still growing, healthy and strong

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
-Sylvia Plath

The Long Noodle, as the doctor has taken to calling him, is due in one day. We wait with bated breath...

Happy Father's Day!

...to both our dads and this amazing dad-to-be above. I love you with all my heart and so will our little man.

In other news, I have ankles again. No more Fred Flintsone feet! For now.

Comes a time

Maybe it's especially noticeable right now, days before our son makes his way into the world, but I think pregnancy brings out a fine-tuned bullshit detector and way less patience for that bullshit once you come across it. You read the news and get even more pissed off at all the nastiness, more outraged by thoughtless behavior, more aware of who your real friends are because the rest sort of fall away somehow. Next to this acute impatience, though, is overwhelming gratitude for the simplest kindnesses. Everything comes into focus. 

...and yes, I'm totally high on hormones. 

Photo by Lennart Nilson

Listening to old Built to Spill today and when their song Cleo came on, I stopped mid-thought to listen closely and realized for the first time what the song's about. 

Wiggly days wiggly nights
When it's dark bring in lights so you can see
What a sound straight through my spine
Bounced off me
Makes me round
3-D sound
Push it down move it around,
see I'm fine

Ain't it strange that I can dream
(You can say it's night or day
Snow or rain it's all the same)
When there's nothing I have ever seen
(In here, In here)
Ain't it strange that I can dream
(You can say it's night or day
Snow or rain it's all the same)
Ain't it strange that I have brain activity
(In here, In here)

Who brought those cameras in
Who gave who the right
Inside a sea turned from frog to freak
(Lennart Nilson shut off those lights)
to tiny, red, and meek
Ain't it strange that I can dream
(You can say it's night or day
Snow or rain it's all the same)
Ain't it strange that I'm a human being
Ain't it strange that I can dream
(You can say it's night or day
Snow or rain it's all the same)

Living in the womb
Running out of room
Have to come out soon
Have to meet the sun and moon...

17 days and counting

The last few weeks of pregnancy make damn sure that you're in so much discomfort that you're ready & willing to go into hours of hard labor at the drop of a hat. Eager, in fact. Fakey fake Braxton-Hicks contractions are the biggest teases in the world (yesss...nope...yes...no), you get 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night, your hips ache, you pee every hour, your feet are swollen and sore, walking is exhausting, getting out of bed hurts, and you feel sort of permanently dazed. Happily, though. 

nest fest

Hey lil Junebug, you're officially FULL TERM on Saturday so feel free to join us any time after that. We don't want to rush you, though, so if you feel like hanging out in there a few weeks longer, that's cool. I have a feeling you're gonna take your time, mellow dude. 

In the meantime, we've been prepping like crazy for your debut. I'd heard about the nesting instinct but didn't fully understand its overwhelming power until last week. I organized our linen closet, colour-coordinated and hand-rolled the towels, and for the first and probably last time, ironed pillow cases and a few duvet covers. Next was the bedroom closet, where I cleaned out tons of old clothes and donated them to charity. Your daddy's been watering, weeding and planting new fleurs and veg in the garden for you to admire, and he also hung new blinds and curtains in your room. 

I wonder what insane cleaning frenzy will hit me next...