Week 28

Here we are at week 28, and each of the past couple of weeks has proven to make our baby SJ's arrival all the more imminent. In fact, for some odd reason, having a stroller in the living room (while I tried to figure out how to collapse it after Texan set it up) was the big moment where Texan said, "I feel like she's really coming now." I have on good authority--from watching Juno--that a woman becomes a mother when she becomes pregnant, but a man becomes a father when he sees his child. So, I thought it was kind of funny that the stroller really took him to the next level. Because, reader, there were about three weeks where we had a bassinet and a swing in our living room. But no, it's just the stroller.

At my most recent doctor's appointment I began tracking SJ's movements. My goal is to choose one hour of every day, and make sure that I can feel her kick 10 times before the hour is up. It can be any hour day-to-day, so long as there are 10 kicks to show that she's getting enough oxygen. I usually do it after eating lunch, but lately I feel like SJ's sleeping patterns are changing so much that I can never be absolutely sure when she's going to be jumping around. I put the hour and the number of kicks in my phone. But, the best part of this new exercise is that I always get to 15 before losing count, usually in under 20 minutes. When she's active, she's really active. Tonight, I got to 9 and let Texan track the last one. Instead, he tracked to 17 before stopping. I loved the look on his face while he was counting kicks. It's become my favorite part of each day.

I always get kind of irked when I read about someone saying, "I was nesting..." Not because I don't believe that as pregnant women we get in super-clean, hyper-organization mode. I guess I just don't care for the word. I wish there was a different way of saying it that didn't make me sound like an avian woman. Anyway, I spent all day yesterday working on our spare bedroom and came out with a trash bag full of donation clothes, one full of yard sale stuff, and one full of trash. I guess some would call it nesting. Tweet, tweet, chirp. The hardest thing for me with all this organizing and cleaning is the fact that we (Texan, ahem) haven't decided if we're going to stay in our current house or move into somewhere closer to town before baby arrives. I really want to start doing the nursery, but I know it can wait, especially since she'll be sleeping next to our bed for the first few months until she is sleeping long enough between feedings to make it worth putting her far away from me in her crib.

One of my favorite moments this week was when I was "getting my kicks," which sound way dirtier when I type it out, before bed. After I got to around 15, I got out my i Pad to do some surfing, and all of a sudden my belly started making waves like I couldn't believe. And the best part was that Texan got to see it all. It was like SJ was showing off for us. So, we decided to get out the nursery rhyme book that Mimi (Texan's mom) got for SJ and read her some of our favorite rhymes. Texan has a very quiet reading voice, so I always have to say, "louder!" while he's reading. And it cracks me up the way he starts almost yelling and always goes right back to almost mumbling within seconds. I just want our baby to be able to hear him...but it's enjoyable to hear him. That's for sure.

Here I am at 28 weeks and 5 days. It was so cold today that I got to wear my favorite scarf! I also spent all day mopping, dusting and making white lasagna and pumpkin balls for my Texan. They were a hit. As far as the clean floors, Texan loved tramping across them in his muddy boots.