The day to day stuff, and the extraordinary

So, we made it through the month of July. It was pretty crazy, especially since we were without the car for 2 weeks, but we survived. They gave everyone an entire weekend off (Saturday AND Sunday) at the very beginning of August. That was awesome, and there was a noticable lift in my beloved´s mood the following week. They finally told him at the end of last week the new expectations - they don´t have to keep working every Sunday (although I am guessing they will work the last one of the month like they used to), but they have to work full instead of half days from now on every Saturday. And a full day will continue to be 35 instead of 28 visits. They are still ´considering´ giving a little more gas money (which seems like it should be a given since they are doing the equivalent of almost 2 full extra days, based on the old number, of visits per week); there is no extra pay.

Over the last month or so, my husband has managed to go to a few interviews based on what he found the day we went to the circus. But nothing has come together.

I am almost half way through my 3rd trimester, and am definitely feeling it, although I am doing pretty well overall. I just need to say that 2nd trimester is heavenly and by far the best part of being pregnant. Of course, since I felt so energetic and almost normal, it flew right by me. Third trimester came along, and I started feeling suddenly more awkward, slower, bigger. I tire easier, and retain water more/more often. I am up going to the bathroom a lot again, although some nights are better than others. There are also nights I just can´t get comfortable. I get really excited about the nights I get to sleep 3 hours straight. As my husband said this morning, the good thing is I almost always fall asleep again very quickly. Several weeks back I started noticing Braxton-Hicks contractions. At that point they were completely painless, just sort of odd feeling. The last week or 2 they have a definite crampy feeling to them, a mild kind of pain. It finally occured to me the other day to start praticing now relaxing through a contraction instead of tensing up.

I haven´t done any major nesting kind of things, but I am slightly anxious about the fact that we are getting nowhere on choosing a name. And I would like to see the crib put together soon. I was told on Sunday about 2 different baby showers they are planning for me here - one through church, and one by my in-laws. Culturally here, they think you shouldn´t have the shower until the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy, so one is the first Sunday in September (the 7th), the other the 3rd Saturday(the 20th). I´m due at the very end of September or beginning of October, so here´s hoping the baby doesn´t come too early ;)

Today I finished reading a novel about Esther - completely in Spanish. I am feeling pretty good about that. I read a bit slower in Spanish, but not extremely so. I didn´t understand every single word, but I only used the dictionary maybe a dozen times through the whole book. I wrote a birthday card to my beloved the other day (he turned 30 on Saturday), and he told me he sees a huge improvement in my Spanish (I´ve been writing to him since early on in our relationship, always in Spanish). He said he would think another 2-3 months and I will be quite fluent.

Ok, now for the extraordinary. You may remember that we have been trying to figure out a good option for the birth, and I asked for prayer along those lines. Well, although we tried to pursue things with the midwife we had found, she appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. So we decided to start looking around at private hospitals, knowing we most likely did not have the money, to see what kinds of options there were. I believe it was 2 weeks ago today that we managed to squeeze in our first 2 hospital visits. We were suitably impressed. Clean, bright, private rooms, more modern ideas (one offers water births, the other offers to videotape the birth for you). Both seemed relatively quiet and no where near full, leaving me feeling like I would get much better care than what I have heard is the norm in the overcrowded government run hospitals. Both allow my husband to be in the room with me. And both charge much more than we have.

The VERY NEXT DAY - we received news of the provision of a large sum of money towards helping us pay for a private hospital! From a completely anonymous and unexpected source. And it is EXACTLY the amount we need to make it happen! God is so faithful to provide!

We still haven´t chosen exactly which hospital. We visited a 3rd last week that we liked even more than the other 2. And we have one more that has been recommended to us to check out. But we have good options, and the ability to pay for it.

Even better, any of these hospitals would allow the Dr who has been providing my prenatal care to be the attending physician at the birth, and it doesn´t really change the prices at all as he charges more or less the same as we would pay to have a stranger from the hospital be the attending. So it looks like I will actually have someone I know and who knows me and about my pregnancy attend the birth. That is relatively unheard of here, and something I had long ago given up hoping for.

And I´ll end on that happy note :) I´ll give more info once we make our final decision on the hospital.