this week my baby is the size/weight of a chinese cabbage!
{almost 2.5 pounds and 14.5 inches or so…}
i haven’t really been able to get a picture in a while because you see, you need a photographer…
and mine is at work during all of the daylight hours…
in his defense, i guess that is partly the lame daylight “savings” fault…
{so yes, the last few weeks of vegetables have sat in the fridge
until they outlived their potential usefulness… oh well.}

b is doing great.
i am definitely feeling it though.
a {not so} brief prego tale:
i have been having some pretty intense pains on my one side
in the front and the back…
one is right under my rib, and the other is back in my kidney area…
since i thought that was a little odd, i thought i would call the midwives….
they didn’t say anything comforting like,
“ya know, that is probably just a normal thing… no worries….”
they had me come pee in a cup.
so i did, a few days before thanksgiving… and when i got back, i was in more pain.
i can handle the pain if i know it is normal or that it might go away,
but the thought of it being a kidney infection or worse just bothered me.
i called again and got a, “oh yeah.. that sample was ‘contaminated,’ so…”
“so what? what do i do now?   
is this normal or not is all i want to hear?!!”
she advised me that if i was still feeling the pain,
that i should go to the ER immediately…
great.
well i really didn’t want to do that,
first time mom shows up worried about a pain in her side,
“sorry, mom, looks like we figured it out: that eggo is prego…. just deal.”
so i waited for two days to see if it would go away
{now having had the pain for upwards of 2 weeks…}
and then cc decided I should call the RN we know here that is a good friend…
“hey, i am having this random pain… they think I should go to the ER….” i tell her.
“go now!” she continues to explain that if it is a kidney infection, it will induce pre-term labor,
and that her daughter delivered her first two babies at 32 weeks because of kidney issues…
and that was after they gave her medication to slow down the labor process…
she said not to even wait until tomorrow. just go.
so i call chris, and off we go.
i sent a text to rob {brother} since we had talked earlier about how i didn’t want to go…
and apparently he talked to someone who talked to someone who talked to someone who talked to
Mom.
so here i am, with the kindest staff of nurses and hospital peeps i have ever seen in real life,
hooked up to a monitor.
a few different women come and ask me questions,
similar to the ones asked originally by my midwives…
after about 2 hours of waiting, and listening to b live in me,
they finally came back and said,
“everything’s fine.” 
apparently because i am “petite,” (pe-what?}
my uterus is growing and stretching slightly faster than my body,
“its probably pulled muscle tissue from stretching internally.”
that’s it?!
yikes, yep, that was just the first-time-mom moment i was hoping to avoid,
but we were glad to know.
of course, while we waited,
nearly all of my siblings called to check in.
cc answered many of these and a few times the nurse came in to find us both on the phone!
{note: there is a 9.3 month prego woman behind the curtain next to me,
about to get induced}
its good to know, i have that kind of support from my peeps.
it made us both smile the whole way home.
so i usually just sit with a heating pad on my body for a few hours throughout the day
but i just keep thinking,
“if this is how bad it gets, fine. 
this is just getting even for skipping the puking phase.”
on another note,
cc and i have been trying to get in as much QT as we can in the next 12 weeks
{holy cow!}
and this weekend was so much fun.
i wanted to make cookies back at Halloween and had the stuff and the cut-outs
and everything, but it came and went.
so we made Christmas cookies! 
we turned up the music and lit the spiced candle and it actually felt quite christmasy up in here…
{i have been a bit depressed about my lack of a tree this year}
Why I shouldn’t attempt to bake while pregnant:
[exhibit A:]

i started to frost one,
and when cc came in it became an unspoken contest to see who could make the uglier cookie…
we were laughing hysterically at ourselves all night.
i think i love this new tradition: 
cookies too ugly to give away, but too yummy to throw out…
or maybe next year, we can make em with b for santa…and mrs. santa….

we also had our ward party,
and cc and i were in charge of the booth for holland.
{where cc went on his mission}

he wore his dutch shoes most of the night with a big silly grin on his face
and loved every minute of telling peeps all about that place he loves

i sat right here and helped kids make “mini windmills.”

it was quite a bit of fun.

only 11 more days till christmas,
and i head home in 6 days.

and only 12 weeks to meet my little man!!

life is good.