It was just a Weird Al kind of day

Before I got pregnant I had these idealistic ideas about what pregnancy must be like.  Before I was sure I even wanted children, I thought about how amazing it must be experience pregnancy.   I have always thought pregnant women are so beautiful.  I'm drawn to pregnant women.  I always want to touch their bellies and talk about what they are feeling.  I even dragged my pregnant mother to school for show and tell when I was in the 2nd grade.  In fact I often attribute her pregnancy with my little sister Brittany to my life long passion of working in the world of birth.

There is something truly amazing about growing another life inside of your body, and the ecstatic energy and sacredness of the moment of birth will never lose it's magic for me.  Good thing, since helping women get to that moment is what I do for a living!  I used to cry at every delivery I was a part of, now I usually only cry if I know the mama giving birth or if the dad starts crying.  That always gets to me.

Anyway, this pregnancy has been a bit of a reality check for me, as I suppose life often is.  Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying being pregnant and I have no regrets.  I love feeling little Pebble (or sometimes little Animal- see this post if you don't know what I'm talking about) moving around inside of me.  I love imagining what he or she might be like.  I actually do like when people reach out to touch my growing belly, I imagine they are infusing Pebble with their love when they do it.  But the nausea of the first trimester and now watching my body change so much is very strange, and not quite as blissful as I had romanticized it to be.

We don't have any full length mirrors in our house, and the mirrors about the sinks are quite high since the sink faucets are mounted on the bathroom walls, so I don't often get the full view of what I look like.  As a result, it is often startling to see myself in my "fullness" when I catch a glimpse of myself in a window or in a mirror at work or see photographs of myself.

Yesterday, I was at work, washing my hands after peeing for the something like the 15th time during my 12 hour shift.  The sinks above the mirrors are quite low, and as I'm standing there looking at what to me looks like an enormous belly, this is song from the 80's popped into my head.  If you grew up in the 80s you will get a kick out of going down this memory lane...

There were some other contributing factors to my "Fat" moment in the bathroom.  I have reached the limit of my normally roomy scrubs and I was uncomfortably squeezed into them yesterday.  (Guess it is time to put them away and start wearing the maternity scrubs my wonderful Auntie Roz made for me!)  Additionally, working 12 hours shifts as a nurse is challenging on the non-pregnant body, and I was feeling my belly getting in the way of my daily work all day when I had to help someone get into their TED hose, or bend over to pick up something they dropped, or reach over them reclined in a chair to do a blood pressure.  I probably also felt "Fat" because I had a totally insatiable appetite yesterday.  It seemed like I was eating something at least every couple of hours.  Granted I wasn't stuffing myself with pizza, or cheeseburgers, but still...

Yesterday was just a Weird Al kind of a day I guess.  I'm not feeling so fat today.  Just totally exhausted from two 12 shifts followed by a night of little sleep thanks to my little Animal having more drum sessions at 3am.  Luckily work is slow today and I was able to stay home on-call and enjoy the sunshine.

Desert "Babymoon"

Every spring Tim and I are compelled to get out of the cold snowy land we so loving call "The Clarktic Circle" and take a trip somewhere warm.  As a result, I have spent my birthday in some really amazing locations during my relationship with Tim.  We have gone on at least three desert road trips, exploring in the canyons around Moab, Cedar Mesa, Zion and Escalante.  We have also spent our spring break whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon twice and have gone scuba diving in Belize twice, in Fiji (once for our honeymoon in June 2006 and again for a spring trip a couple of years later) and last year in Indonesia.  Admittedly the Indonesia trip was our last big trip (or so we hoped, and luckily it worked out that way) before Baby Stone.

And speaking of Baby Stone, this year we decided we needed to do a low key (read: inexpensive) spring trip.  So we packed up the truck, loaded up the dogs and headed out for another desert car camping, day hiking extravaganza.  The weather was perfect for hiking, mostly in the 60's with dips into the 30's at night.  We spent most of our 6 days/nights in the Cedar Mesa area exploring the Anasazi ruins in the tributary canyons of the Grand Gulch.

My favorite hike of the trip was on my 35th birthday, which also happened to be the day I started my 27th week of pregnancy.  The last week of the second trimester.  (I think these things really only mean something to pregnant LD nurses!)  Anyway, we hiked about 2 1/2 miles in to Slickhorn canyon looking for a ruin called the Perfect Kiva.  It is in an 800-1000 year old Anasazi cliff dwelling.  With just a day pack to carry, I was pleasantly surprised at my stamina hiking with my growing belly, although was pretty tired after the 5 miles round trip.  There was a little scrambling and elevation gain and loss, but mostly the hike was straight forward and we just took it slowly. Tim was super patient with my snail's pace. 

Alethea in the magical "Perfect Kiva" in Slickhorn Canyon on my 35th birthday.  I'm 27 weeks pregnant in this photo.

Tim carefully climbing in to the "Perfect Kiva" in Slickhorn canyon.

Tim in a collapsed Kiva in the Cold Springs Cave ruin in the Comb ridge wash area.

Ruin at the end of cold spring canyon in Comb ridge.

Row of metates.  

Tim photographing a ruin called Eagle's Nest in the Comb Ridge.  We stumbled upon this ruin while hiking on the rim above Cold Springs ruin.  It is hard to see in this photo, but in my opinion only Spiderman or someone with advanced rock climbing skills could access this ruin.  We are on one ridge with a 1000ft+ drop to the canyon below, looking at the next ridge over.

Baby Bella loves sitting in Tim's lap by the fire.  Walter is VERY wary of the fire.

To make sleeping more comfortable, Tim built this awesome sleeping platform and we used an 8" thick futon mattress to sleep on.  The drawers underneath kept all of our cooking supplies, dog food, water and few other items out of the way.  I have never been so comfortable camping!  The only drawback was that you sort have to slither in and out, and getting up to pee multiple times a night was less than fun, but really not too bad!

Walter and Bella in their matching sweaters.  Moab was cold this morning and Bella needed to be warmed up under the down sleeping bags.

The dogs having their morning snuggle with mom in the sleeping nest that Tim built.

We were pleasantly surprised to arrive home to a Clarktic Circle that looks more like May than March.  The valley is completely devoid of snow and even at our house, on a 8300ft pass, the snow is quickly receding.  In years past I would have been very sad that snow is so terrible, but this year I am thankful for a mild winter and really looking forward to starting our garden again soon.  We might even start some plants out in the greenhouse on April 1st.

Peaceful "Pebble" or Active "Animal"?

I woke up at 4 o'clock this morning to some fetal version of this happening in my belly. 






Luckily I didn't catch on fire at the end, or maybe the fire represents the constant heartburn that is associated with having an "Animal" growing inside of you.

Comparing Bellies at 26 weeks

This is a belly*

This is a belly on week 26 of pregnancy

This is a belly on week 26 of TWINS pregnancy.

Any questions?

Kudos to my sister Camille for all the hard work she did growing her beautiful twin girls 3 years ago!  I wonder how long it will take my belly to get as big as her's was at 26 weeks.  I'm sure I am much more comfortable at 26 weeks than she ever was during her pregnancy.  She still is doing an amazing amount of wonderful work raising Sara and Caroline.

3 1/2 year old twin nieces Sara (left) and Caroline (right)

 I can't wait to get out to Oakland to see them in April.  We skype every one to two weeks and it has been fun to be able to see them and show them my growing belly.  Yesterday Caroline agreed that my big belly was probably just because I ate too many eggs and avocados for breakfast, but Sara thought that it was big because that is where Pebble is.  They are eager for Pebble to come out so they can feed him (Sara wants a boy) or her (Caroline wants a girl) a bottle.

There isn't a lot to report at 26 weeks.  All feels good and my back has stopped hurting since I decided to hang up the downhill skis.  Pebble moves all the time, especially at 2am. I guess it is just preparing me to be awake with the baby in the middle of the night.  Tim and I are getting ready to go on our last desert camping trip before a baby makes that endeavor much more complicated.  Looking forward to hiking in slot canyons and exploring the ruins in the Grand Gulch area.

My sister Brittany sent me a lovely birthday gift.  My very own keepsake Baby Stone.

 My neighbor sent me a photograph of a similar rock with a baby etched into it.  I sent that photo along to my sister telling her how much I liked it and she had one commissioned for my birthday.  She is so sweet!  I love it!!

*The first belly does not belong to anyone I know.

Raising a Righteous Baby

Pebble went to her/his first concert this week when we took a little road trip down to Ft. Collins to see one of my favorite feminist musicians Ani DiFranco.  I hope someday the little one is proud to say that her/his first concert ever was Ani DiFranco!  Planting the seeds of social consciousness and feminism early!

I was hoping to get a photo with the Righteous Babe (Ani) and the Righteous Baby (Pebble in the belly) but the venue was much bigger than I expected, and I was too nervous to get up close to the stage with all the dancing/moving energy.  So we hung back and enjoyed the show from afar.   Pebble seemed to enjoy the music and my dancing and was joining in with some kicking/dancing of her/his own.

Here is Ani performing the title track to her new album "Which Side Are You On?"

and this is my favorite line from the song...

"Feminism ain't about women,
No, that's not who it's for
It's about a shifting consciousness
That'll bring an end to war

So listen up you fathers
Listen up you sons
And tell me which side are you on now
Which side are you on"

Six months pregnant, time to put away the skis :(

Six months....24 weeks...viability!

Six months officially marks the end of the 2011/2012 ski season for Alethea and the beginning of viability for Pebble!  Pebble is currently just over a pound and about 12 inches long, but amazingly, s/he could theoretically survive if born prematurely now.  This feels like an important milestone for this labor and delivery nurse who has seen babies born this early.  However, let's pray that I do not follow my older sister's path of preterm labor and delivery at 31 weeks.  We want Pebble to stay in there a full 40 weeks!

I had one final power day this week with Auntie Pam, my lovely friend Cathryn and her niece Bianca this week.  Pebble got his/her first taste of steeper terrain with lots of fluffy Champagne Powder when we hiked to East Face and Second Pitch.  I think s/he is going to be an adrenaline junkie!  I felt what seemed like a baby flip as I was descending the steep pitch on East Face.  This kid is going to have to love to ski if it is going to fit in with this family!

For those of you not familiar with Steamboat Mountain terrain, East Face is a short hike from the top of the mountain, but still officially in bounds.  It is a bit steeper than the other available terrain on the mountain, and after a big storm it can be Epic!  In fact the skiing was so amazing on Wednesday that I skied from 9:30-3:30!  I haven't done that in years!!! The down side of skiing until 6 months is that my lower back is has been hurting since Wednesday, so I think it is officially time to hang up the skis and focus on yoga and walking instead with a little cross country skiing thrown in on good days.

Alethea modeling her 24 week belly and her Kiku skis with AT binding.
24 weeks marks the end of skiing for this season.

 Tim got me AT (alpine touring) skis for Christmas this year because I was worried about falling forward onto my growing baby belly if I skied with my telemark gear.  With tele skis your heals are not locked down onto the skis, and my typical way of falling when tele skiing is straight forward onto my face.  The AT skis have a mechanism to unlock the heals so you can climb and get access to back-country terrain, but then you can lock the heals down when you are descending.  They also have the added bonus of being lighter and much less strenuous for a pregnant chick to maneuver.  I have loved every minute on them and can't wait to get more use out them until next year.

The photos below are of our cat Moose, whose new favorite place to sleep is curled up on my big belly.  The baby seems to like it too because s/he is very active when the cat is purring on my belly.  Tim and I were discussing this morning how we might keep Moose out of the crib once the baby comes.

Moose loves to snuggle up against the baby belly.

Human/animal bonding starts in utero for Moose and Pebble.

And now, what about the Garden????

Believe it or not, even though the garden is currently buried under growing piles of snow, we are already discussing what seeds to start for this summer's garden.   We need to order seeds and get them started inside in April so that they are ready to transplant into the greenhouse in May.

The green house under loads of snow... I wonder if we should shovel some of it away?

The very top of one of the raised bed covers barely visible above the snow line. 

And finally, a chicken update.

We currently have 4 laying hens living in the chicken coop.  Sadly they are literally cooped up all winter because there is no bare ground for them to free range on until May in the Clarktic Circle.  We are getting 3 eggs of day from these ladies.

The chicken coop.

We also have the seven chickens that Tim hatched back around Thanksgiving.  He tried to put them in the coop a couple of weeks ago, but they were getting beat up by the bigger girls, so they are currently living in a make shift coop in the garage.   Unfortunately we ended up with two roosters in the mix, but it is funny to hear them crowing from the garage.  Thank goodness the neighbors can't hear them.

The young chickens in their make shift garage coop.

A rooster among the young hens.  

These chickens are mutts, and not nearly as pretty as the full breed Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds that are currently laying.

That's all for this week's update!

23 week baby belly

This week marks 23 weeks of pregnancy.  According to the pregnancy books Pebble is about the size of a small baby doll now, and weighing about one pound.  

Sorry for the blurry images below.  I guess there was a smudge on my lens last night.

Here I am belly to belly with my friend Caitlyn who is 31 weeks pregnant.

and back to back with Caitlyn.

I have been trying to stay as active as possible despite my growing belly.  Steamboat had record breaking snowfall this past week with 27 inches falling on the mountain in 24 hours last Monday.  Tim got to take advantage of the powder day (oh the pleasures of owning your own business), but I had to work all day.  By Wednesday there was 4 feet of new snow total and I went up for what might have been my last powder day before baby.  The snow was heavy and thick that day and I really struggled, especially when trying to get up from falling in the deep stuff.  My back hurt terribly for the rest of the day and it totally exhausted me for the next couple days.  

Tim got to feel Pebble moving for the first time this week.  The movements are often quite subtle and he was having a hard time feeling anything with his hands.  He squished his face into my belly and Pebble responded with a swift kick right to Tim's eye.  Since then he has been able to feel some of the movements with his hands as well.  Pebble is especially active in the mornings and evening, or maybe that is just when I'm sitting or laying quietly and I notice the movements more.  

The baby also seems to respond to the purring of a warm kitty on my stomach.  When one of the cats curls up on my belly the kicks seems to get more frequent and more intense.  Not sure if the baby likes the purring or is trying to kick the cat off my belly.