The Pregnancy Files: Seven weeks

Circa March 10th

We’re seven weeks today.

I had forgotten just how taxing early pregnancy can be.  With the Pickle it was all so new and, er, magical… but if I think hard enough.  If I dig deep enough. If I remember back far enough I will distinctly recall the misery of it all.

Early pregnancy misery is not for everyone.  I believe my sisinlaw was hardly ever sick in her three pregnancies (and I was very upset at her for that, mind you) but I, on the other hand, definitely do not take to early pregnancy well.

The Pregnancy Files: 6 Weeks

Circa March 3rd

Six weeks.
That’s how long we’ve been pregnant with our second baby.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at me… I’m still chasing a toddler through the park (er… mall). I’m still herding two year olds back and forth to the bathroom. I’m painting a house. Cooking dinner. Watching Doc McStuffins. And counting down the days until my parents’ visit (and the Pickle’s third birthday).
But deep down inside, in the quiet miracle place, a life has begun.

The Pregnancy Files

So, I have a good reason for not blogging lately.  I’m pregnant.

And I’ve been pregnant… for 26 weeks now.

Just a very quiet pregnant.

Freckles, swimming pools, and Spaghetti O’s.

I curled up next to my little girl for her nap today.

She fought to keep her eyes open while I finished a story about baby brothers.  And finally, as I closed the last page she rolled to her side, wrapped her arm around my neck, and fell fast asleep.

I couldn’t help but lay there for a few minutes.  Her warm, soft arm draped heavily around my neck.  Just inches from the brand new freckles on her nose.  All of her smelling of outside, swimming pool, and Spaghetti-O’s.

And as an unusually cool summer breeze blew through the window, all the world was right.

And I had another moment.  A moment of peace.  And joy.  Unspeakable joy.

I wanted to bottle up that smell and hold it tight.  I wanted to memorize every freckle.  And count every breath.

Because these perfect moments of cuddling and reading and resting will give way soon to other moments.  Older moments.  More grown-up moments.

And I will cherish those, too.

But for now, I have these.  And I cling to these.  To get me through the threenage days.  To get me past the testing and the sassing.  To help me endure the exhaustion that motherhood can be sometimes.

Things will change tomorrow.

She’ll add a new word or a new expression.  Her legs will get even longer (if that’s possible) and her face will thin out even more.  Leaving behind every trace of the baby I once held on my forearm.

But today.  In that moment.  She wrapped me in her arm.  And I wrapped her in my heart.

Freckles.  Swimming pools.  And Spaghetti-O’s.