Week 21, Kicking

It was a tough week. So tough, I apparently didn’t publish this post.
Yes, it has good things, like a promotion at work to a brand new job tile/position, so new that I was the first to get it and they had to figure out how to put it in the HR system. It’s exactly what I’m already doing, too, so it’s a promotion (with all the perks you might assume) with no extra responsibilities. Woo.

But it was also tough emotionally. No more soccer games, confirmed at that Monday’s appointment. After much discussion, we concluded that light practice is fine. It’s not the running around that she’s concerned about, it’s the potential for injury (though, when have I ever gotten actual treatment for a soccer injury? Mine have been “stretch and ice”, it’s broken and the treatment is “do nothing”, or it’s broken and I fixed it myself.) So, running’s still on the table, just not the contact portion of soccer. But it really kind of angered me that soccer was fine the day before, but not fine the day after. I know I’m slower, I know I react differently to challenge, and I feel like I should be able to make the decision on easing out of the competition side of the sport. The “you can’t do X” statements, when I feel that I am able to do X and want to do X, brings out the “I can and I will!” part of me. I mean, a bicycle kick and dribbling through a double-team challenge is ok one day, but not the next?

That said, a statement by the doctor in the soccer discussion sounded a lot like the talking-to Dad gave me after I fell out of a tree that I climbed when I had a broken collarbone. “You’re (recovering from a major injury)/(pregnant)! You’ll be able to do these things again soon. Don’t injure yourself (more)/()!”

How’d I get out of the funk? Soccer practice.

Nothing new in the food department. After working hard to get the scale’s numbers to go down, I felt a bit depressed watching them inch back up. I know they’re supposed to, and the gain’s in the normal range (something like 6-8 lbs so far), just… a little depressing.

I also got a bit depressed with the remark by my doctor on Monday that I have only 2 more regular once-a-month appointments before switching to the every-two-weeks schedule. I’m not particularly looking forward to anything in that phase, because that means I need to start thinking about this kid making an exit. It can just stay inside and stay small and continue to kick me all the freaking time, thanks.

Seriously, this thing seems super-active. Even TCB is impressed by the power of the kicks I get, and I get them at night, in the middle of the night, in the evening after dinner, in the morning, while sitting at my desk at work, while driving… If it’s awake, it’s kicking. It doens’t kick when I run or walk. So: keeper or muay thai champ. And I need to find a support belt for running.

In prepare-for-alien news, we went and just looked at the paraphernalia over that last weekend. It was overwhelming. We went to REI, lunch (where I learned that Tin Drum uses cornstarch for “breading”, not flour!), Target, Buy Buy Baby, Kid to Kid (used items), Lowe’s, Home Depot (we needed a break from baby stuff), REI (again), and New Baby Products (local store), and all we decided on were the stroller(s) and crib. We found that nearly everything was made in China. Looking at strollers with TCB was fun, checking out the rides and height and practicality and available colors (ok, I checked out the colors.) We decided on a running stroller that could take an infant carrier adapter, and an umbrella stroller. The running stroller, we had limited options, since many don’t have a seat adapter, and TCB was very impressed with the suspension on the BOB strollers. For the umbrella stroller, we again had limited options because of our height and our desire to stand upright when pushing it. So that made selection easy.

And an exchange that happened as we walked into the stroller section at Buy Buy Baby:
TCB: MacLaren apparently has really good umbrella strollers.
Me: How do you know that? I hear they’re like, the “best” ones.

TCB: Matt told me. How do you know about them?
Me: I saw a few years ago in some article that MacLaren had come out with a new stroller, and I was all, “Mclaren makes strollers?!” Turns out, it’s different than the F1 team.

As for the crib, we decided we were done (at least, I was done) after the Lowe’s/Home Depot shopping, so we headed back south to Atlanta (we’d gotten up to Cumming with the shopping), and after a tasty beverage (by which I mean Gatorade), we rallied and checked out New Baby Products. That store is amazing. Love. Wish we could get everything from there. Anyway, they were having a clearance sale on all their floor model cribs, and we found one we really liked, a lovely color, made in North Carolina, exceedingly sturdy with ends that are bar-height, and definitely under our crib budget. It came home with us.

Pooch pics (20w1d):