* Morning (all-day) sickness finally petered out around Christmas time, although it still bothers me if I get too tired. It did last long enough to help me get excused from jury duty in early December (I was extremely close to actually being selected for an attempted murder case being tried at our county seat, a good two hours drive away)! So at least the nausea had some redeeming value!
* I am currently 33 weeks pregnant & will be full-term (37 weeks) in a month! Due date is May 27, but I expect this baby to follow the path of her siblings and come a week or so early.
* I am great with child. Not quite as great as the tape measure says I should be, but reasonably great. I finally bit the bullet & attended my first doctor's appointment ever for this pregnancy about a month ago (bad, bad, example, Ms. Public Health Degree Holder, wife of MD) We had a bit of a scare when my belly measured almost 7 cm. smaller than it should have (i.e. my belly measured 21 weeks pregnant when it should have measured 28 weeks). I got an ultrasound the next day & the baby was exactly on track for dates, measuring in the 50th percentile for a 28 week old baby in every measurement taken! My amniotic fluid levels & everything else was normal. I'm not sure where my body was hiding the extra 7 cm. of baby, but it's bloomed since then & I'm now only measuring about 3 cm. small (which is not worrisome since I was 3 cm. small for both of my previous pregnancies). In any case, I don't feel or look small! I've finally achieved the stage where even strangers (for the most part) feel safe commenting on my expectant state. I'll try to get a good belly shot sometime!
* We appear to be gestating another little girl. That means that when we get together with my sister's family, the poor Papaya will remain the only male among 6 cousins! The Papaya seems to be dealing with the news with equanimity, and we are very happy about another girl. We have a name picked out, but we have to keep something secret until delivery! I'm afraid that unless we get incredibly creative, it won't rhyme with a tropical fruit. We may have to expand our produce options as far as nicknames go.
* Exciting travels since my last blog post include a Thanksgiving trip to visit my sister & family in Pennsylvania as well as my parents (and a multitiude of other gathered family) in Maryland. My family then convened in Arizona for a wonderful late Christmas & New Year's celebration. In February, we packed up & headed out to Germany for a week with Papaya Daddy's family (his parents live in Bavaria). We had an easy trip there, a wonderfully relaxing visit with family, and a hellish trip home that required about two or three weeks of recovery time. It included 48 hours of constant travel, punctuated by about 3 or 4 interrupted hours of sleep. Only two hours after finally arriving home again, Papaya Daddy succumbed to an intense bout of food poisoning that kept him up for a third night & landed him in the ER, hooked up to IV fluids & antibiotics, by the morning. I can't say I'm enthused about international travel again anytime soon.
*I love homeschooling the kids! Both kids enjoy our times of reading great books together, our "trip around the world" theme, and our nature walks. The Papaya is learning to read & write at a leisurely pace, and is showing a decided aptitude for math. In fact, he enjoys it so much that we use math lessons as a bribe to get him to nap ("If you nap, Papaya, you can stay up later than the Banana & have a math lesson!") - and it works! Granted, we have a really fun math curriculum we use for the late night sessions that includes a lot of games and no workbook work. Papaya Daddy & I try not to get too obsessed planning out the next 12 years of school!
* The health center here is currently shortstaffed & Papaya Daddy has been working way too much and too hard. We hope this state of affairs will end soon, as three new physicians are scheduled to begin work between June and September. For now, we're just enduring & plowing through.
That's all the news from our little corner of the Colorado Plateau. I really do play to update more frequently in the future - maybe I should even try to commit to every week! Keep your eyes open for some great pictures of last weekend's trip to Grand Falls, Arizona - coming soon!
P.S. Here are some recent pictures of the kids - taken at night in dim lighting, but still fun!
1 comment:
We're both glad to hear from you again, even though your Mom keeps us in the loop!
The kids are growing like crazy, and we really look forward to seeing number three when you come through here in August.
As soon as I know her name, I'll come up with some rhyming fruit.
Janet Pomegranet maybe?
Cheri' Strawberry?
Maybe you don't want my help after all.....
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