About every two weeks I develop a new pregnancy fear. Sometimes they are completely irrational, but sometimes not. Anyways, I figure I could lay them out on the table in case any of you can relate. Some of the more rational fears: spontaneous miscarriage, preterm labor, falling or getting hit in the belly. Some of the less rational fears: my water slowly breaking/leaking (especially if I have a day or two of wet quality cervical fluid—sorry for the visual), or my placenta detaching by the baby pulling on the cord (is this even possible?! I don't want to know).
I'm pretty sure the baby is doing okay though considering all her kicks and movements. In fact, we can now see them on the outside! We were laying in bed one morning feeling her kick away and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my belly was jumping every time she kicked. I started to watch intently and realized I could see little limbs poking up and even full body movements. At one point she switched positions and my belly molded with her. Crazy! I can't take my eyes off that belly lately.
Speaking of my belly, I have a confession: my stomach is newly hairy. Of course I've always had fuzz, but this is a bit more than fuzz. I hear this is pretty common and that all the extra hair falls off postpartum. Thankfully I have a husband who could care less, even when I point it out to him. I love him and his acceptance of my hairy belly.
This week was exciting for most of us working folk, as we got a vacation smack in the middle of the week. What a treat! We left town for the night to go visit our good friends who just moved to Oak Harbor. Even though it was less than 24 hours, it was such a refreshing getaway. We both love Whidbey Island so, so much and are very grateful to have friends there now. We loved it so much that Arthur has taken to praying that the Lord would give him a job in Oak Harbor. There's nothing wrong with that! May the Lord's will be done ;)
Since we were there over the holiday, they organized a Fourth of July dinner with our other friends who live in Oak Harbor, and even a few more who made the trip up/down. We were also celebrating a birthday from the day before, so in honor of all the celebrations, they organized a slider (mini burger) cook-off, Chopped style. I'm not sure I've ever seen this show, but it sounds awesome. We had 30 minutes to plan, prepare and cook our sliders and submit them for judging. There was a table full of meat, mushrooms and other tasty and unique ingredients that we could pick and choose from.
Thirty minutes went by fast, but it was so fun. Arthur and I teamed up together to make marinated portobello mushroom sliders on a sweet hawaiian bun with spinach and a smear of my secret ingredient, cream cheese with chopped kalamata olives and fresh parley. Although they didn't win (I knew a mushroom burger would never in a million years win against meat with a non-vegetarian judge), our sliders were B.O.M.B.! I can't wait to incorporate the kalamata cream cheese in our regular mushroom burgers.
The day was pretty exhausting to me, but such a blessing. We even got to play with a baby the entire night. Arthur was in heaven. He loves babies, but especially really awesome babies. And this baby was really awesome and chill. He couldn't get enough, and my heart was overjoyed watching him.
As if this wasn't enough partying, I had two baby showers and a 93rd birthday party to attend over the weekend. We celebrated my sister and brother-in-law at the Alki Tavern Saturday night with nachos and beer (I only had a sip or two, per usual). Allegedly this was the first baby shower the bar has ever had. It wasn't even rented out. There were quite a few other people just hanging out pre-funking the Sounders game. At one point there were three pregnant ladies in the bar, and a random guy asked who's baby shower it was because there were so many of us.
Sunday was also packed with church, another baby shower for a friend up north, and Arthur's grandma's 93rd birthday party. I wasn't able to make it to yoga, which was a total bummer, but I'm hoping to go this Thursday. It was a fun and social weekend with picture perfect summer weather. I can't wait for next summer to spend sunny family weekends with our new little friend!
Aside from being social butterflies, we also did lots of cooking. This is week two of our summer CSA and I'm still in love with our new farm. My palate is loving the variety of fruits and veggies we're cooking with. Some of the food highlights of the week were: garlic scape and artichoke omelets, herby olive oil potato salad, marinated veggies, fried rice loaded with veggies and sauteed bok choi on the side, and frozen banana bites for a treat. Heaven! I've also been extra hungry some days—insatiable even—so food is tasting mighty good lately.
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I have been having a lot of the same fears as you (except for the umbilical cord thing.. thanks a lot for that ;) ), I try and just calm myself down and pray which usually helps, or I call a sister and they calm me down and tell me I'm being silly. Just curious if you've talked about any names yet? We just found out that we're having a girl as well and have started narrowing down the name field.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your little girl! And, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in the irrational thinking :)
DeleteYes, we have a name picked out, but won't be sharing it until our little lady arrives. We wanted to keep something a surprise until the very end.
Hope you're well. xo