Baby baby baby, I made you out of clay!

Or something. That, up there is what the baby looks like supposedly. Although we're hoping ours has horns and a tail, breathes fire, you know, normal stuff for the Princess of Darkness.

Any-who, today marks twenty seven weeks, which I am told is the start of the third trimester. Or not. There seems to be some debate about that. Anyway, what that means is that there are thirteen weeks-ish left in this grand adventure. And then! The next adventure!

I think I'm getting more pregnant. Haha. I know, but really. On Saturday I suddenly began to feel very puffy. And um, full. It was really odd. I think since then that my belly has grown considerably. Baby had a twelve hour growth spurt!

Not too much swelling yet, beside what I felt Saturday (bracelets no longer fitting properly, etc... although that could just be my bulging forearms). Lots of back aches and pains. I don't know that you've got the memo, but um. My boobs grew a lot and so I have had the joy of a lot of upper back pain. It is exceedingly unpleasant.

My lower back also bugs, but we've been learning these techniques to help deal with back labor, an extremely painful condition that puts an awful amount of pressure on your SI joint. Well, bully for me, it so happens that it's my SI joint that aches. It is nice though that Rex has been practicing pushing on it every night in order to perfect the technique. What a champ!

Otherwise, physically things are going really well. Let me take this opportunity to brag some more about the heavy weights I've been lifting at the gym this week. Yesterday I deadlifted 90 some odd pounds 40 times. And then I got a cookie! Afterward I did some one armed rowing (I'm sorry that's the only appropriate video I could find with the 5 minutes of effort I put into looking. You should have seen the other one!), with the lovely 16kg. kettlebell. And then I got a snuggle and a nap. My trainers are really nice, you see.

Actually, after that I had to do some other terrible things that left me sputtering like Donald Duck. But I love it! I love it!

And then! Then I went out back and rescued a small child from underneath a horse drawn carriage and there was a parade and flowers and a holiday in my honor! I mean, uh, I went to acupuncture and fell asleep for a little while.

Up in my head things have been okay. I've been trying to confront my fears and worries, per the advice of my crunchy birth book. So yesterday I read the section on birth art and I tried really hard not to be all scoffy and sarcastic about it. Instead I started thinking about how maybe the birth art could really help me deal with things that I'm afraid of with this whole parenting bit. So I pulled out the pastels and the charcoals and um, like drew, my uh, fear. It was really kind of liberating. And I showed it to Rex when he got home and he didn't laugh at me or anything. We talked about it and it was overall a really good experience! I know, I was shocked too.

Lesson learned: don't be too afraid of your inner hippy, she'll help you get the baby out.

And now, time for that cookie.