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.

Restless Nights

Unless things change soon, I am going to blame my growing inability to get a good night's rest on my pregnancy. I have pretty much always, with the rare exception of when I cannot get my mind to slow down enough to allow me to fall asleep, been able to lie down and fall asleep in short order, up until this week. After being restless and taking awhile to fall asleep on Monday night, I have taken to staying up until I feel tired rather than turning in when I feel that it is "appropriate" to do so. The method of staying up until I am quite tired seems to help only minimally, however. Even though I have been having a problem falling asleep lately, once sleep and I meet, my slumber is wonderful, at least at this time. In addition to my finding that it is more difficult to fall asleep lately, I routinely wake up around 6:00 am, finding that a bathroom visit is necessary. Normally I do not have a problem falling back asleep after this waking, but this morning I never returned to sleep. Thus, I find myself running on approximately five hours of sleep. I am not feeling too tired today, but I know that I did not get enough sleep, and that it would not be best to run on five hours of sleep per night for the next three months. I have been using a body pillow in an attempt to make myself more comfortable at night, though I do not think comfort is the major issue here, as I am comfortable sleeping on either my stomach (despite its enlarged size) or my side. Any advice or insight from those who have ever dealt with sleeping problems (particularly pregnancy-induced sleeping problems) would be appreciated. My new plan of action is, if my body will accept it, to turn in early tonight, and hopefully my body will not wake until its usual 6:00 am-ish. I would not mind resetting my sleeping clock, particularly if that is what it takes for me to get a good night's rest. Additionally, I really like the early mornings, they may be my favorite time of day. With a baby on the way, this sleep schedule would probably be wise to adopt anyway. Any way you cut it, I am hoping to catch some better zzzz's in the near future.

Baby Update

As far as my pregnancy goes, things are progressing normally. My tummy has grown to the point where I am most comfortable in my roomier tops (maternity shirts are not a necessity) and either elastic waist or maternity bottoms, but maternity clothing has not yet become an essential element of my everyday wardrobe. Despite the fact that I am wearing non-maternity shirts still, I am showing. This fact was evidenced yesterday when a lady at a store, who I had never met before, congratulated me on my pregancy.

I am getting a good night's sleep on a regular basis (something that the midwife asks me about at every appointment), and do not have any trouble sleeping on my stomach if that is what I desire. I really am grateful for these little things, as I am sure that they make my pregnancy much more enjoyable than it would be without them.

On Wednesday, J.R. felt the baby move for the first time. It is not that the baby does not move much, which is not true at all, as I feel the baby moving multiple times a day and even the midwife felt the baby move at my last appointment. Rather, whenever I would mention to J.R. that the baby was moving, he would place his hand on my tummy, only for the baby to become shy and stop moving. After going through weeks of this, J.R.'s patience in waiting for the baby to move had dwindled, and, after so many failed attempts, his interest in feeling the baby move was no longer at its peak.

Questions concerning our baby are starting to come in now. The most popular are probably "Do you know what you're having?" and "Do you have any names picked out?" The answer to both is no. Although we have a list of names that we like, J.R. and I have not come up with anything conclusive as to what we would like to name our baby. My little sister, however, has picked out names that she thinks would do nicely for our future bundle of joy: Michael, for a boy, and Bernadette, for a girl. Unlikely though it is that we are going to pick one of these names, I give Miriam credit for being able to decide upon baby names in such a timely fashion.

Guesses have started coming in as to the baby's gender now, too. My father has guessed boy, and, though I recognize that he has a 50% chance of being correct, his average when it comes to guessing a baby's gender is only 25%. Dad guessed that I would be a boy, then that my brother would be a girl, that my other brother would be a girl, he did not even try to guess for my two little sisters after batting zero for three, and then, on his sixth child, my father correctly guessed boy. My mother in law, who, based on the old wive's tales that she uses to determine a baby's gender tells me that she has never guessed incorrectly, has guessed girl. J.R. is hoping for a boy (directly related to passing down the family name and having a son to do boy things with someday), but I do not believe that he has put in an official guess as to the gender. Now, though truly I desire only to have a healthy baby and would be happy with either a boy or a girl, I have a feeling that this baby is a girl.

At any rate, to sum things up: I am pretty happy with my pregnancy right now, things are progressing well, and I look forward to meeting this little one in about three and a half months.

2007 Easter Reflections

I have not posted in a few weeks now, however, life is good overall, the grass is greening up here in Michigan, and God continues to bestow a multitude of blessings upon me.

I had a relatively fruitful lent (being pregnant did not allow me to fast from food in a manner similar to my usual Lenten observances, so I had to be more creative when it came to deciding upon what I would do this lent in order to assist my spiritual growth) and holy week, and I expect that the next forty-nine days of Easter will see spiritual blessings as well. J.R. and I have been completing the Divine Mercy novena together, and look forward to celebrating Mercy Sunday next week.

We spent Easter with J.R.'s family this year. One gold star to his family for planning its Easter celebration well in advance of Holy Thursday (as my family managed to pull together at the last minute). We had a nice time visiting with J.R.'s family, but I have to admit that things are different in how our families celebrate the holidays (a fact that was not so apparent between the two different sides of the family Christmas celebrations that I attended).

A couple of ways in which gatherings are different between our families:

1. The meal. My family is famous for making enough food to feed an army (which is way more food than is needed for most family gatherings). For as long as I can remember the general rule has been that there is tons of food whenever a family gathering takes place with lots of leftovers. Now, leftovers can be both a good and a bad thing. Leftovers equal food that is prepared and ready to go when hunger strikes, but storing all of the leftovers is an issue sometimes and there is the risk of leftovers going to waste. J.R.'s family was able to plan a simple, appropriate Easter meal that was quite good, it was just different from my ordinary experience (which I have a feeling is probably not considered ordinary to many) with the meals partaken of at family gatherings.

2. The size. I have five brothers and sisters, each of my parents had eight siblings; whereas J.R. has one brother and one sister, his father has only one sister, and though J.R.'s mother has a few brothers and sisters, they all hail from the south and are not present at family gatherings as such. To cut to the point, when a family gathering takes place in my family, it cannot help but be good-sized, you would have a hard time keeping a party "small and intimate." It is not a bad thing that J.R.'s family does not have to hunt down a couple of card tables and chairs in order to have seating available for everyone, I actually really liked the fact that not everyone split into groups (as inevitably happens at my family's gatherings) during and after the meal.

At any rate, though our families are different certainly, I am learning to appreciate better the little things that each bring to my life.