Happy Birthday Rome!

One year ago today...


and now - a big girl!


it's a good weekend for a birthday, don't you agree?

No late fees - no eviction notices

Since today is technically my 'due date' I thought I should post something. Occasionally I think of things that I'd like to write about on my blog but today isn't one of those days. I don't really feel like I have that much to write about. I have been going about my life, wrapping things up at my job, getting a hair cut, treating myself to a little luxury in pedicure form



and well, generally just waiting.


Chester and I waiting

Pregnancy books and email updates from baby sites all seem a little bothersome somehow. I feel like I'm saturated with facts, facts that may or may not be true for me. I am ready to just go with the flow and trust in my support and the baby and myself. I am listening closely to my body and to the baby, that seems to me all that matters.

Having spent the month of February essentially laid up with sickness and sore ribs that made me feel paralyzed, this month has been wonderfully mobile. Hard to believe that the last month of pregnancy would be the most comfortable for me. The baby dances, wiggles and kicks me all day and all night, bathroom breaks are pretty much every 20 minutes and food really doesn't have anywhere to go anymore. But life seems easier.
Anyway, I find myself here on my due date, half wishing the baby would come right now and half wishing for a more days just to feel sort of normal before it all changes again.

Today's scheduled distractions are dog walking and sewing. I am washing some wonderful new fabric from The Top Stitch where I also just purchased this pattern for a cute little owl quilt. I think this will be a good project for scraps.

Belated St. Patrick's

I know it's a day late but this made me laugh so hard I had to share it with ye Lads and Lassies. Anyway, it's always the right time for Kermit and The Muppets!

Hello week 39!

I think Garfield says it all for this week...


Garfield

Bees and Birthdays

Bees

by Jane Hirshfield

In every instant, two gates.
One opens to fragrant paradise, one to hell.
Mostly we go through neither.

Mostly we nod to our neighbor,
lean down to pick up the paper,
go back into the house.

But the faint cries—ecstasy? horror?
Or did you think it the sound
of distant bees,
making only the thick honey of this good life?

I heard this poem on the writer's almanac this morning.
I'm not sure why but it seemed to fit. I love that about poems, they always seem to reflect on some aspect of life, some corner of your mind that is, on one hand, making to do lists and on the other contemplating the inner corners of your mind.

For those of you keeping track we're into week 37. The past 3 or 4 weeks have been anything but uneventful. At the beginning of February Richard and I celebrated our anniversary, then I had a birthday (37 coincidentally). Valentine's Day came and went like a whisper. We both got sick and then more sick. I coughed a few ribs out of place, relied heavily on Richard for my survival, we're talking Maslow's basic needs here for all you Psych 101 grads, and really just food, water and shelter, forget about the sex and sleep! Sleep is one thing I have been doing without for a while. Sleeping on separated ribs is ok, unless you want to say breathe and possibly roll over, add the baby to that and well, you're not sleeping much. Anyway, I'm not here to complain, really I'm not. I am always counting my blessing, of which there are so many. Even when it's the middle of the night and you're sitting in the ER, you have to give a lot of thanks.

When you're crying on the phone because every movement feels like knives in your back, I am still grateful. I am still one of the lucky ones. I know I am because here I am giant, round, tired and frustrated but oh so happy to be feeling it all. 37 weeks ago this was all so imaginary. Showers, cribs, diapers, birthing classes, it was all up there in the corner of my mind, a fantasy. Granted, I didn't exactly fantasize about the discomfort, I'm no S&M fan. But really it's all there. When you ask the universe for something like this you don't say 'give it to me but hold back'. You just say GIVE IT TO ME!

I was getting caught up in the fact that we are close to the end. I was verbally agreeing that I'd like all this to be over soon. I was getting inpatient. Then I realized that time waits for nothing and our time is coming, actually, it's already here.

I learned that today is the birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Michelangelo and Gabriel García Márquez.
Everyday is someone's birthday - something amazing happens everyday.