Almost 33 weeks

(edited because I wrote it way too late at night and had a few random mistakes. It also looked like it needed to be broken up a bit. )

Hmm, this blog is turning into “my pregnancy is so freakin’ cool and I’m going to go on and on about how cool it is”. I really didn’t mean it to end up that way but I am happy and I suppose it is better to record all of the really cool parts than complain all the time.

****************Part 1****************
So, I had said in my last post that I was a little concerned about my super quick weight gain of 7 pounds in 3 weeks. Not incredibly concerned but hoping I didn't continue at quite that rate. I've been eating healthy so I didn’t change anything yet but I was very curious to see the next "weigh-in". Well, I went to the mw on Monday and the scale read only 0.8 lb more than I was 3 weeks earlier!

Normally, that would be bad but I've wondered how accurate her scale is because it is always tipped up against the wall when I come in and I have to set it on the wobbly bathroom floor. (I know, now you're probably wondering what kind of crack-pot mw I'm seeing). Anyway, she said that the scale occasionally gets weird readings but is pretty good overall.

Erin and I were out for a walk on Tuesday and as we were strolling around the local college campus, I popped in to the gym and weighed myself. It was exactly the same as the most recent reading on the mw scale. Soooo, it looks like now I've only gained a very reasonable 8 lbs in 6 weeks, 26 lbs total, and we're just about at 33 weeks.

Everything I've read says that the "ideal" weight gain is 25-35 lbs so I feel reasonably confident that we're on track.

****************Part 2****************
We recently completed our childbirth class that the midwife held in her office. It was fun to hang out with 3 other couples who are all planning home births and talking about cloth diapering.

The class had a fairly good mix of information and also "touchy-feely" stuff about fears and getting in the right mindset for labor and parenting. We did one exercise where we had a lump of clay and were asked to turn back-to-back with our partner and sculpt an animal that somehow represents "good parenting" or has some other family-related strength that you respect.

It was neat to see not only the variety but also how couples often chose the same strengths. One couple both made apes (the exercise was clearly set up to be a surprise so as far as I know, nobody peeked). Another couple, the dad made a penguin and the mom made a duck. The other two couples' animals (Erin and I were one of them) didn't seem to have anything in common to me.

I couldn't think of anything and time was running down so I made a dolphin. I figured they are intelligent and playful. They also seem to teach life-skills to their young. Erin made a kangaroo. I thought that was very sweet. She said that while the non-birth parent in the kangaroo family doesn't actually take turns carrying the young, that it seemed like it would at least be possible in theory. It also seemed to emphasize to me that so much of parenting happens after the actual gestation/birth.

In another class, we had to draw a series of pictures of the journey through not only labor and birth but then realizing that this is only the beginning. We were asked to do the drawing in 3 parts, sort of like "now", "gestation/labor", and "parenting". I absolutely love Erin's drawings. I want to frame them. In the first drawing, she's lying on her stomach in tall grass with big binoculars trying to see the future. The second is a labyrinth. The third is her and a little boy sitting on a hilltop in that classic meditation pose - legs crossed, eyes closed. She explained that someone in a video that we had just watched mentioned that they see the baby as a "teacher". She said that it isn't even necessarily him actively "teaching" but that we already look at ourselves more closely and carefully as parents. She drew both herself and Colby as "wise sages" because as we grow into our role as parents, we will not only teach him but he will teach us.

Quite proud of my darling - those were both such wonderful and insightful lines of thought.

My drawing was not as exciting - it seemed to correctly describe my outlook but I'm not sure it was terribly "deep". I drew a hiker, pack loaded up with just the essentials, belly, big and round, looking out toward a journey that I know will be hard but I feel still excited and fresh. Then, the winding path that sometimes even doubles back on itself. Finally, the bruised, bloody, dirty and blistered hiker sitting by a campfire, cozy tent up in the background holding a baby in her arms. The journey is hard but the view from the top makes you forget all about it.

As we were running out of time, I popped a stick-figure of Erin in there next to me without a pack but still walking beside me the whole time. In the third drawing, she has a few scuffs and scratches too.

****************Part 3****************
The "drywall guys" just finished our bedroom so we're hoping to toss some zero-VOC paint on (or at least just the primer) before we head out for an incredibly busy weekend (concert in MA, baby shower in NH, then back home to VT) so that maybe, just maybe, we'll actually have a nursery for Colby before he arrives. We still need to prime/paint our room, finish the floors, depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, we may even get closet doors, move furniture into our bedroom, paint Colby's room, then move all of his stuff into his room. Phew, we can do all of that in 7 weeks, right?