Monday

The weekend just flew by. We were busy all day on Saturday, going to my nephew's football game for a little bit and then running errands all over town with my mother in law. I'm glad we can help her out, but that is exhausting. It's tiring enough doing our own errands on Saturdays, without adding in hers. That evening I fell asleep right around dinner time and I felt like I would never be able to wake up, but Chipotle burritos have a fun way of motivating a girl to look alive.

On Saturday night I dreamed about the baby. In my dream I gave birth to him in some kind of birthing van with a bunch of other pregnant women. The birth was incredibly easy - I barely felt anything. It took me a while to remember that I had a baby out there now waiting for my attention but eventually I found the nursery with all the other birthing van babies in it. I walked up to his little hospital bassinet and saw a big name tag: John Thomas John. Ha. I looked in and said to myself, "oh yes, that's our baby!" He was smiling up at me adorably, with blond fuzzy hair and bright blue eyes - he looked more like a fourth month old than a newborn. The rest of the dream was about my failed attempts to swaddle him, with the swaddling blanket getting progressively dirtier as I kept dropping it, and the baby getting fussier. I also breastfed him at some point, in great detail, and that seemed to work okay.

Yesterday I finished painting the nursery. At last. After I did the first coat I just let it sit there, dreading having to do the second - but it's done. I also went to Michael's and bought some supplies to make a mobile, and started painting the pieces last night. It's a little iffy at this point... we'll see. I'll post a picture if it comes out okay.

I posted a new belly photo on Facebook yesterday. The female contingent of friends & family posted things like "you look beautiful." The male contingent posted things like "WHOA!!" Haha. I guess people are not used to seeing me looking so rotund. The irony is (I realized this the other day) that halfway through my pregnancy, I am not even at my heaviest weight ever! The heaviest I've ever been was at least 10, maybe even 15 pounds heavier than this - there was a time when we were dating and living back East that Mr. Ibis and I kinda ballooned up together. Living on takeout and beer will do that. Realizing that makes me feel better about losing my baby weight... it was surprisingly not much of a challenge to lose my beer & takeout weight. I just started eating better and the weight fell away over the course of several months. This time around I will hopefully have the advantage of breastfeeding too.

I told Mr. I last night that I wish I didn't feel so worried all the time. I was worried about the baby after painting his nursery, even though I was wearing gloves and a mask and had the windows open and my OB has told me painting is safe. I just worry so much. Mr. Ibis's advice was "just stop." I know that in fact that it IS that simple, it's just not always that easy. Still working on it.