Monthly Archives: April 2012

Time to post about something more light-hearted.  Let’s take a look at 10 current stats about my pregnancy:

1.  Number of weeks pregnant:  21

2.  Feeling movement?  Oh, yeah, especially from baby girl

3.  Cravings?  No.  Since I am on a free-for-all eating plan, there’s no need to crave anything….I just eat anything set before me!

4.  Maternity clothes?  Oh yeah.  All the time.  I also found that some 1x size clothes fit and cost less than maternity wear.

5.  Sleeping?  Well, sort of.  I hoist myself from side to side all night long.  When my hips finally ache too much, I prop up a bunch of pillow and sleep in a half-sitting position.

6.  Wight gain:  Thirty, yes, 30 pounds.  I gained 40 with Scout’s entire pregnancy, so it would seem that the free-for-all eating plan is working.

7.  Belly button?  Still an innie.

8.  Sex?  Hell no.  Let me revise:  hell, no, in triplicate.

9.  Boobs?  Big (for me, amazingly big!) and tender.  The inadvertent elbow-to-the-boob from Scout just about incapactiates me with pain.

10.  Maternity leave:  I am beginning to contemplate when to go out.  I might try to work part-time from home in June and stop altogether sometime in July.

Miscellaneous:  I have not yet painted the kitchen, although I picked a color.  It may have to wait as I don’t know how to tape it off, paint, let it all dry and not have Scout make a mess of things or want to *help.*  I  purchased everything to hang the second rod in the kids’ closet, but need to find time without Scout under my elbow to get it put up.  As far as the garden, my tomato plants are growing beautifully and my little seedlings (cantaloupe, cucumber, green beans, sweet peas and carrots) and coming right along.

Just when I feel like complaining about this or that, something happens that puts everything in perspective.

I have a close friend whose husband died of brain cancer almost exactly 2 years ago. It was a long, horrible experience as her vibrant husband slowly withered over the course of 17 months.  She has 3 grown children.  A few weeks ago my friend and I had lunch together.  She told me the exciting news that her youngest daughter, R, who is in her 30’s, is pregnant.  Interestingly, R’s due date is only 4 or 5 days after mine.

The date finally arrived last Thursday when R went for her anatomy ultrasound, she was so excited to finally find out the gender of her baby.  The appointment did not go as expected.  What they found was that there was almost no amniotic fluid around the baby, although they could not identify the location of the tear or leak.  They said this is a rare event, they don’t know what causes it.  But they made it clear to her that she would likely lose the baby.  Because there was such a lack of fluid, they could not see well enough to tell her whether her baby was a boy or a girl.

The following morning she had a long appointment with a specialist to discuss her options.  She elected to let nature take its course, hoping that she would be able to carry the baby for 4 more weeks – to the point of viability.

Unfortunately, I received a text from my friend today saying that R went into labor and delivered her son last Friday night.  She was barely 20 weeks pregnant.

My heart is so heavy.  For my friend, feeling helpless once more and having to watch her child suffer this horrible loss.  For R, knowing that the grief must be overwhelming.  For the little baby boy who was robbed of his life by Fate alone, and no one’s fault.  If prayers are your thing, please say one for R and her family.

I hit the 20 week mark yesterday.  Wow.  This pregnancy is flying by.

I still feel pretty good for the most part.  I know I really can’t complain because…well…I have a long way to go, or rather, GROW!   I can still squat and stand back up.  I can pick up and carry Scout (although not for too long and I know I probably shouldn’t be doing it at all).  I can’t really bend over in the middle anymore and my ass now occupies 3 zip codes.  I have occasional strange pains, but nothing too bad.

I’ve been able to feel baby kicks for about 2 weeks now.  The little kicks are always on my left – where baby girl is.  Since these two kids have had arm buds, baby girl has been my mover and shaker.  During a single u/s exam she has been known to do triple summersaults, rollovers and hand stands.  I can tell that she is very pleased if I eat something when I feel hungry, because she immediately rewards me with a great deal of rolling about.  Baby boy, on the other hand, is my laid-back kid.  Seriously, I hope he is still in there and doing okay.

I have an OB appointment tomorrow, so I’ll be relieved to see that both are growing, moving and doing well.

In the Not-So-Fabulous category, DH has been out of town on business.  He thinks he will need to be out of town for 4 to 5 days each week.  For three months.  Three months?!  I can still care for Scout when I get home from work and take over from my mom, but I have serious doubts about how much I’ll be able to do a month from now, let alone 3 months from now.  My mom graciously offered to stay late each day to help with dinner and getting Scout his bath, but she is not young and she has physical limitations.  She has been doing this extended schedule for the past week to help me out, and I can already see that it’s taking a toll on her.  DH was home just less than 24 hours over the weekend and I told him this arrangement is simply not going to work.  I insisted he tell his boss about the pregnancy (!) and figure something out, even if it means he needs to start researching and interviewing mother’s helpers.

Well, he told his boss and it looks like he’ll be able to be home more often starting in May.  It may mean a lot of driving for DH to come home and return to the project site, but hey, we’re all making sacrifices here.  The only ones who shouldn’t be sacrificing are the babies and Scout.

