69

days left.

The Belly
I can really not believe that I'm this far along... and then... I CAN! My belly is so big! I'm pretty sure I'm measuring full-term already. I'll find out for sure on Wednesday. But the weird pains I haven't had until the last few weeks have been happening for the last week - ALREADY. You know, the weird pulling sensation on the back of the belly button, the s-tr-e-e-e-t-ch feeling in the front of the belly, and most painfully problematic: the inability to properly gauge belly girth! My belly button is as shallow as it ever has been with either prior pregnancy, so that's a good indicator that the belly is HUGE! Thus far, though, I haven't got a stretch mark to show for all the weirdness. That's pretty cool, I think. Probably this is due to the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm losing fat as the belly gets huge, so the skin is sort of staying in place.... or something. I don't know.

Hunger
I'm hungry all the time now. It started in for real last Wednesday. Basically, I have to eat AT LEAST every 4 hours or I get this really painful nagging in my stomach. I've tried drinking water/my preggie tea to see if I'm just short of liquids, which I think is unlikely with as much as I'm constantly drinking, but it's definitely not hunger pains requesting water! I've even had to get up out of bed in the middle of the night and REALLY early in the morning to get food, which I only remember doing in the last couple of weeks with Ria and Kat's pregnancies. This had better be: a) a boy, or b) twins to be as different an annoying a pregnancy as it is this time around!

Sleeping Beauties
Ria and Kat have been sleeping better, I think. I blacked out the windows in their rooms. This morning they slept until after 9am!!! Prior to the black out they were waking between 7:30am and 8:30am. I know these times probably seem really laid back to lots of Mamas, but considering Jessie's schedule (and how late I have to stay up to spend time with him alone... EVER!) the times they were waking up before were just way too dang early! I can definitely deal with 9am-ish much more easily! :)

Reading
Today Ria spent almost an hour in her room. It was strange because this is not something she normally chooses of her own accord. I mean, she usually gets sent to her room when she's in trouble. So, after about 30 minutes I went back to ask her if I'd sent her to her room. She looked at me in a funny way and told me that I hadn't. I acknowledged that and explained that I thought I hadn't, but I couldn't remember for sure. (Yet another side effect of this pregnancy that is more pronounced that the other two: SERIOUS forgetfulness! I couldn't remember where I put my church bag yesterday! When I found it I commented to one of the members of the Primary Presidency that I was sure I'd put it somewhere smart... and I was glad to realize I was right by finding it where it was! I've been in nursery with Sage, which I love, so keeping my bag with me would not have been the brightest idea.)

So, what was Ria doing? I can just imagine you might wonder, since she was hanging out back there in her room for so long of her own accord. She was sitting next to her book shelf (not yet completely full of books, but nicely stocked) and READING, of course! She is SUCH an awesome reader! I love that she loves to read both to herself and to her sister. What a blessing!!!

Hide and Seek With Daddy
Jessie is SO good at turning silly things into HUGE fun. Today Ria REALLY wanted him to play hide and seek with her. She wanted HIM to take turns in hiding and seeking with her. He didn't feel like it, I guess, so he turned it into hiding Kat for Ria to find. Now, this would totally not work with me because I don't have THE FORCE for making silly things fun as Jess does. He would rush Ria off with over-exaggerated urgency that she hurry off so Kat could hide. (If you know Jess at all, then you know how uncharacteristic it is for him to be really excitably or emotional about much of anything.) Then he would, in the same exaggerated urgency help Kat hide somewhere and then call Ria out. It turned out to be, what looked like to me, the best fun either of them had enjoyed in a while! And it started from something that neither wanted to do! Jess is so great with the girls when he wants to be!!! ^_^ I LOVE IT!