Simple living. Simply loving.: Smoosh Belly

I need to write out Evan's birth story, but pregnancy precedes birth, so this story must come first.

I found out that I was pregnant in mid-September. I was at a co-op conference all that day wondering if I possibly might be. You're supposed to test in the morning, but I had already waited a few days and was impatient, so I tested that evening. Positive! Matthew was out that evening, so I had to figure out a fun way to tell him. Nothing could be clearer than having a sign posted on your back when you walk through the front door.

Well, except that it's backward when you try to read it in the mirror. But he eventually figured it out. Let the anticipation begin!

Anticipation is probably the best word to use to describe pregnancy. There are about nine months to watch a belly grow, wonder what life will be like after birth, and, of course, wonder what the birth itself will be like.

Here I am at 10 weeks pregnant. By this point we had visited and chosen the midwives that we wanted to see throughout the pregnancy and birth. The practice does home births, and it was a warm and inviting atmosphere at their clinic. It suited us. While I love that hospitals exist to help people who need help, I felt like the atmosphere of a hospital wasn't going to be the best for my personality if I wanted to a smooth birthing process without interventions. We also live a half mile from a hospital, so I knew that we weren't far from help if it was needed.

At 14 weeks pregnant, I was just past the morning sickness and exhaustion phase that started around Week 6. My morning sickness actually was afternoon and evening sickness. Nausea set in at around 2pm and didn't fade for the rest of the day. In addition to plain old nausea, I had food aversions like nobody's business. The thought of most foods made me gag. The smell of most foods made me gag. We have a CSA vegetable subscription, so healthy foods were delivered to my doorstep each week whether or not I liked it. I definitely had to get creative to find ways to prepare foods so that I could gag them down. My two favorite stories from this time involve mustard greens and beets.

I had a lot of green smoothies so that I could hide greens behind the sweetness of fruit. However, a mystery green was thrown into one of these smoothies. It was mustard greens. Weeping occurred. I don't recommend this type of green smoothie even if you aren't pregnant.

Beets also were in season at this time. I could successfully hide these in a chocolate beet cake, but you have to steam them first. Beets smell really strongly as you steam them. After gagging and retching over the sink for a good few minutes, I had a brilliant idea. The respirator!

This was taken long before pregnancy, but it gives you the idea of what I looked like as I continued my afternoon in the kitchen. Minus the hat. I didn't feel the need to wear the hat.

By Week 16, I was happily into the second trimester groove. I felt really good again. I could eat food! I was also finally telling people about the pregnancy. It was a little later than we really felt like it needed to be, but we waited until after Thanksgiving to tell most people so that we could tell Matthew's family in person. Hooray!

I thought that I would be a lot bigger by Week 20, but my abs just kept holding on! By this point, I could definitely feel Smoosh kicking around regularly. Throughout the pregnancy he seemed to morph into different animals. At first he felt like a fish in a fish bowl. Then he became a rabbit thumping his leg over and over again. I just may have named him Thumper the Drunken Jackrabbit one morning at 3am because he was kicking in one spot over and over again. Later in pregnancy it felt like he must be an octopus because it felt like at least eight appendages were punching and kicking. At the end, he felt like a human. He spent his last weeks in there with his back against my left side, so I could regularly feel his butt pushing out under my ribs as he arched his back.

Week 24! Around this time, my bump starting bumping. For weeks I had to slow down while biking because my abs were shifting around and I needed to adjust. I rode my bike throughout the entire pregnancy including the day before he was born. People thought I was a bit crazy, but it made me feel really strong and healthy. I also walked a lot, of course, since we don't have a car. Of course I can't be sure, but I honestly believe all of this biking and walking (along with all those vegetables!) helped the pregnancy and birth be as smooth and healthy as imaginable.

We also had our ultrasound around this time. A little peek at a happy, healthy Smoosh! The sonographer called him a mover and a shaker because he was moving around so much. We opted to keep the baby's sex a mystery, so it was interesting wondering and guessing throughout. It was also doubly the challenge to think of two potential names!

Week 28 was near the homestretch that is the third trimester. I kept expecting to start feeling some negative symptoms again, but I was happily surprised to continue feeling great!

It was probably around Week 32 that some symptoms occasionally cropped up here and there. Heart burn on occasion. The incessant need to pee. Still, things were good, and the birth-day was definitely feeling closer...

Week 36! I definitely started feeling full of baby at this point! I had a few rough days at this point where I was tired of waiting and being pregnant and wanted Smoosh out. Sleep was harder to come by for the rest of the pregnancy, and other symptoms started showing up more often as well. Heart burn especially when leaning over along swollen feet and exhaustion at the end of the day. The area below my ribs started to feel numb much of the time. I also starting feeling listless as my to-do-before-Smoosh list shrank.

Even though a baby is "allowed" to come any time after you reach 37 weeks, I told Smoosh to stay in until after my Week 38 appointment because I needed to pick up the birth kit and tub at that point. Of course, I didn't schlep that tub home by myself. I took Matthew along with me that day so that we could hike to and from MAX stops together. I was carrying our two backpacks and the two tote bags filled with supplies. Matthew hauled the giant backpack containing the pool. It clearly stated "birth pool in a box" right on it so that everyone we were riding home with knew exactly what it was. I kept hoping that they'd somehow have cameras filming for Portlandia because I felt like we'd really add a nice authentic touch to the episode...

Good thing I was clear to Smoosh about waiting until Week 38 because he did exactly that. We took the Week 38 picture near the beginning of labor so that I'd have one final picture to complete the set.