I Can’t See My Toes

Last night I made one of the craziest discoveries as I was getting into bed, I can no longer see my toes when I look down. I can’t see past the tip of my winking belly button that may soon be an outie. I look down and I see all baby belly!

I have noticed that my belly is getting bigger, especially out walking around in Inglewood with Darren and his parents yesterday afternoon. A few shop keepers asked me when I was due. This is a new thing and I like it a lot. I've heard it said that people are more friendly towards pregnant women. I agree, strangers have seemed to be quite friendly with me lately.

Inglewood is one of our favourite neighborhoods in Calgary! A few new shops have opened recently including DaDe Art & Design Lab where they had these really cool horses made of driftwood on display outside.

Enjoying the Perks of Pregnancy

One of the things I really enjoy about pregnancy is super strong fingernails! I've been loving growing my fingernails long and having not having them break easily at all. I really like long fingernails, they look so feminine!

Another thing I've been loving is stronger, shinier, healthier looking hair. Today I got my hair cut and took advantage by keeping it a bit longer than usual. I'm really happy with the results and hope that somehow my hair will remain this way after LT is born.

My Jackets Don't Close and Other Pregnancy Symptoms

Over the past few weeks I've really started to feel pregnant...


My clothes fit funny. My pants stopped fitting a few weeks ago and now none of my fall jackets will close.

Thanks to my boosted pregnancy circulation, I stick my toes out of the blankets at night, while Darren uses an extra blanket and complains about being so cold.

My appetite is huge! I can eat almost the same amount as Darren and always eat a snack right before bed. However, I still wake up and get a snack in the middle of the night because I'm so hungry.


My belly is gets in the way when I bend over. It's beginning to feel uncomfortable. I often wake up feeling stiff and every now and then with my arms or shoulders feeling numb.


There are many amazing things about this stage of pregnancy...

LT is becoming much more active and his kicks are getting really strong!

Also, there's no mistaking my pregnancy for excess weight around the midsection (except for on campus). As a result, I enjoy going out in public a lot more.

 

I'm beginning to feel quite excited about LT's birth. It's getting closer! Soon when we go out it will be as a family of three.

Sleepless Nights & Working Days

Since entering the third trimester, I have noticed another dramatic shift in what my body and LT are up to. Pregnancy sure does keep you on your toes! For the past 3 weeks or so I have had difficulty sleeping through the night most nights. Here is how things tyically play out:

I usually wake up between 3am and 6am to go pee...

When trying to fall back to sleep I realize that I am hungry so I get up again to eat something...

I come back to bed for the second time but by that time LT is wide awake and having a party in my belly with his little legs that are becoming increasingly powerful at giving my full belly shaking kicks (I wonder if he has calves like tree trunks, just like his Daddy?)...

I lie in bed trying to will myself to go back to sleep. I try not to think about how tired I will be on campus the next day or about all the things I have to get done! I pray that God would help my mind to calm down and go back to sleep. Sometimes I fall back asleep quickly, other times (like this morning), I get up and do something because it seems that falling back to sleep isn't much of an alternative...

Another friend who is pregnant mentioned that it is amazing how God prepares us for the birth of our babies and I have to agree. Three to four hours of sleep in a row is potentially more than I'll be getting after LT is born. Although the upside there is that I'll be on mat leave and able to nap more easily throughout the day! Trying to balance taking care of my body and LT with work is becoming tricky. When I don't sleep properly, I feel quite tired by lunchtime and I often find myself asking God to help me have the energy to work through the rest of the day with joy. Yes, God has been giving me ample opportunities to trust him during this pregnancy!

Belly Touching

Since LT's recent growth spurt, I've experienced a lot more belly touching! In fact, since returning to work on campus I've almost had at least one daily occurance of belly touching!

Yesterday, a student gave my belly a gentle poke and enthusiastically asked several questions about the baby's gender and name (which I revealed to her but asked her to keep it on the down low).

Today an international student friend touched my belly and told me that after having seen pictures on Facebook, she expected my belly to look much bigger than it looks in real life.
I thought I might be annoyed with people touching my belly but thus far my reaction has been to smile and say that the baby is doing well, growing and kicking lots. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that so far only people I know have touched my belly but I really haven't been bothered by it.

I'm still not sure how I will feel if a stranger touches my belly, though. We'll see if it happens to me within the next 3 months or so...

