Week 21 - Falling for Fall! And counting down instead of up?

Week 21 - October 31 - November 6, 2013

I woke up on Thursday morning at 4 something am to take Daniel to the airport so he could fly across the world to dive in the Maldives with his dad. Daniel actually blogged about his adventures - so if you look at the blog around Halloween and the first week of November you can read his journals. Probably better not to ask me how I really feel about the trip or the fact that it was planned after Daniel and his dad knew I was pregnant or the fact that Daniel was going to one of the whale shark capitals of the world after we had spent part of our savings on our "Grand Finale Baby Bucket List Trip" to the Galapagos for our chance to dive with whale sharks (which we didn't see) ...although the Galapagos were AMAZING and one of the most amazing weeks of our lives. But I dutifully helped him pack the night before, packed a survival pack of all of the snacks he might need to survive forty hours of flight travel and a ziploc full of all of the things he asks me for when we travel (chapstick, hand sanitizer, lotion, tissues, gum, etc). So I dropped Daniel off at the airport and went home and crawled back into bed...it wasn't even 6 am yet.

 

When I woke up for the second time I read through my "yay, you're 21 weeks" emails from the various sites that send me an update (I'm the nerd that has signed up for three or four different websites, skims them all and synthesizes the highlights). Yep. And I had a sudden realization. The first line of one of the emails read "Congratulations! You're 21 weeks along in your pregnancy and have 19 weeks to go!" Gulp. And yay! ...Despite all of my talk of being halfway, I have been so focused on counting up the number of weeks, I hadn't realized I would get to a point in my pregnancy where I started counting down. Woah. You don't say - I'm 11 weeks and have at least 29 to go...because that's just daunting. But...I have more weeks conquered than I have left...that's an entirely different perspective!

 

I have also been increasingly hungry the past week or two. Granted...I have been active and busy and am not just sitting around, but oh my goodness - extra hungry! I have had afternoons/evenings where I did the check list when I felt uncharacteristically hungry for an additional time. Was I hungry because I was bored and just wanted to eat. Definitely not. Given that I just finished eating I'm going to wait an extra ten to fifteen minutes. Still hungry? Yep. More food it is.

 

I finally caved and hopped on the maternity clothes wagon. For everything. With Daniel out of town, my evenings were wide open, so...to the mall! I bought maternity pants months ago (seriously they are just so much comfier - don't fight it!) but I just wasn't ready for the shirts. ...Not like I couldn't mentally handle the idea...more like when I tried them on they just looked baggy and meh. There were certainly some shirts in my closet that were laughable, but many of my shirts still worked. But...the bump (and the baby inside) have been growing and I was running into three problems - a) I lived in Florida for seven years...thus, my winter wardrobe was only deep enough to go to SC for a week at Christmas or to spend a week or so in Europe after Christmas, so I knew I would need more sweaters; b) of the sweaters that I have many of them not long enough to cover my baby belly c) the temperatures are dropping here! (super exciting!) but problematic if I don't have clothes to wear that are warm enough! So...to the maternity store I went.

 

I have several issues with maternity clothes. First of all - most stores don't have any. Second, many of the stores that do have a sucky selection. I mean...target and kohls supposedly have a great selection but it's a joke. Third, there is this ridiculous mark up that comes along with most maternity clothes - particularly the ones in motherhood maternity. However as much as I find the store frustrating (extra expensive, not many sales/discounts, and often out of the sizes I want)...they do have clothes designed to fit! And while earlier in my pregnancy I had tried on some shirts and laughed because...it just was not remotely time yet. At 21 weeks it was a different story. ...And I left a few hundred dollars poorer, but finally equipped with long sleeve shirts and sweaters that would get me started on properly acclimating to Maryland.

 

My Halloween was a strange one. I had dropped Daniel off at the airport early that morning and had a weird day. I showered and headed out for prenatal yoga around 5:45 before trick or treating got started (and left a cute Halloween table with a bowl of candy on my porch) and by the time I returned it was dark, raining, the bowl was empty, and Halloween was over. It was just weird and surreal. Yoga that night was especially fun because there were several other new girls that I got to chat with. I have really enjoyed going to these classes - it's a nice work out and there's something exciting and very communal about being in a room full of pregnant women. At one point while we were doing a pretty crazy pose I couldn't help but think of how laughable we must all look and how cool it was to see so many people bearing bumps in the midst of the various poses. It's more pricey than I would like...but I really look forward to it and I already feel like the classes have helped me made think to double check my posture at various points in the day and have given me some new stretches to try when things are tight. I usually feel great the night after class and the next day.

 

The first night that Daniel was gone was also the first night that I was able to feel our little acrobat on the outside - as I sat and typed him an email she was somersaulting around so much that when I put my hand on my belly I could see it moving - so exciting! (But of course she had to wait until he was gone!)

 

The rest of week 21 had two other major things. First - it was PEAK FALL in Maryland! And I decided I was going to fully embrace it and get myself and Chance outside as much as I could to enjoy the beautiful colors and soak it all in! (And we did!) On Friday I found a park that ended up being a wonderful discovery...although when I first pulled up it was completely different than I expected. I followed all the directions provided by my phone and found myself on a road that dead ended with a concrete road block that blocked a road into a beautiful fall forest. There were no signs that said Gorman Park...just classic park signs like...don't keep the fish you catch, don't litter, etc. So it was not quite as formal a park as I expected - but that made it all the more magical! I suddenly found myself and Chance alone in a beautiful forest full of fall leaves and a beautiful stream with absolutely no one nearby. Once I got a sense for the park I was able to let Chance run around off leash and got to watch him run up and down the banks, hop through the bushes, and gleefully skip through the leaves while I soaked in all of the magic of fall. Sooo beautiful!

some of the views along the way

as far as my car could go...

off to wander into an enchantingly beautiful forest

happy Chance

 

On Sunday I decided to again take advantage of the beautiful fall leaves in the area and decided to head to a park. This one was also a beautiful find, but was much more crowded. To hike to the falls we took the more challenging path and hiked up and down around boulders and stones and huge logs. It was gorgeous and Chance was an ecstatic billy goat. He jumped up and down all the rocks and logs with ease while his pregnant mommy very cautiously hiked the downhill steps/slopes. I have always been a little extra cautious when hiking downward (especially down uneven rocks where it's easy to turn your ankle), but in this case I was especially nervous because I know as my ligaments loosen it's even easier to roll my ankles or twist my knees. To make things even trickier, I had an enthusiastic pup on a leash trying to pull me down the mountain! Yikes! But, we made it to the falls without incident and once there I found a nice solid rock out to sit on while he would hop all around and out towards the falls. All the adults in the area were laughing at him as he hopped from rock to rock out into the stream and back over and over again. So cute!

Chance the billy goat

 

 

And then on Tuesday I hopped in the car and headed for SC to visit the family (Hals and Monahan), catch up with some friends, and to try to make the best of the week without Daniel. The drive was gorgeous - particularly through Maryland, DC, and Virginia where the leaves were really at peak. I also had taken a free month of audible and spent the drive enjoying a book called "The Book Thief" along the way. In the end the trip was a long one (9.5 hours), but nicely uneventful and my civic got 42 miles to the gallon! Win!

 

So week 21? Full of hiking and acrobatics and maternity shopping...and the adjusted perspective that there's not just a count up in Baby Hals' progression, but a count down to when I get to meet her! :)

 

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