Pregnancy is FUN!

This has been very hard to convince myself of. So many women tell me, "Oh, it's so great, isn't it?" I think they must have spent the entire nine months high or in a coma. I have about a week and a half left and I think I am only just getting used to being so exhausted all the time. And it's much worse now than it ever has been. For the first seven months I was a sleeping champion. I could get ten hours of sleep at night and still take a three hour nap. For the last two months I can't sleep no matter how empty my bladder is, no matter what position I'm in and no matter how tired I am. If I get two straight hours it's a miracle.

I guess I shouldn't complain; there really are some amazing things. This little man inside me moves around so much at times that I really think he's going to come out doing cartwheels. It's crazy to picture him in such a tight little space breathing fluid. It is fun to watch my husband talk to him and feel for him as he rolls around. It's fun to think about who he will be and how he will like us. We really can't wait to meet him. And I can't wait to breath again!

Baby Shower!

What a fun day! There are six of us at work who are all expecting right now. Three of us are due within a few weeks of each other and today we all got together for a shower. It was so great! I got a beautiful quilt from April (love ya honey!), tons of cute organic clothes, and Tracey went to the ends of the earth to get me a cloth diaper starter kit. Yeah! So now I have five different kinds of cloth diapers to choose from: Bummis, Fuzzi Buns, two other generic plastic wraps and lots of unbleached prefolds. Andy is skeptical but likes the looks of the Bummis best. I think the Fuzzi Buns will keep things in better and absorb more, but I think we'll just have to experiment before we order a whole bunch. Everyone was amazed I was willing to try cloth diapers and was curiously inspecting them. We'll see how it goes. My mom did it for three kids without any fuss and she is my hero so I have to try.

Lots of Imagination...

Somewhere under all that snow will be my garden. It's not much room, but for being a fairly urban neighborhood (my grocery store, library, post office and liquor store are all within a 5 minute walk, and I can take the bus to work without having to transfer 20 times) it will do. I'm not sure if I'm ready for chickens yet. Actually I think I would like a turkey before I get chickens. A turkey might make it over the fence, however.

Thinking about seedlings under 4 feet of snow

It just keeps snowing! I look out my back window and try to imagine a lush healthy vegetable garden where a blanket of white currently resides. I am shopping for seeds and trying to plan what will go where while the icicles hang long and menacing from all around our house. This will be my first garden to plant myself and I really had no idea how much imagination I would need.
I will be a new mother in one month. If everything goes according to plan I would like to feed this little guy nothing from a can. So the plan is, when the blanket of snow finally melts, I will plant tomatoes and squash and peas and carrots and broccoli and spinach under my apricot, peach and cherry trees. In seven or eight months, inshallah, when this guy is ready to start sampling the wonderful world of whole food, I will have some interesting and healthy things to start feeding him that I grew from my own blood, tears and sweat and that did not travel around the world to get to him. My hope is that he will not have to eat bananas that took more energy in fossil fuels to get to him than the calories they will provide for him.
I do not think this is a very lofty plan. My friends and family think I am a little crazy, but I am hoping it is doable. After all, here it is February and we have snow banks up to our shoulders yet I am still eating fresh apples that were grown within 100 miles of my house. If my tastebuds can make that stretch perhaps my imagination is capable of planning out a vegetable garden under a curtain of frost.