baby update

I had another doctor's appointment the other day -- I've been bumped up from monthly visits to checking in every two weeks. Everything is looking good except for the fact that the baby is currently breech. Hopefully two more months is enough time for this kid to find the desire and kick it in gear to turn himself around.

While there have so far been no major complications, this pregnancy has felt more challenging than my first one. Perhaps this is because I have to walk everywhere I need to go, or maybe it's because I'm simultaneously caring for a very active toddler. Maybe it's the fact that this time around various aspects of reality are more demanding and require more attention from me, or it could just be these blasted Braxton-Hicks contractions that I get all the time, making this third trimester extremely uncomfortable and oftentimes painful. Whatever the reason, I'm just about ready for this pregnancy to be over. Two more months. Can I do this for two more months?

But enough whining. The third trimester is difficult and uncomfortable for everyone. Here are some of the things that I'm enjoying:

• Except for when they induce contractions, I love feeling the baby's squirms and kicks. Sometimes it feels like his tiny fingers are grabbing at my insides and it tickles.
• He gets the hiccups once or twice a day, which I think is funny.
• The whole "baby brother" reality is starting to click a little with Garrett. He has recently started to say "baby, baby" as he points to my belly. (And then his fingers move north to those two other bumps which he is also convinced are babies.)
• Blake has always been a helpful husband, but lately he has been especially so, which in the evenings, when all I have energy to do is crash on the nearest soft surface, has been very, very nice. He'll even let me hog the entire couch when we're lounging in front of the TV.

The topic of full moons and their effect on births has come up in an oddly large amount of conversations I've been a part of lately. Even though Garrett made his grand appearance just over two weeks early and under a full moon, I've never really taken much stock in this strand of folklore. But even so, I decided to check to see when the nearest full moon to my due date would be. A little research told me that it will be Friday, September 4th at precisely 12:03 pm EST. Because of my experience with Garrett, I was curious to see at what minute the moon was full over Muncie, Indiana, so I looked and was quite surprised to learn that on June 30, 2007 it came at 9:50 am -- right about the same time that labor for his birth began. Spooky, no?

What does this all mean? Probably nothing, really. After all, no two pregnancies are exactly the same, and how much influence can the moon really have and twice in a row? But if anyone asks me when I think this baby will come, I'll most likely tell them September 4th around noon. If anyone asks Blake his date guess, he'll tell you sometime in August. I guess we'll see what happens.