Grandma

The past week or so has seen some ups and downs. My baby shower was held last Sunday (May 20). It was nice to see all of the people who came to celebrate my pregnancy and the upcoming birth of our first child. I enjoyed myself, and I think that those who attended did as well. Unfortunately, my maternal grandmother, who has been having health issues lately, also had a heart attack that day. Today, J.R. and I went to visit her. Although she described herself as feeling rather "peppy" compared to how she was feeling a few days ago, I believe that she looked the weakest that I have ever seen my grandmother look. J.R., whose grandmother went through somewhat similar issues before she died, said that the whole situation had an eerie resemblance to what he remembers of his grandmother. We had a nice visit with Grandma, who was happy to see us; she carried on a very lively conversation with us (and everyone else who came into her room). To see Grandma's faith shining at this time is quite inspiring - I hope that if I am ever faced with sufferings such as she is facing, I would cling as closely to God and be able to "offer it up" with the same patience, understanding, and something akin to happiness that I saw in her. J.R. and I left the hospital feeling hopeful, and glad that we had gone to visit Grandma. Things took another turn for the worse this evening, when the doctors discovered that the stint that was put in about a week ago to help with a blockage in Grandma's heart was closing. Thankfully, the doctor was able to put another stint in and patch a vein that was leaking without doing open heart surgery. Hopefully this will be the last surgery that she will need, since the main problem of this week was that she was losing blood from an unknown area (thus the patch) and needed to be given several pints of blood to keep her hemoglobin up. Please keep my grandmother in your thoughts and prayers at this time, my family and I would appreciate it very much.

The Summer of Threequels: Three Movies as I See Them

As far as the entertainment department goes, J.R. and I have seen all three of the big "thirds" (Spiderman, Shrek, and Pirates of the Caribbean) that came out this month. Before this month, it had been at least a couple of months since I had seen a movie at the theater. Perhaps J.R. and I are enjoying this last round of "freedom" before the baby arrives and we cannot go out for an evening so easily as we have been able to up to this point in time. Maybe we wanted to see how the eagerly-anticipated (and possibly last installments) of the
movies played out. Quite likely, J.R. follows movies a little more closely than is healthful and I am along for the ride. Point of proof: the Part III that I am looking most forward to is The Bourne Ultimatum, which is not scheduled to come out until August 3, when I should have a brand new baby and may or may not actually be able to view said movie in the theater (though I have hope since I have seen tiny, well-behaved babies in car seats at the last couple of movies that I have attended, and there is always the chance that some kind soul may offer to babysit).

For what it is worth, my reviews of the aforementioned movies, without spoilers:

Spiderman III: I'll be honest, I may or may not have gone to see this movie if it was not for J.R.'s (and some other friends')
enthusiasm about the movie in general. Yes, I had seen the other two Spiderman movies, but only one time each at the theater when they were released originally, meaning that my comparison of the quality of any of the Spiderman movies to one another could be seriously flawed due to my lack of memory pertaining to them. Unlike J.R., however, I felt that this Spiderman was about the same level of quality as the other two (perhaps one who has not read the comic books can better enjoy the movies). I will admit that the Sandman was not essential to the plot of the movie, but it had
satisfactory plot unveiling and conflict resolution, so I thought that it was pretty good, as long as you enjoy that sort of movie.

Shrek the Third: While it had its cute and funny parts, again, I thought that the quality of this movie was about the same as its predecessors. This was the movie that I saw the most children attending of the three, but I would question its appropriateness for children. Yes, the movie is animated and for this reason appeals to children, but it is done in such a way that adults are supposed to "get" some parts of the movie that children would presumably not notice. This movie was fairly straightforward, I did not notice any unnecessary plot points, and there were no real surprises. Overall, pretty good - I liked it
better than Spiderman III.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Like the Spiderman movies, I have only seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies one time each, but I believe that my memory serves me better in regards to these movies since I watched the first two last summer. I have heard three main complaints about this movie: 1. Too many plot points; 2. Jack Sparrow does not appear until about 40 minutes into the movie; 3. The movie is too long (over two and a half hours). As for the too many plot points issue, neither J.R. nor I had a problem following what was going on in the movie, and we both agreed that all things pretty much "worked out" in the end. As for Sparrow's delayed appearance, again, it worked out. Based on the ending of the second movie, I expected some of this movie to be spent tracking him down. And as for the movie length, I did not even know when I went to watch the movie that it was so long, and it was not a movie that "dragged on and on," so I was surprised actually to look at the clock when I came out of the movie and discover that it had been almost three hours since the movie had started. Again, a good movie, I would say that it was as good as the second movie, though I think that I liked the first one the best.

