Of Mostly Baby (Just Like My Belly)

Bitter Business.
I had a revelation of the minor sort last week. Our computer has been in the repair shop until a bit ago, and I went to the library to write down the shipping addresses of some eBay auction winners. While there, I hopped to shotsnaps, and was met with enormous snapshots! By enormous, I mean "grossly large." They filled more than the entire screen, and I had to scroll a bit just to see the whole picture. This is the first time a computer has shown shotsnaps in such unappealing garb (the other four or so computers I've been on display pictures identically to our home computer). Anyway, John said it probably is tied to what resolution the computer's owners have set it to, but in case any of you have been experiencing this monstrosity since I enlarged the pictures, my apologies. I just downsized them a bit, so your eyes should be eased. If you would, please leave a comment letting me know if your view of shotsnaps has been like mine at the library. If no one's computer is set to a similar resolution, I will return the size of my pictures to that of the last several months (because on my computer and the others I've frequented, the size difference is minimal but nice).

Better Business.
Baby Berry could appear any minute now or could wait another three weeks, and I'm prepared for either scenario. I'm due in one week, which rings hollow considering the Nixie Pixie came 10 days late. This time around, though, I feel content about Baby Berry loitering close for a bit longer. Most of my looming tasks are complete, and only those of finishing taxes and picking out baby names are of some importance. The rest can wait until next week. (I think.) Today I read through the baby names book to the "I" names for boys, but I haven't even glanced at the girls' names. While I sighed and shuffled, I asked John what Biblical names he likes. After a brief pause, he said, "I can't think of any right now that are suitably harsh on the ears...."

Funny Business
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Here's an interesting link, and here are some excerpts:

In the mid-1990s she was the first scientist to determine that fetal cells remain in the mother's body for many years, perhaps indefinitely, after a pregnancy, whether that pregnancy is carried to term or not. "A pregnancy lasts forever," she suggests, "because every woman who has been pregnant carries these little souvenirs of the pregnancy for the rest of her life."
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Consider what's being said here, ever so quietly. Bianchi's findings stand the familiar one-way model of maternal nurturance on its head. Mom feeds and sustains her baby during pregnancy by means of nutrients that flow through the umbilical cord to the developing child - understood. But that's only half the story. It turns out that the umbilical cord is a two-way street, and the nurturing process goes both ways. Beginning early in the pregnancy, the baby is sending fetal cells back into mom, where her body stores them, like pin money saved for a rainy day.

One of my first thoughts after reading it, although completely unrelated to the article's points, was that this is a comfort for women who've been given heavenborn children. In some small way, our child leaves us with a gift. It also affirms once again that children and the way the Shaper forms them are wonderful beyond imagining.
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Two months later, John and I still exult in his post-school status. He received a letter from the head of the department congratulating him on gaining his Master's with straight-arrow-only-A's, but he hasn't received his diploma yet. We use this time of waiting to play board games while watching my belly dance of Berry's accord.

Our college friend Heidi and her friend Phil stopped by on Sunday for a visit before they drove homeward. Our visits are rare enough to be savored for the goodness they are, and we enjoyed their company and conversation. (Plus, it gave me a sound excuse to make cookies.) Anytime again!

Oh! The coolest midwife has joined the practice that I visit. I've only met her once, but she's exactly the sort of person that I'd like to attend Baby Berry's birth (although the nurse who caught Speedy Annika before the midwife could arrive was neat, too). The New Midwife is kind and homey and comfortable. She seems more knowledgeable- or at least freely open about her knowledge- of natural aids, also, than the other two midwives. She'd make a great homebirth midwife, I think.

(I will, of course, let you all know when the Blueberry arrives, and may even post some more words and snapshots before that time.)

* And I owe you a recipe on buidabelly, Rebecca. I haven't forgotten, even though our computer has been on vacation.