So, in the name of compromise, since this is week 33, I will offer you 7 facts/funnies. Next week there will be 6. And then 5. I feel like you can catch the pattern we're rolling with here.
7. The beginning of this week was the hardest week of my entire pregnancy. Nevermind the gallbladder, the heartburn, the exhaustion. The beginning of this week was so miserable. My ligaments were stretching so intensely, and it hurt so badly that it made me sweat. Don't EVEN start with the "You just wait until you get your first contraction!" crap. I don't want to hear it. At the end of the contractions, there's a baby. You know what you get at the end of a ligament pain? Stretch marks. Where's the joy? Moving on. I was so upset about my blood pressure diagnosis that I laid on the couch for three days. I felt like I was terrible at being pregnant, missing my husband miserably, and feeling depressed in general. The hormones will take you down, ladies. It wasn't until Wednesday, when I started documenting my blood pressure in a journal that things started perking up for me. It was a miserable beginning to the week, but a wonderful ending. More on that later.
6. Ella's room is done! Is it going to win awards for the world's cutest and most detailed nursery? No. But it does feel like a little girl's room, and while I know it won't stay in such perfect shape for long after her birth, and that's part of the reason I didn't invest too much into her room financially. It isn't that I don't feel like she deserves the world and everything in it, it's that I know she's a baby. And after she's a baby, she'll be a toddler, and if she's anything like I hear her Daddy was, she'll be a tornado of energy, and I would be silly to believe that her room will stay looking serene and peaceful. I would rather her room be a place where it looks like a little girl can dream than a clipping from a magazine. I made a very conscious decision to leave an empty corner in the room, so that her daddy can build a bookshelf for her. Because she will be a reader. She will LOVE to read. I think Santa will bring her one of those little mini rocking chairs to go in the corner too. Or maybe a bean bag. I want her to be able to get lost in a book in the corner of her bedroom. I used to read on the porch swing in the backyard when I was little. When I read "The Diary of Anne Frank," I laid in the swing while it rained and read the entire book. It took the entire day, and the rain never stopped, and the mosquitoes ate me alive. But I've never forgotten it. Please Lord, Let her be a reader.
5. As you all know, Ella is a toe sucker. Most adorable babies show off their sweet baby hands in sonograms, but not our kid. She really wants us to know how cute her feet are. They really are the sweetest little toes, I can't wait to kiss them. Anyway, We were going through some old pictures that Cody has from his childhood... and look what I found:
Yep! He was a toe sucker too! But he was also the most adorable kid. Always smiling. ALWAYS. He was way cuter than I was as a baby, so I'm hoping his genes dominate mine. I'm just being honest. I was cute enough, don't get me wrong, but his dimples combined with those eyes and sweet gummy smile are just about enough to melt my heart strings.
4. I started Ella's Christmas stocking. I know it'll be at the very bottom of my priority list after she's born, and I would like to finish it before her birth because otherwise she'll be the only one without a sequined stocking at my parent's house for Christmas. Two problems so far. One, I can't find the instructions and it's incredibly difficult. These kits require that each component be cut from felt and sewed to the stocking base. There's a very specific order of duties, and without the instructions, it's really easy to mess up. I've messed up at least 3 times so far, but I soldier on. Two, I have no patience for it right now. It's super time consuming and super detailed. It's interesting, because I complain to Cody about being super bored right now, but I would almost prefer to sleep than sew. We'll see if I finish it or not. I hope I do. My great-grandmother started the tradition and I always loved looking at my stocking sparkle. Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas, after all. I made one for Cody after we got married (it's pretty scary, but I had never sewed before) and then for my nephew and niece last year. I swore them off after that, but then I found out I was pregnant with Ella and bought another kit that day. It looks almost exactly like mine (minus the crazy details that Grandma Bee was able to sew,) and it's so very sweet. Okay. Maybe I'll finish it.
