Almost halfway

That thought occurred to me the other day. In a few more days, I will be halfway through this pregnancy.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's exciting, but also a little terrifying. We are halfway to having a tiny human living in our house! Twenty more weeks and it will be here! It seems like we have so much to do between now and then. Twenty weeks sort of seems like a long time--plenty of time--but also like hardly any time at all.

I really only have two months off school this summer because we start earlier this year (but get TWO weeks for Spring Break instead of one). We get out just at the end of May (five more school days, actually!) and my first day back for the in-service/work day week is something like August 5th. It would be great to get the majority of nursery and house stuff done before then. I guess we'll see. We're also traveling practically every other weekend this summer: starting off with a trip to Lake Powell with my in-laws, going to a friend's college graduation party on the other side of the mountains, possibly making it to a big renaissance festival also on the other side of the mountains, attending our tenth class reunion (already?) and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

The daily tips on one of my pregnancy tracker apps said now was the time to start looking at child care because the best places have long wait lists. Dang, four months before the baby is even born! Unless Matt miraculously gets a job soon that pays more than what he and I are making together now along with good benefits, I will be going back to work in August. (He's working, but only part-time at Sears since they won't/can't give him full time. He has a zillion applications in for anything he could possibly qualify for, but jobs are just scarce right now.) I'll take 6 or 8 weeks of maternity leave (not paid; isn't being a public school teacher grand?), then head back!

This means the baby will need to be... somewhere. Ideally, I would be able to take it to a friend's house or have someone I know come here to our house. I don't much like the idea of a big, germy, busy daycare, though I know lots of people do it. Are any of my local stay-at-home mommies with small children of their own interested in watching the baby, for pay of course? Even if it's only two or three days a week, and we could make something else work for the other few weekdays. It's a thought, anyway. We've also wondered if Matt could move to just closing shifts so he would be with the baby while I'm at school, then I'd be home with it at night. I wouldn't see my husband much, but we could make it work if we had to.

On to the pictures!

 We spent the weekend at Matt's parents' house, but we saw my family for the afternoon on Sunday which was... my first Mother's Day! This is in their back yard in front of their rose bushes that are starting to wake up. I was 18 weeks, 6 days here. Not the best lighting, but I like that Matt's holding me and the baby.

Totally irrelevant: I'm wearing a new dress from Target that was on sale for $8! It has a waist, but I can still fit in it, yay! And it has POCKETS!

My in-laws got me a card for mama-to-be and a little changing pad that folds up and velcros (velcroes?) into a little package with wipes and a diaper inside. The pad is flowers on one side and neon green zebra print on the other! They know me well. Mom got me a card and Dad got me a card, both independent of each other! I also got several nice Facebook comments.

On Monday, Matt had these lovely flowers delivered to my work. A tiny little 6th grade student aide delivered them; the arrangement was nearly as big as he was! I love the vase, too. I didn't have a square vase. The white roses smell wonderful! So do the lilies (tiger lilies?), but if you stick your nose down in them and sniff, it makes you sneeze. Don't ask me how I know that. It makes the whole end of the room by my desk smell like fresh flowers and green things, yum!

My Facebook status on Monday afternoon:

"I think.... maybe I'm being kicked. From the inside. But I'm not sure. Hmm."

I'm still not entirely positive. I don't THINK it was tummy gurgling. The feeling was right in the spot where I'd last heard the baby. The next morning, I felt the same thing in a slightly different spot on my belly, and that was where I'd heard the baby the night before. I've felt it a few more times since then, mostly when I'm sitting very still. Mom said I would feel the baby for sure in another week or two and know it was the baby, then look back and go, "Oh, that's what that was!" about previous sensations.

My Facebook status on Tuesday afternoon:

"As I was putting laundry from the washer into the dryer, I realized I washed the whole load without putting any soap in. Back to the washer it went, this time WITH soap!"

Sigh. 

Another week and a half-- 9 days, actually--and we will know whether the baby is a boy or a girl! I'm so tired of calling it "It." Soon we can say "he" or "she"! I kind of feel like it's a boy. And I've had quite a lot of people tell me they think it's a boy. So either some mojo is going around that we're picking up on, or we will all be proven wrong! Who knows? Just God. The little grub had better cooperate next Friday! Hopefully it's turned the right way and everything so we can tell. If not, I wonder if I can stand up, walk around, and poke my belly to get it to turn? (I'm mostly joking.) 

The baby is about 10 ounces now. I told that to Matt the other night, and he said, "The size of a good steak!" I smacked him.

I think I just felt some little tiny feet drumming on me. Maybe. !!!