a blog about nothing and everything else
I finally uploaded the smattering of photos I managed to shoot while in Louisiana last month. I didn’t do much work this time around, probably because pregnancy has stripped me of all desire to do anything but sit around and watch True Blood while eating grapes and being fanned by Paulo, my cabana boy.
A couple of weeks ago when I was in Louisiana I was wondering “why haven’t I felt the baby move yet?” I was thinking I just didn’t know what it felt like so I was missing it. Now, at 19 weeks, 5 days, I’m wondering why people say it feels like “butterflies” in your belly. No way, dude! I’ve got a little monkey in me! I feel very definite tiny pokes against my insides. I was expecting to feel this movement inside a big space but I’m definitely getting a feel for how tightly packed the baby is in there. There’s a funny picture on the babycenter site of a baby all smushed up… this is how I picture the baby now. Sorry baby!! Sucks to be you!
Wednesday is my first ultrasound, and it’s THE ultrasound where I will get to find out whether I am having a girl or a boy. My guess is that he’s a boy. We’ll see what happens. I will be sure to post the obligatory picture and I’m also hoping to make a small video of the experience… that’s all up to Sam, though. He’ll have to be the documentarian this time.
On point of banality: tonight for dinner we’re having lemon chicken, Zatarain’s rice pilaf, and mixed veggies. Sounds like typical school cafeteria fare, don’t it?
Tomorrow I am 19 weeks pregnant, and I think I have finally started to feel the baby move. A couple of weeks ago I wasn’t sure what it felt like, so it was hard to know. As late as last night I was telling a friend that I didn’t know if I had felt movement yet, but today I really paid attention and there have been a couple of times that I have felt something I am thinking must be the baby. Next week, Sam and I will go for the 20 week ultrasound, and I’ll be able to see the baby move and then know for sure if what I’m feeling actually corresponds with movement.
Not to mention, we’ll find out if we’re having a girl or a boy. I am soooo excited to know.
Gah, I’m so rusty at the blogging. I keep thinking of things I might blog about but I never get around to actually writing about them. Here’s a short list of things I’ve thought about making entries about:
1) My amazing body pillow that I got last week. It has made my night-time setup SO much more simple! I had about 8 pillows (this is not an exaggeration) that I would arrange and pile up and tug on every night trying to get comfortable, and now I have just the one glorious pillow with a little soft down pillow on top for my head.
2) My weirdness about people acknowledging my pregnancy. I kinda like the attention but I kinda don’t. I guess the attention kinda weirds me out because it’s really hard to avoid the feeling that people will think (or already do think) that I’m somehow “different” because I’m going to have a baby. I guess I am different, but I don’t even know how yet. I guess the expectations and baggage and stereotypes can be a little overwhelming.
3) My trip to Thibodaux. I spent most of my time hanging out with Aunt Mamie (rather than on my own taking photos as in past visits), because I really had planned on this being my last trip before the baby was born. We went to a riverboat casino and she kept saying “next time you come we’ll go to Cypress,” and I kept thinking “she really doesn’t realize that I’m not coming back for a long time…” I’m still not sure how I feel about not going back until my post-baby days. It’s a long time for me, now that I’ve been going so regularly.
4) The Mozart Requiem. Sam and I are singing the Requiem with Musica Ecclesiae at St Mary’s next Saturday. I feel so blessed to know my baby will hear Mozart in utero from the stage! We don’t need no stinking headphones!
I’m visiting Thibodaux this weekend, mostly likely the last time I will make it out here before the baby is born, thereby ending my 3-year run of solo visits back “home.” It’s a sad trip because it’s the first time I’ve been here where I don’t get to visit my Nonnie, who passed away in February. I have more unstructured time, which is why I am now at a little cafe that has free wifi, enjoying some email and CNN Politics before I meet up with Aunt Mamie again for dinner. I forgot my power cords so my happy internet time will be cut short because my Powerbook battery is crappy.
As you can see, the place is packed:
The last time I posted anything to this blog, I was sending photos from the airport of Sam and I on our way home from Las Vegas. We went to Las Vegas to see the Cirque du Soleil show, Love. It was awesome and I cried like a baby through the whole opening sequence, I was so excited! It was definitely the highlight of the trip. We had another great experience having dinner at the Stratosphere Tower’s restaurant, “Top of the World.” They happened to delay their July 4th fireworks display to July 5, our first night in Vegas. When the fireworks started popping right in front of our table, it was like we’d ordered them with the meal. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’m a huge fan of fireworks, so it wouldn’t have taken much to excite me, but this was above and beyond anything I could have dreamed of. Because it’s so hard to describe, let me provide a bit of visual description… shot with my flip video camera:
So why did I quit blogging right around the time of our awesome trip? Well, long story short, I found out about four days before we left that I was expecting our first child! I spent that whole week testing, confirming, and freaking out. The trip to Vegas was a nice escape from reality (although I wasn’t allowed to drink or even eat sushi, dammit) while I sorted out my thoughts about what was to come. I was and am, of course, completely thrilled to be pregnant, but it really took me several weeks to accept the reality of it. I think I had somehow talked myself into the idea that it was “never going to happen,” and had started to adjust my life towards that concept. The revelation that it was indeed going to happen was somehow totally shocking to me.
The news that we were going to have a baby definitely enhanced the trip (sushi or no sushi). We enjoyed our trip even more knowing that it had suddenly become somewhat of a Babymoon! Although coming back home didn’t exactly snap everything into reality for me, the ending of my first trimester has really brought on a sense of relaxed calm, a feeling that the pregnancy is most likely going to “stick,” and a feeling of truly happy anticipation.
So there you have it. I’m 35 and I’m going to have a baby in March. My friend Jennifer keeps asking me if I’m going to start a baby blog, and I’m still not sure. Will this end up being a baby blog? We’ll see.
Sent from my mobile phone
Sent from my mobile phone
Sent from my mobile phone