99 days to go! (by Darren)

I just looked at the counter on the right hand side and my heart skipped a beat.

99 days to go. 


99 days until ...
- we stop having full night sleeps
- until our family "officially" grows from 2 to 3 (although on questionnaires that ask for number of children, I honestly don't know what to put yet).
- until our lives change forever, irrevocably

Something I was reflecting on: "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17).

LT consumes much of my thoughts on a daily basis already:

I often wonder what his personality will be like. Will he be happy? determined? stubborn? winsome?

I wonder if he'll have Tara's nose? My skin colour? Tara's eyes? My hair? Will he know how much he is loved by God and by us?

What will his favourite subjects in school be? math? science? gym? art? 


What will he end up doing with his life? Will he change the world? Will he be a risk taker? Will he love culture and people from all places? 

etc.

And to think that the number of God's toward us is infinitely more vast. I already feel such affinity to LT, and we've still to meet face to face! Hard to fathom how our Father's love for us is so much infinitely more vast and deep. But He does.
 
99 more days.

I Survived Frosh Week 2010!

I think I should get a t-shirt or some other tacky piece of memorabilia to commemorate this momentous occasion, I SURVIVED FROSH WEEK 2010!

Every year I work at the university, Frosh week gets a bit more challenging because I feel older and the students seem younger and younger. However, in addition to the fact that I am at least 10 years older than most of the Frosh, this year I am also pregnant. I didn't know how people would respond to a pregnant chick on campus and was a little nervous about my energy levels holding up for the week.

In the end, Frosh week turned out to be a great experience overall and an exciting kickoff to my last semester on campus for awhile. I was thankful for many connections with students and enough energy to participate fully in the activities that we were organizing. There were a few long afternoons and evenings of data entry and by Friday morning I was very thankful that Saturday would be a day off but it was an excellent week.

And believe it or not, not one person seemed to notice that I was pregnant...

Preggo On Campus

With the beginning of Frosh week approaching, I had been wondering what it would be like on campus as a preggo chick and today was the day to find out how it would go.

This morning we got up early and headed to campus to help out with residence move-in. When we arrived at 7am at the dining center there was already a huge crowd of volunteers and students waiting to check in. We grabbed a quick plate of complimentary breakfast then they began assigning jobs to volunteers. Most of the volunteers went to help carry boxes and suitcases as students moved in but they also needed volunteers to help with greeting and checking students in. I ended up being asked to help greet and direct traffic flow down a set of stairs at registration.

And guess what, no one even noticed that I was pregnant! Well, I don't know for sure that no one noticed but no one said anything about it, not even the girl I was partnered with for 4 hours as we greeted new students. Guess I don't look THAT pregnant yet...

I have concluded that I do not like MacDonald's juice

I think I liked MacDonald's juice as a kid but turns out I definitely don't like it anymore! Today I went for a gestational diabetes test where they had me drink a very large glass of juice that tasted like MacDonald's juice then wait for an hour until they could do a blood test. As I swallows, I willed myself not to throw up and thankfully I didn't.

When I wrote about it on Facebook, so many women responded with interesting stories of their experiences with that test. One person said she liked the juice, while someone else hated it, one said she thought it tasted like flat Orange Crush, another person said it gave her a brain freeze and another unfortunate woman threw up both times that she'd done it.

Leg Cramps

Until yesterday, the greatest annoyance I had with sleep during pregnancy was waking up to go to the bathroom. Then I woke up with painful leg cramps both yesterday and this morning...

I read something awhile back about leg cramps during pregnancy but I hadn't experienced any until this week. I looked it up again and read that leg cramps can be the result of tired muscles or a growing uterus that puts pressure on nerve endings in your legs.

The article suggested stretching your calf muscles before going to bed, which I will try to start doing. Especially since the other recommendation was to avoid crossing your legs and let's be honest, sitting with my legs crossed is a deeply ingrained habit, even if it is bad for my circulation.

Wishing All Women's Bottoms Had Elastic Waistbands!

Today I wore pregnancy jeans for the first time and WOW, was I impressed! Those pants are incredibly comfortable, especially compared to normal jeans.

Yesterday I wore skinny jeans with a "bella band" that dug into me and left big indents on my hips by the end of the day. Last night I pulled out my pregnancy jeans with eager anticipation for a more comfortable day tomorrow. I wasn't disappointed.

Darren took a picture of me in my new preggo jeans...