Home Alone

I have really been terrible with keeping up with my blog, so I apologize to my readers, if I still have any, out there. The "no blogging" has been part of my "vacation from pregnancy" program, which I think is likely to be coming to an end pretty soon, since the 3rd trimester is just around the corner for me. Everything has been going smoothly with the pregnancy, with no problems or complaints to report. I have not had a doctor's appointment in 4 weeks, which I think is probably some kind of personal record for me. I do have an appointment tomorrow with my regular OB and then an appointment the following Monday with the high risk doctor.

I am continuing to work really long hours at my job and Y is working a lot too, so that has left almost no time to get ready for the new arrival. I was working until 5am on Saturday because I had some scheduled changes for Friday night that went badly. I am building up some comp time, so that should be helpful later, so I can at least take a few days off in July or August before I officially go on leave. My company only gives comp time for weekend work, so it does not really cover all the extra hours I am putting in, but I'm grateful just to have a job in this climate and I am happy to have pretty decent benefits when I'm out on maternity leave, although it still won't be full pay.

I'm still not really looking pregnant, "just fat" as some less than generous family members like to say. I have only gained about 6 lbs so far, but I'm carrying pretty much the same way I did last pregnancy, which is low and not very far forward -- this creates a barrel effect, so, yeah, it just looks like I'm getting fatter. My running joke is that my babies figure why carve out new territory for themselves when then can just take over this space occupied by my internal organs. Even though I'm 25 weeks now, no one knows I'm pregnant without my telling them. Stealth pregnancy has some advantages, though. I never have to deal with random strangers making stupid comments or putting their hand on my belly. The funny part is that just because I don't look pregnant does not mean that I feel any less pregnant and I'm getting to the point where I'm always aware that my body is now a "shared space" and an increasing percentage of the overall resources are going to the "visitor."

Yesterday was my second Mother's Day as a mother, but this year Y and I split the kids. I stayed with the baby in progress (not like there was a choice there anyway), but Y took T to South America to visit her family. I did not go for reasons that are sort of complicated and would take too much time to get into. Y and T left on Thursday and Thursday was the first night that I had not slept in the same house as T since he came home from the NICU at 11 days old, so the past few days have been so strange without him. Y does call at least once a day and I did get to see T and talk to him on Skype yesterday, so I know he is having fun. He also told me that he loves me, which he does not do very often, so that was a great Mother's Day gift.

For Mother's Day, we would normally go to Rehoboth Beach, but a family friend had a birthday party on Saturday, so the plan was to go to Baltimore and spend Mother's Day there with my Mom and grandmothers. Unfortunately, one of my grandmothers was rushed to the hospital on Friday night and ended up having emergency surgery on Saturday morning. She is doing fine and was discharged yesterday, but we ended up spending Mother's Day in the hospital for the most part. So it was pretty far from the dream Mother's Day for me, but I'm still happy that all the mothers in my family are doing fine and that I have my two boys to cherish (hopefully) for Mother's Days to come.