3. The garden is wonderful and frustrating simultaneously. We had about 4 tomato plants finally die, but the remaining plants are producing beautiful, gorgeous, delicious tomatoes. The ladybugs are REALLY giving us grief this year, so I hate them, but the plants are holding on despite being treated like a buffet. Our squash plants are really struggling, so after a few of the fruits finish growing, we'll pull them up and start over with new seeds. That's what's wonderful about squash. You can plant it anytime, as long as the sun is hot. Our zucchini is my pride and joy. The plants are ENORMOUS and the zucchini itself is just blowing us away. So full of flavor, HUGE, and producing in massive quantities. I LOVE it. I'm even willing to share with anybody that likes zucchini. Our cantaloupe plant is a slow grower, but it seems to be doing well. It is unfathomable to me that it's already time to plant Okra. Those don't produce until August, and we'll have a BABY by then! A BABY! I love the distractions that the garden brings.
2. I'm slipping into the phase of pregnancy where time flies and drags simultaneously. Most days drag by for me, but in the grand scheme of things, I only HAVE to be pregnant for another 3 weeks (give or take a few days, considering the blog is almost a week late.) And when I think about it in those terms, I hyperventilate. But then I know that I'm supposed to technically be pregnant for about 6 more weeks, I want to throw myself into a wall. It's exciting. I love the mystery behind it all, and I really hope I go into labor before the doctor schedules an induction date. I would prefer to be caught completely off guard over labor than to spend an entire week prior contemplating everything my body is about to go through. I'd like to go ahead and warn everybody that I don't plan to announce her birth on social media until we're back home from the hospital. I love you all, but hospital visits are awkward. Mom is always exhausted, Dad is always asleep on a cot, the room is always overly stuffy, there's always one person there that won't fork the baby over, Mom always looks on helplessly while every one gets to hold the baby but her, and there's never chairs, so everybody just stands around awkwardly. I never visit people in the hospital for those exact reason. Selfish as it sounds, I worked hard to get that baby here over 9 months, I would like to be the one holding her during her first precious hours on the outside. So, maybe I'm anti-social, and maybe I'll change my mind... but right now, we don't plan to make her birth public knowledge until we're back home.
1. Now for the biggest and grandest news of all: The Pre-Eclampsia scare is pretty much over. At my appointment last Friday, my blood pressure was 129/83. A little elevated, but not bad. I had been home for exactly one week, and I took my blood pressure 6 times a day with a good machine. The readings stayed consistent at 120/80 or lower. I showed my journal entries to my doctor, told him that staying at home helped my swelling significantly, and he was very pleased. There was no protein in my urine sample, and my headaches stopped. He basically said that he was proud that I did what it took to slow my pace down, that everything looked significantly better, and he was no longer concerned about pre-eclampsia. He asked me to continue watching my blood pressure at home, call him if I noticed any of the symptoms coming back around, and then said that I could wait another 2 weeks before I came back to see him. And then I got culture swabbed, and then I got my cervix checked. Ow. I'm not going into those details, but I stand by argument that girls in high school should have to go through the third trimester of pregnancy. Duct Tape a watermelon to them, give them pills to exhaust and back their bowels up, then let them go through third trimester doctor visits, beginning with the glucose test. They won't make it! After the invasive check, the doctor said everything is exactly as it should be, meaning no signs of a baby coming anytime soon. Yay. (I guess.) Regardless, we Bless the Lord, Praise the Lord, and Thank the Lord for continuing to hold us in hands. One of my favorite lines in a song we sing at church says "You are true, You are true, Even in my wandering." This could mean different things for different people, I guess, but I know for me, my mind is so quick to wander when I'm faced with a stressful situation. My heart knows who the Lord is and my heart knows that the Lord is faithful... but my mind wanders. That's how I end up laying on the couch proclaiming self pity and feeling depressed. But the Lord never walks away, and He proves again and again that He loves me just as much as he loves this fat baby.
That's all! I took another selfie this week because Cody was at camp and I was home alone. I don't even know who I am anymore. My world is shaken.
Large Marge Out.
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