FAQs

Remember long ago when I wrote my post of frequently asked questions? No? Well, never mind. I remember, and I’m doing one again. Only, to be honest, these questions are not all frequently asked. Some might be. Others have maybe never been asked. Perhaps I should title this post IAQs? Infrequently asked questions? Hmm. Yes, I probably should.

FAQs, IAQs and NAQs (never asked questions)

How far along are you and how are you feeling?

I’m 33 weeks and I feel . . . kind of crummy to be honest. I say that hesitantly because I know I have been blessed with relatively easy pregnancies, but honestly, I keep thinking, “Is this always the way I’ve felt during the last two months of pregnancy? Surely not.” Maybe I’ve just forgotten. I just feel so big and really, not very attractive. This picture is a lie. It was taken with in the last week or two, but the angle makes me appear to be much much smaller than I am. I am only putting it here because I like lying pictures when they lie to my advantage. And I feel kind of gross just now.

I’ve got a lot of back pain that I don’t recall having so much with other pregnancies. In the early mornings this baby of mine starts rolling and punching and kicking like his career plan is that of a stunt man . . . or . . . I don’t know . . . gymnastic ninja, and somehow, combined with an early morning empty stomach it makes me feel rather nauseous. I keep feeling like surely I’m at the very end and should be going into labor any day now . . . only there are still seven weeks. That sounds like closer to seven years. And now I know other pregnancies must have felt less uncomfortable at the end because I remember typing a post when I was at 32 weeks with Jesse and saying how eight weeks seemed like such a short amount of time.

Still, are you glad for a little more time before baby?

Well, yes. I’m sorry for all my complaining. I really probably still feel better than most people get to feel at this stage. I’m still running after all, and the timing of baby’s coming is actually rather perfect. It will allow me to finish out summer fun with my kids, get them adjusted to their new year of school, and have a few weeks of less kids at home in the day so I can do some forced nesting.

Forced nesting?

Yes. I think that gung ho nesting drive is supposed to come all on its own at the end of pregnancy. Instinct. But my instincts have proven rather faulty in times past, so I can’t rely on its coming. Instead, I force myself, against my will, to begin getting everything in order. I dread it a bit because by everything, I mean something close to everything that might ever need done . . . which is a lot. For some reason, I always think that a new baby means I will never get anything done again and it must all get done before.

Enough of your end of pregnancy whining. You make it sound like having a baby is the worst.

No I don’t! Or maybe I do. But I don’t mean to. Truth is, I’m more excited than ever to have my little tiny stinker here because any worries I’ve felt over lack of sleep and stress of a newborn are now officially offset by my not wanting to be pregnant and my thinking how great it will be to have my period of forced nesting completed. And did I mention, back when I was still complaining, that I can’t breathe? I’m sure I must be because I’m not fainting, but it feels so hard to fill my lungs sometimes.

OK, but moving on. What about your other kids? Has Jesse said or done anything cool lately?

Naturally. Yesterday he told me how monkey was “being trouble,” and a few days earlier he pulled out all my curling irons and things and clamped them one by one onto poor monkey’s head because monkey was “getting ready for church”. Oh, and last night he spent a long time pretending our bread box was a grill and he was grilling hot dogs. But, and this isn’t quite moving on from baby, he has also made me wonder a wee bit how he will adapt to this new brother of his. Every time I mention the fun of a new baby, he shouts angry things. Here was our most recent conversation:

Me: Won’t it be fun when we have a new baby at our house?
Jesse: NO WAY HOSE-WAY! I wanna hit him!

How’s that for lovely? (And I don’t know where he first heard “no way Jose” but he pronounces it “hose-way” and yells “no way hose-way” to things all day long.)

Also, I was talking to Abe and Daisy the other day and said, “Hey kids, let’s read a little Harry Potter,” when Jesse shouted angrily, “NO! I’m sick for Harry Potter!” I’m sure he meant sick “of” Harry Potter. Still, it sounded awesome.

But, for all his being sick of things and no way hose-waying, he is rather sweet. One of my favorite things is that he actually has little endearing nicknames he uses. For example, he and I both occasionally call each other “Nut Nut”, but it is rather sweet that he only thinks to call me Nut Nut when he is being most loving like at bedtime when he will say, “I love you Nut Nut!” and since Daisy occasionally has played “kitties” with him, he refers to her now and then as “Meow Meow”.

How about that Daisy of yours? We haven’t heard much about her in awhile. Is she worth her salt?

I’m not actually sure what that worth-their-salt phrase means, but I’m certain that Daisy is most likely very much worth her salt.

I’ve been thinking of her a lot lately and of what a little role she plays in our family – of what an awful, gaping and irreplaceable hole she would leave if anything were ever to happen to her. She’s just so much a little of everything. While Abe has often complained about no brother his age, he really is so lucky to have a sister who is not much more than a year his junior. They played together so so much during their littler years, and even now, I wonder what he would do with out her: she being the one who is old enough to appreciate and participate in the things he likes to do – things like Monopoly and Yahtzee that the smaller kids are a little young to follow too well. And when we go hiking or camping, it is Daisy who helps him put up a tent or scrambles up steep rocks exploring with him.

At the same time, she still is little girl enough to play things like stuffed animals or Barbies with Goldie and Penny, and while she can be 100% one of the “little girls” she also occasionally takes on the role of the very grown up older sister – assisting the other two in crafts, getting Penny lunch or down to bed, etc., and she seems very much to enjoy doing that sort of thing.

I don’t know how life could be right at all with out this little girl filling so many roles for all of us.

All right, so your kids are just great. We’ve always known that. What about you? If you weren’t raising kids and were out involved in some sort of career, what would you like to be doing?

Well, it was always going to be Biology, wasn’t it? I truly would love love to be a Biology professor. I love teaching, but mostly only teaching things that I love and find fascinating, and to be honest, I think I would be rather good at it. I worked as a supplemental instructor for one of my professors in college – holding study classes for beginning students, etc. and I felt like I was able to really help people grasp concepts that felt totally foreign to them originally. BUT, do you know what I might find myself doing if I were doing something else? Maybe I’d be a makeup artist. Is that the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard? It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard to be sure, but I really kind of adore makeup. I have no real knowledge nor any care particularly about if I am doing anything correctly or not. I just like it and like playing around with it. A new eye shadow excites me about as much as any new article of clothing ever could.

A few weeks ago, just for kicks, or because I’m crazy, I snapped a little picture of my eyes every day for a few days. I was going to write down what I did that day . . . for anyone who thought, “eye make up is fuuuuuun to play with”, but then I don’t know what I did with what I wrote down.

 

And now, I regret to inform you there can be no further questions of any sort. My back hurts. Oh yah, I’m stopping all this whining. Still. It does. Perhaps more later? Perhaps.