Week 37: Overwhelmed

Meetings galore. Sub plans. Scheduling parent teacher conferences. Presenting in my graduate class. Figuring out how to get rid of a groundhog.  Getting ready for baby. These have all caused me to feel completely overwhelmed which has made me realize: I'm already a mom! This must be what parenting is like- you want to give 100% to work, you want to give 100% to your child, you want to give 100% to your husband, you want to have a clean house, you want to exercise, so you end up running around like a chicken with it's head cut off and doing everything more poorly than you would like! I honestly haven't felt this stressed since my Fellows year when I was juggling full time teaching with full time graduate school. I feel lucky that the stress has been kept at bay until this week, and hope that it will subside after I finish long-term sub plans and give my presentation in class on Thursday.

I would blame all of my chip-eating on stress, but let's be honest- I'm always up for eating chips.  Lately, I've been totally giving into it. This baby might end up actually being a kettle-cooked potato chip or possibly a butternut squash.   Although hopefully not as big as this one!

Kyle has gone wild making butternut squash soup. For the past two weeks, he's bought the biggest squash he can find at the Farmer's Market; this monster was only $2.50!  Then he cooks it up following this recipe (with a few adjustments, of course). Afterwards, we have a wonderful dinner and healthy lunches for a week! I told my coworkers about the enormous amount of soup we make, and they suggested freezing it so we'll have meals after the baby arrives. They are genius. In a perfect world, Kyle and I will spend our weekend making and freezing meals.   I'll be wishing we had a bigger freezer, but I wish that whenever I try to fit a pizza in!

You know that feeling you have the night before a big event, like a vacation or the first day of school? The wide-awake feeling? I have that every night! All I want to do is stay up and prep for baby! Everyone says to sleep while you can, but I am absolutely wired at night and love getting things done. I wish this alertness stayed with me throughout the day, but I hit a wall at 4:00 EVERYDAY. I basically walk around like a cranky zombie from 4-5 at school, but I have to stay there to get things done. Luckily, I haven't tried to eat anyone yet.  I think my tiredness is caused by low iron levels. Protein is still really tough to get into my diet. I just hope little man is getting what he needs. I can deal with tiredness, but I couldn't deal with his brain not growing correctly because I'm bad about eating meat and beans! However, I think in the future if we don't eat much meat, I need to research how to still get all the protein we need.  *cue Debbie Downer music*

My next baby doctor appointment is this Friday morning.  I'm praying everything will be a-okay, and I'll be able to go back to work that afternoon, but I've heard stories about women being checked and the doctor being like, "You're not going back to work, you're having this baby."  AH!  Hopefully that won't happen, but if it did, McBaby would be considered full-term.  I'm extremely relieved to have hit the point where if he comes, he will be fully developed and ready for our world.    For more info on baby this week, check out this info from Babycenter.com

"Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz."

 For the record, I'm totally hoping for an Elvis look-alike!

Here's some info from TheBump.com

• He's practicing some skills: inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping and blinking.
• He's getting his first sticky poop (called meconium) ready for his first diaper.

What a talented child I have already!  It's amazing to think there is an actual blinking baby inside of my body.  I can't picture him at all.  Some days I wish my stomach were see-through so I could look at him and watch everything he does.  Then I shake myself out of it and realize how disgusting that would be and how then I wouldn't be as surprised when he was finally born.  It's hard to believe I haven't seen him in 16 weeks!  Back then, he looked like this.

Now we have picture frames ready to be filled with him when he looks like this.  That is, assuming the baby will look like our other kids.  : )

source