About to climb the skyscraper

Now that I am completely past my half-way mark, I find that it is much scarier on this side. I kept looking forward to 20 weeks; I know many people celebrate 26 weeks because it's viability day, but 20 weeks just seemed more significant to me. The halfway point is always encouraging. You're at the top of the mountain, see the great view and know you have an easy descent with a warm bed waiting.

But I no longer feel encouraged. In fact, it is not the relief I was hoping. It is like I took a long, horrid subway ride, and I ducked my head into the sunshine for a brief moment to the smell of hot dog vendors (their wares, really, not so much them). But my ultimate destination is the 50th floor of a highrise, and now I find out the elevator's broken and I have to climb 50 flights of stairs. I am just starting to climb those stairs. I'm sure I'll find by the time I hit 36 weeks that I really need to throw in a few more obstacles on my stair climb to fully describe what I'm going through.

My body is starting to feel very old. I sanded the walls of the basement on Sunday, and managed to pull a groin muscle. From sanding. I like to believe I really throw myself into my work, but pulling a groin muscle while sanding with my arm muscle is.... fail. It really is throwing myself into my work, I suppose,but only because my work happens to be the wall. This, on top of sciatic nerve hip pain, and I completely sound like my grandmother (may she rest in peace). Does this go away after you pop out the kid? Or is this really just the first step on the road to becoming a grandmother?

The last fear I'll leave you with tonight is from my birthing class. I really, really love the class, but it does leave me slightly terrified. I watched a human come out of another human's vagina tonight. Were you aware this is how it works? I think the one day I played hooky in High School was the day they must have covered this. I've seen this in Sci-Fi movies again and again: human gives birth to creature. Why am I all of a sudden supposed to believe this is normal?

Seriously Crunchy

I have always considered myself to fall on the crunchier end of the spectrum. In actuality, though, I am not very far left of center. I love me a hot shower and 70 degree house in a Minnesota winter. But seeing all my little diapers hanging on the line likely makes the neighbors think we're the crazy eco-threat to the neighborhood.

Though if I was truly crunchy, I would have planned better than to hang up my freshly prepped diapers right before a thunderstorm hit. Doh.

In other news: I performed my first belly check yesterday. That is, I tried to squeeze by my friend standing in a hall, only to completely knock her over due to my uncomprehended bulk.

Frivolous baby purchase

This brings my total of frivolous baby purchases to two, which is pretty damn good in my book. And damn, tell me this ain't cute? Good lord, I'm going to be one of those women. This comes from a lovely seller on Etsy...

Diaper World

Lordy! I'm not sure why, but I have been on a diaper-accumulation-spree. Partially because there are many good sales for earth day, but partially because I just can't stop myself. There is something about having a "stash" that makes me feel all warm and secure. Very squirrel like, stocking up my acorns. But these are diapers, how can they give me that feeling! I really don't know. But I am so proud of the stash I have now accumulated, all at amazing prices. I even had to write it all down, to finish off that warm and fuzzy feeling. So far:

• 12 infant prefolds
• 6 x-small thirsties covers
• More snappies than one really needs, certainly (6, I think. I was confused by what they do and went overboard)
• 6 small thirsties all-in-ones (v1, I think)
• 6 BumGenius 3.0 one-size
• 2 drybees bamboo fitted size 1

That's all for now. Though I think I need to exchange some of the thirsties covers for a size larger, 6 may be too many. And I'm in the midst of buying some Kissaluv 0's from a lady on the bump, along with a few more covers that I likely don't need (Bumkins, I think). Any cloth diapering mamas have any recommendations on where to go from here?

Yay! I got my first blog comment from a person I don't know. I'm not sure why, but this makes me happy. Somehow, the idea that people that don't even know me feel compelled to respond to my ramblings makes me happy.

It's a...

girl! We found out a few days ago, and I think it's really started to sink in. I confess, I was a little suprised, because I had myself entirely convinced that it was a boy. But I'm totally psyched... we're having a girl...

