Having known for 15 weeks / at week 21

If you’ve been keeping up with Square Piece, you might find it suspicious that my weekly pregnancy update is posting on a Thursday instead of a Friday.  You’re right.  That IS suspicious.  I wonder what I could possibly have up my sleeve for tomorrow…

Mental: Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.  I am one stubborn momma.  Yesterday at my monthly checkup, I flashed the before/after pics of my legs to the doctor and she immediately suggested that I wear support hose.

*cringe*

I then questioned what the worst case scenario might be if I did not, in fact, wear support hose.  These veins seem to come and go.  Post pregnancy, would that be irreversible?

She believes that it is reversible, which is a terrible thing to tell a square piece who’s trying to wriggle away from the advice anyway.

First Crocs.  Now support hose.  Gah!

Spiritual: I enlisted the prayer and support of some friends and family the other day as I broached the “maternity leave” talk with my boss.  Myself believing in the power of prayer, I appreciated (1) the calming of nerves, (2) the remembrance of every point that I wanted to make and (3) the positive reception that my boss confirmed for every hope that I had about moving forward.

This relieving moment gave me pause to remember back to the earlier days when I had just found out that I was pregnant.  Having read in Romans 12 to “rejoice in hope,” I had convinced myself that if the Lord’s hand was in this and that our pregnancy was in His perfect timing, then He would work out the financial and work-related details.  So far, He has proven Himself faithful to us and our situation.  *happy sigh*

Emotional:  On that note, I’m feeling awfully thankful these days.  It’s a wonder that I haven’t busted out another Thankful Game post.  Little by little, we’re fine tuning the details of our preparedness.  The sunken pit that used to be in our living room is now raised and flush with the rest of the floors.  (I had concerns about safety issues.)  And a new kitchen sink with no partitions was installed yesterday so that I can bathe Bennett more comfortably when he arrives.  The faucet is attached to a hose (we’ve never had that before) and at the click of a button, it has more of a sprinkle-y shower feature.

See?

Another emotional treat is watching and listening to Brian talk to Bennett.  I love when he puts his hands on my belly and says, “Hey, Bennett!  I can’t wait to meet you.”  On Tuesday night, Brian finally felt the teeniest, little kick.

Physical:  And speaking of Brian, if you’re friends with me on Facebook, you might have seen me mention this last night.  (We can alllllll be friends on Facebook.  Just click my Facebook link and send a request!)  But for the sake of personal record keeping, I can’t resist formally posting this conversation that he and I had last night:

Me, “My stomach’s getting bigger.”

Brian, “It doesn’t look like it’s gotten that much bigger to me.”

Me, “Well, I know my legs are getting bigger.  I think I felt my thighs rub together today!”

Brian, “Does it hurt when they do that?”

(I actually had to stop and think about it.)

Me, “Well, it wasn’t all day.  So, no.  It was more towards the end of the day.”

Brian, “Don’t worry about it.  You’ll bounce back.”

Me, “Yeah, I’m not stressed about it.  I still feel pretty.  When I lost my weight before, it wasn’t so much that I was exercising excessively, I mostly just ate healthy.  …Which I do anyway.”

For the record, my favorite part was him asking, “Does it hurt…?”  Being that he’s got the skinniest legs ever, that was an honest question.