My stomach is getting bigger and bigger...

Just in case you thought, considering that I have not been gaining a lot of weight, that my stomach is not getting bigger, I figured I had better post a few more pictures. The first 2 are from about 7.5 months, the 2nd two are from today (I am exactly 37 weeks today...officially full term).







On another note, the showers went well this past weekend. Satuday's was small, I think about 8 people. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet any Americans after all. It turns out that 2-3 Americans are actually 2-3 forgeiners. I did get to meet one of them - from Brazil. Then one, who is actually American, wasn't able to come because of a sick child (with some strange viral thing she didn't want to risk passing to me). I'm still unclear on if there is another American. But regardless, they were all very nice and fun and generous. And by generous, I mean they gave out of the little they have.

Sunday's was also fun, a good time of fellowship with the women of the church - who still aren't really sure I can understand them. I had to reassure them several times that I understood just about everything anyone said. But there was a lot of laughing and generally a good time had by all. And they also were generous in the same sense.

In overview, I was given a number of outfits, although unfortunately close to half of them are newborn size and won't fit this growing girl long, I am afraid. I also received several blankets, some bottles (more than I feel like I will use, but oh well), diapers, wipes, baby soap and oil, and baby cologne.

The last shower isn't till a week from Saturday, being given by my in-laws.

And now, I will leave you with this incredible piece of trivia...

Historically, the woman on record as having had the most children was Russian. Between the years 1725 and 1765, she was pregnant 27 times and had 69 children!!!

Thank you`s, FYI, and Showers

Wanted to make sure I thanked all of you who
a) have been commenting all along :) and
b) recently came out of the woodwork :)

I feel much better about the whole `void` thing, and remotivated to post regularly. Plus, it was so good to hear from a couple of people I hadn`t in a while.

I`m pretty sure there are still more of you out there who check in and never say anything - would love to hear from you too!!

_____________________________

After one of my girlfriends `threatened` to start calling me every 2-3 days to make sure she knew when I give birth, I realized I should clue you all in to my plan to have someone (prolly my sister) post here on the blog for me (an most likely on Facebook, too) when the baby is born with the essential details. I have too many friends spread out all over to come up with any better way of making sure you all hear the happy news.

And we do have a hospital - I can`t remember if I have officially said that here. It is a small, private hospital that opened in 2000. My husband is allowed in with me for the delivery, as well as to spend the night in my private room (he gets a very nice leather couch...). It is clean, close to home, and a reasonable price (as far as private hospitals go...).

The Dr I have been seeing all along for prenatal care will be my attending physician for the birth, so there will be a familiar face, and he will be familiar with my history, etc.

___________________________________________

The first of 3 baby showers is tomorrow (Saturday), and another is on Sunday. Tomorrow`s shower, the first, was actually the last to be planned, and was a bit unexpected. It will be largely attended by people I have never met before - a testament to the culture here understanding the need to help others out, as well as never turning down a chance to socialize. The fun part is there will be 2-3 other American women that I have never met there - it should be interesting and helpful to connect to others like me.

Sunday`s shower is being put on by the women at church and will be help immediately following the service.

I`m looking foward to the chance to hang out with all these ladies, as well as begin to wrap my brain around what I do/don`t have and/or need. Our budget is simply too tight to have spent any money on anything until seeing what we are given.

Another neat note of divine provision...
One day last week I took inventory of what clothing I have been given so far. It isn`t much. I spent the next day or 2 trying NOT to wonder how on earth we will ever affort buying clothes for our little girl. On Saturday, one of my good friends informed me that her mother-in-law, who barely knows me (I remember interacting at my friend`s wedding...?), was probably sending me a box or so of baby clothes - many like new or with the tags still on. Even if the box never shows, it was a great reminder of how God can use very unexpected sources to provide for us.

Baby Update

So, we got to see our little daughter again yesterday. Actually, she is not so little anymore...she put on almost 2 lbs in the last 3 weeks according to the ultrasound estimate, and weighs close to 6lbs already...5 weeks before the due date.

