So I'm 28 weeks now, I believe that puts me officially in the third trimester. But at the same time, I'm not sure. I always was bad at the counting/calculating part of pregnancy. But BabyCentre assures me that 28 weeks means I'm in the final trimester. Eeek. So much to do before this baby is born. First of all, I still have to get through Christmas, finish the new baby's crocheted blanket, finish the Little Dude's baby memory book and keepsake quilt, buy a double stroller, wash all the baby blankets and supplies that have come out of storage, make our house look less like short term storage and more like a medium-term home and somehow turn a walk-in closet into a nursery. Oh, and pick a name.
I am totally stumped on names. At this point I'm taking suggestions. Quick, if you had to name a baby boy RIGHT NOW, what would you call him? That's the question I'm randomly asking people I run into these days. I totally stumped my librarian this afternoon. She was all like "That's way too much pressure" and I was all like, "tell me about it".
And I'm starting to feel unwieldy. Its beginning to get awkward to get in and out of bed. I'm told that the best position to sleep in when you are pregnant is on your left hand side (something about best blood flow to the fetus, least strain on your kidneys or something along those lines). But I'm, like, a lifelong right hand side sleeper. Or at least since I got married. Which was about a dozen years ago. So I go to sleep like a good girl, on my left with my little wedge pillow tucked beside my belly and a bigger pillow between my knees. But I'm now in that part of pregnancy where your body gets you ready for life with a baby by waking you up intermittently throughout the night. Also, I'm back to nightmares again. Less baby specific, but still enough to wake me up with a gasp or a wail. Hubs sometimes wakes up too, but he grunts and groans and complains how hard it is for him to fall back asleep. Then, less than 5 minutes later he's sawing logs and I'm still laying there, uncomfortably on my left hand side, wondering when I might fall asleep again. Sigh. (and he had the nerve to rent a scary(ish) movie tonight. The Road in case you are wondering. Usually I'm all about a good dystopian post-apocalyptic future film, but knowing that this one dwells heavily on a father protecting his small boy from the evils of a barren and corrupt world makes me leary. Sure enough, I had to leave the room 15 minutes in, never to return. I'll probably have nightmares even though I didn't actually see it. Just the thought of things is enough to scare me these days.) Anyhow, I digress. Sleeping positions, right; sometimes, if I wake up after 6:30 am, I allow myself to grunt and groan and roll over onto my right hand side, to fall asleep for the short remainder of the night. An hour or so on my right hand side won't hurt, right? And man, does it feel good. Feels like coming home. Like eating comfort food. Like opening a new magazine and putting on new socks at the same time. awesome.
But its not all complaints. I still love the feeling of being poked and prodded and kicked from the inside. And finally, the other day, the Little Dude was able to feel it too. I've put his hand on my belly to feel it a couple of times before, but he doesn't usually have the patience to wait for it to happen. But a couple of mornings ago, he came and climbed in our bed when he woke up, and we were hanging out, playing 'criss, cross, applesauce', and talking about what he dreamed about last night (diggers every time, naturally) and the New Baby was kicking like CRAZY, very rhythmically and predictably, and we asked him if he wanted to feel the baby kick and he said yes, so Hubs put his hand over L.D.'s hand, and put it on the right place on my belly. And 'boomp, boomp' two good strong kicks happened right away.' And the Little Dude's face lit up in the slow smile, like he finally got it, that there is a person in there. "Baby kicked!" he said.
And there we were, all cuddled up in bed together, our whole family.
Wow, that brings back memories. I never followed the left side rule - my midwife said it didn't matter that much and it was more important that I actually slept! Names... hmmm, Chris always had a last say on boys names...(maybe you can let good ol' hubs have the ultimate responsibility)... we might have had a Nathaneal or a Christopher (Jr) instead of Emmanuel last time. If you really want to confuse his teachers, you could call him Kael (like one of my Dutch students), they'll constantly mix up your boys! Avery? Reuben? Good luck!
Posted by: Caroline | 12/15/2010 at 06:09 AM
all too familiar.
the last line ... the best :)
Posted by: Marcia Van Drunen | 12/15/2010 at 09:43 PM
i just started sleeping on the left about a month ago (i'm due any day...), and the baby is perfectly positioned. i guess i figured, sleep while the sleepin's good! we also just found a boy's name we like! but we don't know the baby's sex, nor do i know if you would like it (or if it'd go with the little dude's name). our first, we didn't figure out til after he came. but it still is a relief to have found at least one upon which we can agree!
Posted by: kendra | 12/15/2010 at 11:52 PM