Moving Along

I seriously have been trying to write this blog post all week.  Every time I sit down to work on it, something comes up and I get derailed until it's too late in the evening for me to have enough functioning brain cells left to write anything coherent.  Assuming I do anyway, of course.

It's been a busy time, between working on the house and getting our garden produce picked and taken care of.  The garden isn't producing as plentifully as I'd hoped (too many plants, not enough room, I'm thinking), but it's bringing enough in that it's taking a few hours every few days to harvest everything and then take care of it.  We had chicken curry last night made with our own tomatoes and peppers and Ben was really thrilled - both with the recipe and the fact a good portion of it came from the garden.  He's never been around for canning tomatoes before and I sort of regret now that I did the blanching and peeling while he was away so he didn't have the fun of squishing the tomatoes.

Anyone else reading who has been similarly deprived: you have my sympathy.  Tomato squishing is the best part of doing any canning all summer.  I mean, just picture a great big pan of warm peeled tomatoes just waiting for you to stick your hands in and start squishing them up.  Doesn't get much more fun than that.

Since we're beginning the process of getting our building permits for the addition (hooray!), we've finally began doing some of the work on the kitchen we've really wanted to do all year, like getting the transition bar installed between the wood floor in the living room and the composite floor in the kitchen and hanging the vertical blinds.  Yes, we know it's all going to get torn out again shortly.  In fact, installing things pretty much ensures that.  If all goes well, we should begin the foundation work in the next few weeks.

I've been feeling the baby move now and then, but it seems we have a placid one on our hands: whoever this little person is, they're not in a big hurry to start thumping away on Mom.  I've been praying for a baby with a laid-back sunny disposition like Ben's and now I just have to remember not to get too worried when he or she is not too worried about being on time with things like movement milestones.  One of the big differences between me and Ben is that he's not concerned when he's running late for something; I always feel bound to be absolutely on time even for things that really don't matter.  Which is probably why I walked at 12 months and he waited until 15.

Having said all that, as I'm sitting here typing I'm getting probably the strongest movements I've felt yet.  It feels...sort of like someone popping popcorn very gently under my skin.  I'm very relieved to feel that because I've been firmly resisting using the Doppler monitor to hear the heartbeat again.  I've been doing some reading and it seems there are some indications that exposure to focused sound waves from ultrasound or even the Doppler monitor can be hard on the baby's developing cells.  So unless there's an emergency, I really don't want to go bombarding Peanut with focused sound waves just so I can feel happy to hear a nice little heartbeat.

All of which makes a little movement a welcome event.  Today, Peanut is alive and well and cheerfully kicking me in the stomach.

Hm.  That doesn't sound too good, put in those terms.