Baby Blessing: Weeks 24 & 25

The good news is my girlie is alive and well, kicking up a storm in her watery world.

The bad news?  I've been feeling miserable.

It's not her fault, of course, this sweet daughter of mine, that an intestinal bug has attacked our household and has, except for a brief respite on Tuesday, made this week an incredibly challenging one.  I've discovered again that it's not too hard to care for my family when they're sick, IF I am feeling well; but when I succumb to the germs, like I did today, it is beyond rough.  Some of the messes I've had to clean up this week have been horrible, so I'm not going to say anymore about that!

What I will say is that, while I laid on the couch all day long today (something I never do, except when sick), I had the pleasure of feeling Little Miss moving around like a jumping bean.  She must have been practicing for her audition for Riverdance, is all I could figure because she was IN MOTION.  I suppose she's always that way, but I'm rarely still enough to notice for long.  

Despite the unpleasantness of this day and this week, I've felt so grateful to be pregnant and, what's more, to have this baby still safely on the inside, where germs can't harm her and where her immunity can be built up to protect her when she's born.  It is much easier to care for her now than it would be should such a week befall us after her birth.

Other than this sickness, the only other thing that's been difficult about this pregnancy is that I'm hitting the stage of having an achy back, particularly when I wake up.  I stumble around for a little bit when I first get out of bed, waiting for the kinks to ease themselves out so that I can go full throttle again.  To comfort myself, I remind myself that, "This too shall pass," and after this precious girl is born, many of these aches and pains will disappear quickly.  She's worth the pain.  ;-)

I can hardly sit up to type this since I'm still not feeling well, and I can hardly string two thoughts together, so I'll just include two pictures and then sign off to take myself to bed where I shall have a whole night of uninterrupted sleep with nobody in the house vomiting or having huge diaper blow-outs!  Or maybe not.  But I can always hope.  ;-)

These pictures were taken during our recent get-away to Virginia Beach.  In this first one, snapped quickly on the beach because it was cold and we weren't in the mood to linger, I think I look smaller than I really am.

This one that I took later, right before we went swimming, seems more true to life.

I certainly feel big, that's for sure; and to think that in the next 14 or so weeks, I'll be getting much, much bigger!  How does a body do that anyway?  Stretch so much, then return to "normal"?  Even though I've been through this four times before, I still marvel at the miracle of pregnancy and birth.  It's wondrous every single time.  :)