The (Potentially) Last Days... SPOILER: not

Matt's been watching a lot of the Mayan end of the world on 12/21/12 programs on TV and while I doubt he believes anything will really happen, he thinks people may go crazy. People are already crazy; the horrible shootings we've had in the last two weeks are so sad and depressing to think about the destructive and cruel nature of man. It makes me feel guilty for bringing a child into a world like this. I keep hoping maybe, if there is any relevance to their prophesies, since their calendar was cyclical, perhaps after 12/21 will be a rebirthing/reimagining of mankind in a positive, healing way. It's a nice idea at least. Pregnancy makes me more emotional but who wouldn't cry hearing about the elementary shooting and hearing the president speak about it and thinking about all those broken families right before Christmas. It's a sad time in our world, in my opinion.

Though in our life, of course, things are moving right along and are happy. Oh, SPOILER ALERT, the world didn't end on 12/21 ;)

Last weekend, we headed over to Cottage Grove for the annual family Christmas party. Matt was pretty excited to discover a Justin Beib singing toothbrush and it's his new fav white elephant gift. We had a nice get-together and I took home a super cute soccer-ball-looking piggy bank for baby's room; and Jeff thought no one would steal that from him! It was great to see all the family!

Later in the week, Matt's office had a company holiday party at Cascade Lakes Brewery, which would've been much more fun if I could drink. Alas. I also noticed that my stomach must be smooshed because I get full pretty quickly. I barely ate anything (comparatively) at the party and was full.

Happy last Christmas without kids 

At 28 weeks, we officially start the third trimester: baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of head to heels.He can blink his eyes, which now sport lashes. With eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through the womb. He's also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

We start seeing our OB twice a month now. This month, I'm still right on target for size and weight, despite the comments like "a baby for Christmas huh?" that I'm starting to get from strangers. Ummm... three months later but sure. Geez I'm not THAT big yet. Although I did see a woman at prenatal yoga who, no joke, was my size and due in two weeks. How does that happen?? I've heard that boys carry larger, but not sure if that's just an old wives thing. I'm also supposed to start gaining about a pound a week. Holy cow! I mean, I have been indulging on the holiday treats, so I'm gonna try to quit that so I'm gaining healthy weight, but that just seems like so much. I'm already at like 172lbs, which is at least 15lbs more than I've ever weighed.

I did find out from my glucose screening test that, while my glucose level was only 96 (apparently it just has to be less than 140), my iron level was 11.5 and they want it 11.7-15.5 so I have to take an iron supplement now. By the way, the glucose screening is not fun. I tried not to read much about it and didn't think much of it. Basically, I went after breakfast (not eating anything with sugar though) and had to quickly drink this sugar drink that tastes like a flat 7-Up, then wait an hour til they can draw my blood. I wasn't supposed to leave the clinic, which I thought seemed a little silly but where would I go in only an hour anyhow, so I brought my work laptop to do some offline work while I waited. What I didn't anticipate is that the stuff made me super light-headed and sleepy. That's really not a reaction I expected. I couldn't concentrate at all. I felt a little queasy but mostly just so light-headed. Even after an hour and after they drew my blood, I was wondering if I was really in a safe state to drive because I still felt super weird. In hindsight, maybe I'm glad I didn't read about that.

Jack and Ellie don't realize that my stomach is larger; they both try to share my lap

So after baby not moving around much last week, this week he's been much more active again. It's an interesting feeling: both cool and very strange at the same time. I can't quite figure out what I feel moving yet. Usually high on my left side, I feel something hard, which I think might be his butt because I feel him kick my ribs sometimes but whenever he hiccups, I feel it really low so I think his head is down. In fact, I tried to capture him on video moving around. He's fast though. I feel him a lot but I don't catch him moving around often because by the time I look down, he pauses for a bit. When we see it, it looks like waves across my stomach. Matt, my mom, and my friend Jasmine are the only other ones to feel him move; you really have to be there at the right time. On Friday late afternoon, I was lying down and listening to a Dave Matthews station on Pandora and, I kid you not, he moved during every Dave song but not the others. He must be a Dave fan like his mommy! ;) I've read that if we listen to the same music, or read him the same books, repeatedly while he's in the womb, he won't remember them per se once he's out but he may find the rhythm comforting subconsciously. So I've been reciting him one of my fav poems, "The Road Not Taken" by Jack Frost, since it's short and I have it memorized. Anyhow, here's my attempt at showing his movement, which is a little tough to distinguish from my breathing, but if you watch the lower left part of the video, you notice it jump a little:

His room is coming together... I finally hung the baby quilt. My mom had the idea to use a branch. I glued fabric to some clothes hangers, so I wouldn't have to sew tabs onto the quilt, then it's tied to the branch. I also put up a cute tree (which has already fallen off); I'm thinking of cutting out some family pictures and making it a little family/genealogy tree (Matt thought that would be weird but I think it'd be really cute).

We decorated so early for Christmas this year, I'm shocked it's still not here yet. And we've been getting a bit of snow all week. We'll see if it stays around for a white Christmas.