Water logged-->logs--->my ankles-->full of water. Full Circle.

I can't possibly drink any more water.  I've been told that I need to drink more water to help with swelling.  It's not working.  My ankles have disappeared.  Have you ever seen one of those fabric sleeves for storing plastic grocery bags?  Imagine it so full you can't put even one more bag in (and you can almost always add just one more), and you'll have a pretty accurate impression of how my calves look/feel.  It might sound like I'm complaining, but-- sorry, I lost my train of thought...

So this morning Gabe woke up and said, "Sleeping is certainly a new adventure every night lately."  He was subtly referring to how often I wake up, can't breathe, sigh loudly, get up, etc...in turn, waking him up.  Yesterday I woke up at 3:30.  3:30.  Sleep was over.  Again, it might sound like I'm complaining.  That's all.  It might.  I know it.

Well, it's time to return to school.   Maybe something funny will happen and then I'll have a funny story to tell you...

Our baby MUST be huge, right? Because...

Ummm, I've gained 38 pounds, people. Gabe informed me that juice has a lot of calories.  I do drink a lot of juice.  A LOT.  

I took the day off today for our doctor's appointment.  All is well. We scheduled the rest of our appointments today.  Cray-see.  Time is flyyyyyying!  10 more weeks until our due date.  Nutty.

Where are my pants?

If I were most of you, I'd really enjoy reading the progesterone-induced examples of Brooke's brain lapsing a little.  Because of this, I'm happy to share another with you.  I know I'd appreciate reading any of your stories that make me feel like we're all human and can't possibly be expected to know at ALL times where our own pants are.

The other night G and I were getting ready for bed.  He brought up some clean laundry including my freshly washed pajama pants and handed them to me in the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth.  A few minutes later I emerged and went to the bed in order to retrieve my pajama pants.  Of course they weren't there, so I walked back into the bathroom, expecting to find them there.  Not there.  I walked back out to the bed, thinking I must have missed them.  Of course they still weren't there.  I said with a little frustration, "How can a person lose pants in a two minute time frame?"  Gabe, just now realizing what I was doing says, "Wait---what?"  Looking at me like I was a little crazy.  It was at this point I realized I was in fact wearing my pajama pants.  I had put them on while I was in the bathroom.

And here's a photo of our Daly passing on his blessing and endorsement to our new president.  I think they both look very contemplative and ready to take on all our nation's ills.  Daly.  Ever the patriot.

Hoosh gotch the chubbiesht cheek-eesh...?

Apparently, I do.

29 weeks and counting...

This morning my friendly neighbor was coming home just as G and I were getting in the car to leave.  She excitedly said, "Are you expecting?!"  Yes, yes we are, in April.  (husband and wife exchange a proud smile across the hood of their car)  "I thought so.  The other day I saw your face (motions with both hands near her face as if she were a chipmunk stocking up for winter).  ---Oh, and then your (motions to her belly)."  Wait, WHAT?!!!

My chipmunk face is what tipped her off.  

Not my rather large belly, mind you.  Not my pregnant waddle.  No. It was first and foremost my glowy moon face.

Up until this point I was completely oblivious to the fact that my face was competing with my uterus in the "let's look pregnant race" and according to my filter-less neighbor, winning.  

So when Gabe and I got home from our breastfeeding-your-baby class this afternoon (more on that, later), I asked him to take some prego pics for me to update my blog.  I made clear the goal: take pictures that show me my face doesn't resemble a platter. 

Turns out this is a tough task.  Thankfully we have a new camera, and a delete button.  My neighbor may have crossed a social etiquette boundary (surprising how many people ignore the fact that it might not be the best idea to tell a highly hormonal, very uncomfortable woman who is gaining a pound a week for many months their take on how she looks) but it turns out my neighbor is right. 

The pictures above are the least revealing of my chubby face, therefore they made the cut.

I have more to post, but I'll save it for later...

p.s.  I'm getting so excited to meet our baby, I can hardly stand it.

24 weeks tomorrow...

There's also a new post after this one.

Three things:

1. Yesterday it snowed here ALL day.  It was perhaps the fluffiest, most fake looking real snow I've ever seen--in my entire life.  It was beautiful.

2. It's kind of a long story, but a couple weeks ago I heard our school's band playing and recognized the music as  "you know, that song that goes: When we've been here ten thousand years..."  Gabe was quick to point out that I was in fact talking about Amazing Grace.  Maybe you've heard of it.  Still hoping this is caused by pregnancy.

3.  Today I hadn't felt much of our little miss moving around, so after lunch I began talking to her.  It occurred to me that it was probably too quiet to make her stir.  I really wanted her to stir.  So I rolled up some paper and put one end of the tube on my belly and spoke into the other end.  I urged her to wake up and move around for probably 5 minutes...and it worked! She moved all around for a good five minutes after that.  After that I felt a little guilty for waking her, but it was also a great feeling to --in a way-- interact with her. 

Merry Christmas!

