Halfway point
As you can see by our nifty little baby widget in the sidebar, today marks the 120th day of our pregnancy. This is the halfway point (assuming the baby comes exactly on time, which is highly unlikely). I have mixed feelings about this. Part of me is thinking “Woohoo, we’re halfway there, yippee, so exciting, woohoo!” But the other part of me says “Only halfway done. Argh! I’ve been prenant forever already. I have to do this for another five freaking months. This is a bunch of crap!” And the logical part of me knows that the half that lies ahead is going to be much harder than the half that has past.
I know I shouldn’t complain, I’ve been really lucky so far. My baby bump is just starting to become evident if I’m wearing the right clothes. I was getting a bit anxious about this, as it seems everyone else was bigger than me by this point. I went to prenatal yoga last week and the two women who weren’t as far along as me had much more pronounced bellies. They were also much thinner than me to start with, which probably explains a lot. I prefer to think it’s just that I’ve got really strong ab muscles, not that my belly fat is hiding the baby ;) My weight gain (or lack there of) has been good so far, I’ve gained less than five pounds which, considering I was already carrying a little extra insurance in that department, is good. I started feeling the baby move last weekend; Matthew was even able to feel it with his hand on my tummy. Now it seems like the baby is moving a lot, especially after I eat. It doesn’t hurt, just feels a little strange.
Next week we will go for another high detail ultrasound. If the baby cooperates, we should be able to find out if it’s a boy or a girl. After some consideration I decided I want know, whether it’s suprise now, or a surprise at the time of the birth doesn’t make a difference to us. And this will allow us to start getting all our ducks in a row by finding baby stuff and picking out names.
In case you’re curious, here’s how my belly looks at this point. Didn’t take any before pictures, but you get the idea.
I really like the 4th of July. Growing up, this was one of my favorite holidays because my family would get up early and go to the local park for a huge family picnic. The day went more like this. My uncles would get up at the crack of dawn to find a picnic site and sit on it until someone showed up with supplies. These sites were first come first serve and very popular, so I want you to get the full extent of what I mean when I say they got up early. My Mom, my aunt, and grandma would show up with all of the necessary supplies. My Dad, my brothers and I would get up early and work in the fields getting soybeans planted, but only until about noon, and then we would join the rest. This was a big affair - Food, grilling, softball, Frisbee, hiking, what one would expect from a good ‘ol American holiday picnic. We would participate in picnicking activities until right before sunset. By then, we have everything packed up and would head to the local 4th of July fair, and find a piece of open ground to sit, wait for, and watch the fire works. It may not sound like much, but I had so much fun at these. As I got into high school, and with Grandma passing away, this tradition faded away. I look back with very fond memories. Also looking back, I don’t think I ever celebrated the birth of the nation. I knew what the day was about, but I was more looking forward to celebrating with family and friends, and I didn’t really appreciate the reason so much. So if you have family and friends nearby, I hope you are all getting together, grilling some meat, drinking some tasty beverages, and partaking in some socially accepted pyromania. Most of all have a Happy 4th of July!!!!