Real Estate Crisis

This past week has felt like an emphasis on basic humanity: sleeping and eating.  Each morning, I wake up because I'm hungry, so I eat.  And then I realize I'm still tired, so I sleep.  So goes the morning.

My afternoons have also been punctuated by food.  I suspect this is due to the limited internal real estate that I possess.  Since I still haven't started really "showing," (as in, family and friends can tell I've "thickened" but any passerby wouldn't say I looked pregnant) baby's growth is forcing the rest of my internal organs into smaller spaces than they're used to, reducing their capacity.  The result is that my lunches and dinners have to be split into two small meals, meaning I have lunch #1 at noon, lunch #2 at 3pm, dinner #1 at 6pm and dinner #2 at 9pm.  That's four square meals a day - plus breakfast.  Those who know me well know that I had to eat pretty frequently even before I was pregnant.  Well now it's compounded!

Another effect of this internal squishing is that I get out of breath faster.  Activities that I never used to give a second thought to, like walking up stairs, going up a hill, or moving laundry from a washer to a dryer, leave me panting.  And it's not that I'm not exercising!  It makes me feel kind of silly and feeble.

Thankfully, the real estate crisis is not so terrible yet as to encroach upon my brain.  I read a story of a pregnant woman who couldn't find her keys and after hours of searching, found them neatly placed in her fridge.  I've mixed up some words here and there and found myself wondering what I was thinking about a second ago, but it hasn't gotten to the point of putting my keys in the fridge!

Anyway, being "unplugged" for the week has been thoroughly refreshing.  I hadn't realized how much time I spent in front of a computer or other electronic device until this week.  It has been fantastic catching up on reading, journalling and oh, did I mention sleeping?

Going on Sabbatical

Yesterday, we had our second visit to the OB (aka, baby doctor).  Everything is normal and the baby's heart rate was 154.  It seems that he/she was more relaxed yesterday as the heart rate was lower than it had been before.  At least someone was chilling before the big Canuck's game 7!  ;)

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that over this next month, T, baby and I will be away for our Sabbatical.  Since the main purpose of our trip is rest and renewal, we will not be online very much.  I will try to post weekly updates and keep you informed as much as possible.  But if the updates are slow, just know that we're enjoying an "unplugged" lifestyle.

It's not twins!!

We had our first ultrasound this morning - what they call a "dating ultrasound", to confirm the age of the baby.  And yes, there is only one baby in there!

I'm officially at 15 weeks and 1 day, which means my new due date is December 1st.  During our ultrasound, we could see the baby's little heart beating away and we saw him/her wave his/her arms and kick his/her legs.  I can't feel any of the movement yet, but it was so neat to see it all.

T was a little panicked because he had trouble finding parking and I was already in the examination room by the time he arrived at the clinic.  Thankfully, the technician had to do her thing first before allowing the both of us to see it.  So in the end, we both got to see the first glimpses of our baby.

I wrote a prayer this morning for all pregnant ladies going in for ultrasounds:
Lord, grant me a full enough bladder for this ultrasound,
And let me not pee my pants.
Amen.

Changed for good

Since making it public, our inboxes and T's facebook page have been buzzing with activity.  The #1 response has been "Congratulations!"

I commented to a friend the other day that it felt a little puzzling to me to be congratulated for getting pregnant.  It felt somewhat akin to being congratulated for winning the lottery.  After all, I didn't actually make the baby's life begin - I only helped provide a suitable environment for it to happen.  And I don't have any control over how well the baby grows either.  My friend responded by saying that I welcomed this new life, and that was worth congratulating me for.

I've been reflecting a bit on the irreversibility of it all.  I had prayed for this pregnancy, but now that it has happened, I sometimes feel alarmed about what I've really asked for!  It's unlike any other decision I've made in life because carrying this baby has meant that I have had to change already and there's no undoing it.  And this new person will impact me more than I can ever guess.   It's sobering to realize that my life is forever changed by the answering of this one prayer.

Last weekend T and I watched the musical, "Wicked," and this one song has been with us all week.  It's called "For Good" and it speaks to many different relationships in our lives.  But as I think about the lyrics, there are certainly parts that express how I feel about this lemon-sized little life within me.  I hope you enjoy the song as much as we do:

Making it public

This week, we're going public!  By the end of this week, the world will know of CHANnel 3's existence.  We're excited about that.

Last night, I wore this t-shirt to our small group. 

After watching the Canuck's game together, we took some group photos and T said, "Olive wants to show you her new t-shirt!"  Watching their faces as they realized we were going to have a baby was priceless!

As I looked around the room afterward, I was overwhelmed by the thought that our little person will enter the world already with so many people who love him/her.  We pray that this child will always know just how loved he/she is.  We are blessed, indeed.