Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Prenatal update

As of today, I am 35 weeks pregnant. For those of you who are wondering, here are some random pregnancy updates in no particular order:

- We have a name! I think. Unless my husband changes his mind at the last minute and vetoes it, or unless we look at the baby and the name seems entirely unfitting. In any case, we won't tell until after baby is born and it's official. Hints: It's a Bible name, and it does not appear in the list of 100 or even 1000 most popular baby boy names. 

- Speaking of baby names: I refuse to reuse any first initial. Labeling items with one letter only is crucial to my sanity. With 26 letters in the alphabet, we should be okay for a lifetime of reproduction. :)



- Baby is BIG. Actually, make that HUGE. Oh, wait, maybe that's just me?!? My watermelon-size uterus is popping my rib cage apart, requiring frequent trips to the chiropractor. There is this one particular spot on my back that is driving me insane. Two things that help: having the spot rubbed vigorously, or floating in the pool. 

- With my due date being August 1, I think it would be fun to actually have the baby on my husband's birthday (July 24). Not that I get to pick.

- The thermometer in my car read 117 degrees today. By the time we went grocery shopping at 8 pm, it had COOLED DOWN to 109 degrees. Lovely, eh? The heat still makes me get sick.

- In an effort to build up 3 weeks worth of frozen meals to have on hand after the birth, I have been cooking double batches of most breakfasts and dinners I am making this month. Which really, given the size of our family, is a quadruple batch of most normal recipes. For example, one night this week I cooked 4 lbs of pasta, 6 quarts of tomato sauce, and 5 lbs of meatballs. Since it was all from scratch, it took me pretty much all afternoon to get it done. Half of it went in the freezer, half of it was eaten for dinner that night and lunch the next day. 


Being pregnant at the height of summer is not a walk in the park. Of course, neither is giving birth. Alas, I feel like I am between a rock and a hard place. As much as I want to be done being pregnant, I am also enjoying these last few days and weeks of Anna being the baby, and being able to do fun stuff with the older kids. More on our planned summer activities in another post.




17 comments:

  1. I'm so excited for you! I can't even imagine how miserable you are in the heat being this far along. I wish you would get your husband or one of the kids to take a picture of you, I would love to see you in all your pregnant glory. I bet you look awesome!
    Sincerely, M

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  2. For some reason, I was so sure you were going to pick Daniel as the baby's name! Oh well, us readers have got plenty of clues to work with now - I love trying to guess!

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  3. You don't have to publish this, especially if I am right but I am guessing it's going to be Otniel!:) We will see in a few weeks if I was right or wrong lol
    If you can please say a little prayer for me. We have the same due date and can you imagine my incredible Christian midwife just *poof* disappeared from the practice, leaving two male OB's and so I left. There are only 3 midwife practices that can do water births at this granola type hospital birth center and with the flood of displaced clients like me I can't get a first appointment until I will be in my 37th week. I have never been that early but this is the first time I want the baby to wait! lol Please pray that everything will work out :) I hope if there is a next time I can convince my husband to just do a homebirth already!

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  4. I'm pregnant too(8weeks) and even though it's early I'm pretty positive it's a boy.

    No matter how hard I try to think it's going to be a girl(because I would love a little girl) I just can't because she's a he.
    Which is alright with me!


    My husband really likes the name Elias or Elijah.
    meaning- My God is the Lord.

    But we are in cahoots of settling with Micah, another prophet of God.
    meaning- My God is Jehovah.

    I'm all about cloth diapering, midwifery, homebirth, and breastfeeding. And I visit your page alot to get some ideas on these sorts of things. I admire this about you.

    May you have a blessed day!

    -H.E :)

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  5. I am with you on not reusing the first letter. My DH thinks I am silly for it but I want each child to have their own initial. I have a dream of making each child his/her own tote bag with their initial on the front.

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  6. I thought you might use my maternal grandfather's first name, which is in the Bible only one time. But it begins with an A so that is a no go. I don't get it when people use the same letter for every child. The Duggars do that and then end up with unusual spellings. My younger son and his first son have the same initials but it wasn't planned that way.

    Good luck on the rest of your pregnancy. I do not envy you being pregnant in July in AZ.

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  7. Karen R, what a terrible dilemma, especially so close to your due date! I hope everything works out for you.

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  8. I couldn't remember when your due date was and I was thinking about you the other day , I didn't realize how close you are , I hope you start feeling better , I am getting very big now to and am starting to wonder how big I am going to be by my due date , well keep us updated , I will update soon on my blog :)Dawn.

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  9. Dang, after listening to your husband's awesome sermon on Samson, (with him mentioning that Samson and Solomon were two of his favorite people from the bible) I was sure it was going to be Samson until I read this. Lazarus maybe? Or Zebulon?

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  10. I'm SO EXCITED for you!!

    You now made it SO hard to guess...arrrgghhh! Not even in the top 1000 baby boy names?? I guess we'll just have to wait and see, until your little guy makes his appearance! :)

    Hoping that the remainder of your pregnancy goes smoothly.

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  11. I'm guessing Bartholomew.

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  12. Hmmm...I need to go through my Bible before making any guesses!

    Poor thing. I cannot imagine being so pregnant in 117F heat...that's just cruel. It would be lovely to have the baby on your husband's birthday! What a special treat that would be, I'll be praying for it.

    Heavens, I hope your back feels better and keep staying in that pool. I know you've tried chiropractors, but have you tried a prenatal massage therapist? It might help with those trigger points on your back.

    Are the other children excited to be having a new little brother? Anna's not going to be the baby anymore!

    God bless you, Dad, and the seven,

    Mindy

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  13. And Karen R, we are praying for you. May God keep you and your baby safe.

    Mindy

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  14. I can't wait to find out his name! I hope your back pain eases up for you.

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  15. I was wondering if the women in your congregation will bring meals over. In our churhc, when someone is ill, recovering from surgery, or has a new baby, we take turns taking meals over. Maybe this is just a Southern tradition.

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  16. Dear Zsuzsanna,

    I wish you a blessed pregnancy and birth!

    I do have a question, you wrote on your blog that you let your babies sleep in the same bed with your husband and you. I think this is wonderful, and once I have children I would like to do that too. But my husband is afraid that if we allow them to sleep in our bed, they will want to sleep there "forever" and will have a hard time sleeping on their own once they have their own bed.

    How do you and your children handle that? And do you allow your older children to come and sleep in your bed if they want to? If they had a bad dream or are afraid for example?

    Kind regards,

    Marie

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  17. I'll guess Titus. Can't wait to find out!

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