37-esque

I've emerged from under the annual pile-up that is Youth Sunday. It went amazingly well, despite the fact that the kid who was to sing lead on 3 of 4 songs in the youth praise band decided not to show on Saturday for rehearsal. After 3 hours of rearranging, we managed to find some solutions to get the music to work. Oy. They were incredible. The 3 ladies who delivered the sermon were fantastic, too. I'm so glad it was a service they could be proud of.

Today was my 37 week OB appointment... I'm pretty sure it was the different scale I was weighed on 2 weeks ago that gave such a skewed measurement, because today I was weighed on the scale from most of my visits, and it showed a 2.5 pound LOSS. So there. Total weight gain is about 9 lbs. My blood pressure was good, 120/76. Bertha's heartrate was great, too. And guess what? I'm 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced. Although that probably doesn't mean impending labor since I was at least that with Henry for over 2 weeks. My favorite OB, who's 34 weeks pregnant herself, couldn't figure out Bertha's position, so she brought me to the ultrasound room for a very quick peek to double-check that she's head down, and she is. Thank heavens. I think she's going to be loooong, given the way her legs are pushing on me.

So, it's time for you all to share your predictions... Leave your guess for birthday, time, weight, length, and any last guesses at her name (SHUT UP, KATHERINE AND GODMOTHER A) in the comments. The winner will get an awesome prize, for real. And here I am, in a crummy picture, at 37-esque weeks:

goings on

For 8 hours on Saturday we worked on getting Henry's room ready for Bertha's arrival. With our small two bedroom house, you can imagine that we're already packed to the gills with stuff. There was really only one solution for that problem in Henry's room - find a place for the toys. The baby will be in our room with us for a while in the pack&play, but eventually she'll have to move to a crib in Henry's room, for which there was NO spot... before Saturday. Timon built this awesome bed for Henry, and ALL of his toys and books are underneath in sorted storage bins.

This corner shows Henry's little table, in a much better spot than before under one window. On the right you can see the crib pieces against the wall, this is where it will stay. That is, if we can find the hardware for the stinkin' thing. Obviously when we took it apart two years ago, we put the hardware in a VERY safe spot. So safe that it may never surface again.

And here I am, at 33-ish weeks. I went to the OB today, all was well. No weight gain again, baby's heartbeat was great, I am measuring right on for 33 weeks. It's sort of comforting to not have much to report. My doula Robyn came with me to meet the doctor, which was nice. She is awesome, and I will be so glad to meet with her more over the next weeks and have her with us during delivery.

Wait, what is this? (I am telling you, this is everyday life with this child.)

2/3rds

Yes, I'm solidly into the third trimester! Again, the passage of time seems so warped and has been since January when we found out about Bertha (formerly Sea Monkey). It's beginning to feel real (as if the soccer ball I seem to have under my skin and "muscle" layers wasn't enough to convince me) now that we're nearing July and week 29-ish. Preparations are beginning, lists are being made, purchases are being considered. We think we know what we need/want to have handy to get ready for Bertha's arrival. In fact, I couldn't resist these two little items the other day:

That should be enough for a couple of hours, don't you agree? At the OB appt. where her gender was discovered, we also found that the placenta has migrated to a more agreeable position for delivery, and that she was measuring perfect at about 2.5 pounds. My blood pressure is still great, I have gained 5 pounds total from my pre-pregnancy weight, and I haven't heard anything about my gestational diabetes test, which I assume means I didn't do myself or the baby any harm with that Dr. Pepper I had the other day, or the ice cream I had last night, or the constant consumption of fruit I've been inhaling. But that's all-natural, right?

Yesterday we took Henry to see WALL-E. It was so, so good. Henry was really into it, and laughed out loud and pumped his fist in the air after a particularly dramatic moment met it's victorious conclusion. It was great for kids and (as usual for Pixar movies) enjoyable for the grown-ups, too. Plenty of fun little details are included, too - Keep your eyes peeled for the Big-Mouth Billy Bass, all you fellow Millenials.

I saw Ashley's grandma at church today - she seems to be doing well. She told me that Ashley's mom, older sister, nieces and nephew all went to Disney today using tickets given to Ashley earlier this year when it was still a possibility that she would recover. I think that's a perfect way to begin some healing - Ash would totally give her blessing to that. We also talked about something that weighs heavily on me and has for some time - the week before the brain cancer was found in 2005, Ashley was on a mission trip with me and 3 other youth in Georgia. She complained of headaches the entire time. Of course I felt bad that her head was hurting, but I really didn't take it very seriously. Not that anyone would or could have guessed that her headaches meant she had tumors, but still - it's strange to think that through that fun long weekend, cancer was lurking, just getting ready to show itself. I'm glad to have spent that time with her and to be able to have great memories.