While she was busily gaining weight, I actually lost a pound. Weird,huh? But the Dr isn't worried, and the baby is growing, so all is well I suppose. Puts me at a total weight change of only about 15 pounds.

We had another analysis done for this appointment, and the indicator that was there last time for preenclampsia is now reading normal, so that was happy news. And my blood pressure continues to stay nice and low.

The Dr checked things like amount of amniotic fluid and how the placenta looks, as well as location of the umbilical cord, and everything looks good.

The two fun parts of the ultrasound....
The Dr showing us the baby's hair!
Simultaneously seeing and feeling that she had the hiccups!

The Dr said he had planned on doing an internal exam this time, but since everything seemed so good and normal and all, he decided to hold off till the next appointment in just over 2 weeks.

We've arrived at the weird neverland of pregnancy, where labor could begin any time really [and the Dr said if it started as early as a week from now, we would just let it take it's course], or might not happen for a good 6 weeks or so if she comes late.

But since she appears to be healthy and happy, we'll just continue on our merry way until she decides to come. Although, hopefully, she won't wait so long that she has time to grow too much more!

Mountains, a few pregnancy thoughts, and ¨The Void¨

In response to Inkling´s comment about that last picture, that was taken about 30min - 1hour from where we live. We live in a very mountainous area, but our city is generally considered to pretty desert like. It isn´t quite a true desert, because there are trees and flowers and bushes that grow here. But they tend to never get very big, and for example there is never any grass unless someone goes out of their way to plant and nuture it. The area in that picture, although relatively close, gets a lot more rain than we do for reasons I do not understand -and so is always infinitely greener and prettier, making for a good picnic/day-trip detination. Not that our city isn´t pretty in it´s own right. You just have to get used to seeing a lot of bare dirt and shades of brown. One day soon, I´ll see if I can post a couple of pictures to help explain what I mean.

___________________________________

I keep forgetting to mention how much I am really enjoying doing pregnancy pilates, and in particular how much I like this book. I´ve long been a Pilates fan, since several years back when I was losing a significant chunck of weight. And doing them now helps me feel like I have a little bit of control over a body that I generally feel is out of my control these days, as well as helping to feel like my body is the way it should be, for lack of a better description. Like things are lined up and connected as they should be despite all the weird muscle and joint things that happen when you are pregnant.

Speaking of my body being the way it should be...
My sister reminded me that my body still won´t be my own as long as I am nursing, but I am looking forward to feeling like it is a little more predictable. I am particularly looking foward to being able to do things like get out of the car or roll over in bed without making a production of it. :) I am honestly not overly uncomfortable (I did not say I am not uncomfortable, just not overly so), but am beginnging to look forward to having a non-pregnant body for a while.

On another note, I have been reading through the prophets the last couple of months for my daily devotions (and finding them much more interesting than I ever remember finding them in the past- having a study Bible helps I think.). But I am beginning to wonder if my timing was a little off in choosing to read them - there are way too many times when they refer to a woman in labor to make a point about the terrible things that are coming (the pain will be like a woman in labor, they will scream like a woman in labor, etc). Not very reassuring to someone about to go through labor for the first time!

___________________________________

And now for ¨The Void¨.

Let me start by saying thank you to those of you who reply to my blog in one way or another.

As for the rest of you...

I am beginning to feel like I am writing into the void of nothingness. Sitemeter tells me that there are people coming to read my blog, and it isn´t just Otrgirl and Inkling checking in over and over. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Sitemeter, it gives me very general statistics about who comes to my blog. Don´t worry - I get no personal information out of it.) But despite an average of 10 people checking in per day, I get very little feedback from you all.

I wanted the blog to be a communication tool, a jumping off point to staying in touch with a variety of people. It helps me maximize my online time by letting all of you know what is up with me at the same time. But beyond that, I was hoping some of you would have some response to what I write, and maybe clue me in on your life.

I have had a couple different people tell me now that they feel funny leaving comments on the blog, knowing that the ´general public´ could potentially read them. If that is the case, send me an email, using what I posted as your jumping off point.

