I had a wonderful baby shower at Mom’s on April 24th. Many family members and close friends came, no silly games, just visiting and oh the presents… 2 diaper cakes – different sized diapers, clothes, a monitor, books, a Pendleton, gift cards and more. It was so fun and exciting to open all the presents and think about the sweet little baby that would soon be wearing them. (Pictures to come soon!) That trip to Spokane was also eventful as mom had her gastric bypass surgery, though there was a scare due to a latex exposure after the surgery, the operation itself went perfectly and mom was home in resting in 24 hours. And Baby Earl made her debut in my tummy as far as movement that weekend, and has not stopped moving since! Here is a video of dad falling asleep in the chair as mom recovers after surgery, I couldn’t help but record it!
The feeling of her moving inside me is indescribable to anyone who hasn’t felt it. It started out that weekend at 22 weeks as light flutters maybe once or twice a day and in the last couple of weeks is already more noticeable and more frequent. According to the book she is about 8.5” from head to bum and about 1.5 lbs. So she does account for at least some of my weight gain the last 2 weeks, though I know I can’t blame her for all of it. I am hungry all the time, and continuing to work on making good food choices and stay moving so that I don’t balloon up, but some days it is hard to pass up Taco Time or McD’s for lunch. As far as my body goes, in the last week I have definitely felt some changes and there is no hiding that there is a baby under there. So with my mom’s encouragement I continue to focus on keeping me and baby girl healthy, and not so much on what the scale says.
I have been thinking a lot about not only how much my life has changed in the last 23 weeks, but how much it will change once baby is here. Especially after seeing that silly rom-com, The Back-up Plan. Being a single mom is not going to be easy but I have such a great family, all of whom support me in so many ways, I am not scared. I have had good and bad relationships in the past, and dated for years but never met someone I really could see spending my life with and I am okay with that. If it happens great, but if not, how could I complain when I have the one thing I always wanted more than anything in life – a baby. Sure as girl growing up I thought about getting married and what my wedding would look like, but it wasn’t ever a must for me, not in the way having a baby was. And as I got older, it wasn’t a wedding that I could imagine in detail or what I longed for, it was being a mom. The idea of not being married was never really something I was concerned about, it was the not being able to have children that I could never really come to terms with or accept…. For years just thinking of it would send me into a depression, and in the last year or so I really had started to think adoption would be my answer and was just learning to accept that solution when Baby Earl came along. So yeah, it is kinda scary to get something so huge that you wanted so badly for so long, and I think that is why it is still hard sometimes to accept that it is finally here. I am just so looking forward to raising this little girl, to our life together, and for me I just couldn’t ask for more.
Tomorrow, Friday 5/7, is another ultrasound and this time – Mom and Dad get to come! They are bringing all the gifts from the baby shower, including a changing table Uncle Johnny is loaning us, so next weekend I am working on Baby Earl’s room. Also Papa and Auntie Punkin fly in tomorrow and Saturday we get to go to Alexa’s graduation from Northwestern University. It is going to be an awesome weekend!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to mom and dad for the shower and to everyone who came!
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