Gone Coastal

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Oh, brother!

As I suggested a couple of posts ago, the second time around as an expectant mama is quite different. You're busy following the new developments of your first, and likely just trying to keep up. And there's a little less mystery. You've been through this before and much of what you're experiencing is at least somewhat familiar. And you know what's coming. Now and then you stop and try to remember. Did that come earlier this time? Or, that's a little different. But I, for one, am far less worried about little things, though, I think I was not so worried during pregnancy the first time as I was after Tweetie arrived.
When you're waiting for your first, you take in all the information you can get from books and websites, friends and strangers, hoping to prepare yourself. You listen to everyone's theories about whether boys are easier than girls or vice versa, their experiences and perspectives on everything from breastfeeding to setting up the nursery.
With the second, I've found the weeks and months slipping past. I'm only days away from the halfway marker in this pregnancy. Lots of things are different, and I have to wonder what other surprises are in store. Tweetie's been a sweetheart from the start, but being a mother is still the hardest job I've ever done. How will I handle the second, especially if this one's a little less considerate.
And for the last week and a half, I've had a new set of questions running through my mind. Like, how will raising a little boy be different from my little girl?

Yup, it's official. Tweetie's getting a little brother. I won't post the picture showing that equipment, though it's pretty unmistakable. You can see, however, from this shot of the little guy's profile (let's call him Sylvester until we meet him in person) that he's also fully equipped with the same cheeks as his big sister.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Christmas Post Partum

Given that Christmas is meant to be a celebration of the birth of our saviour, a 'post mortem' seemed an inappropriate term for my reflections on this year's season. But I did want to share some of what I've been turning over in my mind.
I have to say it was quite a pleasant event for our little family. Not too stressful - no ferry waits or traffic jams on our travels - nor did we get caught up in too much of
the typical seasonal insanity of trying to buy a good year.
And yet, over Christmas, I was conscious of a significant void. There was time with family, good food, helping each other with preparations and cleanup, food, relaxing, cookies, food, turkey. But nothing at all to suggest that our Lord sent his son to be born as a man, to become our saviour.
Now that's not at all surprising. My family are not, at least at this point, believers. But having a young daughter and another child on the way, I want more than ever to find a way to reflect what's behind Christmas in our celebration of it, in some tangible way that our children can grasp and take part in. And, without driving them away, I'd like it to be something that the rest of my family can see as well.
It's something we'll be thinking and talking about over the coming year.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Sigh...
It's been so long since I posted I had to go back and read my own blog to se what I said before. But here, at the tail end of our vacation, I've found a bit of time to put fingers to keys and share a few thoughts from the muddled mind of a mom expecting her second.
My neighbor and Tweetie's daycare provider told me this pregnancy would go much faster, as you don't have the luxury of sitting back, rubbing cocoa butter on your belly and contemplating romantic visions of your future. Honestly, I hardly have time to think. That's probably a good thing most of the time, though there's probably a few things that are going to be missed until the last moment. Like where are we going to put T's little brother? (details, details, I know).
We don't actually know yet if this is going to be a brother or a sister, but we've been going with the boy theory from early on. It's been a rather different pregnancy than my first. With Tweetie, I had virtually no morning sickness, just a few aversions that persisted. I've still had it easy this time relative to some women I know, but I definitely felt green most afternoons and evenings for a good part of the first trimester, and I continue to be far more sensitive to certain things that'll make me queasy and/or kill my appetite. That alone has me looking forward to heading home again in a couple of days.
I'm pretty sure I carried T a lot lower than this one, too. But he's growing steadily in spite of my intermittent appetite - faster I think than
T - which is a little scary considering how big she was :0 Active, too. Seems to like to kick his big sister whenever he feels she's crowding him - typically when I'm bending over precariously and picking her up ;)
I should have an ultrasound appointment waiting for me on my return, so we'll know soon enough for certain. I'd consider keeping it a secret, but I don't think the Bear could.
Tweetie, meanwhile, has not slowed down at all. She picked her vacation week, starting on the ferry and at the airport on the way here, to decide that walking was an activity worthy of her attention. You'll remember she demonstrated that she could walk way back in September, but following that post, she decided that too many people wanted her to do that, so she'd just set that aside until she felt like it. From then until this week, she'd walked no more than a few tentative steps at a time, in very limited circumstances. Now she'll go pretty much wherever she wants. And she'll have a whole host of refined climbing skills to exercise back at daycare on her return (sorry, Shannon :) She so loves to climb; I've got to get her into a harness sometime!
And she seems ready to pick up her talking again, too, having left most of her summer vocabulary behind. The word of the day today has been 'Okay'. Her July favourite, 'book' made a couple of appearances this week, too.
One of my main hopes for her on this vacation was that a steady diet of warm weather and sunshine would help her kick this cough that's been dogging her since September. Unfortunately, it's been a rather wet week here. Though the sun's also made an appearance at some point everyday, it hasn't exactly been lounge on the beach weather. And in the meantime, she's picked up some bug in her stomach and has had the runs for half the week. Poor girl. I've used more diaper cream this week than I have in her whole little life prior. It's getting better with the pedialyte, but I'm just hoping it's fully cleared up before the flight home.
So, the Bear's finished his last dives for the trip. Actually, when we go south, the Bear becomes the Turtle - a moniker he's earned independently in three languages on two continents, for his love of just being in the water, even between dives. This last one tonight was a spectacular ending for him, but I'll let him tell the story.
Well, I'm going to sign off here and try to get some sleep. One more full day before we begin the trek back home. Hopefully it won't take me quite so long to get another post up here.