The Craziness Continues: Weeks 24 and 25

As the third trimester rapidly approaches, I sometimes find myself wondering how we're ever going to pull off this whole parenting thing, especially with the crazy busy-ness we've been experiencing the last few weeks. Between traveling home for Easter, school and work obligations, social engagements, church functions, childbirth classes, and appointments at the Birth Center, I feel as though the only thing our mortgage payment has gone to for the last month is a place for us to sleep at night. As I'm running to and fro, several times I've stopped and thought to myself, "How are we going to do this when we have Molly?" I guess we just won't do as many things as we used to. Truthfully, I'm kind of looking forward to it. It'll be nice to have an excuse to slow down, relax, and just hang out as a family for a while. I can't wait for August when Eric and I will both have the entire month off to just bond with Molly and not worry about anything else.

Our Easter week in upstate NY was a chilly one, but the time with family was long overdue. It was a wonderful time of laughter, fellowship, and good food with my sisters, parents, nieces, nephew, and old friends. We climbed to the top of the Grafton firetower, which overlooks the mountains and farmland of NY, Massachusetts, and Vermont. It was chilly at the top, but the view was gorgeous.

My mom and my sister, Jennene, hosted our first baby shower while we were home, an open house event attended by most of my extended family and several childhood and high school friends. It was so good to catch up with everyone, especially because we live so far away. We received lots of gift cards for Target and Babies-R-Us. I can't wait to go on a shopping spree and stock up Molly's nursery because, currently we have nothing but a few onesies, a bib or two, and a few pairs of shoes. It doesn't feel like a baby will be living here in 3 months!

On the way back to lovely, warm North Carolina, we got to practice many of the relaxation techniques we've been learning in our Bradley childbirth classes. We experienced a total of 1 flight cancellation, 2 delays, and probably about 6 hours in airport terminals. But Eric was a hero the whole time. He saw I was getting tired, tense and travel-sore so he whipped out our Bradley workbook and reminded me how to get into my relaxation poses. I have a feeling he's going to be a superstar during labor. I don't know how anyone goes through this whole process without a strong, close companion to love and and take care of them. Over the last 5 months, I've felt closer to Eric than ever before. Between doctor's visits, childbirth classes, and those special moments when we both feel our baby belly dancing just for us, I've realized there's no one in the world I'd rather share this time with. I'm truly blessed.

During all of our travel and busy days, Molly has been transforming from a skinny, wrinkly creature into the chubby, cuddly baby we've been seeing in our imaginations. She's been adding 6-8 ounces each week for a total of about 1.75 lbs and a length of about 13 inches. She's been adding layers of fatty tissue under her skin to give her that plump, less-wrinkly look. Over the last two weeks, tiny air sacs lined with capillaries have been developing in her lungs. They're beginning to produce surfactant, a substance that will help the lungs expand in the first moments after birth, allowing her to take her first breaths. Molly's tiny eyelashes, eyebrows, and perhaps a sprinking of hair on her head have fully developed and pigment has started to turn this hair a specific color, although this color could change before or after birth, or at any time during childhood. Everyone's been predicting a tiny girl with lots of dark curls...but I wouldn't be surprised if God used his sense of humor on this one and gave us a tall blonde with stick-straight locks. The genes are there...it could happen. We'll just have to wait and see.

Busy Times: Weeks 21-23

This photo was taken in the soon-to-be nursery at 22 weeks. Yes, the walls are orange! Eric and I both love bright colors and took a big plunge when we painted this room orange, but we LOVE how it turned out. It's a very bright and happy room, probably my favorite room in the house. We're decorating with ABC's and 1,2,3's, and lots of tiny critters (frogs, bugs, turtles, butterflies). I can't wait to see what it looks like when we're all done. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures.

Speaking of pictures, this blog post should have lots of pictures of our recent adventures. But, as you'll see, it does not. Unfortunately, our computer decided to die on us and has deleted every file we've ever saved, including hundreds of pictures. Fortunately, I have many pictures backed up elsewhere or printed out in hard copies. However, there are so many that have fallen through the cracks over the years and the only place I had them was on our computer. So a vivid description of the adventures of the last 3 weeks will have to suffice for now.

We took our first "family" beach trip to the Outer Banks 2 weeks ago. We went with another couple from church who are also 5 months pregnant! It was a lot of fun to be at the beach in the off season. The wind was cold and the waves were extremely wild, but the ocean had a different kind of beauty than you see in the summertime...the beauty of awesome power being unleashed over and over again. Both mornings we were there, we saw amazingly beautiful sunrises. I wished that Molly could be on the outside to see what we could see, to smell the salty air and feel the wind on her cheeks. I think it's a trip we'll definitely be making again in the future!

Last weekend, Eric's parents came down from Pittsburgh for a visit and we spent a great couple of days together. We went to the Museum of Science in Raleigh and saw tons of amazing exhibits. I think that one will become another family-favorite once Molly is here on the outside to enjoy it with us. This week we are in chilly upstate NY to celebrate Easter with my family. So far we've enjoyed a couple April snow flurries to remind us what Spring Break is really like in NY :-) All in all, it's been an extremely busy 3 weeks with lots of fun crammed in around our regular work weeks. I think Eric and I are sub-consciously trying to get lots of sightseeing, traveling, and eating-out done before July because we know how much harder it's going to be once we're a family of three!

While we've been doing a lot of traveling over the last 3 weeks, Molly's been doing a lot of growing and changing. She is now almost a foot long and weighs in just over one full pound! She is becoming very aware of the world outside her warm, watery home. She listens to the sounds of our voices, the music we play, the TV, and anything else we're doing, whether it's vacuuming the house or listening to the sermon at church. She can also sense the differences in my movements, whether it's dancing, walking, yoga, or sleeping. Pretty soon, my daily routines will affect her daily routines as she develops definite periods of sleepfulness and wakefulness. Right now, I feel like it's mostly the latter! She enjoys her exercise! The squirming that I could feel deep in my abdomen before has grown into full-blown acrobatics visible to anyone staring at my belly. Eric and I were both amazed as we were lying in bed on Saturday morning, belly-watching. We could actually watch her doing somersaults and rolling herself from one side of the belly to the other. It's better than TV! This week she is growing thousands of tiny blood vessels in her little pink lungs, preparing them for the big job ahead of breathing those first breaths in about 16 weeks. She's also beginning to fatten up a bit, making her skin a little less transparent and a little more chubby!

We're looking forward to next week: 24 week check-up and Daddy's first trip to the birth center! We'll keep you updated.