Here are some more pictures of the three of us.

Cravings!!

Cravings rock. I have never loved food so much as I do while I'm pregnant. And I crave things so often that whenever I'm not craving anything but I'm hungry, I get out of sorts and feel sort of cheated. The food I craved always tastes so much better.  Today I’m craving an apple and grilled cheese sandwich. Mmmm… I’ll be back. I’m going to get one. … Okay, I’m back. I made the sandwich and I have tomato soup in the microwave. The sandwich is delicious – I put slivered almonds in it as well.

Just now, I saw a post on the blog of another pregnant North Carolinian. She was posting about cravings. I shared a few thoughts with her, which I think I’ll now put down here for posterity. Here are some fun tidbits I've picked up re: the cravings issue. “

First, indulge the craving for chocolate whenever you can! Why? Because according to the pediatrician who runs the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at Southpoint Mall (my source for excellent fudge), "mothers who eat lots of chocolate during their pregnancies give birth to babies who laugh and smile more than other babies."

Second, the aversions have an evolutionary purpose. We eat things that are weird for us all the time, but as adults (and even children) we have a much more advanced ability to cope with them than would a fetus. The gag reflex (triggered by both visual and inhaled stimuli) and aversions are our baby's way of communicating to us that the particular food would likely do more harm than good on that particular day.

The cravings, conversely, are an indicator that there's some actual nutritional need that should be filled. Hence, a craving for any of a number of dairy sources might indicate that calcium supplies are low, whereas, an insatiable urge to eat ice-cream and only ice-cream likely indicates that the calcium as well as fat sources are lower than ideal. Chocolate cravings may be related to fluctuating hormones and serotonin.

So, I gleefully follow the advice of the nurse at my OB's, which is that cravings are every bit as much a form of communication as a baby's cry will one day be, and it's my right - neigh, my duty to indulge! Ohhhhh, how I love cravings!”

Now you may wonder, and I may someday wonder when these cravings are gone: what am I craving?

I’ve only had 2 persistent cravings during this pregnancy, and neither of them is for chocolate. My first big craving was for asparagus. Specifically, I crave asparagus coated (and I mean thoroughly coated) in butter and salt. I like it grilled on the George Foreman grill so the ends are nice and crispy. Second, I crave thin crusted delivery pizza with my own blend of toppings on top, which your father has dubbed “the mixture.” Specifically, I take red onion, fresh garlic, and pears, and slice them up pretty thoroughly in the food processor. Then I spread those on the pizza, and add slivered almonds. Then I heat it up a bit so it all blends in together – at least in terms of temperature – and bon appetite! Your father says it gives me dragon breath. Oh well.

 

These are certainly not the only cravings I’ve had. Boy that sandwich was good. Do I want another one? Day before yesterday, I had some really intense dreams about double stuff Oreos, and I HAD to have them. Cravings have come in the form of dreams several times. We’ll see what’s next. Let’s go get a sandwich.

Love, your mom.

Memorializing pregnancy

When I first started trying to memorializing your time inside my body, it was not through a blog, but through pregnancy photography. Your dad and I went to have some pregnancy photos taken for the first time at 15 weeks, then again at 20 weeks, and we're going again this weekend, at 25 weeks.

When we started doing all these photos, I felt hideous, and hence, really nervous. It seemed odd. After all, I have always thought pregnant women were so beautiful, but somehow, when it was me, I found that I didn't - and still don't - feel beautiful at all. When I first started my efforts at journal-documenting the pregnancy (using a different website and less user-friendly blog style) I wrote "I thought I wasn't vain, before, but now I know I just wasn't bothered by anything. These days, I feel fat, bloated, itchy, pimply, greasy-haired, and any number of other awful things."

That's still how I feel most days, and it doesn't help that the number on the scale at the doctor is just absurdly high. Still, I remain committed to this documentation, and the photographer we're working with really helps me to feel good as we work.

After the first session, I wrote "[a]s the day went along, I felt increasingly comfortable in my skin, though decreasingly comfortable in my lower back. That is, I felt good about me, even though my body still hurts and is different than I'm used to. In the end, I'm amazed at how much I like the pictures, considering how lousy I thought I looked at the time. Hormones, yeah?" After the second session, I was in the middle of busy moot court preparation and studies, so I didn't have time to write, but that day I felt just as crummy and I was fighting against a bad mood. Unfortunately, law school isn't my favorite thing in the world and I fight bad moods more and more often these days (today is no exception). But Don took some really good pictures nonetheless. (Sorry, I don't have any of those to post yet).

One thing I hadn't expected when we started shooting these pregnancy photos was how much they would showcase what was really going on with me and your dad throughout the various stages of pregnancy. I think this one really shows how in love your dad and I are with each other and how in awe we were in those first weeks as we started wrapping our minds around the little bump that was just beginning to show. We were going to be parents! We could still hardly believe it.

In this one I think you can see that I was feeling pretty introspective those days, and that I was pretty secure in my own readiness to be a mom. That has come and gone from time to time as the time draws nearer and I realize that there's still so much to do, but in the deepest parts of me, I'm still basically there. I'm just not as amazed by it anymore. I'm still awestruck during still moments, but there aren't as many of those now that I'm in school.

I'm posting several of the pictures Don took at our first session, and for anyone out there reading this who might be looking for a splendid pregnancy photographer , I highly recommend ours - his name is Don Kennedy and you can reach him at don@donkennedyphotography.com. His web portfolio is www.donkennedyphotography.com

I'll post more photos later, but for now, I think this is a pretty good snapshot of the first half of pregnancy. The second half is to come :-)

Big hugs and lots of love,
Your mom

Updating you on your life in utero

Dear little one,

Sorry no news from me and your dad for the last several days. It’s been a really exciting time for our family. You’ve been kicking up a storm, so I kind of wonder if you might already have known what an exciting time it was.

This past weekend, your dad and I went to Macon, GA to see your grandparents and your aunt, Katie. We always sort of assumed that you’d grow up knowing Macon as a home away from home, but now we know that isn’t true. Since I was 12 years old, my parents have lived in Macon. Consequently, I lived there for a number of years, and as an objective observer, I don’t think you’re missing much by missing Macon. You’re going to miss out on some pretty wonderful people though. Since I was about 15, your grandfather has been the rector of St. Francis, a really wonderful congregation. But Friday, your grandfather was elected to be the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada. That means you aren’t going to know your grandfather to have a congregation and to serve them as their priest – you will know him to have a different professional role. I don't really know what that will mean for you, but it strongly influences where your dad and I are likely to choose to live someday, where you're likely to grow up, and much more. When I was a kid, I could never have imagined how much my father's decision to become a priest would influence my life - but I am essentially southern because he did. It's more important to me and your dad to be near family than it was to my parents, so who knows how this will impact all of us now? It helps that I really like the idea of living out West again (and your dad is intrigued by the idea as well), so it's more likely that we'll wander that way.

Under the heading of “major events in your life,” you got to hear your grandma, grandpa, and aunt’s voices for the first time since (according to the books) you’ve been able to hear in there. Your aunt and grandma got to feel you kick, too. I discovered that I could get you to kick by singing a very low pitch – it worked long enough to let your grandma feel you kick (hard! So cool!), but after that you got bored. I’ve experimented with it several times since then, but it seems that you’ve lost interest. I really enjoyed the game of trying to figure out what I could do to get you to respond – our first primitive attempt at communication. Fun! If you have any inkling in there what I’m writing/saying/thinking out here, I hope you’ll think that was fun and help me figure out how to play some more!