The latest

Exciting development (at least for hubby and I):  Gabe finally felt the babe move last night. Everyday for the last week or two I've called Gabe over to quickly put his hand  on my belly, only to have the little miss decide to stop moving at that exact moment.  Well last night we finally outsmarted her and Gabe was kicked by his little girl for the first time in his life.  So fun.

I've been noticing that photo coverage of day to day life on this blog has been dwindling.  Largely this is because of our sorry excuse for a camera.  Just know that money is being saved and sales are being watched, so with any luck we'll have a new wonderfully capable camera no later than April (but hopefully sooner).

Hope you all had a nice Turkey Day!

Pregnancy = TBI ?

(I took this picture with our computer.  It's 8:00 at night and I am back to being pretty tired most of the day, hence the overdone "AWAKE" expression on my face.  Surry.)

Not to make light of serious traumatic brain injury, but I'll be honest, I'm behaving more and more as if my brain has been permanently injured.  I may just update my blog with the multitude of things I do that I will forever insist are all due to pregnancy.  Should these types of things continue to happen after I'm done being pregnant, I will insist to the end that being pregnant permanently altered my abilities---mental and physical.

Today I reached my arm out to open a door and hit my head on the door frame simultaneously.  I wasn't even mobile.  My feet were firmly planted.  A person would almost have to intentionally move the top half of their body forward too quickly before even moving their legs in order to hit their head in the way I did.  I'm certain it's worth it, though.

Signs

Stevie Nicks is haunting me.  

For the last couple of weeks, I walk into a store or change the station on the radio and find Stevie singing in her uber-raspy voice---one day it happened three times, and it was the same song each time.  Today NPR was talking to a woman about her parrot.  I lost interest and switched the station.  Of course it was Stevie.  Sometimes when the same song, or comment from people I know, or the same book title-- or anything really-- keeps coming up in my life repeatedly I wonder, is God trying to tell me something ?   A lot of times I find some relevance or meaning.  But this...I'm having trouble connecting to anything in my life...

Did she make you cry?

Make you break down?

Shatter your illusions of love?

Is it over now?   

Do you know how...

To pick up the pieces and go hooome?

Rock on ancient queen

Follow those who pale in your shadow

Rulers make bad lovers

You better put your kingdom up for sale.

Hmmm...I got nothin'.

On a totally different note, I can feel the bun moving now!  This is a very exciting development. All of a sudden a couple of days ago I just started feeling these little patters on and off.  The signs all keep pointing to being pregnant. I guess it really is true.  Still hard to believe.

And one more thing:  I have found out about two other people (who shall remain nameless) being pregnant in the last 24 hours.  Anyone else have an announcement?...

Prego update (there will probably be a lot of these...)

We had our second baby-doctor's appointment yesterday and met my doctor for the first time. We both really liked her.  After pushing on my belly a bit, looking over my blood tests, and asking and answering some questions, she congratulated us on the fact that I'm having a "very normal" pregnancy.  Very welcomed words.  We did not have an ultrasound, but we did get to listen to the bun's heartbeat.  This was a big relief, as I've felt so normal it's hard to believe I'm actually pregnant.  I've gotten used to telling people I'm "pregnant", and used to thinking of myself as a "pregnant" person...but actually believing there is in fact a person growing inside of me seems a little too strange to be real---and somehow different from saying I'm pregnant.  It's like pregnant is just my new state of being: I'm pregnant.  Like I'm 5'8" or have blue eyes.  These things don't have consequences, they are just facts of my life.  So it's hard to wrap my brain around the idea (and reality) that in just under 6 months I won't be pregnant, but --God willing-- I will have a person to show for it. Strange.  And completely wonderful and exciting, don't get me wrong, but also bizarre.  

I gained 8 pounds since my last doctor visit.  This proves to me that it can't just be bloating from gas.  

I watched about a dozen different 3-5 minute videos online this morning dealing with labor, delivery, what happens right after and so on.  I now know all about APGAR, antibiotic goop that goes into your baby's eyes right after birth, what exactly is happening when your water breaks, vitamin k shots, why baby's don't drown in water births, and that hippies appear to experience the least amount of pain during childbirth.   It's convinced me to look more into their hippie ways when it comes to childbirth. From what I can tell so far, these are some of the hippie recommendations: dim lights, have husband constantly massaging your back ---um, OKAY, keep your eyes closed a lot and listen to music you like, and maybe rock back and forth on your hands and knees. And keep telling yourself, and those around you that your body was designed for this.  None of that seems very extreme or out there.  I'll forego the incense burning next to my bed and the summoning Mother Earth of course, substituted with some serious praying I imagine. 

 And does anyone have any input regarding water births?  Because from where I'm sitting, that looks like the way to go.  The lady I watched for the water birth video barely grunted or frowned during the two pushes it took to deliver her baby.  My hospital has a jacuzzi in every room...I'm not against (at this point) delivering my first child by sea.

Did you think it would ever happen?

