Weeks 24-25

Week 24 

I went to the doctor for my 24 week check up and everything looked normal. She had a hard time finding his heartbeat because he kept squirming every time she found it, but it sounded nice and strong. My sciatic nerve has been bothering me a lot and I've tried a lot of different stretches, but it still acts up. My dad swears that icing is the only way to help so I've been sitting on a bag of peas a lot. One night Sammy was making a meal that could have peas added to it, but he said, "No way, those are your butt peas."

One night we had a frozen pizza for dinner and it was a pretty big one. Sammy had one slice and was full, and I ate the rest of the pizza. I was starving! I'm so much hungrier, but I can feel my stomach starting to get smaller as the baby grows. I need more food, but there's not enough room for it all at once. 

One day at work the baby kept moving and sitting on a nerve which was painful. I kept feeling pain in a weird spot in my back, then would feel him move and it would go away, only for a lot of pressure to show up in a specific spot in my guts that would stay until I felt him move again. Then I felt him on my bladder and I had to keep going every twenty minutes. I kept texting Sammy updates on what his son was doing to me. :) 

I saw Ocean's 8 with my mom and sister. My mom was laughing because she had one daughter in a wheelchair, and one who was pregnant and waddling around. We had a great time and really enjoyed the movie. My brother didn't come with us and apparently said that he didn't want to hear my feminist rant afterwards. Naturally I texted him all night about the three different waves of feminism. 

Sammy's dad, Michael, Sammy, and Lexy went and bought the baby's crib, and then helped set it up. I'm so thankful that they were there because Sammy and I would have struggled to set it up ourselves. We would have gotten it done eventually, but it would have been stressful. 

Someone asked if I was going to decorate the nursery traditionally or not, and I said that I wasn't going to throw a bunch of elephants in there. But then we wanted to put a stuffed animal in the crib to picture what it'd be like having a person in there, and the first stuffed animal I found was an elephant. 

We watched Sammy's baby video with his family before Father's Day and let me tell you, baby Sammy was freaking adorable. He was so chill and just stared at everything with his big eyes. His parents recorded quite a few bath times and diaper changes though... We watched my baby video when we went home that night and I was the complete opposite. I was chatting all the time. Funny how personalities can show up so early ;) 

Sammy and I ended up getting locked out of our apartment when going on the patio to read these two lovely books. The bar for the sliding door was giving us some problems, and when Sammy closed the door it slid right down. He had his house keys though, so we thought we could just go right back in, except, we'd already turned the deadbolt, which does not have a key to it. So we were stuck. After a bit of panicking, and no answers from the emergency maintenance line, we asked our neighbors for a wire hanger. It wasn't working the way I thought it would though. Our neighbor pointed out an off duty maintenance man walking by and Sammy flagged him down. He looked pretty flustered when we told him the deadbolt was on, but then he was able to get the hanger through a different spot in the door, and the bar to fall down. We learned quite a few lessons that night, and I hope to never have to use them again. 

On a different note, I love that Sammy likes to read, and it makes me laugh at how different our taste is when finding something light. He goes for true crime about the golden state killer, and I had to convince him to get that instead of some more philosophy that he won't finish. Meanwhile I go for young adult fantasy. 

Sammy celebrated his first Father's Day. It kind of made me sad that some people told him that next year would be his first father's day. He is a father this year. He works so hard to take care of this baby and I. He's working full time, studying for the LSAT, doing the dishes, the laundry, cooking, and a lot of the cleaning. He always comforts me, listens to my fears, and makes me laugh. Every night he talks to the baby, and the baby always starts kicking like crazy when he talks with him. Sammy is a father, and our baby is so lucky to have him. 

I didn't have enough energy to make him dinner after a fun day hanging out with my family. We left there because I was falling asleep while playing a game of Apples to Apples. (Sammy dominated by the way and he wasn't even trying. That is his game now.) So, I made Sammy a pizza taco, which is basically just a microwaved quesadilla with pepperoni inside. Nothing too spectacular, but it did the job. Then we laughed all night on the couch and watched a documentary that I'd waited weeks for at the library, only to find out it was on Netflix the whole time.  

