Adventures in Pregnancy: 31 Weeks

And now I begin to understand all those bowling ball metaphors! I am getting seriously big, which is to say, my little passenger is getting seriously big: over 3 pounds! I am so grateful for every day he’s in there growing away.

The biggest change this week is that I feel all of his movements now instead of just kicks. Every time he shifts, I can tell exactly where he is. It is the strangest sensation, but I kind of love it. I know things are getting more crowded for him in there, and soon I’ll reach the trapezoid belly stage. As of right now, I can distinctly feel his legs and can usually tell where his back is. He seems to like hanging out on my left side.

I definitely have to get up more in the night now, and I think my sleep is probably going to get more erratic from here on out. Good practice for what’s to come. I still have to eat something in the night, but how hungry I am in general seems to change week by week. Depending on whether or not he’s having a growth spurt, I either have to eat something every two hours, or just one extra snack before bed in addition to my regular meals. I am still craving fruit (cold. cold fruit!) and ice-cold water.

We are making progress of prep work. This weekend we worked on the registry, and the baby shower invites are ready to send out (more on those soon, mostly because Hillary and I had so much fun making them!). I finally made my way through the baby name book, and now we are ready to have our Name Summit. Exciting!

This weekend we also had the chance to go paddle boating with some sweet friends of ours, who, blessedly, live only about 10 minutes from us. That is an LA miracle. The guys did all the paddling while the ladies chatted in the back. It was the loveliest afternoon and something I’ve been wanting to do for the longest time. So glad we squeezed it in!

A Handful of Happy Things

I went to the library today and picked up these gems. In Berkeley it was nearly impossible to check out anything that had come out in the last 2-3 years from the public library. But here…I can pull them right off the (new!) book shelf! There are still waiting lists for new books, of course, but they are not as long as in Berkeley. Going to the library makes me so ridiculously happy. Ours is a lovely historical one, and I’ve got the layout pretty much memorized. Sometimes I just go wandering around some interesting section until I see something that catches my eye. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there’s nothing like the shock of exhilaration that a library provides, one million possible worlds to explore, all at your fingertips.

I officially inaugurated summer by making my favorite corn and tomato galette yesterday. This is just the filling as it’s cooling. And the whole thing is long gone now. I can’t wait to grill zucchini and corn and peppers all summer long.

Eric had an observing run at Palomar this week, but thankfully I wasn’t too lonely because I had my book club meeting. I haven’t been able to go hang out with these lovely and intelligent people since before I was pregnant, due to being so sick. We had a wonderful time, and Rusty made a cherry clafoutis that was just out of this world. Eric came home this evening bearing so many treasures. He got some fruit and honey at our favorite farm stand, and he brought back all kinds of amazing bulk from Winco in Pomona. Groats! Forbidden rice! Golden raisins! Multi-grain couscous! Whole wheat penne pasta! He showed me all of his plunder, and then we *exulted* over how extraordinarily cheap the whole haul was, especially considering that most of these things are specialty items. Let’s just say that it would have cost at least twice as much at Whole Foods, if not more. Sometimes it’s hilarious how similar we are, and how much we value the same things.

To top off the happiness, we got a package in the mail from my Besfrinn! It was basically an entire baby shower in one box! My Besfrinn is getting ready to make a major move with her family to start a new job, and I cannot even fathom how she had time to put together and send this package while packing her whole household, keeping an eye on her two-year-old, and working remotely. I felt so very loved. And she sent such awesome stuff: books and clothes and cloth diapers and lots of other things we’ll need. It’s been a very happy couple of days indeed. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Memories and Making Jam

This is such a special handful of months. I am busy with several big things that are on a deadline, but I’ve never felt more productive, or like I’ve made better use of my time in my life. It’s an awesome feeling, one that I hope will carry over to whatever I may be able to get done during naptime (I’m setting my expectations very low so I can avoid putting pressure on myself and feel like a rockstar every time I accomplish something). But my deadline work means that all the creative projects I want to write about (the quilt! scrapbooking! reflections on my word for 2013–yes, I am aware that we are barreling into June!) are…not finished. And when that happens I sometimes just look through my photos and wait for inspiration to strike. There’s so much treasure in that Picasa folder.