Ok, I don´t want to drag this out or sound like I am complaining. I just feel a little demotivated sometimes to make the effort to post since I am getting so little feedback. And more than that, there are several of you that I am pretty sure read my blog that I would really love to hear from sometimes - I miss you!

______________________________________

Tomorrow we have another Dr´s appointment, so there should be a new baby update in the next day or 2. I can hardly believe I am down to the last month or so. My overwhelming emotion is a desire to know my daughter, and to see that she is healthy and well. I am getting a little nervous sometimes - feel free to pray that I will be ready in every way for what is to come, and will have a labor free of any major problems.

Pictures!

Ok, so I am finally posting pictures! :)
Thanks to my sister, I now have a memory card reader, which makes the whole process quite simple. It is just a bit time consuming, at least at this cyber.

This round is of me pregnant, for those who haven´t seen me at all. I´m afraid we started out really well and have of late slacked off a bit, but I promise to get some end of pregnancy ones taken and posted as well.

We started out with the grand idea of taking pictures every month of me in the same outfit, so you could see the differences. It was a good plan, anyways.

Blogger is being a little weird, and no matter what I do, the captions don´t quite fall in the right place, so...for months 3,4, and 5 - there are 2 pictures each, and they are in order. Hope that makes sense.

Here I am at 3 months:





At 4 months:




At 5 months (sorry these came out a bit dark...):






Here, I obviously am not in the same outfit, but soemthing is better than nothing. This was just taken about 2 weeks ago (when we actually had a real weekend!), and I´m right about at 7 months.

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.

Baby Update

I keep having grandplans of writing major posts, or getting some pictures up, but cyber time has been short lately, for a variety of reasons. So I figured I would at least get you a baby update. Please excuse any typos, as I am writing this in under 5minutes :)

We went this past Tuesday for my latest check-up. I am just over 7 months pregnant (can you believe how fast the months go by?!). It was the first time the Dr didn´t tell us taht everything was fine and dandy, which was alittle bit of a downer. You see, I had blood and urine analysises, and they came back showing a few things a bit off. Like being slightly anemic, needing to drink even more water than I already do, and one indicator of the possibility of preenclampsia. But since my blood pressure is still quite low, he isn´t too worried about it yet. So nothing major, butI have to be a little more careful with diet and things.

Speaking of diet, I only gained 2 lbs this time, putting me at a total of 16.5 gained.

The baby is doing just great though. Still affirmed it is a girl, so looks pretty positive on that front. She is already in the head down position and everything looks good. She weighs something like 4 lbs already!

Oops, times up! be back soon!

The Circus

So, I could go on and on about the frustrations of the last couple of weeks, the job situation, the major (read: expensive and time consuming) car repair.....how my poor husband was exhausted after only a week of this crazy new schedule, managed to complete his 35 visits 4out of 6 days - and yet was reamed out by his boss for not getting them done evryday and told he comes across like he doesn´t want to work hard. How now they want them to also include making visits between the hours of 6-11PM in hopes of finding more people at home.

But I am tired of thinking about it and feel like I´m very complainy of spirit lately.

So I am going to tell you about the circus instead.

The day the car broke down, my beloved chose not to work the rest of the day (it was broiling hot out and the idea of visiting clients by foot....). Instead, he spent a couple of hours job hunting, came home to eat, we got a few errands done....and then we went to the circus.

By the way, although he did find a couple of good leads on jobs that day, nothing has come through so far.

So, the circus. It set up in the next neighborhood over from ours, in an empty lot about the size of a gas station or corner store lot. If you bought your ticket ahead of time from the guy driving around the area with a loudspeaker, it was halfprice at only about $1.50 (American)/ticket. It seemed like a good chance to relax a little and enjoy some cheap entertainment. And it was within walking distance (a key point when carless) :)

We walked thru the entryway, handed over our tickets, and I suddenly felt like I had stepped back in time about 100 years. It was a dirt floor. Seating consisted of bleachers - literally thin planks of wood tied with rope to makeshift stands. If you had paid the premium price (I think like $5), you could sit a little closer in white plastic chairs.

