A gift from Mary...

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation, when the the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her she would conceive of a son! The Word became flesh... an amazing and miraculous celebration for the world. We could ponder for a lifetime this love of God, that He would send His only Son to us to save us from our nothingness. I love that the Church celebrates this with a feast.

Well, it was today that we got a phone call from our apartment office telling us that, not only was a 3 bedroom apartment available to us, and not only would they waive the $1,000 fee to switch apartments, but they would also put in brand new carpet AND THE PRICE: only $16 more a month than we are paying now. Another bedroom, a bigger kitchen and living room and another full bathroom. WHAT? Are you serious? The woman at the office said, "Honey, I have no idea how you pulled this one off, but my boss agreed." (Begging with a belly always helps), but truly, this was a gift from Mary. So, Patrick came home, we looked at the new place, and we move in two days. On top of all this, we will be moving into apartment 513 and 5/13 (May 13th) is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima... my girl... who I have been praying to so often.

I was trying really hard to detach from setting up a nursery... we just didn't have the room. All of our baby stuff is in the living room right now, so I thought, ok, this is God's will... we will make it work. That is what I love about Him: He waits to see if we will detach... He's tricky... and then graces us with His love, that we don't even deserve. So, thank you Lord. Thank you, Mary. We will now be living in a place where we can still have guests stay and now I can create a room for this little soul that will be born soon. It has been a beautiful feast day. As Fr. Baker would say, "WHOOP!"

32 WEEKS!!!

Alright, folks... only 8 weeks to go. This baby is ready to get out and come into the world. This morning before I got out of bed, I was laying there with my hand on Kristi's tummy. If this was any other time than 5:30am, a healthy sense of fear would have come over the baby in the presence of his father and it would have stopped kicking. It must have been dreaming though. I'm not sure what sort of experiences it has had to draw on for its little brain to form dreams, but it must have been running from its umbilical cord... or maybe it was water skiing. Who knows, but it's legs (or arms or shoulders or butt) were going a hundred miles a minute. For a solid 20 minutes or so, the longest break this baby took from kicking was 3 or 4 seconds. It was pretty cool because I rarely feel more than a sporadic kick.

Here are some fun new pictures of Kristi. ENJOY!!!

LoveBurn?

Loveburn?

I guess the baby's getting bigger, so there is less room for digestion and more chance for stomach acids to rise. It's pretty brutal.

So, how do you get through constant heartburn... a solution could be to change the name, change your attitude about it, offer it up? Me, I have decided to consider it LOVE. When thinking of LOVE you usually imagine hearts, warmth, burning fire... "C'mon Baby Light my Fire" and songs anyway... so why not consider this thing called heartburn as nothing other than 'loveburn!" A pure gift of firey love from my child within. Maybe silly, but it helps me... to go a little deeper, I actually came up with this conclusion due to a profound comment I received from someone the other day. I have already experienced the great love I have for this small little one I get to meet soon, but it hadn't really occured to me that, not only would I adore this baby, but this baby would love ME as well. What a gift! Soon, someone else will enter this world who will love me... so, my heartburn: just a small reminder and glimmer of the burning love my sweet one will have for me and Patrick when they arrive.

Burn, baby, burn!

The little hearbeat....

Today Patrick and I went for our Baby Bentley check-up. We yet again heard the sweet little heartbeat pounding away. There is a heartbeat in my belly?! Amazing. The goal of the day was to try to figure out what position the baby was in. Dr. Barrett guessed "noggin down and butt up on my left side." We are hoping the baby stays that way... it's always better that feet don't face down, so I have told the baby that if he/she stays that way, there will be a generous reward when they are born! So, I have gained a total of 20 pounds... she finally said, "You are doing beautiful with your weight gain"... yesss!

31 weeks

It was St. Patrick's Day and I needed to prepare my sweet little leprechaun for next year's Feast of St. Patrick... so I wore green, ate corned beef and cabbage and made sweet Irish potatoes... yummy! I think he/she got the picture.... the only thing he/she will have to wait for is a performance of the Irish jig by the daddy. He never fails to entertain at the annual St. Patty's party with his "Michael Flatley" impression. (I hope the baby likes to dance).

As you can see, my belly is growing by the second and I can tell our little one is expanding. I think the baby is surely running out of space with the way I feel the movement... a butt sticking up here and there and little feet kicking harder and harder every day... it is so amazing. I totally love it. I am still suffering from the incredible heartburn, some back pain due to my lovely curved spine, and quite a few potty trips during the night, but overall, I can't complain. This is fun.

Baby Bentley is now about 16 inches long, over 3 pounds, and is finally starting to gain some chubbiness... fat. He/she responds to light and continues to develop different senses such as sight this week. I can't believe there are only 9 weeks to go. This baby is actually going to come out and I get to meet it... wonder what that's like...

Stay tuned for more...

A few things not to say or do

For those of you who have kids, the picture to the right might look familiar. This is what I saw every morning for 12 weeks: my beautiful, morning-sick wife struggling to get out of bed. I did thoroughly enjoy getting to serve her when she couldn't, but it also led to some funny (or frustrating) situations. Here are a few anecdotes.

One of the first mornings Kristi was sick, she asked me to bring her something to eat before she got out of bed in hopes of calming some of her nausea. Like a good husband, I ran to the pantry to gather a selection of delicious options for her to choose from. I showed her the Cheerios (what else?), Famous Amos Chocolate cookies (no!), Wheat Thins (that just doesn't sound good...), and, last but most delicious, seasoned croutons (gagging mixed with some noises and gestures to get the croutons out of her sight). In my defense, I thought they were crackers, but I guess garlic and other seasonings don't sound too good to a pregnant woman.

Another morning, Kristi was getting ready to leave for the morning and she was getting something out of the refrigerator to eat for lunch. As I walked by I noticed that she was simultaneously slamming the door shut and gagging at the same time. Without a moment's pause, I started imitating (the highest form of flattery, right?) her gagging hoping to make her laugh. I think I just made her mad.

For one last story, Kristi and I needed to be somewhere relatively early one morning - I think it was a doctor's appointment. So, I got up and ready in plenty of time so as not to make her late. Kristi wasn't feeling well that morning, but I was getting frustrated because, looking into the future, I could see that there was no way we were going to be on time. As I was trying to think of something that might make her move a little more quickly, the only thing that came to mind and subsequently out of my mouth was, "You know, you're not really sick, you're just pregnant." That was about as effective as saying "Quit faking it." I guess I could have just said nothing.

So, if being sick every morning wasn't very fun for Kristi, in hindsight, there were some very funny (and educational) moments for me.