So I wanted to write about making jam with Eric. Full disclosure: this is in no way a recipe post, but we used the recipe on the Pectin box for freezer jam. It was something that Eric knew how to do long before I met him, which he learned from his awesome mom, who is a master of canning and preserving (literally) and all other things in the kitchen. The great thing about freezer jam is that you don’t have to do all the intensive boiling and sterilizing. It’s quick and easy. So we decided to try it together. These pictures are from 2009 (!), and they were taken in the lovely little house where Eric lived when we first started dating. I miss the light and the hardwood floors, and all the laughing we did while making dinners together there. We made this jam soon after Eric got back from a  three-month balloon campaign in a tiny town in New Mexico. We were ecstatic to be back together again, and he was more than excited about getting some fresh summer fruit.

That morning we went to the farmer’s market and bought these two trays of strawberries–Albions. We still love this variety, even with all the Oxnard competition. We had never been to the farmer’s market before (Berkeley Bowl, ah, glorious Berkeley Bowl had everything we needed and more), but we had fun walking around and looking at everything. I remember seeing necklaces made with old typewriter keys and being enamored of them. And those glasses I’m wearing–ha! I got them when I was a freshman in college and wore them for about 10 years. I still kind of miss them sometimes.

I put an old shirt of his on over my dress to keep from splattering myself with strawberry juice. And now I wear that shirt as a pajama top. Those bright white countertops make me so happy. While Eric was in New Mexico, one roommate moved out, and a new one moved in. She was awesome in every way, and she kept things so neat and clean. This was a major improvement over the previous tenant!

These were the days when I was teaching lit at Berkeley and had to wear a watch to stay on track with my lessonplans. And it must be around the time that the silver rings I bought in Russia got too big for my fingers, because I have them pushed back with my grandmother’s sapphire ring, the one she gave me for my 16th birthday, just before she died.

Here is our sweet pink treasure.

We jarred it up and divided the stash evenly–half to his house, half to mine. I love looking back on this time because I just couldn’t have imagined all that was to come. Don’t get me wrong–I knew I wanted to marry Eric. I knew that more or less right away, in the way that you know something in your bones. I had never dated anyone like him, and we just had, and have, so much harmony together. We dated for two years before we got engaged, and I think it was perfect, though I know I spent some of that time impatiently longing for where we are today. But it’s so beautiful to look back and remember what a treasure this time was too. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. At the same time, it’s wonderful to be in a place where I’m no longer longing for anything. Eric and I are so deeply happy to see each other every day, and this little baby on the way feels like an extravagant gift on top of that. Sure, there are plenty of things I still want to do in life, and career goals I haven’t met yet, but I am so fully content and grateful for the life that we have together. I am so overwhelmed, honestly, by all the happiness that is to be found in the littlest things: making jam, looking through old photos, reading the paper, eating a cold peach. I don’t want to take any of them for granted. I don’t want to forget any of them. I hope that five years from now, I’ll be writing a post about the pictures I took today: water lilies and jacaranda petals, summer veggies going into a savory galette. Each day is so full of magic that I could never record it all. But I’ll never stop trying.

May: Currently

Plowing through a bunch of freelance work and feeling grateful to have it. It’s fun, and I learn so much.

Researching the next group of agents I’ll send my proposal to, since the first agency didn’t respond. I was bummed about this, but not crushed. I am sure there is a better agency for my project, and I shall find it!

Enjoying summer fruit like it’s the first time I ever had any. Peaches and cherries and strawberries and pluots and apriums and melons: they make my world go round.

Feeling excited about a week of cool weather, which means I can take daily walks without melting.

Enjoying the beautiful jacarandas around town. There are so many streets with lines of them planted on either side, and it turns the asphalt into a dark backdrop for thousands of brilliant purple blossoms.

Getting down to business on baby prep. Most of the big stuff is taken care of, and every little thing we put together makes this feel a little closer, a little more real, a little more magic.