Helloooooooooo, everybody!!! Alrighty roo, I have about 30 minutes before going to Gabe's writing class.  What's that, you ask?  Be patient, it's all in this blog.  There's no reason you should know yet, because as you may have noticed, it's been ages since I last blogged anything very informative.

So I am currently in the very comfortable second trimester of my pregnancy.  Amen for that.  Literally overnight (a few weeks ago, now) I woke up back to (almost) my normal self.  Rather than becoming an incoherent blob around 3:00, I now make it all the way to 9 pm.  I no longer require 18 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, and standing up from the sofa does not cause me to need an immediate nap.  This is much easier to live with.  PLUS, my constant state of being is queasy?  No sir, not anymore.  After three months of it, I actually got pretty used to always feeling like if I thought about it too much I could throw up at any given moment.  So when I woke up that glorious day feeling fine again, I have to say, I was not just a little worried that something was wrong.  I've now come to accept and embrace this not nauseous feeling.

We have our next dr's appointment on Tuesday.  Say a little (or big) prayer that everything is on track and developing normally.  If we have an ultrasound, we should be able to find out the gender---but I'm not sure we'll have another u.s. until November.  Yes.  We are finding out if Bobbie is a boy or girl.  And I'm very excited to find out. I don't know how people can wait.

Since my last respectable blog, Tim and Kristi have been back to visit twice and since moved to Vancouver.  We were very happy to spend time with them in Aurora, as well as on a trip to Indiana...more on that later.

Here are Maci and Kya at Sonya and Kendal's the night we had dinner over there during T and K's first visit.  
Chrissie and Krisit:

This was FOREVER ago! For whatever reason, since I've been prego, I have taken an interest in cooking!  Who would have though?!  This was one of my first big endeavors, a wild rice and wild mushroom soup with garlic butter.  It was delicious and I was quite proud of how similar my soup looked to the picture.  At the stage of cooking skill I am currently at, I generally prefer to cook recipes that show me what the outcome should look like.  Very helpful.
Magazine photo on left, my soup on right:

Gabe is teaching his final creative writing class tonight, a requirement for grad school.  I think it's been eight weeks.  I took this on the first Wednesday.  Notice how bright it was at 7 pm.  No longer.  It's pitch black out now, and I need to leave soon.  He does a fantastic job, and even someone like me (who isn't all that interested in creative writing) has enjoyed and benefitted from his creativity and ideas.  
Daly basking:
Some student projects:

This was Tate's first birthday party.  Notice the four heads facing away from the camera in the second photo (Dylan, Maci, Kya, Conner)---all related to each other, either sibling or cousin.  Anyway, don't they all have amazing hair?  I get a little jealous every time I see them :)

This was on the last day of our family trip to Plymouth, IN.  Gabe's grandparents, Vic and MaryLou celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and we all got to be there to share it with them.  It was a fantastic weekend.  I got to meet a lot of Gabe's relatives for the first time.   We had a really nice time.   Here is the family band, Gabe, Kristi and Janae---rocking that church youth building like it's never been rocked before.  On this last day, Gabe's cousin Kristi Kavicky put together a surprise baby shower for us, which was so thoughtful.  We felt very loved.



Here is Kristi's little boy, Jacob being rolled in a tire by his dad, Eric.  There were all sorts of giggles coming from the rolling tire.
I will post some belly progress pictures soon...

No good titles come to mind.

I started a blog for my classroom.  I started it on August 24th.  Until now, no one has been told about this secret blog.  This blog can be found  here.  Feel free to check it out and make nice comments for the kids to (eventually) read.  Right now it just has some stuff from last year, but hopefully I'll hold up my end of the deal (really the only person that has an "end" of the deal to hold up) and continue posting art from students this year.  

AHhhh...I can finally talk freely about being prego.  Never before has debilitating fatigue, constipation, moodiness,the almost constant feeling of a full bladder,  queasiness, and heartburn ever been so enjoyable. Honestly, these have been my happy reminders of the great things going on inside me.  In fact, this past week I started feeling fine, which equals the feeling of not being pregnant, so seeing another ultrasound picture of our baby that currently resembles a little frog, was very reassuring.

I'm 29 now.  I was thinking today that I'd love to try and do some memorable things in these last months of being a twenty-something.  Please give me suggestions.  So far I have:

-Make another person.

-Cook a good roast, or something that sounds equally impossible to me.

-Travel somewhere internationally that I've never been (in a sense this could be easy considering the international travel I've done includes: Mexico and Texas.)

And so far, that's what I've come up with.  Granted, I've not given it much thought.  Instead I thought I'd first ask for other people to think of things.  My doctor says I can't do any activity above 10,000 feet--so no mountain climbing suggestions.  Plus I did some of this in my 5th or 6th week not knowing I shouldn't.  Maybe completing your list will become my goal. Unless no one comments, then this will all be a failure.  If you're private (Sonya) and want to secretly tell me a suggestion, email me: brookemduffy@yahoo.com or send me a message on facebook--Brooke Knipp.  I'm serious.  Add some memories I wouldn't have thought of to my life this next year, please.