomach. It
makes me tear up knowing that Granddad will never have a chance to hold his
great-grandson. He would have loved
to have taken him to the park, ridden with him on the carousels, and shared ice
cream cones. However, I am thankful that
he and I had the opportunity to make these memories. Those are the moments I want my son to someday know… through
the love that I share with him and the stories I will tell. As I head into the final weeks of my
pregnancy, I see all the more that to every beginning there comes an end. But, it is the moments that fall in
between that really make life worth living.
Here are some of the highlights from the last 7 weeks:
Early Morning Wake-Up Call
Around 25 weeks, I was greeted by a new gift courtesy of pregnancy…
The Calf Cramp. I remember
initially reading about this common condition on Babycenter during my first
trimester. At the time, it seemed
ridiculous to me that an entire page needed to be devoted to such a miniscule
muscle ache. That was until I
experienced one for myself. In the
middle of a deep slumber, the most tear-jerking, pulsating, searing calf pain awaked
me. I tried to massage, pinch,
tap, and flex my calf… nothing seemed to help. Finally, after just the right amount of wiggling my toes, it
let up a little bit. I proceeded
to limp around at work for the next several days, enduring the after effects of
this “minor” ache… just in time to have my right leg greeted by the same
ailment. I have had several more
bouts of the leg cramps since then, but now have gotten down the art to just
the right mixture of massaging and toe-wiggling to keep them at bay.
The Bump!
The belly bump continues to grow… and my lower back is
really starting to feel it! I
finally have my bellyband ordered and am hopeful that it will help to keep some
of the pain at bay.
Ultrasound
In December, Tony and I had another go at finishing up our 2nd
trimester screening. Baby Bean
ended up cooperating a bit better, and the tech was able to get all of the
anatomy shots that she needed.
But, he continued his streak of being camera shy… this time he had his
little hands all over his face, and we weren’t able to get any really good
pictures for the scrapbook. I am
pretty sure I saw his little middle finger go up in the process, as the tech
tried her best to leave us with a good memento. For now, this one picture will have to suffice until the 3rd
trimester ultrasound... which, with Bean's track record, likely will go similarly.
Belly Button
It’s official… the belly button has popped! Not in the complete-outy sense… it
seems more appropriate to say that I now have a mini-outy.
Getting Creative
With the exponential rate at which my belly is growing,
Butters’ favorite sleeping spot (my lap) is quickly shrinking. He has taken to finding creative ways
to still comfortably keep his spot.
These have become his new favorite resting positions. The Belly Nook... consisting of him
laying his head in the crack between my arm and belly…
…and the Leg Hammock… self-explanatory
The Name!
After much deliberation, Tony and I FINALLY found one name
that we agree on… which will likely remain a secret until The Bean
arrives. Given the (unreasonable)
amount of time that went into this decision, we hope to limit any opportunities
for us to change our minds.
Realities of Having a Baby:
In 10th grade, a major focus of health class centered
on teaching horny teenagers that having a baby is a terrible idea. It just so happened that my county had
one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the state. So, there was a great deal of funding
invested into preventing this pattern from continuing. My class was one of the first to
pioneer Baby-Think-It-Over… consisting of taking home plastic babies with
internal crying voice boxes, which you control with the turn of a plastic key
to the back. Each student had to
spend a weekend lugging these creepy plastic dolls around. I can’t really say that this project
changed my mind about having kids as a teen, which already seemed like a bad
idea to me. But, it certainly
earned me a lot of strange looks in the store… I’d like to think, however, this
was more due to wondering why a 15-year-old would still be lugging around her
doll. The developers were
certainly a creative bunch… they wanted to cover multiple “teen pregnancy
scenarios.” There was even a
“crack baby” available to one unlucky student. This doll happened to be a bit smaller than the rest but made
up for size with persistence of crying.
I felt especially terrible for the students whom got tricked into taking
that one home.
Part of the project included cataloging and adding up the
expected baby expenses. I remember
turning in a neatly written list of what I considered the essentials: trendy baby
carrier, playpen, a few cute outfits. I
can say that now I am starting to see that my teenage mind clearly
underestimated the cost of a new baby.
As I have been putting together my baby shower registry, the expenses
have been mind-boggling. Tony and
I have decided to really attempt to break it down into what we will really
need. Blogs written by more
experienced parents have helped shed light on this. As much as I would like a
diaper genie, I have decided that a heavy-duty garbage can for half the price
will probably work well. And, that
baby video monitoring system seems like a nice perk, but my wallet suggests that I hold off on that as well. All I can say is… I’m happy I am not having twins!
Cocoa Butter:
As a kid, my mom used to keep a huge bottle of cocoa butter,
or the “stinky lotion” as my sisters and I called it, in the bathroom cupboard.
Pregnancy was the only time that she used it. She swears that it is the reason she escaped 3 pregnancies
in her 30’s without a single stretch mark. I HATE the smell of that lotion. However, over the last few weeks I have broken down and
started the cocoa butter routine.
Surprisingly, I have found that you can get used to the slightly
off-putting smell (although I am not so sure that Tony agrees). And, although I am not 100%
convinced that it will be the determining factor in whether or not I get
stretch marks, I can say that it does leave my skin super soft.
Maternity photos
Last, but not least, Tony and I finally worked out some
maternity photos. We enjoyed a
little photo shoot in our backyard.
With the “cold front” (50-degrees) having moved on, we enjoyed the
gorgeous 80-degree weather. Of
course I am a bit biased, but I think my husband did a pretty fantastic job
with the shots!