Cooking up a storm to keep up with my T-Rex appetite.

Reading The Goldfinch and loving it.

Feeling so tired, so happy, and so in love.

Adventures in Pregnancy: 30 Weeks

When I was making this collage, I thought the image on the left was from about 19 weeks. I cannot believe how much I (we!) have grown in 6 weeks. And I know I have a long way to go. Bring on the muumuus!

We had our first childbirth class this past week, and it was awesome. We love our teacher and all the great info we are getting. It’s definitely exhausting, though, just in a sheer informational sense (each class is 2.5 hours long). I think Tuesday nights will be early bedtime nights for me for quite a while.

In exciting news, my cousin had her sweet baby boy this weekend! Our boys will be just a few months apart, and I can’t wait for them to be little buddies, just the way my cousin and I always were (we are almost the same age). Seeing those precious pictures of him just melted my heart. And it made me even more thrilled that we’ll be meeting our baby in a few months.

We had our 30 weeks appointment last week, and everything sounded great. I was, however, rather alarmed at how much weight I had gained in only 2 weeks: 5 pounds! I weighed myself when I got home, and our scale showed the same number as the doctor’s. But then I remembered that the weight from 2 weeks ago was taken in the morning, while this one was taken in the late afternoon. I weighed myself the next morning and was happy to find that I was 3 pounds lighter than the afternoon before, putting me right back in the normal range of weight gain. I should say, though, that I have not been worried about my weight up to this point and have not been weighing myself at home. I eat healthily and exercise, so there’s no real cause for alarm. My only concern is that extra weight gain can result in a larger baby, which, yikes, would make birth harder. That’s the only reason I’m weighing myself to make sure I’m more or less on track. That said, so much of pregnancy weight gain can be due to water retention, and all you can really do about that is avoid salt, which I mostly do. So, anyway, that was a very long way to say: I freaked out! But then everything was okay.

I continue to be amazed by my total lack of interest in dessert. Chocolate? No thanks, I’d prefer an avocado. And I’d take fruit over ice cream. Really cold fruit. It has been hot here lately (90s-100s), and even though I’m drinking a ton of water, I think my cravings for things like melons has to do with my thirst. I am *so happy* that this has coincided with summer fruit season because I am basically in cold cherry heaven!

Physically, I am still feeling good. I have to get up a few more times in the night now, and walking is a little bit more difficult, but I am still quite comfortable and grateful for that. I did have one serious bout of nausea this past week that left me reeling, wondering how on earth I managed to live through feeling that way all the time for three months. Here’s hoping I get a break on the next pregnancy!

In baby prep news, we have ordered the rest of the big items! Now we just need to work on our registry and get the furniture moved. And well, there are a million other little things, but it feels good to have the big ones taken care of. Hillary and I are going to work on baby shower invitations this week, and that will be excellent because we’re going to make them together.

I am continuing to treasure these last weekends just the two of us, but already looking forward to all the fun things we’ll be able to do with the baby when he’s a little bit bigger. This weekend Eric and I caught the end of a Tour of California stage right in downtown Pasadena, and it was awesome. We saw the final sprints and were also just generally amazed by the speed. Eric keeps up with bike racing, and I have learned a lot about it alongside him, so it was extra cool to see some familiar faces. Also, it makes me laugh that our hats are casting a shadow on our teeth!

Saturday night we made dinner together, and we haven’t done that in the longest time (ahem, mostly because I am way too hungry to eat dinner at a normal hour). Eric turned on one of our favorite albums and we danced around each other in the kitchen, chopping and stirring and smiling and marveling at our great good fortune in finding each other. I realized that this was actually an imagining of a happy marriage I’d had as a child: cooking and smiling and dancing through the kitchen together. I know I probably sound like a broken record, but I don’t know if a sweeter, more compassionate, and more considerate person than Eric has ever been born. I just love him to pieces. And I am so, so grateful. I have heard it said that the best thing can do for your children is to love your spouse. Well, little baby, we’ve got that one taken care of!