A view from the top

This picture really doesn't make much sense, even to me right now. I'm holding the camera right at my nose, looking down to show the view of my feet. Except you can't see my feet.


I have officially exploded. And it literally happened in one week.

I'm not kidding.

Last week, when I went to church, people were still saying things like, "Wow! You are really small. What does your doctor say?"

Then I would whip out my tape measure and show them my tummy measured exactly 31 centimeters as it was supposed to at 31 weeks. (Just kidding about the tape measure.)

This past week at church, someone said, "Wow! You really puffed out all at once!" She said this without making any attempt to disguise her complete shock at how large I suddenly am.

I know the feeling.

Did you notice all of those stains on my shirt in the photo? I don't remember spilling that much food before pregnancy. But now, I have a constant dribble mark down my shirt, showing everything I've had to eat or drink that day.

We have seven weeks left until we get to meet this sweet little girl baby. I'm so excited to see her!

But I'm afraid to think how much I am going to grow in that time.

I'm also a little worried about everything we have left to do.

Since my husband injured his back, all of those projects that we had been procrastinating about are now even more on hold.

We still have to buy a crib, put it together and rearrange some furniture to make room for it. I'm thinking we are going to put the crib in our room at first and then try to figure out some type of arrangement for the girls to room together.

Our daughter's room is the smallest in the house. I think it's only 10x10. I have been searching for a loft bunk bed for her so we could put the crib underneath.

We need to get some type of small dresser to store the clothes and diapers. And, oh yeah. We need to get some clothes and diapers. I'm so excited though because I started giving my daughter's clothes to my niece around the 12-month size. My sister saved all of those clothes for four years! So, I will have plenty of clothes once we get through the baby-baby stage.

The other priority is an infant carrier and car seat. I need to either get one from someone who offered to loan or give me one or we need to buy one.

I should probably be more stressed about all of this, but I know we can pull everything together very quickly. I do keep reminding myself that our other daughter was a scheduled C-section, too, and I ended up having her even earlier at 36 weeks. So, these seven weeks could turn out to be six, or five or four.

I also was brought back to reality this week by a friend who told me about a 19-year-old, who is mother to a newborn girl. The father is out of the picture. And the young mother's parents have both died. One had cancer, and the other died of a heart attack.

My friend's sister has given this young girl and baby a home. But she is in need of everything for her baby. It made me realize just how much I really have and how much we often think we need, but we really don't.

It's been amazing this week to see people come out of the woodwork with donations for this young mom. It definitely helped me put my life in perspective and stop thinking about myself so much.

OK. Not completely. I'm just trying to make a plan to get everything done, rather than worrying so much about what is going to happen.

And I feel so blessed that I have such a wonderful family to help me with everything... especially my shoes. Since I can't really see them.

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