Strange

Only 7-1/2 weeks left! I can't believe it! Time has been going by so fast!!

I've been feeling pretty good lately. My back and hips stopped hurting for the most part a few weeks ago, and that alone has made me very, very happy. Thank you to everyone who gave me a certificate for a massage for my birthday - they were extremely helpful. They definitely made my recovery quicker. I can even walk again, at least a couple miles at a time.

Oddly, I've stopped being so hungry. Up until a few weeks ago, I was ravenous all the time. But lately, I find myself missing meals and not eating that much when I do eat. It's very strange. At my last doctor's appointment, my weight hadn't gone up at all ... that's the first time in the last seven months. I'm eating three meals a day, but that's down from four+ meals a day in the first and second trimester. But I'm up 35 pounds overall (so far! I'm supposed to gain 8 more pounds yet) so it's not like the baby and I are wasting away.

I have been obsessive about egg and cheese sandwiches lately. I have one almost every morning, made the same way: Two eggs (the extra-delicious omega-3 enhanced eggs, of course) scrambled with cheddar cheese between two slices of wheat bread with a big old glob of mayonnaise. Before I got pregnant I never, ever ate mayonnaise. I liked it reasonably well, but it's 100 calories of pure fat per tablespoon, and I could always think of other things I'd rather spend that 100 calories on. Normally if I'm going to eat 100 calories of something fatty, it better be chocolate. But I've developed a real fondness for mayonnaise over the last six months. That is unfortunate, because I'm going to have to cut it out in eight weeks.

We had a doctor's visit on Monday, and my sugar levels and blood pressure were back in the very good range. This time, I didn't eat an enormous feast at Sweet Tomatoes before the doctor's appointment, so I think that helped. I waited until after the appointment. The doctor said the baby's still looking healthy, and I'm looking healthy. Next monday we are getting our final ultrasound. They are going to check to see how her kidney is doing and make a decision on whether they will need to give her antibiotics after birth to prevent infection.

People have been asking me lately if I'm scared of giving birth or worried about it. I'm really not worried at all. Nowdays it's very, very unlikely that something will go wrong, so I'm not worried about that. And I'm sure parts of it will hurt or cause discomfort, but I'm not concerned about it. So it might hurt -- so what? It's temporary, and it will go away. What's the point in being afraid? There's no way out but through it, might as well accept that.

I'm actually getting really excited about the birth coming, and about meeting Seda for real. Although part of me will miss her not being in my abdomen any more. Being pregnant certainly has it's annoyances, but there are a lot of things I really like about it. It's so strange for me to think that once upon a time I was in my own mother's body like this, and maybe she talked to me like I talk to Seda, or sang to me, or felt me moving and wondered what I would be like when I got out into the world and grew up. And it's weird to think that one day (soon!) Seda will be outside of me and will start having her own preferences and will start thinking on her own and making decisions that are different from mine. Mac and I were marvelling yesterday that in three years when we hit our 10 year wedding anniversary that we will have a three year old child around then, too! That experience will be part of her memories and life and she'll have an opinion about it! It's so odd that there's going to be this other, third person who is going to be such a close part of our lives and relationship - and we don't even know who she is or what she will be like! She could be anyone! Now everything we do has to take into consideration Seda and how it will affect her. We'd like to take a trip to Europe soon, but we've talked about putting it off for a few years so that Seda will be old enough to remember. It's just so very strange that there has been two of us for so long, and soon there will be THREE of us! It's amazing, and exciting, and a little scary, too.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago, but should give you an idea of how enormous I am. I want to take a couple pictures this weekend, so perhaps I shall post a few more next week: