month 4

16 weeks feels like a dream.  i'm still amazed at how you can be brought so low by something so teeny tiny, and then wake up on a random day and feel back to your old self!

it's been a few weeks now since my "3 pm wall" that had me stuck in a horizontal position for the better part of the afternoon (and evening, really).  i'll say it again:  thank goodness for mothers.  my mother just continues to bless this family - home cooked meals, grocery shopping, tackling meltdowns, watching both heathens while i go to appointments solo, standing in line at the post office for packages - the list just goes on and on!

mark and nana lynn have been right there, too.  watching one kiddo here and there; i just can't express enough how much it means to have help - and the mere fact that i'm accepting help!  i guess all of our lives are changing, mingling, overlapping, and i feel we're all finding our place.  i know my mother and i have had our share of tears and frustration at times, boundaries being crossed or not knowing where to step, but we are nearing the end of the construction (cohabiting), and i'm happy that we've all made it out alive, without anyone losing it!

i don't think i've shared all that much, but until my mother and mark find a place of their own in the valley, they will be setting up residence in the studio apartment above our new shop.  eventually, the studio will be my place of business, but until i have time (ha!) they will call it home.  i look forward to the day when i can walk out our back door and "go to work" but until then, the miebs kids can walk out the back door to gramma's.  that makes me smile even more.

as of this past thursday, i'm 17 weeks.  baby 3 is roughly 5 inches from booty to face - about the size of an turnip.  (but, the size of an avocado last week.)  i'm feeling some movements in the evening; a poke here and a slide of the foot or fingertip there.  i love this part of pregnancy.  feeling your baby inside you is like nothing else.  it's not like flutters or butterflies or any of the other silly things they say in print.  i'd say it's more magical, hypnotic.  the early movements will stop you in your tracks.  faint enough that you can't quite feel it from the outside so you will wait for it to happen again.  and then, later in pregnancy, those big movements literally stop you in your tracks, sometimes nearly taking your breath away!

again, i'm so relieved to have made it out of my bed the first trimester.  month 5 is just a few weeks away, with my 20 week ultrasound scheduled on my birthday.  how sweet.  i get to spend it with the babe!  couldn't think of a better gift than spending an hour with the little one.