The Final Quarter

The first part of this pregnancy flew by like a breeze. Heartburn, sure. Weight gain, of course. Tired, YESSS! But normal and uncomplicated and quicker than I may have liked. Nesting began early for me in this pregnancy as it did with Aurelia's. I am kind of a "nester" unpregnant, so the added instincts make me behave like a crackhead who needs her next fix of organization, like ASAP. I don't remember how the house looked when we brought Aurelia home; Matthew seems to think it was great, that I had accomplished everything I had endeavored. I don't remember, and I realize now that I probably won't remember this time either. I'll be happy to have him home with us, our perfect little family.

But, we still have kind of a long way to go! I can't believe how fast seven or eight months (the whole gestation math is very convoluted...) has gone by, but two more months feels like an eternity. Not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm so very big. I have a photo of myself, pregnant with Aurelia, taken about two weeks before I delivered her; I was as big then as I am now, with 9 more weeks to go. Maybe it's because I had more fun the first time around. This one's cravings have been pretty boring. I mean, milk and cereal? Really? I have an excuse to eat the weirdest of combinations--not that I've ever been one to go after the 'traditional' pickles with ice cream, but with Aurelia, you could put anything in front of me covered in some kind of sauce and I was all over it. My favorite was this sandwich from Quizno's--turkey with pesto sauce was a given, but I slathered the thing in raspberry vinaigrette, honey mustard and mayonnaise. I'm sure Matt thought it was pretty icky, but he got over that feeling when he saw how much I enjoyed it. T.J. gives me nothing; he appears to have the makings of a very bland kid.

The house is coming along too. I actually fear I will run out of work well before the Big Show and all I'll have to do then is chase after my 3-foot tornado as she attempts to dishevel my good work. (Which I suppose is quite enough of a task.) We have a visitor coming also next Wednesday: Aunt Jennie! She needed a break from the heat and hell of Texas, and we LOVE company. So that will be nice. She is going to help us decorate the nursery (something she helped me do for Aurelia also).

Then, all that's left to do is decide how much time to give myself to continue working. I got a job for a few reasons: namely, to work us out of debt but also to keep myself from going bonkers. To have a forced reason to interact with people (adults) with hobbies other than yelling nonsense and banging their head against things. So, I need to figure out how long to give myself before the baby comes so I don't go stir crazy in the meantime. Although, I do like napping enough that I think I could occupy myself with that instead of going to work.