Of the three movies, I would say that Pirates of the
Caribbean was my favorite. Our baby had the best reaction to At World's End (or at least its soundtrack) as well. Throughout the main/final fight scene, the baby "danced" around rhythmically to the music. J.R.'s favorite movie was Shrek the Third, we both agreed that Spiderman III was our least favorite. So there you have it, a brief synopsis of the three threequels according to me (with a little input from J.R.).

Thirty Weeks

For whatever reason, unknown to me, my sleep seems to have improved as of late. Perhaps I have adapted to my growing tummy and the fact that I need to learn to sleep despite its presence or I am going to face a very long, tiresome next ten weeks. Perhaps there is another reason, I may never know, but I am grateful for the increase in sleep certainly.

Wednesday was my thirty week appointment with the CNM. Everything seems to be progressing well. My tummy is still measuring exactly on track for where I am in the pregnancy, and the CNM thinks that the baby has turned to a head-down position already (something that makes me happy, since the idea of a breech baby does not excite me).

Last Thursday (May 10) marked the first really powerful "kicks" from the baby. Now I quite often see my tummy move markedly when the baby is moving. J.R. has noticed this phenomena as well.

As for my increasing tummy size, I am now to a point where I either need to wear maternity clothing, or clothing that had some extra room before I was pregnant, and I have found that my skirts, etc. with an elastic waist fit fine still as of this writing. During the times when I manage to forget that my stomach is growing at a rather rapid rate, I am usually brought back to reality by someone at work, since at least one person per day asks me how I am doing or when I am due now.

All in all, I am feeling well, am comfortable, and able to function in all of my normal capacities for the most part, so I am feeling pretty good about this pregnancy right now; hopefully it will stay that way. Besides my tummy's size, the only things that have affected me much up to this time are: weight restrictions (somewhat limiting as a horse owner), my need for a little more rest than before, and my appetite (which has either increased since the beginning of the third trimester, or the fact that my stomach cannot function quite normally with a baby taking up much of its normal living quarters is affecting me). Honestly, with only a few things that are even having an affect me, I cannot help but feel blessed to be having a relatively active and healthy pregnancy.

Fr. Timothy

The week after Easter we learned that our parish priest, Fr. Timothy, was scheduled to move to another parish which is over an hour away from where we are currently living. Although I did not find the news surprising (a bright, young, enthusiastic priest with an STL in theology is not going to stay in a village parish forever), J.R. and I cannot help feeling a little sad to see him go. Fr. Timothy is the priest that spent hours and hours with us during our engagement as we prepared for marriage, and it was he who presided over our wedding mass; we had hoped that it would be Fr. Timothy to baptize our first child as well, though we recognize that a valid baptism is a valid baptism and look forward to meeting our new parish priest soon.

Last Sunday, May 6, we wished Fr. Timothy farewell. We had a pleasant conversation with him, in which we discussed many topics, including his new parish, our baby, and the importance of Christian names (as well as the sad reality that so many people do not seem to recognize the importance of this today). Fr. Timothy has congratulated us many times on the upcoming birth of our child, and seems to rejoice in the fact that J.R.'s and my marriage has "taken," as evidenced by the fact that we will be parents less than fourteen months after we were joined in marriage. Yes, we will miss Fr. Timothy certainly, but we hope to visit him occasionally at his new parish, and look forward to his (very) occasional visits to our parish. We know that God has called him onward to do great things in his new parish as he has in our parish, and our new priest, Fr. Dennis, surely has been sent to our parish as part of a greater plan as well.

Miriam's First Holy Communion

Sunday was Miriam's, my seven-year-old sister, first holy communion. She looked very nice in her bright white dress and veil, and her precious smiles on such a momentous day in her life were priceless. After mass, my parents hosted a luncheon in honor of Miriam. It was nice to get a chance to visit with the family and friends who attended, J.R. and I enjoyed ourselves a lot.



