31 weeks

This baby is due in 9 weeks, but could arrive in as few as FIVE (my sister was at 36 weeks when she had my niece). Or, you know, tomorrow. Yikes. Alternately, he could be like me and come two weeks late. At my current level of preparedness, overdue sounds OK to me, but ask me again in October.

Weight Gain: 22.5 pounds... I lost half a pound in the last two weeks! I think this means that my food, exercise and stress are all stabilizing. The midwife was as happy as I was about this.

Symptoms: Leg cramps. The first big one happened about 20 minutes before my alarm was set to go off on a Monday morning - a blindingly painful cramp in my right calf that jolted me out of sleep. I was writhing around, trying to take deep breaths, and poor DH woke up to me sounding like I was in labor. He sprang in to action and rubbed my leg, which helped a lot.

Also, indigestion. I know I've been lucky and avoided it so far, but I fear that my carefree days are over. And at first, we couldn't find the Tums because they were still packed away. Happily, DH braved the remaining boxes and found them for me. He's my provider!

Cravings/Aversions: I'm definitely getting a little of the first-trimester "meh" feelings about food back... I'm trying to eat smaller meals more frequently, so my stomach doesn't get empty.

I am loving: Telling people I'm due in ten weeks and getting told, "Wow, you're not that big!" Which is funny, because if I tell people I'm due in October, they say, "But you're already huge!" Um, it's the same time, people.

I miss: Being able to bend forward, and most other things about having a waist. This includes rolling over while in bed without it being a fourteen-step process.

I'm looking forward to: A few weeks without travel, big events, moving, vacation... any of that stuff. Some normal, boring routine sounds lovely (and I think that's better for my health, too). I'd like to savor it before all routine goes out the window when we bring home a newborn. I'm also looking forward to the start of setting up the kiddo's room, now that we have the major components (crib, dresser, comfy chair) and some baby stuff that needs organizing.

I'm freaked out about: Well, again, not "freaked out", but we just learned that one of DH's cousins just had a baby and gave him the name we really liked. I believe that means we can't use the name, but DH thinks it's not a big deal because that kid and our kid are third cousins with different last names and we see them twice a year. I'm not so sure... won't everyone think we just stole the name? This bums me out, as part of the appeal for that name was that no one in either of our families had it, and now there'd be a cousin the same age with the same name. Grumble.

Milestones: I'm going to the midwife every other week now. That's not supposed to happen until almost the end of the pregnancy, right? Oh, wait..

Also, my stomach capacity is definitely getting smaller. Whereas I used to go from OK to starving in the blink of an eye, now when I'm eating I go from hungry to uncomfortably stuffed in a moment. Another reason I'm trying to eat smaller meals, more frequently. I think my digestion is about to become something I think about a lot more. That was my least favorite part of the first trimester, and now it's back! Darnit.

Finally, this isn't really quite a milestone, but we got information on a pediatrician's office that sounds good. This feels like a big step toward being responsible for this new person.

Movement: I was advised at a recent midwife appointment to start doing "kick counts" to ensure the baby is moving regularly. At this point that's definitely not necessary. He moves all. the. time. And it feels like he really enjoys doing slow somersaults, which feels weird. I'm still able to sleep through his gyrations, fortunately. We'll see how long that lasts. The fun thing was that I drank a root beer shortly before my shower on Saturday, so a lot of folks got to feel him move around, including both of his grandmothers. My mom said that I would do slow rolls the same way my son is doing, which is cool - he's being like me!

Exercise: Pretty decent over the week of vacation: I took some long walks and spent one day kayaking and swimming and climbing some sand dunes with DH. The weather this past week was much more clement, so I've done a lot more walking outside, and more stretching, exercises, etc through the day. If I don't exercise, I don't sleep, so I have all kinds of motivation.

Diet: Greatly improved until the weekend of the shower. We actually planned a week of meals and did some real cooking in our kitchen, like we live in a place instead of being mendicants who survive on take-out. The weekend of the shower involved a lot of family and a lot of rich food, and now I'm feeling like plain toast or rice sounds OK for a few days.

Something nice: I'm excited about how long this section is:

1) I passed my glucose tolerance test "with flying colors" according to the friendly midwife student, and my iron levels look good, too. Let's keep on being medically boring, baby!

2) My sister and sister-in-law threw a baby shower in my home town this past weekend. They surprised me by asking everyone to bring a favorite children's book, and we got SO MANY great books. I am really, really excited to read to and with this kid, and I love that we have so many great reads. It's a perfect range, from little baby board books to kids' fairy tale collections - something for each stage. We got baby gear, too, which is very practical and was wonderful to receive, but I know the books are going to be special to our family for years and years.

3) A friend of mine is planning a women's blessing day for me and another good friend who's due the same week. Part of the deal is that these women will pray for each of us when they hear we're in labor. There's something really comforting about that, and I'm touched that they're organizing it. As I get closer to Birth Day, I'm realizing that this life change, more than any other I've experienced, is huge and fundamental and permanent and... just... way bigger than me. So I'm grateful to have some space to consider the spiritual implications of the whole enterprise.

4) Another fantastic friend of mine just told me she's 9 weeks along with her first baby, and I could not be more excited for her and her husband. She told me at the shower and I just suck at maintaining a poker face - I basically freaked out and I'm sure everyone knew what was going on. I've been thinking about them all weekend and sending non-pukey vibes her way as she survives the first trimester. It's made me reflect on how quickly one goes from having nothing but a queasy feeling and a lot of questions to being a big-bellied quasi-expert on pregnancy: there's a lot to learn and think about, but there's a nice chunk of time in which to learn it. And even when you might not know what to do, your body usually does. I hope the process of becoming a parenting "expert" is similarly fluid!