27 weeks

I'm officially in the third trimester. I have no stretch marks and my belly button is still definitely an innie. I don't think it will ever pop out, which is fine by me. I'm posting pictures of my bare belly. Don't look if you don't want to.

Really.

You don't have to.

But I have to fill up space so you're not forced to see it just by opening the page.

So...

First, the view from the front.

And then one from the side.

I'll post a real update about how I'm feeling and all that jazz if I can finish grading this stack of papers by tonight. In the mean time, check out this weirdness. You can totally see my stomach move around with the baby.

teaching politics

I have to respond to a student email, but I'm too frustrated to deal with it appropriately right now, so I thought I'd get a little of my annoyance out here.

I spent my first year teaching trying to be someone else, and I discovered that it just doesn't work. It might for some, but--honestly--it made me feel physically sick. And it wasn't just emotionally and psychologically draining. It was ineffective. I was not as good of an educator as I am now. I still have a long way to go, but I am making progress. And, most importantly, the pre-teaching nausea has mostly stopped and I'm starting to enjoy my job. One of my weaknesses, however, is discipline. I know this. I'm working on it.

So I have this student. He comes to most of the classes, but he's very behind on his daily work and the blog assignment. He's done 8 out of 20 questions and 1 out of 20 blogs. Together, this counts for 40% of his final grade. (He has the chance to bring the daily grade up to 10/20 and his blog up to 3/20, but still. Not good averages.) He sent me an email a few days ago asking if he could write a second paper instead of finishing his blog assignment, and I told him that he's had the blog assignment all semester, and that I couldn't allow him to write a paper when the syllabus is clear and all of his classmates (or most of them) have followed the assignment's requirements. He sent ANOTHER email telling me that it would be "kind" to make an exception. Here's what I want to say.

Student,
My job as your teacher is not to be kind, and it is certainly not to make exceptions for students who fail to do their work for the vast majority of the semester. I cannot be "kind" to you at the expense of fairness and sound ethics. You have had the entire semester to write 12 blog entries, and you've written one. I told you at midterm that you would have to write two entries every week in order to catch up, and you've written one. I told you on Thursday that I would allow you to write four blog entries over the weekend since I was unclear about what to do during conference week, and you've still only written one. I cannot, will not, make an exception for you.

Best,

Me

P.S. When I was your age, I was married, I had finished my B.A. and was starting my M.A., and I was feeding myself and my husband and paying our bills. Grow up. The world does not have an obligation to take care of you.

But that would be bad, right?

Sigh.

26 weeks

I had a check-up this morning, and they tested me for gestational diabetes. I was told at my last appointment that I'd need to come to this one fasting, so I hadn't eaten since 9pm last night and my appointment was scheduled for 10:30am today. They called me back into a room at 11 and explained that I'd have to drink this sugary concoction before they could do the test, and I had to wait exactly an hour between drinking the orange mess and being tested. No problem. I'm starving, but okay. I drank the drink and waited for my doctor. I told her I felt pretty good, much better than last Monday when I was having sharp pain and Braxton-Hicks contractions, but that I was really hungry. And then she asked if I had eaten breakfast. I reminded her about the fasting test, and she informed me that I only had to fast between drinking the juice and having my blood drawn. What? She wasn't happy that I had been misinformed, and I almost started crying--which, really, was pretty much my whole morning. Taylor Swift's "Love Story" made me weepy. Yay, hormones! Anyway. I started feeling awful by about 11:50 and nearly freaked out. I thought I was going to have another panic attack. I think I was just hormonal, hungry, and frustrated, but I am a little concerned that my blood sugar WAS off and that contributed to the whole mess.

I discovered that I'm allergic to brethine (terbutaline), the medicine most commonly used to stop preterm contractions. The nurse at the Labor and Delivery clinic we went to last Monday told me that I have to tell everyone about my one medicine allergy, which I thought was strange since it was for asthma. Turns out, it's the same medicine! Last time I had it, they had to call a crash cart. I almost died. Which, technically, would stop the contractions, too.

I feel like none of my friends will ever, ever want to get pregnant after reading my blog. I promise that it's not all scary and strange. I love that we're having a baby. I love feeling him move. I love that Dallas reads nursery rhymes and The Chronicles of Narnia to my belly button and "dances" with our son. There are many wonderful things about this experience, but I honestly feel like I was unprepared for a lot of the symptoms I've mentioned on my blog, and I want people to know! For example, my abdomen muscles are starting to be forced apart by my growing uterus, and now when I use those muscles to sit up, I have this insane bulge that looks like a fist trying to force its way out of my insides. It's disconcerting, but normal. The nearly constant sharp pains at the bottom of my stomach? Ligaments breaking apart. Uncomfortable. Completely normal. One of my friends is a doula/midwife who knows far, far more about all of this than I do, and she said that Jenny McCarthy's book (Belly Laughs?) talks a lot about the un-discussed side effects of growing a human. There's a lot our culture doesn't talk about.

So here I am. Twenty-two days until I am officially done with the semester. Fourteen weeks until the due date. I've gained about 17 pounds, and I generally feel pretty good. I'm sleeping well, too, which is nice!

26 weeks

Nursery!

24 weeks

My parents, sister, little brother, and I all went to Buy Buy Baby in Birmingham yesterday to pick out nursery stuff. (I think the chain is owned by Bed, Bath, and Beyond, in which case they need to lay off of the B-alliteration.) My sister and I found cribs, dressers, gliders, car seats, and strollers! Whew. It was a lot. My parents are amazing.

I'm currently irritated about non-baby-related things, so I'll just content myself with posting a picture of the outfit Aunt D bought for Baby D and the belly picture of my sister and me (and the cousins) and say no more.

Babies is pimps, too.

17 weeks and 24 weeks