Baby Blessing: Week 28

With only 80 days to go until the all-important date on which this baby girl may or may not make her appearance, this is what I see when I look in the mirror...

...and this is what I see when I look down towards my feet.

Not the usual maternity pictures, but still part of this slice of life.

More interestingly perhaps, these are some of the thoughts that are rambling around in my head here at this 28 (and a half) week mark...

~ I thought about making a to-do list of things I hope to accomplish before this baby is born, but then I decided not to.  At this point, it would likely be too overwhelming.  Maybe I will make that list when I get closer to my due date.  Or maybe not.  :)

~ Last Thursday, Shav said the baby's name for the first time...or maybe I should say that, for the first time, I realized that Shav was trying to say her name.  He usually says "oo baby" for new baby, and woe to us if we forget to pray for her in our mealtime prayers; when he hears the "amen" with no mention of "new baby," he pipes up and says, "And Oo Baby!"  "Yes, God, and thank You for our new baby.  Amen."  Then he's satisfied.  Because I hadn't heard him say her actual name yet, I wondered whether he had even connected the name with this Oo Baby creature he loved to pray for, so I was understandably thrilled and proud when I heard him saying her name.  It didn't roll easily off his tongue though, and it was so sweet to watch him concentrate and work so hard to try to say it right.  As it was, he didn't say it right...but right enough that I could figure out what he was trying to communicate.  :)

~ The big question continues to be the baby's position.  Since I haven't had another ultrasound, we really don't know whether she's still breech or whether she managed to get herself into a head-down position.  Or if she's still doing somersaults and changing her position every single day!  But one day this week, I was feeling hiccups down low, and that gave me hope that she has turned into the right position.

~ I had to get my rhogam shot today, which is really no big deal anymore because I've had it so many times.  Josiah and David alternated between snickering and looking horrified when I told them where on my body I had the shot.  The strange thing is that, although the shot was in my left hip, my right hip has been having terribly sharp, shooting pains in it tonight.  The pains occur at random times, but nearly make me feel like I'm going to fall over when they hit.  Just another aspect of the wonderful weirdness that is pregnancy, I suppose!

~ Even without sudden, strange pains, usually by the end of the day, I'm feeling quite cramped.  It is such a good feeling to lay down in bed and stretch out and be in a horizontal position where I can feel like the baby has more room to move around than she does when I'm sitting up.  (Which is probably all my imagination, but still...)

~ I got back the results from my blood tests last week, and thankfully, I don't have gestational diabetes.  I was also glad to learn that my iron level has improved from when it was low early in this pregnancy.  It would seem that my dad's kind provision of chocolate raisins is doing exactly what it's supposed to do to my iron level!  :)

~ Heartburn still flares up every so often.  Like tonight in a prayer meeting when I discovered that if I leaned forward and bowed my head slightly, I felt heartburn almost immediately.  So I did the logical thing and leaned back.  :)

~ I was seriously thinking about writing some this week about the things I've heard about typical girl pregnancies--i.e. lots of nausea, extra emotionalism, etc.--and how I'm NOT having those symptoms.  But before I got around to writing this update, I was hit with--surprise, surprise--extra emotionalism!  Having done this whole pregnancy thing a few times already ;-), I completely expected to have some irrational breakdowns at some point before giving birth.  I always do have some (here's just one example of many I could mention!).  But honestly, I haven't been extra weepy, and I was just getting ready to pat myself on the back for my obvious growth in maturity.  :)  And then, a few days ago, those too-familiar sensations of feeling blue started creeping up on me.   Fortunately, on the two consecutive days when I was feeling unexplainably low and prone to crying, I was able to head off the tears both times, simply by taking a nap before I got to the bad stage.  This pregnancy, I've discovered afresh the strong link between fatigue and emotionalism.  In short, I have got to get my rest, or I'll be a weepy mess.  I wouldn't be surprised though if, even if I get plenty of rest, I still have a strange crying spell (or two...or more) at some point before this girl is born; and I KNOW I will at some point in the week after her birth.  I guess I'll hold off on the self-back-patting and declarations about how reserved and calm I am.  ;-)

~ As I look down at my hugely rounded tummy, I ask myself, "Can I really grow any bigger?"  Chances are, I wonder that during every pregnancy; and because of prior experience, I know that yes, indeed, I can and will get bigger.  But how?  Things feel pretty stretched as it is; can they really grow more??  :)

~ I mentioned recently about some very vivid, very strange dreams I've had.  The fact that I'm having--and remembering--these crazy dreams doesn't surprise me, since I know that in my other pregnancies, I have also dreamed vividly--and often, terrifyingly.  In the past, my scary dreams during pregnancy have often revolved around the theme of water, particularly when I was pregnant with David and dreamed numerous times about being in scary situations involving water.  These recent dreams haven't been so clearly centered around a theme, unless that theme is simply my children being in danger.  For example, in one dream, David was lost, and we were frantically searching for him until I finally found him in the Grace Street Parking Garage (a structure that doesn't exist here in real life, but which was so clear in my dream that night).  That feeling of not knowing the location of my child was horrifying.  In another one, the one I mentioned previously, David and Shav (and Tobin and maybe Josiah?) were being cared for, along with a group of other children, by some friends of ours, while Jeff and I were doing something fun (riding on a boat maybe?).  When I went to pick up my sons, I discovered Shav nearly drowning in a swimming pool; and then once I rescued him, I turned around and David was face down in a pool, too.  No one else seemed to realize that he was in distress, but I knew instantly and struggled to reach him while still caring for Shav.  Finally, I had both of them safe but then had to look around for Tobin.  Oh, the feelings of fear!!  The third recent scary dream involved lions being near our house as we drove home one snowy day--Jeff and Josiah in the Jeep, and me and the others in the minivan.  Then for some reason, Josiah was out of the Jeep and was a clear target for the lions; but I drove by him, leaned out of the minivan, and used my left arm to pick up Josiah and pull him to safety on my lap.  But we still weren't safe yet, and at one point Jeff threw a snowball into the lion's face to distract him and give the rest of us time to get inside.  Oh my goodness.  What strange dreams!  What bizarre, creepy, dreadful, horrific, haunting dreams!  And the worst part:  why, oh why, does it take so long, upon awaking, to convince myself that it's really only a dream and there is nothing to fear?  My mind knows that, but my heart takes an awfully long time to catch on!

~ When I was putting away some clean clothes the other day, I opened a dresser drawer and happened to see a navy blue summer shirt (non-maternity) that I enjoy wearing.  It reminded me of this truth: as exciting as it is to start wearing maternity clothes, it's also exciting to pack them away after a baby is born and wear regular clothes again.  What's even more true:  as exciting as it is to experience a pregnancy and spend months and months in joyful anticipation, it's even more exciting to actually meet a new member of the family face to face and finally hold that child in one's arms.  I know I've got a long ways to go until that happy moment, and I do not want to rush through these next 12 or so weeks, missing the special moments along the way.  But I will admit to longing deeply for the day my daughter is finally born!!!  :)