The calm before the storm

This past week has been the most boring seven days of my entire existence. Going back as far as my mind can stretch, life has always been busy. That stopped at about 8 am last Monday morning when my life hit its very first standstill. I found myself working and sleeping without much to do to fill in the extra hours.

I have a feeling this is the calm before the little storm that is about to hit.

Everyone has seen a warning sign similar to the one below, right?

In Florida this icon is all too familiar, indicating that there is a hurricane on the rise. I think the symbol represents the eye of the storm

Now rewind to February 9th when I posted my favorite picture of our unborn child. Here it is again, with a few finishing touches.

I do believe we have received our warning sign. I will try to enjoy the next three months of calm before our little storm arrives :)

And since it has been a month since I last posted a picture of me and the belly...

23 going on 15

How does this work?

In high school people often told me I looked older than I was. Now that I am older, people often tell me that I look younger than I am. You would think this was a fantastic scenario, but no. Not when you are married and people think you are sixteen (I'm pretty sure that is illegal in the state of Florida, even if I was granted parental consent). And it's especially humiliating when you are visibly pregnant. Trent and I get it all the time. The card scanner at the gym, the hostess at the restaurant, the random stranger in the grocery store. You blame it on my young looking sidekick? Nope, I get it at work all the time too, and they've never see my 17-year-old husband. It happened again today. The lady in charge of payroll came up to me and whispered "I told Marsha (my boss) that you look like you might be pregnant, she informed me that you are indeed pregnant. I was like- Isn't she in high school!? Marsha told me that you're not, and that you're married." wow. Do they think they are paying me a compliment? I might be quietly chuckling with you on the outside but on the inside I am screaming "I have a college degree, I've been out of high school for 6 years, I'm married, I'm 23 and a half..."

Some sort of explanation is needed. Is it really possible for me to stop aging at 20 and then start "younging" (my made up antonym for aging) and if so, how long is this going to last or what can I do to stop it? You would think getting pregnant would do the trick. Nope, the pregnancy pimples have me headed more in the direction of middle school.

Then

Now (pre pregnancy)

Wear more make up? Encircle myself with older looking people? Dress in less? Lose the weight that appears to have gone straight to my face?

Or maybe I should just embrace the 16-year-old-married-pregnant-person that I appear to be. Now that's a thought.

Last night Trent and I went to our first birthing class...

I may have learned more during that 2 hour session than I have during any other 2 hour period in my life. And since I am so clueless about the whole pregnancy and birthing process, I put a spoon in each hand and scarf down any advice that is given of this sort when it is placed in front of me.

Here are a few of the things that stood out the most to us.

First and foremost, the video. A full blown birthing video. With no meds, a rather large lady demonstrated what they call a "natural birth." Simply put- the dramatic course of events that took place during this lady's labor changed my life. When I saw that big ole' baby's head trying to fit though that tiny little exit point, I leaned over to Trent and asked him something along the lines of- where do I sign up for the c-section? This is coming from someone who specifically enrolled with a midwife rather than a doctor for the primary reason of not wanting to be pressured into a c-section. I cant get the image out of my head. On a positive note, Trent and I both have abnormally small heads. I will be crossing my fingers for the next 3 months that the small-head gene gets passed down to baby #1.

Particularly interesting point number two. They were talking about pregnancy cravings. They talked about how some people crave dirt and other non-food items. I actually have heard of this before, but what struck me as weird was that they advised us to microwave the dirt before eating it. They were totally serious too. They said, "if you really, really have to eat that handful of dirt, make sure to just microwave it first." What the?

I think the thing that stood out the most to Trent was the ever so important topic of kegels. He hasn't stopped talking about them since. This morning when we were getting ready for work/school I swear he asked me 15 times if I was kegeling. When I replied, "no", he would then advise me to do a few. A couple minutes later he would follow up to see how well they went. I have a feeling the reminders aren't going to stop anytime soon, its like his new kick. When he got home from school he asked if I had been doing them today. Have I ever told you how much I Hate kegeling. Ugh. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Since every post needs a picture (or at least to make my sister happy), here is my favorite picture of our boy with a small head. I know it looks like his head is massive, but really his body is just that much smaller. wink wink.