Oh, and yeah, it doesn't compare to your church being destroyed by flood, but the church got struck by lightning last week (again - yes, for the second time in 3 years; not even God's people are exempt from His natural displays) and here are the functions and systems affected:
-the doorbell/intercom is fried
-2 out of 3 phone lines were disrupted but have been fixed
-several thermostats and one A/C relay were blown, but have been fixed
-6 out of 8 computers have no internet access, even after the replacement of our network switch
-the computer network does not function properly - most computers have no printer access
-the fire alarm is not functioning
-the organ is totally gone, possibly unreparably fried - we didn't discover that one till this morning when the organist came into practice before the service.
Awesome, huh? And guess who gets to attempt to handle juggling all of these items getting repaired in the next two weeks while our church secretary is on vacation? If you guessed me, you'd be right. FUN. And I get to do it all while hoisting this belly around:

oof.

When my husband (who is utterly convinced that I spend far, far too much time browsing the world-wide interwebs and claims my fondness for frequently checking email surpasses my love and committment to him) points out that I haven't posted in quite some time, it's time to post. And so, as it says in scripture, "Wives, submit to your husbands in all matters of blog posting...", here I am.

It's been a very, very busy week and a half. Last week the youth renovated the upstairs rec-room in the church completely - new carpet tiles, 3 colors of paint, and an awesome new purple leather sectional ($800! What a steal!) have transformed this area from gross torn up gray carpet and white paint into something really cool. Here it is after we cleaned it out (the boxes in the middle are the carpet tiles):


And here is an example of the fantastic teamwork the youth showed off almost every moment of the week:


I'm so glad that I had this week with them - it has restored my faith in teenagers that had been so shaken during the lock-in from Hades. Here's two views of the (almost) finished space:



In Henry news, he's continually killing us with his comedic timing and turn of phrase. One recent example is when he so innocently asked his father, "Daddy, what is those things that suck your brain out?" Timon replied, "Umm, you mean aliens or something?" Obviously satisfied, Henry answered back with an assured, "Yeah, aliens, that's right. Watch out for those." Of course. He's also become quite the artist. Here's a recent sample of a family portrait (signed by the artist):


And because nobody asked, here I am at 27-ish weeks:


I feel like a giant. My pelvic pain is much more manageable between the brace and the occasional Vicodin. What's happening now is the baby's growing so much that my ribs are starting to feel the pressure. Sea Monkey moves all the time and has even made him/herself seen and felt by several other people. Two more days until we'll get another look at the little bugger and hopefully get a good view of the parts. I still have no concrete feelings either way, but I am excited to discover whether we'll have to start unpacking the blue or gathering up the pink. Any guesses?

what it's about

"I really love you, Mommy, all the time." - Henry, this morning

weekend

Soooooo, how was everyone's weekend? Ours was busy, but nice. Friday started things off with quite a bang... I took 6 youth to a concert in another part of the state, purportedly headlined by our favorite band ever, downhere. It took us 2.5 hours to travel a distance that should have taken 1.5 hours. Nice. But we kept being reassured, thinking that we'd just miss a little of the two opening acts and be right on time for the boys. HA! We walked in the door of the mega-church where the concert was being held and heard the sounds of downhere coming from the sanctuary! WHAT? So, yeah. They were the opening act. But we only missed one song, and their show, while much, much too short, was incredible, as usual. Frankly, even if they'd played for 3 hours, I'd still want more. The upside to them playing early was that we had plenty o'time to chat with the band after they played. And that's some of the best part of downhere - they love to take time with their fans. After I re-introduced myself to Jason and Jeremy, they remembered me from previous shows and their two visits to our church (even though the most recent of which was in 2003). And, I wasn't my usual starstruck dork moron around them this time. I actually conversed like a grown-up, a fact about which I am exceedingly proud. *sigh*

Then Saturday I had confirmation class most of the day. Not much else to say about Saturday except that we watched The Kite Runner, and it was incredible. Just as awesome as the book, although I'm weird that way, and usually like both the movie and the book it's based on. When you watch it, you'll probably be as incredulous as me at how amazing a country Afghanistan used to be, and how wrecked it has become, first by the Soviets and then by the Taliban.

Yesterday we went to church, then to the church picnic for a short time, then we headed to the ballgame, to see our mailman pitch. He did great, even though I got a crummy picture of it. The game was crummy too, with our hometown ballteam losing 6-0. Oh well. We were able to get close to the field before the game and Henry was pretty focused watching the players warm up and the mascot fooling around. The giveaway at the game were some wristbands, which Henry promptly put on and posed with. They didn't come off until we made him do so at bedtime. He wore them to school today.

Okay, now for the pictures!

Mailman Eric winds up to pitch

what'cha lookin' at, henry?


oh, him. that's the starting pitcher, warming up.


still wearing the wristbands, even while eating
cereal for dinner (we are the parents of the year)

One more photo, and I can't even believe it - here's the bump, at 19ish weeks:

12 weeks

Try to ignore the shadow of my stomach on the counter/cabinets. It makes me look a smidge larger than I actually am. But, I am feeling a little big. I know this girl whose asshat ex-boyfriend once gave her a morning hug, then pinched the skin around her waist and asked her, "Feeling a little big today, hon?" She is extremely thin. I hope she kicked him in the privates. Oh, and Timon & Henry brought me those tulips from the Saturday Morning Market last week, and they're just now starting to droop. (The tulips, not Timon & Henry.)