I dream of Ginny

Last night was the latest in my series of dreams about Ginny. Each time I dream of her, she is an itsy baby with a shock of beautiful dark hair like her daddy and I when I see her I just fall head over heels. Steve has wondered if he is going to have to explain to her why her momma doesn't love her so much if she ends up being a blondie :). Of course, she is loved beyond the universe no matter what color her hair is or if she has any at all, but I sure want to know if my dreams are right.

Before I knew I was pregnant, I actually had what turned out to be one of Steve's reoccurring dreams, that I was a soldier in WWII in the South Pacific escaping from something by swimming underwater with a reed in my mouth. Not sure what it has to do with anything, but it felt like a strange mind-merge that I attribute to carrying his kid!

The dreams of Ginny started with being at the ultrasound appointments and being able to just "take her out" for a minute and cuddle her (not sure the mechanisms of how this is done, folks). She was just palm-sized in these dreams. From there, I progressed to the nightmares of having her be switched at birth with a six year old child who happened to have fangs when I went to feed her (any psychological issues there, I wonder?), and of course the terrifying "where's my baby, you took my baby" dreams.

Last night's dream was the best of all though. I was at the hospital in labor, alone in the room because it was clear it would be a long while before "it was time," so Steve and everyone else had gone off somewhere. But, all the sudden "it was time!" and she arrived! There wasn't anyone there to catch her! When I went to look for her she was all cuddled up on a stack of blankets across the room, perfect and clean with her dark hair and chubby cheeks, and unharmed (and by the way, giving birth wasn't in the least painful in this lovely dream).

When everyone returned they were astounded that she was unharmed! I proceeded to explain that she didn't get hurt because SHE IS A BOUNCING BABY.

she's a kick!

It has been so fun being pregnant this last few weeks, I can feel Ginny moving throughout the day, she's getting bigger and stronger all the time!

We just got back from our honeymoon/babymoon to South Carolina and Florida- it was so fun to see so many new places and spend time with Steve's folks.

19th week, already!

The past month has been absolutely amazing, my nausea disappeared, I'm starting to show a blissful belly, and we got to visit Salt Lake to see family and friends! It is so fun being pregnant right now- I can feel little flutterings and can't wait for the moment when Steve can feel her too (he keeps trying!).

A couple weeks back we got confirmation that she is indeed a girl, and we're naming her Virginia Beth Isabell. Virginia is Steve's mom's name and Beth is my paternal grandmother. We'll call her Ginny. I have had a couple of dreams about her- each time she is tiny with a shock of really dark hair. I can't wait to meet her!

The Peanut

Holy *&^$#%! We're going to have a baby.

For now, we call her/him "The Peanut" and she/he is due 5/28/2010.

Front-runners for names are: Virginia (we'd call her Ginny or Vivi, middle name maybe Bliss or Beth) and for a boy, Oscar (middle name the source of much contention, though we both like Wayne!). These are both family names for Steve. We plan on doing some more research into names when we visit the Holy Halls of Family Name Researching (a.k.a. the Mormon genealogy library) in Salt Lake City over Christmas.

For a part of my job, I teach classes called "Am I Hungry" which help people get in touch with their hunger/fullness levels and all the other reasons we eat. Of course, the end product of working on this kind of thing is that people end up feeding their physical hunger, stop when satisfied, and have better ways to deal with stress, loneliness, boredom and etc. Doing this work myself has meant I am not longer obsessed or fearful about my food choices, and I let my body take the reigns, paying attention to when it needs to be fed, and when it is satisfied.

In the past couple weeks I have discovered a whole new physical reason to eat that isn't hunger- it's called: "to avoid the pukes!" At this point, I'm wearing the acupressure nausea wristbands (they do actually lessen the seasick feeling!), and drinking lots of ginger tea too. I've heard lemons work- so Steve's at the store! This whole experience thus far has given me a heart-full of gratitude for my mom, and some awe and wonder at the thought of her doing this SIX times. Whoa. That's a lot of lemons.

I'm trusting in the process and my body, and marveling at the fact that the thought of ice-cream makes me sick!