26 weeks

I want to start with a shout-out to my mom on Mother’s Day.  Love you! 

I guess this is kind of my first Mother’s Day.  I feel so very blessed that I will be an actual mom next Mother’s Day.  This year, I received cards from Himal and my sister and a gift from Himal, so that was special. 

Best moment of the week:  Himal’s mom threw us an Indian baby shower this weekend.  I had never been to one and had no idea about the traditions.  My awesome family drove 8 hours to attend.  Here we are at the beginning of the shower:

Then, I was given a pretty sari, and I was dolled up with flowers for the aarti, which was a ceremony where several of the women in attendance blessed us and our baby while performing rituals like giving me fruit, throwing rice at us, and putting colored powder on our foreheads. 

After that, a couple of sweet ladies sang original songs about Baby D written and sung in Hindi.  Then, it was time to eat yummy Indian food and cut the cake:

We really appreciate all of the people who helped plan the shower and those who came to celebrate Baby D with us!  It was a memorable and fun experience.

Baby bump status:  Most of the shower attendees commented that my baby bump wasn’t all that big.  I think I’m starting to look pregnant in many outfits, but looser shirts still conceal it pretty well.

Baby is the length of: An English hothouse cucumber  

Total weight gain:  14.8 pounds (change from last week: +0.4). 

Days until due date:  98.  We’ve hit the double digits, folks!!!

New or unusual this week:  Himal and I attended a breastfeeding class at the hospital.  We are trying to take advantage of all of the free classes and get as educated as possible so that we’ll be ready for Little Man in August.  I’d really like to give birth naturally, so I ordered a book on the Bradley Method that my friend Stephanie recommended.  I look forward to learning more about it.

Symptoms:  Immediately after the shower, we helped Himal’s mom move into a new place.  Although I refrained from heavy lifting and mainly just took the pictures and art off of the walls and packed them, by the evening I could barely walk or stand up straight because my back was hurting so much.  I also had a few pains in my abdomen.  Then, today I had to ride 8+ hours home which really did a number on my back and didn’t help the abdominal pains.  I’m so glad that I don’t have any other long trips planned before Baby D is born.

Baby’s movement:  Himal’s mom, Baby D’s “Agi” (that’s Hindi for grandmother), felt him kick a few times.  He has gotten big enough that I can tell when he has shifted to one side; I think I can feel the hard lump of his back when he’s off-center.  He moves around throughout the day and night, and he really does some crazy movements. I think he’s practicing the worm and other break dancing moves so that he can try out for So You Think You Can Dance.  I’m sure he’ll be a star!

Looking forward to:  After traveling this weekend, I’m really just looking forward to some down time to recuperate this week.  

Gifts this week:  Little Man was spoiled at his shower.  He got a lot of cash and gift cards.  We plan on using some of that towards the purchase of his dresser.  He also got all of this loot:

I'm so excited to need items like a stroller, swing, and car seat!

 

The cats decided to try out the car seat and the swing.  They approve.

Murray is ready for a car ride

Gidget already knows that the swing is a good place to relax

 

Additionally, we got this adorable bath set in the mail from friends who couldn’t make it to the shower:

 

And our good friend Alexa gave Little Man this fun stuff plus a gift card:

Thanks everyone!  We love all of the gifts and appreciate your generosity.

Dissertation update:  Because work has been crazy and we were out of town for the weekend, I didn’t get much done on my dissertation this week.  I did figure out what I need to record interviews over the phone and ordered that item.  I also started brainstorming about what I need to include in my IRB update.  I hope to have much more to report next week.