My thoughts on having a girl, thus far
1. I already feel a bit sorry for her future boyfriends. I think A will be the quintessential over-protective Dad.
2. I really don't like pink. I wonder if this is something I have any say in, or whether this just means she'll like pink that much more.
3. She's been kicking. A lot. This is a big part of the reason I thought it was going to be a boy, but it turns out she's just a kicker. She's likely to either be a soccer player or a hell-raiser. Or both. Oh dear.
4. I'd like to think I can do girl's hair and I won't try to convince her to chop it off. But if history is any guide, she may (like me) be doomed to short hair.

Best of all, though, is that everything was great in the ultrasound. No apparent causes for concern of any kind. In fact, nothing throughout this entire pregnancy has been problematic so far. I feel really, really blessed.

Came down with more food poisoning, or something of the sort, yesterday. I think my body is making up for the lack of hangover's by forcing me to puke for other reasons. Lord I hate puking. I think it has got to be the worst type of sickness, and it seems so frequent lately.

Other than that, we're starting to make our big ticket purchases. We ordered the crib and the car seat. We have one cheap-o stroller, which I hope to supplement by baby wearing and not need a second. I am, in fact, very excited about baby wearing. The idea of having a baby strapped to me all the time is actually really appealing; maybe because I've always liked kangaroos?

Impending sex

I'm sitting at my desk, doing work, and every once in a while I feel a little "tap-tap". I'll be in the middle of talking to someone and all of a sudden I'm not listening at all, I'm only wondering what's going on. Was that a kick? A punch? A head butt? Or I'll be deep in thought,completely forgetting there's another creature around, and all of a sudden I'm reminded. No, baby is not thinking about instrumental precision or global correlation of records; baby could care less. Baby is doing his own thing, thinking his own thoughts. So weird. It's odd to think I have two brains right now, and no clue what one of them is thinking.

This consistent motion just started yesterday; I felt things before that, but very rarely and very sporadically. I ::like:: this feeling, but mostly it's just odd. Hard to wrap my head around.

Next Wednesday we (hopefully) find out the gender. I feel like a relative is calling daily (often the same couple of relatives) asking if we know yet. Every time I say "Next Wednesday". Then they promptly forget and ask again two days later. Still, we don't know. Though I keep using "he" rather than "it", that's the closest thing to an inclination I have. My Mom called me yesterday; she finally gave in and *had* to buy a Momma and baby apron that was *so* cute. I scolded her early on about not going overboard and buying all sorts of things, and she's done really, really well. So I had to let her have this one, even though I warned her that I think it's going to be a boy.

Pregnant lady walks into a bar

I'm starting to realize that at some point it's going to be very awkward for me to go into a bar. Let me start by saying I am not imbibing in the bar, I stick to Coca-Cola Classic (which has been one of my only consistent cravings in pregnancy so far. That and brownies. Not too original here.) But I am part of a group of people that drinks. A lot. Daily, really. We are sometimes known as "geologists" but otherwise known as "drunkards". Our Thursday and Friday traditions involve a very dingy, smelly bar that was difficult for me during the morning sickness phase. Truly, it's kind of a Wednesday tradition as well. And then there's the Friday party. And the Saturday party. This is a week in the life of a geologist.

I continue to join in the weekly festivities, largely because I otherwise wouldn't see my friends. If you do a search for "geologist" and "beer" you'll see what I mean. In fact, the definition of Geologist in the Uncyclopedia starts "Geologists are 'scientists' with an unnatural obsession with geology (rocks and alcohol)." (BTW, I'm not really sure that sentence is logical, but you see what I mean).

But at what point can I no longer join? Or is there such a point? It's probably good that strangers look strangely at a pregnant lady in a bar. They're looking out for the future, right? But I always swore I wouldn't be one of those people who becomes a totally different person when they have kids. I haven't gotten to the have part yet, I'm still in the production phase. But if I give in now I'm doomed to be lame when I have a kid. And I'm still at that point where strangers generally won't ask if I'm pregnant because they might be wrong, but I'm pretty darn close to it. I need to start working on my comeback line now, I suppose.