30 Weeks

Well its more like 30 1/2 weeks, but who’s counting?

Time has become a rather strange element in my life. I have been counting this entire year in weeks. The first trimester seemed to move so slowly in the moment – being sick seems to slow down time – but the second trimester literally flew by. I can’t believe that we’ve known we are having a girl for 10 weeks, and we could be holding her in our arms in 10 more.

But then time gets even funnier now because we have a floating ‘deadline’. Sure, the 40 week due date mark is Oct 5. But full-term is 37 weeks – so maybe we’ll meet her mid-September. Or maybe she will hang out for an extra 2 weeks past her due date and it will be later in October that we hold our little girl. I’ve decided it is best to not think about it. I swing between being super excited to being super nervous. Borderline super impatient/to wanting to hold off on this forever life changing experience just as long as possible.  I am definitely leaning toward the super excited side!

Baby Jackson has been getting bigger and bigger. I now feel her moving around all the time and not just when I am resting. It is fun to have a buddy to hang out with all day. Along with Baby Jackson getting bigger, so is my stomach. I keep hitting things with it (particularly the kitchen table when I’m sitting down/standing up), not realizing how much room I take up. I have become tired enough that falling sleeping is becoming less of an issue at night, but staying asleep is another story entirely. I have yet to have any real cravings, and I’m hoping that lasts the rest of pregnancy. The only thing left of my pregnancy self-dignity is I haven’t had to beg Andrew to go get or come with me to solve a craving.

Funny story that relates to the size of my stomach. Last night I was driving to an activity at church in our stick-shift car. The clutch has long had problems having enough pressure to pop right back out, and it has become second nature for me to slide my foot underneath and pop it our after switching gears. Well last night I was waiting at a red light and tried to pop the clutch out, but it had disappeared! Okay, it didn’t actually vanish, but it had plastered itself to the floor. I couldn’t get my foot under it at all. I figured I would just bend down and grab it with my hand. Except I couldn’t bend over like I needed to because my stomach was in the way. To top it all off, I wasn’t alone. There is another girl that just graduated from BYU and moved here with her husband for graduate school and we were carpooling. She couldn’t reach the pedal either. There was nothing to do but laugh, put on the emergency break, get unbuckled, and try and get closer to pop the pedal. Success-and the light was only green for a few seconds before we were up and running. The clutch got stuck in 1st on the way home for the same reason while we were on a shoulder-less country road. Solved that situation by turning on the flashing lights until we came to a parking lot and then stalling the car so I could get unbuckled and pop out the clutch again. Needless to say, this car will be returning to the mechanic.

By popular demand, here is a baby bump picture (taken with a less than adequate camera, oh well). Andrew was determined that my hands should be on my stomach for the full pregnant effect :)