Announcing Kidlet

Kidlet was successfully launched at 08:49 EDT, 23 July 2011. The 52 cm., 3.6 kg. (20.5", 7 lb. 14 oz.) payload was within optimal operational specifications and is functioning normally. The delivery vehicle was recovered in the nominal drop zone without incident and is being refurbished for the continuing mission.

Oh, Come On!

Hubby and I started our day at 7:00 this morning visiting a couple of garage sales in our neighborhood. I got an email on our neighborhood list yesterday about some multi-family sales with baby stuff going on today around the corner from us, and since hubby had to leave before 7:30 for a work-related training thing today that meant hitting them when they started, which isn't a bad thing for garage sales, anyway. The last time there were garage sales hubby ended up bringing home a bunch of great stuff for only a few dollars (things like toys and a diaper pail and a toilet trainer, which we'll need eventually), so we wanted to take the opportunity to try again. We got some more toys, a grocery cart cover for Kidlet to sit in, and a couple books, which the woman said to just take. When we thanked her I pointed to my stomach and said, "He thanks you, too." She said, "Oh, I hadn't noticed!" I'm 3 weeks away from my due date now so her comment elicited the title of this post from me: "Oh, come on!" I know I haven't shown much through the entire pregnancy—at 7 months I was standing in front of someone at work and mentioned something about being pregnant and he said, "What, you're pregnant?"—but come on, surely I look pregnant and not just fat by now! Sigh.

For those of you who aren't aware being 3 weeks from my due date means I am now considered full-term—or will be as of tomorrow, to be exact. That's a HUGE milestone and a huge relief: It means if anything happened now I could be induced without having to worry about having a preterm baby, and it means I could safely go into labor naturally myself at any time. Not that anyone has asked me and I know I have no control over it whatsoever, but it'd be really nice if Kidlet decided to be born naturally between 39 and 40 weeks, that'd be perfect. Again, not that anyone is asking me, but his coming before 38 weeks would be very inconvenient: That'd be next week, which is my last week of work (yay!) and hubby is on closing shift through the July 4th weekend at the park so he could be a little harder to reach if I really need him. (I plan to have the park superintendent's home phone number with me over the holiday weekend in case I can't reach him, just in case anyone is wondering.) It'd also be nice to have a real week off from everything after I'm done with work, so if Kidlet waits until a little closer to my due date that'd be nice. As the doctor we saw yesterday said, at this point everything is going well so we'll just see what happens.

Pregnancy

Okay, let's talk about pregnancy.

I know there are some women out there who love being pregnant. They'd be pregnant all the time if they could. I knew about two weeks into it that I was not one of those women. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful to be pregnant and it's definitely better than the alternative (i.e. not being pregnant), but it hasn't exactly been a bed of roses for me (unless you count the thorns—who came up with that phrase, anyway?) and I imagine once will be enough for me.

I'm 24 weeks along now (about 5.5 months) and we found out we're having a boy. So we've started gathering cute boy stuff together. I admit I'm going to miss dressing up a little girl in frilly dresses and all the other cute girl stuff out there, but God is giving us a boy so I'm learning to turn away from the girl stuff. Hubby is still a bit worried when we're around a baby stuff in a store and I oooh and ahhh at all the little girl stuff, but I'll manage.

Here are a few random thoughts I have about this pregnancy thing:

Morning sickness. I'd really like to meet whoever came up with this term—and have a stern talking with them. There is nothing exclusively "morning" about it, it's all-day sickness, period. I spent the first 14 weeks nauseous most of the time, it wasn't fun. (I didn't throw up all the time, thankfully, but I was almost always nauseous.) Thankfully, my OB believes in drugs (medicine, that is) and I've been on anti-nausea medicine since week 7, which helped me at least get through the day. (Kind of important when I was trying to start a new job and finish up school while dealing with this pregnancy thing.) I'm happy to report I'm much better now and get sick much less often, though I still have the medicine and take it occasionally to ward off nausea. Apparently I'm going to be one of those people who deals with being sick off and on throughout the pregnancy—another reason I'm thinking once will be enough.

Maternity clothes. Ugh. I know, they're so much better and more stylish than they used to be, but they're so expensive and it takes so long to find things that fit. I managed to find a few pairs of pants that fit early on, thankfully (or they fit once my mother shortened them for me), but tops are still a struggle. Even at 24 weeks I'm still not showing a whole lot, so while my regular tops are too small I don't fill out maternity tops yet and they look ridiculous. For now I've gotten a few shirts that are a size larger than I normally wear and that seems to be working, particularly as the weather gets warmer so I don't have to wear sweaters and turtlenecks all the time anymore. Some days it's quite a challenge getting dressed and finding clothes that are comfortable and work.

Seatbelts. Not designed for pregnant women. Yes, you wear them anyway. 'Nuff said.

Sleeping. How do pregnant women sleep? I did okay the first trimester (I slept a lot more due to that first-trimester-always-exhausted thing), but now I never sleep very well. I am feeling kidlet moving during the day but not particularly at night (he's not big enough yet to do the jabbing and kicking I've heard about), but I am dealing with heartburn or acid reflux or whatever it is like there's no tomorrow, and it isn't fun. Taking antacids before I go to bed seems to help (yes, approved by the doctor), but I still only sleep for a few hours at a time, it seems, and I wake up a lot during the night and always wake up early in the morning. As long as I go to bed early enough I seem to be mostly okay and can manage my days, but never feeling like I sleep very well is really annoying.

Swelling. I may not be looking very pregnant yet but my ankles are HUGE! Hubby has noticed, too. I know it's normal and all, it's just weird. I can still get my shoes on (my feet are swollen some, too) but I'm definitely looking forward to summer when I can live in flip-flops. Closely related to swelling is also leg cramps, including painful charley horse cramps in your calves. I have to be very careful how I turn and stretch in bed to avoid getting those. Ouch.

Heat. This one is just speculation on my part. From what I've read pregnant women are hot all the time and can't cool down, even in the winter. I'm still waiting on this one so I'm still cold all the time, like always.

Bathroom. No discussion on pregnancy would be complete without a word on how often pregnant women have to go to the bathroom. Even at this early stage, before kidlet is huge and hitting your bladder (and squashing all your other organs, too, from what I've read). You always hear about how you're eating for two, but it doesn't come up as often that you're peeing (eliminating wastes) for two, too!

Those are my thoughts. For those of you who have been pregnant before, what are yours?

A Reason to Celebrate

Say hello to Kidlet!