Archive for February 2012
on the cusp
Posted on: 29 February 2012
- In: marriage | musings | parenthood | pregnancy
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Sometimes I’m so eager for munchkin to be here. I want to know whether we’ll be parents to a son or a daughter. I wonder what s/he will look like. I wonder about personality, temperament. I wonder how motherhood will change my life and my worldview.
At other times I feel like dragging my feet. Pregnancy is easy. Parenthood seems difficult. I fear it will wage war with my natural inclinations toward selfishness and laziness.
Also, Kevin and I have been married for nearly four years, and we’re comfortable. I enjoy the life and the relationship dynamic that we have. It’s laid-back and affectionate and fun. Time and again I hear new mothers say that they can no longer imagine life without their child, that it’s as if their little one has always been there … but on this side of giving birth, I don’t know what that means. Not that I don’t believe it. I just have no frame of reference, and a small part of me is afraid of messing with an already good thing.
But then munchkin starts rolling around trying to bust out, and I’m back to wondering what s/he looks like. I hope s/he has Kevin’s nose. S/he’ll probably be born with a lot of hair – really dark, really thick, really curly.
(I know my hair is straight in most pictures. Flat iron.)
Posted on: 24 February 2012
Munchkin is very squirmy and hiccup-y. The hiccups feel like popcorn – a single large kernel popping low in my pelvis. As for squirmy, well, when munchkin is on the move my melon-like midriff undulates. Literally, visibly. Sometimes it bounces and spasms too. Silly munchkin. According to my midwife, during an active phase we want at least six movements in two hours. I believe we’re closer to six movements in twenty seconds.
I started to catch Kevin’s cold, I think, but it seems to have gone already without sticking. Just a day or two of snuffles, a hint of congestion and throat scratchiness. (How did that happen, anyway? We were so careful! I mean, he was careful enough for the both of us. I wasn’t all that careful, because I stubbornly believe that my immune system is impenetrable.) We’re both asymptomatic now and feeling fine.
According to the scale at my parents’ place, I’ve gained about twenty two pounds. The internet tells me this is within the healthy NON-PREGNANT weight range for my height. The internet doesn’t know how underweight I was before pregnancy (not significantly underweight, no worries). At this rate, maybe I could afford to not shed any weight after birth. Although I think my face looks wider, HAHA.
Ugh, I’m feeling the extra weight though. When I stop to think about it, I feel heavy. And I get braxton-hicks … randomly, but especially when I walk for any distance longer than, say, a block.
week 34
Gratuitous popping belly button shot.
third trimester squirmies
snowman shaped ftw
Posted on: 17 February 2012
Know what’s weird?
Being able to rest your hands on the shelf formed by your protruding belly.
Know what’s weirder?
YOUR BELLY RESTING ON YOUR LAP WHEN YOU SIT.
week 32
week 33
I swear I’m not waddling yet … but I pretty much shuffle around the house. I still wear my pre-pregnancy leggings and sweats from time to time, but the elastic is starting to cut into my hips even when I wear them low. The only reason I bother is because they still fit better in the legs than my maternity pants, which tend to run wide and long even in xs sizing. Oh, and because leggings tuck most easily into boots.
The good news is I seem to be sleeping a bit better, or at least getting up at less embarrassing hours of the day.
We’re slowly checking items off the baby needs list. Just as I became all motivated to get everything ready, Kevin caught his sister’s cold and was all, “I’m sick – stay away from me!” for a week. Not very conducive to Valentine’s Day cuddles, sadly.
Between gifts trickling in, hand-me-downs, thrift stores and Craigslist, we haven’t spent any significant amount of money on munchkin to date. Well under $100. Today we find ourselves with two slings, two strollers, a baby swing and rocker seat and bouncy chair, a change table. Munchkin isn’t even here yet, and we have extra items to pass on!
I’ve sorted through two lots of clothing, and we have a comfortable start on munchkin’s wardrobe from 0 through 24 months. It leans ever so slightly towards “boy,” because for some reason girls’ clothing lots are overwhelmingly pink. I figure a girl can wear denim overalls, but a boy can’t really rock a pink dress …
As far as I know, there are two big-ticket items left to obtain – a crib and diapers. And I expect the diapers to be the bigger splurge, because we’re most likely going cloth.
I feel like this post calls for pictures, but I’m lazy. It’s raining and the lighting sucks. Also, I have some translation work to finish before Saturday, which I’ve been putting off in favour of blogging.
supersenses are overrated
Posted on: 8 February 2012
I woke up early on Monday morning. I never wake up early anymore, unless there’s something scheduled or I need to be somewhere, because it takes me ages to fall asleep at night.
I’m no insomniac, but it’s always taken me a while, and the presence of a belly that restricts sleep positions doesn’t help. Kevin, on the other hand, has this crazy ability to be out like a light in three minutes. I had a little taste of that in first trimester – so efficient! But those days are long gone.
Anyway, I awoke knowing that it was early. Then I realized it was because of a noise. My first hazy, half-asleep thought was that the baby clothes in the closet were playing some high frequency music. I was thinking of those ringtones students use that their teachers can’t hear.
Yeah, morning brain … not so rationally sound.
I would’ve fallen right back asleep if the noise hadn’t continued so long. Which it did, long enough to wake me up completely, past the drop-back-to-sleep-without-fully-waking-up stage. By then it was obvious enough that the sound was G’s alarm ringing.
G is a university student we’ve known for a number of years. Since our place is now a single convenient bus ride from UBC, he’s staying in our guest room for a few weeks while his family is in China.
But here’s the thing: the guest room is across and waaay down the hall from where I was in the master bedroom, and both doors were closed. The sound reaching me was much reduced in volume, yet still enough to wake me up. Whaaat?
Even then I might’ve tried to go back to sleep, and it might’ve worked, if not for three things that are entirely munchkin’s fault.
1. I needed to pee.
2. I was suddenly hungry, with that desperate must eat something now or I shall go mad hunger that simply does not exist apart from baby-in-utero.
3. When I wake, munchkin wakes. And invariably starts a dance party.
quasi pseudo nesting
Posted on: 4 February 2012
- In: marriage | pregnancy | quotidian
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I am thirty one weeks pregnant, and we still don’t have a crib. IKEA has one or two I have my eye on, though. Originally I was thinking more along the lines of a co-sleeper, but apparently babies outgrow those in six months, in which case, what’s the point? They aren’t even any cheaper. Our master bedroom is roomy enough for a crib to fit nicely beside the bed, so that’s what we’ve decided to do.
I’ve read about sleep sharing and “the family bed,” but no thanks. The bed is sacred. It’s for Kevin and me. I love you, munchkin, but I love your father more 🙂
We have begun collecting layette items, though, finally. Little onesies and sleepers and a bunting! They are so adorable MON DIEU I can’t stop looking at them. Not knowing whether we’re having a boy or a girl limits our selection slightly, but at the same time it’s nice to have the flagrantly stereotypical stuff out of contention.
In other news, I am snowman-shaped.
week 30
week 31
Although on Thursday, as I was crossing the street to get to my prenatal appointment, two guys in a truck whistled at me and said something crudely complimentary about my bum. This happens on occasion, but at almost eight months pregnant? How peculiar.
Anyway, I was right about munchkin being head down! I forgot to ask my midwife which direction s/he’s facing, though it’s probably early for that to be relevant. My belly button kind of pops in and out, but I’d say it’s 70% an outie most of the time, now.
asphodellium 