One morning I wasn't feeling good while getting ready for work, but I ignored it and kept getting ready. When I was leaving, I dropped my favorite water bottle and the lid completely shattered. By that point I was running late and just went to the car, figuring I'd deal with it when I got home. Then, I realized I'd forgotten my lunch so I ran back to the house to get it. When I got on the road, I hit AWFUL traffic, so bad I had my car in park on the highway. The closest exit would take me home and I decided with everything that happened that morning, I just wasn't meant to go to work and got off. There have been a few random times things like that have happened where I haven't gone to work, and there was a reason for it. The next day I heard that our security guard threw up all over the staff bathroom, something that would have freaked me out so I'm glad I wasn't there. 

I spent the day with my family instead, and we ended up at Target. 

Week 25 

My old t-shirts are on their last wears. I liked how I looked this way, but I felt self conscious the rest of the day. It's time to go get some more maternity clothes. 

I bought some new shoes and those have helped tremendously with my sciatic pain which I'm so grateful for. 

We finally went swimming at our apartment pool! The other times we went, it was closed, so we were pretty excited. It was nice at first, but then two large families showed up to have a BBQ, and started doing cannonballs in the pool. Sammy and I left then, and next time we go, it'll be early in the morning. 

We bought tickets months ago for a Rapids game, and were really looking forward to it. The last time we went to a game was in April and we were both freezing, so I stupidly wore pants this time. When we got to the stadium, it was about 90 degrees out, and our seats were directly in the sun. The tickets we bought came with free food that could only be picked up in certain locations, so I waddled all the way over to the pick up spot, only to be told that wasn't it. By then I was exhausted, overheated, and needed food fast. I started shaking and told Sammy I needed to go home, but I didn't have the energy to walk back to the car. He pulled me into a little restaurant, then went and just bought food even though we had the vouchers because I needed it yesterday. We sat in the restaurant for a bit and Sammy watched the game from a television screen. I tried going back to our seats a while later, but it was still too too hot and we ended up going home. I felt really bad since we'd spent all that money and Sammy had been looking forward to it for so long, but I also know I did what I could. My phone told me I walked three miles alone at the game, so I really did try. 

We had a game night with my siblings and Sammy beat us all at Lords of Waterdeep. I was so proud of him because strategy games aren't his strongest suit, so it was pretty impressive. 

One of my college professors had a book launch near my work, and I've been feeling nostalgic for my writing workshops and just having deep conversations about writing all the time, so I decided to go. I was so excited to see all my old friends that I haven't seen in two years. While it was great seeing everyone again, I was quickly reminded of how much I felt like I didn't fit in in my writing community during college. The people are great and kind, but I just do not consume the same kind of media that they do. While we were waiting, they talked about indie films they'd watched together, and the sushi bars they'd gone to last week, and books I've never heard of. They talked about how reading isn't for pleasure and if you only read for pleasure then you're lazy. 

Everyone kept asking me when I was going to get my MFA, and gave me a funny look when I said I wasn't going to pursue one, some even trying to talk me into it. I just don't feel like I need to spend more money to get more homework to try and write things that aren't what I want to write when I could be writing, networking, and learning on my own for free during that same time. It's crazy, but I've made more meaningful writing connections on Twitter  through contests and have learned more about publishing on there then I ever learned or made in college. Those who are going onto school are going to learn more about craft and create a cohort with their friends. I'm already actively querying and have agents actively requesting my work. 

At one point someone made a joke about how we writers write for the money, and someone said the only way to make money is to write YA, and then they started laughing saying they would never be sellouts like that. At that point I was done. I write YA and I don't think that it's at all 'selling out' or a lesser form or writing than literary writing. YA changes lives, just look at books like "The Hate U Give." It's not just teens who read YA, but even so, the teens of today are going to be running the world of tomorrow. Even a fantasy that might seem like a pleasure read, like "An Ember in the Ashes" discusses what it's like to be a refugee and other problems in our world today, without being in your face about it. The YA books being written today teach about consent, mental health, acceptance, and so much more and reaching people in ways that literary fiction isn't always going to. It's great that my friends have found what they like to write and read, but their tastes do not make them anymore legitimate.