18 weeks

Busy Bee is "about the size of a bell pepper" this week, which helps to explain why I'm showing so much, now that I think about it. It's hitting me now as I write, I AM already nearly halfway through the pregnancy; no wonder I'm feeling it! I was going to start writing about how I feel so big already for "only being so far along", but thanks to the bell pepper analogy, I realize I AM far =).

That being said, yesterday over lunch, I was feeling something strange but interesting and told Dylan that I could literally feel my belly stretching down and out. I felt the very top at my ribs kind of slope down, and the bottom, under my belly button, poke further out all in the course of about 20 minutes. Seriously. So I stood up to show Dylan, he chuckled and said we may have a Bumblebee on our hands. I know I can only grow so big, so I'll just be comparatively bigger for a longer time. Just for fun, you can compare Pea at 18 wks to Bee now (photo similarities are intentional to better show a comparison):

This week I've also been reflecting on teaching while pregnant, given everyone's "Back to School" posts on facebook. I thought I was so busy then. And, yes, of course, I was ... to a degree. I had to set the alarm everyday, was out of the house and always moving from 7:30-4. But that's the key - until 4. I came home, snacked, read, napped, exercised, what have you until bedtime. Some days I came home utterly exhausted, but others were pretty easy. I don't really know my point except to say my two pregnancy situations are just so different. On the one hand, I couldn't imagine working out of the house all day long while pregnant - I relish some down-time mid-afternoon during Paul's nap. But on the other hand, I feel much busier now; just a different busy. Paul's busy! Bee's busy! Everyone's busy around here. It makes me forget sometimes that I am, in fact, pregnant. By that I mean that I'll tick along with laundry, dishes, walks to the playground, cooking, etc. as usual and catch myself feeling tired in the middle of vacuuming. Welp, guess just one floor's getting cleaned today. Must. Rest. Or I wonder why I can't carry as much stuff at one time up and down the stairs; duh. While I was teaching 2 years ago, I still found myself focused on being pregnant most of the time. That's not the case this time. Actually, another difference, too, is that I can think about Bee as a baby; something I definitely could not do with our Pea in a Pod. So, both situations have pros and cons - it's just been a different experience. 

I haven't been feeling much besides an occasional flutter; certainly nothing big or regular. Otherwise am feeling great and pretty comfortable still. New this week: I started reading Flannery O'Connor for the first time, and I started teaching 7th grade catechism on Wednesday nights. Thank you for keeping us in prayer.