Boy, Oh Boy!: 22 Weeks

Since my last "real" post, things have calmed down a bit. It was quite an ordeal for me to get ready for my grandma's memorial service. I was creating a photo slideshow for the service. It was something I was honored to do because I felt like it was my way to contribute- my gift for the family. I love photos. I'm a scrapbooker at heart, although am often too busy to make it happen. I see a picture and it floods my mind with the memories associated with it. I see art in it. And I'd love to become a better photographer, but have never taken classes or yet done anything to learn more. However, it's something I have a great appreciation for. So, having said that, I gladly took on this task, not realizing AT ALL what it entailed. To start with, my grandma lived one month shy of 86 years. That's a LONG lifetime's worth of pictures. Secondly, I had to scan in every single picture into my computer, then crop, edit, organize, layout, and add captions to them. Furthermore, we wanted a picture of my grandma with as many family members as possible. So, my grandma had 6 kids, two of them are still married, those 6 gave my grandma 21 grandchildren. Twelve of those are married. And those grandkids gave my grandma 21 more great-grandchildren! If you're counting, you can see that we're up to about 50 people. And these 50 are VERY close to each other. So, it was important that each person was included. This amounted to over 200 slides in the show, about 20 minutes worth of footage, and over 500 pictures used (not including the ones I didn't put in). Finally, when I tried to add music to it, I ran into a lot of problems and almost didn't get it done on time.

I put more than 20 hours into this slideshow, even staying up until 2 am the last night, getting up at 7:30 the next morning and working for 6 more hours, barely finishing just half an hour before the service began. Then, as the service is starting, I realize that there are some errors in it- places where I left blanks because I didn't know someone's name or didn't know what year an even occured. It was mortifying to me that 100+ people were viewing this on a huge projection screen and I had messed up. However, at that point, there was nothing I could do. And, in the end, despite its imperfections, everyone said they really appreciated it. Now, I have to take it and perfect everything before making about 100 copies for everyone who wants one! At least i can do that on my OWN time.

On top of that, the guy I was covering for at our sister hospital has now returned, and I am back to doing my own job like I should be.

After the memorial service was over, we took off for the coast and spent the rest of the weekend with our friends on an absolutely beautiful retreat! For those who don't know, the Oregon coast is not like California or Florida where it's heavily populated and really warm with lots of surfers and swimmers. Instead, the Oregon coast is very cold and windy most of the year. The beaches tend to be more rocky in some places and are known for being populated with sea lions. It's a place where you can stroll down the beach by yourself and gaze at the beauty around you or sail out at sea and go whale watching. I think it's beautiful, but really a very different experience than the beaches most people imagine. It's not easy to find a truly nice day at the coast here. If it's not raining, chances are it's still very cold and windy, most likely overcast. But this particular weekend, it was paradise! It was just about 70 degrees with no wind at all and the clearest skies!

We arrived Saturday night to a gorgeous sunset and then joined our friends on the beach for a bonfire. We sat around singing with the guitar and talking to each other. The sky was filled with more stars than I've ever seen before. The next morning, I awoke to a beautiful sunrise and spent the morning strolling the beach with my brother and watching the guys play golf atop a huge boulder-type thing (you'll see in the pictures). I got quite a work-out in since I had to scale a the cliffside to reach the beach, but I took it VERY carefully and had my brother help me every single step of the way. After everyone left, we took the scenic route home, driving the coastline rather than hopping over to the freeway. We were too exhausted to stop at any places along the way, but the view was spectacular. It was exactly what I needed after such a difficult week (or two!).

Before I post the pictures, I will also update you on the baby front. Let's see...

My body is definitely feeling the pressure of this pregnancy. Within the last week, I have seen it take a drastic toll on me. I say that, not as a complaint in the least bit, but simply as a fact. I am willing to endure every ache and pain for the next 4 months to hold my precious baby boy in the end. In the meanwhile, though, I'm feeling it for sure! i think that I have started to walk differently (dare I even say "waddle"!?). And because of this, I feel a pain in the pelvic joint of my left leg when I walk. I had already begun to notice that if i stood after sitting for awhile, my whole body was extremely stiff and sore, but the most recent changes have increased this even more. After scaling the rocks at the beach, I feel the added strain in the muscles of my butt and my quads. And, just since yesterday, I believe that Josiah has changed positions causing a lot of pressure on certain parts of my stomach and pelvis. I didn't sleep well last night. I felt this ache in my stomach which only felt better if I slept on my right side, if I moved to my back or left side it hurt. When I stand up to walk, I feel a lot of pressure very low in my belly that makes me feel like I need to waddle even more. I'm not worried about any of this because it's just a discomfort and not any kind of shooting pain or cramping, and it's only uncomfortable in certain positions, and I'm certain it's just because of the baby's current position, so I just waddle my way through it, and groan like an old woman every time I bend over or stand up :-) I also realized that with the baby now being about a foot long and weighing about a pound, it makes total sense that I would feel the strain on my body from that.

In the "cool stuff" baby news, even though I haven't felt him kick or move really strongly yet, I still am feeling the little tickling flutters in my belly. A few nights ago, I was lying in bed really still and felt this tickle move across my stomach. So i put my hand on that place and then it moved up just above my hand and tickled again. So I put my hand there, and again it moved up even higher, tickling me there. It was fun to follow his movements like that. And then, that same night, I pressed my hand into my belly where it was pretty hard and there was a hard knot there, about the size of a quarter. As I had my hand pressed there, after a few seconds, the knot disappeared. I'm sure it was an elbow or foot or something and then he moved away. It was really neat for me to experience, almost like the opposite of him kicking. I'm looking more and more forward to when I'll be able to feel it externally, to see my belly actually move, and for Jesse to be able to feel his son kick too.

Finally, Michael should be moving out this weekend which means that our nursery will finally be ours to set up for Josiah. That's really exciting for me. In fact, I'm having trouble deciding if I'd rather spend the weekend WITH Jesse and take Michael to Idaho together or spend the weekend AWAY from him and get the nursery done instead. Tough call...

I think that covers my most recent news. 22 Weeks today and 18 more to go...

Now, here are the pictures from my weekend:

(My brother-in-law, Michael. My cousin, Ben. And my brother, David. On our way to the coast.)

(Me and Jesse in the front seats.)

(The sunset when I arrived)

(The beach house we stayed in. It actually has 3 floors to it, with about 3-4 bathrooms, 7+ bedrooms, two kitchens, two living rooms, and houses more than 20 people.)