Week in Review

A round-up of Things That Have Happened In the Past Several Days...

• Spring has sprung, which is so fabulous. Today was warm and sunny, and it's supposed to remain that way. Huzzah! Huzzah to asparagus and artichokes and green garlic and spring onions and baseball and daffodils and little green shoots jumping out of the ground.
• We met some awesome new pregnant friends on Saturday, thanks to the matchmaking skills of my pal Mei Gee, who mentioned via Gchat that she knows so many women who are pregnant right now. And I was like I want to know some too! And so she connected me Lara and Lisa who are a) my age b) freshly married c) having their first baby d) having girls e) totally cool f) married to totally cool guys. And also they live nearby—Temescal and Alameda, respectively—which is excellent. Tomorrow night I'm having another blind date with a pregnant chick, this one being Kate, the best friend of Rachel's GT, who lives in SF. I'm realizing how much I enjoy talking to other preg women, and really, just being in the same space as them. As I told Kelli when we were talking on the phone tonight, I have many amazingly supportive friends, and I adore them all, but it's nice to spend time with women who are going through and experiencing similar things as I am. Plus, I don't want to bore my non-preg friends with too much of the minutiae of preglife. (Though you guys are wonderfully engaged and curious and receptive thus far, and I super appreciate it!)
  
• On that note, last night I started prenatal yoga (with the aforementioned Lara) at Piedmont Yoga Studio, which is a hopskipjump from our house. I've been planning to do some prenatal yoga action, but was being kinda snobby about it, thinking I'd wait until I was bigger and more unwieldy, cuz it might be too easy and wussy for my buff hardcore yogi ass. Ha ha ha. Ego check! Preg body reality check! I could barely hold downward dog for 10 freaking seconds, and a basic cat/cow with a gentle twist and arm stretch was a challenge. I felt good in triangle and tree, but in general, I felt very aware of the new limitations of this body. The class was wonderful, and again, it was so cool to be surrounded by preg women at all different stages—some were 15 weeks, some 38 and ready to go! The teacher, Cynthea Denise, was great, and clearly very focused on the community aspect of the class (which, really, is what I was hoping for). We spent the last 15 minutes in a circle, saying our names, how many weeks, etc. Twas awesome all around.
• Continuing with the theme of "Doing pregnancy-related things with other pregnant people", Jason and I start our birth class this Thursday, with Laura Todaro. It's a homebirth-oriented class that promises to go over all the basics that a preg-prep class does, but with a focus on the homebirth experience, and without all the how-to-navigate-the-hospital info. Again, another opportunity to hang out with preg women and their partners, and maybe make new friends.
• Physically, I'm feeling good still. Definitely feeling...bigger. I've had some sleeping trouble lately (thought I slept great last night, until Jason, who rose at 4:30am for some inexplicable reason, decided to come in the room and make me watch a youtube video of a cat licking a baby fox) It's not that my belly is uncomfortable...more like I wake up constantly to pee, and I also just wake up feeling like I wish there were more sleeping positions available to me. My hips fall asleep easily, and I just get kind of...uncomfy. I can't imagine this improving as the months go on, so I'm trying to get used to it. The pee thing is cool in a way—I feel like it's training me to wake up every two hours in order to get up and do something. Granted, nursing a crying baby is a different experience than going pee, but hey, I'll take the prep where I can get it.
• Today I had some mild heartburn, and some more round ligament pain when walking too fast. I really have to slooooow dooooown. I have to become what I don't like: a slow walker. Agggg. Slow walkers! So annoying! Always in the way, never keeping up. I like to walk at a brisk clip, man. But sometimes, now, said clip hurts. And I must plod on down the halls of Oakland School for the Arts like some old lady, while the agile youths scurry past. Bah. Slow walking.
• In other news, Henry the cat is insane, and will have his balls snipped as soon as the Oakland SPCA gives me an appointment. He also has the fluffiest tail on earth.
• And finally, congrats are in order for Jason and all the White Whales, who just scored a sweet new redesign job for Middlebury College (that website will be much cooler eventually). Yay! I look forward to Jason figuring out how to bring Vermont maple syrup home in his carry-on without it getting confiscated by the Burlington Syrup TSA Squad.