The Joys and Sorrows of Pregnancy

Things I love about being pregnant

1. People get up and offer their seats to me.
2. Random ladies in the parking lot of Costco help me load up my car because I can’t reach down into the massive cart to pull out the boxes of groceries.
3. People seem twice as friendly and smile as I walk (no, waddle) by.
4. My husband pats, sings to and talks to my stomach. Normally this would be very odd.
5. The glow of my skin. Actually, I have a bit of a tan too—I never get tan.
6. Falsely believing that my legs got skinnier just because my belly got so big—even if it isn’t true, it still feels good to think that way.
7. Feeling and seeing her move around. It’s so cool.
8. Praying for her little life and preparing a safe and loving home for her enter into.
9. Knowing where my child is at all times.
10. Learning all kinds of new things, like how to burp a baby, how to get a baby on a feeding and sleep schedule, and, well, so many other things that I didn’t know before… I am sure I will continue to learn every day.
11. Peace and quiet. Having time to journal, read, relax, and enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having. I sometimes need to remind myself that quiet is okay right now because it will soon disappear.

Things that frustrate me about being pregnant

1. Sudden loss of concentration
2. Getting tired quicker
3. Loss of interest in foods I used to love—especially spicy Mexican and Indian cuisine.
4. Watching what I eat and having to cut back on caffeine
5. I can’t go rollerblading or get in and out of my kayak—paddle boats are as close as I can get
6. Not being able to put on my shoes without breaking a sweat.
7. Heartburn
8. Not having the baby to hold in my arms yet.

Recreational Days

Mark and I try to get out and explore our new surroundings as much as we can. This Sunday we took a short trip to a local lake/park to see if it is a place we can kayak in the future. So we headed to Busse Lake, which is about 20 minutes from our house, to walk around and check it out. The park has many great qualities, including a decent sized lake for tooling around in. It also has a 7-mile bike trail that would also be perfect for rollerblading. The other great aspect is that it has free parking—a rarity. The only thing we wish we could find close to home is a beach for swimming. Of course Lake Michigan has beaches, but the nice ones are all at least an hour and a half drive away—not a quick afternoon dipping trip.

Today I got to hang out with a new friend and go hiking (no we have no hills, mounds of dirt or even slight inclines around here) at a local park. The Morton Arboretum (yes Morton Salt) is very close and has some fantastic trails through beautiful forests. Here are a few photos from the day… By the way, the ant is not real.

Rah, Rah, Rah! Three cheers for Team Vig!

Mark and I had the great pleasure of hosting Renee and Hugo this past week. I have never seen two people work so earnestly while on vacation. After arriving and getting a tour of the house, they jumped right into crossing to-do items off our house project list.

They cleared out dead trees from the back border of our yard, painted a fence, washed the siding on the back of the house, washed our car, caulked the doorways on the outside of the house, patched and painted nicks and gouges on our walls and cleaned the bathrooms. They were total work horses. What a huge help and major blessing. Thank you!

Don’t be too concerned, I did make sure they relaxed a bit. On Wednesday afternoon, Renee came with me to my baby check-up. She got to hear Little Lady’s heartbeat. I could tell that she loved being able to hear it because she kept repeating the sound all day long. On Wednesday night we walked over to the park and listened to a live band performing classic oldies. Friday we headed to the park again to watch Shrek 3. It was reminiscent of a drive-in theatre, but on a much smaller scale.
News on the baby front:
Mark’s parents and I watched a webinar Mark participated in while he was in North Carolina early this week. When it was Mark's turn to speak, his little girl recognized his voice through the computer and started kicking me like crazy. It is so amazing to me that she can respond like that. She sure loves her Daddy.

Saturday, Mark and I went to a Red Sox vs. White Sox game. It was Little Lady Vig’s first ball game. I wore my Red Sox future fan T-shirt and got so many smiles walking around the city. Mark said that would never happen in NY. People would see the shirt and say something like: “I don’t care if you’re pregnant or not, the Red Sox suck and so do you.” Thank goodness Chicago is a friendly city to all. In fact, once we got to the game there were so many Red Sox fans in the stadium we almost forgot we were in Chicago at all. The Red Sox won which made taking the El back to our car a blast. Boston fans cheered the whole way back.

Then on our last day with Mark’s parents we took a drive up to Evanston to check out Northwestern’s main campus. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was the perfect way to wrap up a fantastic visit.