This is a photograph of my family, minus J.R. (who was taking pictures that day) and my brother Chad, who was unable to attend.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today marks eleven months since J.R. and I were joined in the sacrament of marriage. Many things have changed over the past eleven months, and sometimes I find it hard to believe that I will be holding our new baby in only about two and a half months. Today was my twenty-eight week appointment with the CNM, now that I am in the third trimester, I will begin meeting with her every two weeks. Everything is going well with the baby and I am measuring right on track still. Today was also my one-hour glucose test. The drink itself was not so bad, it reminded me of orange drink from McDonald's, but all that sugary sweetness made my stomach churn a little. I was able to remedy any stomach upset between eating lunch and going about my daily routine, however. By tomorrow afternoon the results will be in, though I am not too worried about failing.

Sleep Update

It is touch and go pertaining to my sleep lately. I have had a couple nights in which I fell asleep and slept just fine, a couple of nights where I could not fall asleep easily, and a few mornings in which I woke up early and could not fall back to sleep. Thus far (knock on wood), there have been no repeats of last Friday when I both could not fall asleep and then woke up too early. Despite my difficulty sleeping, I seem to be functioning well, however. So, despite the fact that I do not like not being able to fall asleep sometimes, as long as I am able to get some good sleep, things seem to be working out just fine. Additionally, I have found that I tend to sleep pretty well on the nights following the nights when I slept horribly. Waking up earlier even has its advantages, such as: having time to prepare and eat a nutritious and filing breakfast, not having to rush my morning routine in order to avoid being late for work, and having time to accomplish something around the house or in town before I head to work, to name a few.

In other pregnancy-related news, I do not think that I have mentioned how much of a sweetheart J.R. has been in relation to my pregnancy lately. J.R. was there to help me out in the early days when the morning sickness was no fun, has happily discussed baby names with me along the way (still no picks, however), and attended some of the prenatal appointments with me - but aside from the ultrasound where he saw pictures of the baby (which he enjoyed very much), he has not had real contact with the baby except through me, until the first time that he felt the baby move. Although I do not know for certain, it seems to me that it was right around the first time that J.R. felt the baby move that he started to get excited about having a baby really. I have a hunch that women, who have contact with the baby growing within their womb from day one, quickly develop an attachment to their child and feel like a mother even before their baby is born. In general though, it is harder for men since they are neither physically nor emotionally as close to the baby as their wives, and tend to not feel much like a father until the baby is born. This is the way that it has worked out for J.R. and I, in this pregnancy, at least on some level.

As a final note: Several people at work mentioned my pregnancy to me this week, so either I am starting to look pregnant or word is getting around of said fact. I tend to believe that it is a mixture of both.

Maternity Clothing

For the sake of keeping records, this is an interesting milestone to note: this week (Week 26) of my pregnancy marks the first time that I have worn maternity tops. I have not been wearing maternity tops exclusively yet, but I am getting large enough that they are becoming more comfortable than my roomier, non-maternity tops (with the exception of my regular, every day t-shirts, which are appropriate for neither work nor mass anyway). If I am ever blessed with another pregnancy, it will be interesting to note when I meet little milestones in this pregnancy versus any subsequent pregnancy. I have gotten several comments about how I am not very big yet, but my tummy was measuring right on track at my last appointment.

And now for my brief discussion of maternity clothing, in bulleted format:

- I really like that maternity tops are cut longer than traditional tops! I have always tried to buy shirts that are cut a little longer than seems to be popular because I absolutely cannot stand bending over or reaching for something and feeling my back or tummy exposed - as long as my tummy does not get too big, I should not have a problem with this for the next several months.

- Many otherwise attractive maternity tops and dresses show much more cleavage than I would like to display to the general public. Perhaps I have not looked in the right places, but it did take some searching for me to find a dress, that I liked, to wear to my sister's first holy communion, weddings, and other special occasions this summer.

- Maternity pants and skirts are so comfortable! Even before I was pregant, I was a big fan of comfy clothes, and I have been known to sacrifice style for the sake of being comfortable. Even when J.R. and I were in the earliest stages of our courtship, when most women are busy dressing to impress, I would wear an old t-shirt and pajama bottoms if that was what I felt like wearing.* Thus, I have taken quite naturally to comfy maternity clothes.


*J.R. has admitted, however, that the fact that I did not feel the need to constantly dress to impress him, evidencing that I was not vain or overly concerned with my looks, was actually a quality that attracted him to me even more.