The Middle of the End

Blogging is to motherhood in 2008 what scrapbooking was to motherhood in 2003. I'll be damned if my unborn child is going to miss out on the action.

At the urging of a friend whose blog I stalk regularly, I decided to publicly journal my entry into motherhood. If for no other reason, it's a great way to keep the baby pictures flowing to those who might otherwise be without. Before diving right in, however, I had to see what other Expectant Mom/New Parent blogs looked like. Big mistake.

From what my searches turned up, I am late. Really late. I wrote nary a word when I was trying to concieve and I haven't got as much as a haiku written during my first 7.5 months of pregnancy. My readers (assuming I have some) will have to wonder in vain what Trimesters One and Two were like because catching up at this point will be damn near impossible. Let me hit the hight points and we'll go from there:

-It was a surprise pregnancy about 2 months after our wedding. Not an oh-shit-surprise but a surprise nonetheless.

-I was morning sickness free but was a big bitch to Shawn for the first 12 weeks.

-We found out it was a girl on December 20th. I knew it all along, however.

-I've gained about 38 lbs. at this, my 33rd week of pregnancy. It is fairly evenly distributed but an unnerving amount of it seems to have settled on my upper arms, ass, and knees. Dimpled baby knees are cute; dimpled mommy knees are Indiana State Fair material.

-The newcomer is as yet unnamed but will be lovingly referred to as Felicia Fetus until she enters infancy.

As we stand, we're in about the middle of the home stretch. The third trimester lasts from Week 28 to Week 40. Here in Week 33, I'm feeling both boredom with what feels like a very long pregnancy, excitement to meet Little Miss Thang, and paralyzing fear that we are somehow not as prepared as we should be. Whether we have 7 weeks left or 17, I have a feeling there would be things I wouldn't ever be able to prepare for. I suppose the adjustment to parenthood will be both startling in it's immediacy and gradual as we learn what we're doing. Kinda like how I went from this to this in roughly 180 days (keep in mind the most recent shot was 3 weeks ago, more growth has occured):

I knew the growth was coming. I knew, in theory, what to expect. I'd heard that I wouldn't be able to tie my shoes, that I'd waddle around and bump into things. But I could still see my toes. Right now, Shawn and I have heard stories about the love we'll feel when Felicia gets here, the sleepless nights we'll survive, the absolute change to everything we know as normal...but we can still see our toes.

to this: