Kettle Watching

Well, now, we really are entering the home-stretch. And I feel it. the enormous belly you see pictured here is beyond uncomfortable.

Tonight, I attended a breastfeeding course which was held at the same place as the birthing course E and I finished up a couple weeks ago.

I feel like my head is so full of directions on everything from how to clean the baby's umbilical stump (yikes!) to how to recognize that the baby is swallowing and not just sucking (another worry...) that I will never remember what I need to when I need to.

I know that some of you reading this have assured me of the contrary, but what does one really have to do but worry about such things in the final days before the little one appears and life changes in a way that we still can't quite grasp? (These concerns though are much more manageable than the ones related to, "will the baby be healthy and OK?")

As next weekend is our due date, and my parents arrive next Saturday, this weekend I kept thinking how this would be the last one that E and I spent together alone. Again, hard to grasp. No, impossible.

It's funny how such strong feelings of excitement, anticipation and fear can simultaneously grip you.

But on to lighter topics. To capture the relaxation that was happening here Saturday morning (if only briefly for E), I snapped a few pictures for the family photo album. The morning was really beautiful and we were both up before 7... notice the planters in the background, empty but screaming: flowers; bring'em! Soon after these were taken, E transformed the balcony (it's now been prettified with flowers), then moved onto cleaning inside, worked on his thesis and did a million other things while I slept and reclined on the sofa. The only piece missing from this scenario were the bon bons... but E did take me for ice cream later in the day. Love my guy.