sugar, sugar, sugar

As in past pregnancies, I am craving sugar. Candy. Chocolate. All of the above.
In general I have a sweet tooth, but pregnancy has always amped it up for me.
One night when the power was off, I started listing off all my favourite Easter and seasonal candies. Then I actually made a list.
Here it is:
- the giant jellybeans with the marshmallow-type centers
- Cadbury mini eggs {of course!}
- anything Reece's Peanut Butter cup
- the malt/Robin's eggs
- Peeps {but they have to be stale}
- Conversation Hearts {V-day}
- really good jelly beans

sigh. I love candy. Now excuse me while I eat the Smarties White Chocolate Bar that Jamie brought home for me.

13 weeks

Today I'm 13 weeks pregnant.
All of a sudden time has slowed down.
This morning I started googling "what to bring to a hospital birth" and doing some other searches related to that.  I'm not all that upset that I'll be giving birth in a hospital. Obviously I'd love to have a third home birth, but right now that's just not an option so I'm choosing to embrace what I've been given in my current situation.
Jamie and I talked about him taking a parental leave since I'm clocking in very few hours as it is and won't take a maternity leave. He can qualify for up to 35 weeks! If he started taking his leave when I'm due (September 1st) he wouldn't be off parental leave until the first week of May! That's almost our entire second year on STINT. Crazy. Obviously he's not taking the full 35 weeks, but we haven't decided yet how many weeks he will take.
And this morning I got a message from a woman who lives in Kampala and is a photographer. I had messaged her many months ago when I was still on Facebook and she never replied re: a family photo session and just today she did.
When I told her I was pregnant she asked if I was interested in labour/birth photography as well! I definitely am. I have never had professional maternity, birth/labour or newborn pictures done and I have always wanted it. So I'm excited. I don't know what her pricing is, but I'm hoping it'll be reasonable and we can do a maternity/family shoot, labour/birth shoot and a newborn one too! How precious those pictures would be.
I guess I should start taking some belly pics. {Maybe tomorrow.} My belly is getting a bit thick, but doesn't really seem to be a "bump" per se and all my clothes still fit me normally.
Jude often requests to see my belly and then comments, "Yah belly is getting biggah and BIGGAH!" Ha. You have no idea, kiddo.

tired

I don't get it. I thought the 2nd trimester was supposed to be filled with more energy, not increased tiredness!
I am always tired. Mid-morning I'm feeling so exhausted and weak that I snack on something hoping to increase my energy but while it helps the weakness, I'm still so tired. I nap (or at least rest) every day and I'm looking forward to this exhaustion passing. Soon.
So. Tired.
The End.

honesty from my kids

This morning I walked into the kitchen and Noah excitedly said to me,

Mom! Your belly! It's growing! I can see it!

Haha...thanks, bud. Mostly I think it's bloating, but who knows?
Jude pipes up after Noah and says,

I wanna see your big, big, BIG belly, Mom!


Uh huh. Good thing I've got such thick skin.

food

My appetite has been all over the place. Mostly I'm just hungry. But usually {around dinner time} I'm starving but then once dinner is on my plate or in my bowl, I'm just     not. And then give me about 15 minutes post-dinner and I'm hungry again.
So annoying.
The other day Noah asked me,
Mom? Where does your food go?
It took me a second to realize where that question was coming from and then I understood that because we say "baby Mater is in Mommy's tummy" and that's where food goes, well then are there rice and beans dropping onto baby Mater's head at dinner time?
I thought for a second and then just explained that Mommy's tummy gets pushed up and there's a part for the food to go into and there's a part for the baby to be in.

introducing baby Mater!

today was ultrasound day {or as they say, "scan"}.
our good friend james drove me as I wasn't familiar with the roads and it turns out it was right downtown so I'm glad I didn't drive.
I arrived on time and went in to see Alice, the ultrasound technician. she was nice but quiet and got right down to work.
it took me a few minutes but eventually I realized that there was a television screen showing me everything she could see. I saw my baby! a tear rolled out of my eye as I saw my baby for the first time. so sweet with arms and legs and just swimming around.
you wanna see? {of course you do.}

that's right! 3D ultrasound! we never got it done with Noah or Jude because it's just too expensive and we didn't want to have to get it done with our subsequent children. it just so happened that the technology she was using could do both 2D and 3D. lucky me!
mostly the baby {I keep wanting to say "he" although I'm sure it's more out of habit than anything else} just wanted to sleep so at one point Alice tried to prod the baby a bit and he/she ended up twisting and turning a couple times and then went back to sleep. we laughed at that.
also? the boys have nicknamed this baby "baby Mater" so until we find out the gender {if we do, I guess...the jury's still out} I think that name is sticking.

my midwife appointment went well. M is lovely and quite nice but the bad news? she's not going to be in Uganda when I give birth {which by the way, my due date is officially September 1st}. so I'm pretty bummed about that, but God knows and so I'm just trusting Him to take care all the details.
I got a tour of the hospital and it seems nice and decent enough.
so we'll see.

mostly though I'm just completely thrilled that I got to see baby Mater and that he/she is growing and healthy and...I have a baby inside me! amazing. best Valentine's gift ever. :)

Spain and sickness

I've neglected this blog. All my blogs, actually. And the internet. We had no (free) internet in Spain and then since we've been home I've been really sick with a head cold/flu thing. I'm finally up and about (mostly) today although still extremely congested. How is it that pregnant women's immune systems are lowered and they can't take cold medication? That's just plain cruel.
And this time it was me who had to cancel my appointment with M as I was so sick I really couldn't make it in. So I've rescheduled for next Tuesday - Valentine's Day! I have an ultrasound in the morning at 10:30 and then the midwife appointment at 1:30. So hopefully it will be a really good Valentine's Day and I'll get to hear and see my baby!
There is a part of me that worries for this baby. I forgot to take my multivitamins most days in Spain and I've only been well enough today to remember to take them again. Is my baby getting the proper nutrients?
And then there's a ton of other things...the spray they spray up and down the aisles on the airplanes when leaving Africa (I breathed through my shirt). And then with being sick and having weird back pain...let's just say I've prayed a lot for this baby already.
Spain was lovely, though. I slept a lot and the boys did too! We could hear the ocean from our bedroom and during the afternoons in Nerja it got up to around 17 degrees which was absolutely lovely. It was like a warm autumn day. Absolute perfection.
We walked a lot on the beautiful, smooth, paved, safe sidewalks. Did I mention I forgot how much I missed sidewalks? No? Well. Wow. Who knew such a small thing would be so important to my mental health?!? Sidewalks. What a marvelous invention.
Anyway, right now I'm just trying to recover, get lots of rest (I've been in bed pretty much since we got home on Monday evening) and drink lots.
And as of Monday I was 10 weeks pregnant!