Helloooo Baby

It's been 7 months since my last post. Oops!

Well, a bit has happened since then. I'm now 35 weeks pregnant with baby boy #2! One funny thing about being pregnant is that people like to comment on your appearance. I've noticed it more this time around, maybe because I dance around in front of a lot of people three times a week at Zumba in a tight tank top (that's now a reeaaaaally tight tank top). I think I've been told I look cute more in the last few months than in my entire life combined (I must not have been very cute last time I was pregnant). People also like to comment on how big you are. During one Zumba class several months ago, a couple of people told me I looked tiny, and other person asked if I was having twins. Just this weekend someone at church told me I looked small, and then another person asked when I was due, shook her head and said "you must be having a ten pound baby!" Um, thanks??

Note to self: It might not be the best idea to make such comments to hormonal, overly emotional pregnant women who aren't feeling great about their appearance in general.

In some ways this pregnancy has flown by, and in other ways it feels like I've been pregnant FOREVER! I think I'm enjoying pregnancy less in general, not because it's been super hard, but because the newness and excitment from the first pregnancy has worn off. And honestly, though I'm so thankful for the blessing of another child, especially after having a miscarriage, it's taken me a while to get excited about having another baby...and I think I'm still working on that excitement a bit for a couple of reasons.

Most of you know that Ian was a difficult baby. The doctor called it colic, but I think that's just what they say when your baby cries a lot and isn't very happy and they don't know why. As a perfectionist who likes everything in order and relatively scheduled, it was a humbling experience to have a newborn who would barely take a nap, no matter what I did. No amount of baby books helped, and I felt like a failure as a parent. The mention of Babywise practically brought me to tears...tried it. didn't work. Six months down the road Ian finally fell into the routine I'd desperately longed for, and has been a great sleeper ever since. I told Troy I'd take an incredibly fussy baby for six months again if it meant having a great sleeping toddler. But I'm still traumatized from that long half of a year, and I'm hoping to have even an average baby on the sleep scale!

Another reason that it's been hard for me to get really excited about having another baby is the Zumba class I teach. It's been a huge blessing and a much needed outlet in my life, so giving it up for a while will be difficult (though it will be in the extremely capable hands of the lovely Courtney Fair). People will probably have to drag me away from teaching, and then I'll be sneaking back before my doctor really okays it...please don't tell her! Of course, this thinking just points to my selfishness, which parenting in general has a way of doing...hmmm.

Here's one think I'm hoping doesn't happen in the next 5 weeks:

Ouch! That was actually taken a couple of days after Ian was born. I was induced because he was measuring 6 weeks ahead and my BP was going up and my feet were swelling (no kidding!) No one tells you that huge cankles might be as uncomfortable as a third-degree tear :/ We're taking bets on how big this kid will be since at three weeks early Ian was 8'10''. We grown em large in our family. I guess if he's 10 pounds that'll be less weight for me to lose!

One other area of excitment in my life is that I'm taking an exam on Friday through AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America) to become a certified group exercise instructor. The knowledge in general will help me be a better Zumba instructor, but I'd love to eventually start teaching another class, maybe kickboxing or soemthing like that. The test will be pretty strenuous, and though I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of the material, being 8-months pregnant will make some of the practical demonstrations interesting (envision me doing crunches on the floor). But I figured it's now or who knows when I'll be able to get this certification once the baby is here. Wish me luck!

Hope the seven months was worth the wait as you've read about the excitment in my life :)