The show opened with 2 girls, dressed in leotards and streamers that hung from their arms and waist, coming out and basically twirling in circles a few times to the music.

The opening act was essentially yo-yo tricks.

I think the whole operation ran with about 15 people. The first half of the show, several little boys were the stage hands for the different acts, and I wondered if they were sons of the men doing the acts and how they felt traveling with the show all the time. Then the 2nd half the show began, and those little boys were the acts, and the men who had been the acts earlier were now the stagehands!
During the break and after the show, anyone one of them could be seen selling the souveniers and snacks.

Every circus had animals, right? This one had miniature horses, and their tricks mostly consisted of walking the perimeter of the ring, and bowing when introduced.

My favorite act of the show was the clown, though. He wanted to throw knives at someone, and so came and picked someone randomly out of the audience. And trust me, the man chosen was not a plant - the looks on his face made that quite clear as we went through this experience! So, the clown and his assistents tied his arms above his head on the corkboard type thing that was the target. The clown put a ballon next to the man´s hip and started to pace off, preparing to throw a knife and break the balloon. We all knew there must be some trick here, including the poor man from the audience - I mean, this was a clown act after all! But at this point the victim, as I will call him, was starting to look pretty nervous. Then, just before the big throw, the clown has the brilliant idea to use a blindfold! He started to put it on himself, then turned and covered his victim´s face instead. And now, the big moment.....He paced off, turned and encouraged us to make a lot of noise, then quickly handed off the knife to the littlest stagehand, who ran up to the ballon and easily stuck the knife into it! Then they unblindfolded the man, so he could see that the ballon pop he heard was indeed caused by a knife arriving within inches of his body. They proceeded through this routine a couple of more times, and it was just hysterical watching the face of the poor victim each time, sure that the clown was going to hit him with one of those knives!

All in all, the show lasted about 2 hours, brought lots of laughs, and actually included a couple of impressive acts with people flying through the air or doing some amazing balancing. Of course, it also included more clowns, and a girl who could hoola-hoop like nobody´s business :)

Not bad for a cheap night´s entertainment - I only wish we would have had our nieces and nephews with us to enjoy it. And that the bleachers had been just a teensy bit more comfortable.

Prayer Request

So tell me if this doesn`t sound like a heavy enough workload...
Mon-Fri: 11ish hour workdays
Sat: 7ish hour workday
Sun: work one Sunday/month, about 8ish hours
The work includes: Driving to 28 clients´ houses (14 on Saturdays) to find out why they have not been making payments on their loan and to somehow convince them they need to start paying. Then head to the office for a couple of hours to capture all the data on the day´s work and print out what to do the next day.
This has netted us just enough to pay our bills.

That has been my dear husband´s schedule since we got married (well, for a few months before then too.)

On Tuesday, they had a staff meeting. The workload increased significantly, starting immediately. By significantly, I mean they have to make 35 visits/day Mon-Fri - a 25% increase. Saturday´s workload doubled from 14 to 28 visits. And for the rest of the month they are expected to work every single Sunday - 35 visits.

You may ask, as my husband´s coworkers did, if the increased workload equals more pay. The answer is no. You may also ask if they will be given more gasoline money (they have been receiving enough to pay for about 2/3 of the gas they actually use in a month). Again, the answer is no. So basically, my poor husband is going to put in the equivalent of an extra week to 10 days worth of work this month, and we will have less money when the month ends (because we will have to pay for all that extra gas ourselves - I`m not sure we even have the money to do that).
They were told these changes are definite for this month - there are no promises of what next month will look like.

Are you feeling our need for a breakthrough on the job front? We aren`t looking for a huge salary or anything, just enough to pay our bills with a new baby on the way and have a little bit to set aside for emergencies and such. We aren`t saying he should only work 40 hours a week, but it would be nice if he had more than 3 Sunday`s a month to rest (oh wait, he doesn`t even have that any more!). And having a boss that wasn`t constantly questioning his work ethic and integrity would be nice. One who was actually somewhat encouraging would be a huge blessing.

