31 Weeks: Baby Shower!

I am 31 weeks today! Six more weeks until I am full term, and nine more weeks until my due date! Wow. Time surely is flying by. It's amazing.

So, what has been happening in the past week? It was the last week of summer school, which I am so grateful for having the chance to teach it. Not only did it make me feel more secure about our financial situation (teachers here don't get paid over the summer), but it was really nice to interact with high schoolers again. They were a wonderful class, and I couldn't have asked for better.

Baby-wise, nothing new has been going on. My son is still very, very active and bouncing around in there. He still puts up a fuss when I sleep on my left side or put anything on my stomach. He is very active at night, too, which sometimes wakes me up.

No new symptoms as of now! I was feeling a little run down last week, so maybe the baby was going through a growth spurt! I treated myself to a prenatal massage today at a new healing center advertised on the Maryland Birth Network. It was a very lovely massage with a very wonderful massage therapist who listened to my needs and tended to the areas I was having issues with, which is mostly my neck and migraines.

Yesterday was my baby shower! My sister threw me a surprise shower under the guise of a graduation party for my other little sister. I kind of caught on when my mom didn't know the graduation party story, and I can tell when my husband is lying from a mile away. But, I made a going away college box for my sister and brought it anyway. When I got there, I saw everyone on the porch with green and blue balloons, and everyone yelled "SURPRISE!"

It was very surreal to me, but not overwhelming. I was afraid that I'd have a hard time being the center of attention, but it was just small enough that I didn't feel that way. Everything was perfect, absolutely perfect. We got most of what we asked for off our registry, and then some.

 I spent tonight putting away all the clothes and trying to organize the presents. There's not much I can do, since we still have to paint the nursery, but at least I can get the little things organized! While I was folding little, tiny newborn clothes, I had a moment when it all hit me, and I started to cry. This time, last year, I was cursing my luck and wondering when I'd ever get to have my baby. Today, I am holding newborn clothes in my hands while my son kicks the heck out of me.

This past week, a friend of mine announced her pregnancy to me after her own infertility struggle. She said that my words in this blog helped her through, and it really touched me. It also made me realize that God works in his own time, and sometimes it's hard to be complacent with that...but it's always worth it in the end. I'm not a very religious person, I consider myself more of a spiritual person, and it's when things like this happen that I understand that everything happens for a reason. Everything. Even the shitty things we don't want to happen.

All the shitty things that have happened to me in my infertility journey happened so I can have the baby that is inside of me now. If they didn't happen, I wouldn't have him, and even if I haven't met him yet, I couldn't imagine it any other way.

Enjoy a shower picture!