24 Weeks/6 Months

Here I am at 24 weeks and 6 months. I can't believe that there are only 3+ months to go.

It really looks like I'm carrying around a soccer ball instead of a baby, but I've heard the heartbeat each month, so I know that the baby is in there. Which is a good thing, because we don't have room for any more sports equipment! I finally just figured out where we would store the hockey bag! The baby is moving very frequently on most days and is a strong little stinker. I've already had a couple of nights where the baby has either kept me awake or woken me up from a dead sleep by tumbling around. I don't think this would be such a big issue if it weren't for the fact that I get so excited each time I feel it move. It's really become quite a distraction and I think I need to become a little more disciplined with myself before the baby actually gets here.

Luke's Birthday and a Garden too!

We got together with my siblings and parents this weekend to help create a vegetable garden in their backyard. Luke and I were particularily excited for this, as we don't have space for a garden. Even I got to help out, although most of the work was (thankfully) done by my Dad, Luke and my brother. It was a beautiful and sunny day, and we ended it with a delicious meal and birthday cake for Luke! That's right: Daddy is now the big 2-8, which as I keep reminding him is another blessed year closer to 30.

The baby and I are now at 23 weeks and growing by the minute. The great thing about this garden is that by the time the pumpkins that are planted are ready--it will be just in time for baby's first Halloween! (and I'm sure that all the other nutritious snacks we are growing in there will be appreciated too).

For his birthday, we all decided to get Luke a flaming pan of cake!

Mother's Day 2010

This year Brittany and I took our mom to a Mother's Day Tea at her church Holy Spirit Lutheran, and it was a really nice way to spend a Saturday. I helped decorate our table, and we got to dine on miniature sandwiches and brownies. We even got a portrait taken and had time after the tea to sit in the sun with the dogs on their deck and drink "virgin" Bloody Marys for a couple of hours. It was pretty much perfect, and I was happy to be with my mom and sister on such a special day.


On Sunday, (Mother's Day proper), I told Luke, "all I want to do today after church is eat, nap, then go for a walk!" And that's exactly what we did. We also found time to sneak in a few more belly shots:

After a walk that was absolutely lovely, but probably a bit too long for my ever widening hips...we decided on greek lamb wraps for dinner and shot up the hill in Old Town to the Met Market for supplies. I remembered a very funny "mama" (Lisa Ganung) telling me that they had an "expectant mother's" parking spot...it was worth checking out and cashing in on! Sure enough, we found it and it was vacant when we pulled it. I made my proud papa Luke take a picture, that I'm thinking might be a favorite of mine for a long time:

All in all, a pretty fine weekend. Although Luke and I both agree that I still have a lot of work to do before I'm a bonafide Mother on Mother's Day--we had a great time celebrating the little one who will be heading our way in a few months. I can't believe I'm already at 22weeks!

comic relief

My dear friend Kim found a book for me that has been an excellent source of stress relief and humor over the past couple of days. It's called "It Could Happen to You!" by Martha Brockenbrough, who met her husband in Tacoma, and now lives in Seattle. It's written in a loose "diary" style, and follows the candid observations of a woman and her husband through their first pregnancy. As I read from her chapter on the first trimester this morning, this passage gave me those old "warm & fuzzies":

Still, I was counting the days until I got to hear the heartbeat. And when the day finally arrived, I was thrilled...'What's it going to sound like?' I wondered. I grew less rational from there. 'What if we can't hear it? What if this is all some sort of mistake? What if something is wrong?' I felt myself get very cold as I lay on the table and waited...[then] the room was filled with steady drumming, like the sound a horse makes when it runs across hard ground. It's a dancing rhythm, filled with energy, a music that made my chest squeeze with joy. Then the nurse moved the probe to pick up my heartbeat as well. Mine was a slower, rushing rhythm, like moving water. Together this was the sound of two lives sharing a body, a curious, beautiful song that I could have listened to for hours while I tried to find the meaning within. Maybe this is why all human cultures have music. It's the way we bring our heartbeats outside and share them, and say, 'We're alive.'