While I am asking for prayer, I officially entered the 3rd trimester this month, and so the decision about the how and why of the birth needs to be made pretty soon. You see, we can go to the government run hospitals and pay little to nothing (which fits our budget perfectly) - but they are generally overcrowded and understaffed, I would be expected to stay in a bed once admitted (no birth friendly position changing allowed here, nor walking), at least 3 women are put to a room, and my husband is not allowed in the room with me. An even bigger deal when you realize the language issues that could arise. (We are going to ask if the language issue would get my husband in the room with me, but it doesn`t look too likely.)

There are private hospitals, but the cost would be close to 2 months wages.

What I would really like is to have a home birth with an experienced midwife. Unfortunately, that is not common here and it is next to impossible to find midwives. The only one I have found has a prior commitment that takes her out of town every Thursday to Saturday (as in, half of the week), every week, all through September and October. And even if/when we find one, it costs a little more than a month`s wages.

So please pray for wisdom and open doors and peace in both of these major areas of our lives right now. Thanks for helping us in this way. I appreciate your friendships!

A Looooong Overdue Post - including a baby update

Yes, it has been truly ages since I´ve posted. I´ve since gone home (to my family in Rochester) and come home again (to my husband here in Mexico). Without spending a lot of time making excuses for my prolonged absence, I originally thought I might get some really good posting in while in Rochester with virtually unlimited internet access. Reflecting on why that didn´t happen, I think it is because since coming to Mexico, I´ve learned to see computer time as almost entirely for the purpose of staying in touch - and since I was already spending real time with the vast majority of people I would normally be staying in touch with, I wasn´t real motivated to get online. And I just haven´t gotten on much since getting back, for a variety of uninteresting reasons.

But the trip was great - I managed to spend time with all of my immediate family as well as each of the people on my short list of ´must sees´. That sounds simple, but keep in mind that I am the oldest of 7, and not all of my siblings live in Rochester these days. And coordinating the time to see them around the ´must sees´ busy schedules - I was glad I had kept my goal relatively simple and that I did in fact accomplish it. My apologies to those I wasn´t able to spend time with. I would have liked to, but there was only so much time to go around.

Otrgirl has written at different times about the energy it takes to keep up relationships long-distance. I must say that as good as it was to see everyone, it was also a bit exhausting at times. Of course, being pregnant might also have played a role in my tiredness.

I had lots of people ask me if it was weird to be back, but it was my home for the first 29 years of my life. It was just being home, being with family.

The biggest cultural observation that tickled me - how well trained Americans are to never touch a pregnant woman´s belly, at least without asking first. Here in Mexico, everyone touches my belly. It is often a part of their greeting or good-bye to me- an affectionate belly rub. I am one of those women who don´t actually mind at all, so that works. I´m not sure what it would look like if an American woman that hated belly touching moved to Mexico. But anyways, it was just funny to me to watch everyone´s restraint.

My final note on the trip home is that I missed my husband like crazy and was quite happy to find myself back hom with him when all was said and done.

As for the baby, we went for a check-up last Wednesday - my first visit in almost 2 months. After gaining only 3 pounds the first 4 1/2 months, this visit I had gained 11 pounds!! Guess I am all caught up on weight gain. Otherwise, baby and I both checked out as healthy and on target. The big news was finally getting a clear look at the baby´s gender. Remember this quote:
He said it is still a little early to be sure, and so he`d say he is abotu 80% certain that it is a..... boy! My beloved is thrilled, as he has been hoping for a boy since the beginning, and walked in the clouds the whole rest of the day :) For me it isn`t so important if we have a boy or girl, but it is fun to start thinking more specifically about who is inside of me, and to be able to use his name, etc. Don`t worry, though - we are both well aware that the Dr wasn`t sure, and are waiting for future ultrasounds to confirm.

Well.....as it turns out....the baby is actually a girl! So we had a couple of days of getting our mindset turned around, and now are thinking carefully about the names we didn´t think we´d be using yet :)

Ok, gotta run. But coming soon....photo fest! My sister gave me a memory card reader, so I think I should be able to easily load pics now :)