35 weeks and counting

A great deal of time has passed since the last blog. I went from not having much to do in the summer to being so incredibly busy that I cannot really keep up. Since then, I've found out the gender of the baby. It's a boy and I've gotten incredibly used to him moving around...a lot! He's a pretty active one and that makes me happy. I must say that we have only just settled slightly on a name and I am not sure if it would change again before or when he is born. We had settled on a girl's name but the boy's name is hard and when you live in America, you have to be careful that kids don't make fun of your kid's name at school while choosing a name that speaks of the child's cultural identity. It's harder than it seems.

At 35 weeks, it's really hard to stay awake beyond 12 hours at a time. I come home to sleep. I drive to night classes and sleep in the hour that I have before class. The problem is, while I took every extra minute to sleep before the pregnancy, I can't seem to get enough sleep now. Teaching can take it's toll on you, even when you're sitting for most of the day. It still requires you to interact with the kids and make sure that each one of them is getting the lesson or at least some of it. 

At the beginning of the school year, when I was still in the second trimester and feeling great, I felt that I could work until the semester ended. That was when my belly didn't look and feel or weigh the same as a bowling ball. Now, I am not so sure. I'm down to a "one day at a time" approach. While the baby continues to be good, I feel heavy. The doctor says I'm within the normal weight gain range but every week, the clothes get tighter and I am really not in the mood to spend any extra money on clothes for one month that I'll probably want to throw away after the baby is born for being sick of wearing them. So far, I've been creative. I never really wore anything really tight but now, the loosest things in my closet are tight.

One thing I have to say is that people are really nice to you when you're pregnant. They hold doors for you even when they see you waddling from a while's behind them, they offer to empty your grocery cart so that you don't have to stretch, and they carry things for you. Even the kids at school have become very protective. I am not a person that really looks for help from people but I've found myself accepting the help. Another thing is that people seem to be fascinated with my belly. They want to touch it and I'm not a touchy-feely person. Never was so I tend to back away from them when I see them coming. It's definitely not one of my favorite things. 

The last thing is the wait. Whoever came up with the word "expecting" really did capture the truest nature of what pregnancy really is. You wait. You worry. You get anxious. And you expect. You dream so much of this little person and you wonder what he/she will look like and be like. Will he look even an ounce like me or will he be completely like his dad? Will he be healthy? I think that is the biggest worry for any parent to be. You end up spending hours doing this without realizing and you wake up at night, even when all you want to do is sleep and think about this little person who is oblivious to the world outside. At the beginning of the pregnancy, I thought the time was moving by so slowly and even now, it is slow again and yet with each passing day, the due date nears.