Last year at Easter, Scout was 1 year old.  I was excited to *hide* brightly colored plastic eggs in the back yard and have him gather them.  He, on the other hand, was more interested in picking up and inspecting a stray leaf on the lawn than the bright pink, orange and yellow eggs strewn everywhere.  Go figure.

But this year would be different.  This year Scout is two!

To ensure his egg hunting skills were at their peak, we began practicing last week.  I would hide a dozen or so eggs in the back yard – with Scout watching.  A few at the base of the tree.  One on top of a small shrub.  One near his slide.  A few out in the grass.  I instructed him on the process:  (1)  spot an egg, (2) go get the egg, (3) put the egg in your bag.

He was so excited!  I gave him a plastic Target bag to put the eggs into.  He’d grin broadly, point to a yellow egg near the tree, run over to it, pick it up and then spend about 3 minutes getting the Target bag open and the egg into the bag.  It would take about a half hour or so to complete one round of egg hunt.

Well, this is a process, right?  Scout was fully on board though and would insist that we play about 6 games of egg hunt in a row.  I must say, he got to be pretty good at it.  I began to hide them in more interesting places:  inside his little plastic wheelbarrow, on a chair, in a knot on the tree.

The big day arrived.  Saturday we took Scout to a big Egg-stravaganza.  Baby bunnies and chicks to pet.  A fire engine with a ladder raised to the sky.  Kids activities.  A play ground.  And an egg hunt.

They had it well planned.  The kids were divided into age groups so that the bigger kids didn’t trample the little ones.  Scout would be in with the kids ages 0-2 years.  They had parents and kids gather around the area where the eggs were.  They had us wait until everyone was in place.  A horn blew, signaling the commencement of the Great Egg Hunt!

Scout ran into the grass, passing about 10 or 15 eggs (?), picked up one egg, placed it in his bucket and returned to my side.  “Lovey, I said, there are lots of eggs.  Go get some more for your bucket.”  He replied, “Nah.”

Scout was done.  One egg.  I realized that the grass was probably wet and Scout does not like to touch wet grass.  He doesn’t like his shoes to get wet either (unless they are boots and there are puddles to jump in).  Nope.  Scout was done.  All that preparation.  All those practice sessions.

Well, I thought.  This was his event, not mine.  If he was happy with one egg, so be it.  Interestingly, the egg hunt was held on a baseball diamond.  Scout didn’t give a hoot about 10,000 bright eggs, but he did enjoy inspecting the bases and the dirt of the baseball field.

Scout was happy.  Mama was happy.  The Easter Egg Hunt was a great success in my book.

In truth, I’m probably half way through my pregnancy, or close to it.  Nesting and other preparation thoughts have been on my mind a lot lately.  I have the strangest urge to paint the kitchen.

But before I go there, I ought to tell you that my mother is trying her best to not to explode with delight at finally getting her granddaughter.  Those of you who have *known* me longest may remember that when I joyfully announced my pregnancy with Scout at 16 weeks (and before knowing his gender) my mother’s first words were, “I hope it’s a girl!”  Last week, after finding out that one of the twins is a girl,  she presented me with a huge bag of baby girl clothes.  Although the clothes were very cute, I put my hands on hips and told her that she does not get to single-handedly buy the entire wardrobe for my daughter.  I have to put my foot down or, good heavens, the whole closet will be jammed packed with baby girl dresses and sunsuits.

Speaking of the closet, this is the one big downside.  Our house is small.  I mean small.  Scout gets to keep his own room to himself, except for the closet and dresser (the twins’ cribs will be in our bedroom).  All 3 kids are going to have to share a 4-foot wide closet.  I’m going to hang a second pole in there since baby clothes are short, which will double the hanging space.  Then I’ll clear the shelf above the pole to make way for bins which will hold various items like blankets, socks, onesies, etc.  The kids will also have to share a 3-drawer dresser (the top of which is used as the changing table, which is why I don’t trade it in for a 6-foot tall chest with as many drawers as possible).  Then each kid gets 1 drawer in the dresser.  So, no longer can Scout have 18 pairs of pants.  It’s ridiculous anyway.  We absolutely have to minimize and economize our space to make this work.

Which brings me to *stuff.*

Obviously we don’t need as much “stuff” as we needed in preparing for Scout’s arrival.  We have one crib and plenty of bedding, baby clothes out the kazoo, bottles, changing pad, toys, toys, toys, blankets, swings, bouncy seats, play mats….most everything (much of which will need to come out of storage, further cramping our limited space).  What we need to get are the meatier items – a new crib mattresses, one more crib when the time comes, another baby monitor or two, one new car seat (we still have Scout’s infant car seat) – those kinds of essentials.  It actually feels GOOD not to have to think about all the little stuff you think you need when you don’t know what you need.

Of course we’ll need those itty bitty diapers again too.  Oh, and one more thing. DH and I decided we’re going to get a minivan!  My little car won’t physically hold 3 car seats, but I love my little Audi and it’s almost paid for, so we’re going to keep it as our *commuter* car and the minivan will be our family truckster.  How strange that I’m kind of excited about getting a minivan, of all things, but I am.

And, oh yeah, I really want to re-paint the kitchen.  I guess I’m nesting.