1 Centimeter and 30 Percent

(36 weeks)

With some imagination, maybe you can see Snoopy's nose, too? I think I look pretty "ripe," but gestation calls for several more weeks of fattening up. I am OK with that. However, my middle will be stretching in ways I have never seen, I am sure!

I am so thankful that measurements are all good so far. At this point, I go in for weekly checks. Today I was about 1 centimeter dilated and 30% effaced. Of course, I could stay like this for several weeks, but the body is definitely "warming up" and we are feeling like we need to be ready at anytime.

This boy already makes me laugh. It has been a regular accurance for him, during this entire pregnancy, to move away from the monitors. Just when his heartbeat, for instance, has been detected he "slips away" causing the doctor to go "hunting" again.

It's an exciting time: preparing, knowing it won't be long til we meet him face to face! Oh, so sweet!

Our Lil' Guppy

Hanna had her very first swim class this month. Four of the five weekdays for two weeks, we headed to the rec center each morning. This Guppy class included her and a sweet three year old boy. Getting under the water made her hesitant at the beginning. After her second class she even said, "Swimming was so much fun today. I didn't have to put my head under water!" Fortunately, she warmed up to the idea soon after that class. She even started practicing "dipping in" during bathtime at home and on the side of the pool while her classmate took rounds with the teacher.

(practicing "dipping in" and "Ring-a-Round the Rosie" and "Motorboat, Motorboat")

(showing a lot more comfort, dipping in, and holding her breath)




For a reward or goal, on the last day the students got to ride down the waterslide with their teacher. Both Hanna and her classmate did wonderfully. I know Hanna felt so big and special getting to this point.

(when asked what she thought of the slide, she gave a thumbs-up)

Now Hanna is asking to be a Minnow, which is the next level up. We are looking forward to it, but we'll wait a little while (sometime after her brother arrives).

Espi worked from home on the last day to see her final swim class and her trip down the waterslide. To celebrate the completion of her first class, Hanna got a chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream cone on the way home. When asked what she thought of her treat, she said, "I love it as much as God loves me!" We had a very happy four year old on our hands that morning!

The Tired Snowman Makes a List

(can you see the snowman resemblance?)

This guy is STRONG. He moves my belly around as if it's jello sometimes. At my last appointment, I told my doctor, it feels like he could just kick himself out. She assured me he can't.


(working on an exhausting, weary pregnant face)

For the last couple weeks, I have felt extra tired from time to time. Sleep just isn't what it used to be, and we are in the home-stretch with growing and discomfort. Isn't it well designed how God preps us with a taste of the exhaustion that will come once the child is here!?

On my mind as the day is nearing:

• yoga and walks
• read about (refresh myself and be inspired in) the birthing process
• register at the hospital
• pack my bag
• finish making arrangements for the girls
• keep my wishes for this time in prayer (and with Espi and my doctor)

(32 weeks along)

"Pregnant and birthing mothers are elemental forces, in the same sense that gravity, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and hurricanes are elemental forces. In order to understand the laws of their energy flow, you have to love and respect them for their magnificence at the same time that you study them with accuracy of a true scientist." Ina May Gaskin

Sharing a Favorite

(our oldest as a new one year old--in Espi's special Carhartt purchase--enjoying "pictures" via books)

Our oldest and I have started short novels. I am enjoying it more than I anticipated.

A couple months ago, I pulled a couple books out of storage, and asked her if she'd like to try one.

We started with Little House in the Big Woods.

It went well.

Next, she chose one of my old American Girl novels, Meeting Samantha.

Next, she chose a small version novel of Alice in Wonderland.

Then we bounced back to the other two American Girl novels I owned growing up, Samantha Learns a Lesson and Samantha Saves the Day.
The American Girls series were a hit; so we have picked up a couple more from the library so far: Changes for Samantha and Happy Birthday, Samantha.

As we wait for a couple more Samantha novels to be ready for pick-up at the library, we pulled down the Narnia series we have at home and started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a couple days ago.

This of all the novels has the fewest pictures so far (only a small black and white at the start of each chapter), and it didn't go unnoticed during our first reading.

However, we finished chapter seven tonight, and she is shows interest and enjoyment.

If only she enjoyed this time we are sharing because we are cuddling together, just the two of us, in the "bear chair" (aka recliner), I am good with that.

But I love that she asks about words and punctuation she's unfamiliar with.

I love that she brings up parts of the stories we have read or are reading and makes some relationship with what's going on in her day.

And now, I love that I am enjoying one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, with her.

I've mentioned before that I am a sucker for words. Tonight we came to a sentence that made me stop.

I said something like, "Oooo weee," and giddy with a smile, "We'd better read that one again!"

"Why, Mom?"

"That was good!"

This is what was re-read from chapter seven, "A Day with the Beavers":

Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning--either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again.

Good, right? Then as we continued, I was just as pleased:

It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in his inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realise that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.

We are onto something here,

and I know it is just as much for me as it is for our girl.