I think it was totally thoughtless for my chiropractor to go on vacation!! My appointment isn’t until next Monday, and owwwww. Today was a hard day at work…. just the “simple” things I’ve always done are getting to be such a strain on my back. Just bending over or squatting down to unwrap flat after flat of canned food before putting them on the shelves – and no we have no counter in that area. My lower back was so not happy with me. Thankfully I spaced out my physical work with periods of sitting in a chair with my laptop or some papers. Those breaks are pretty much required at this point.

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I had the weirdest craving today. I was at work doing my usual stuff and some random scent reminded me of driving the bypass when I was a kid, a section of the city that always smelled like freshly baked bread due to the big bread factory there. My mind flashed to always going in to this one bakery with my mom and us kids always getting cheese breadsticks. (I know I could not possibly have actually smelled fresh bread at work, so I have NO idea what it was that triggered this.) So of course suddenly I wanted a cheese breadstick. I still wanted one when I got home, so I drove to the grocery store to find some kind of cheesebread. They had none! Nothing. Rye, raisen, kaiser, bagels… NO CHEESE BREAD. God damnit. That’s so not funny to a pregnant woman.

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One horrible side effect of pregnancy: gas. Oh. My. God. I never knew one person could be so damn gassy. I feel like this cat (and learned that lesson the hard way). As embarassing as it is, there’s just nothing that can be done. I am so glad I work alone most of the time.

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I have noticed a big difference in the type of movements I feel, ever since that night I freaked out. The change must have happened prior to that, but I didn’t really make note of it. Granted some days he’s a lot more active than others, but I’m noticing that the old daily pattern isn’t really so predictable anymore. I still feel movement, it’s just… different. A lot more pushes and lumps sticking out here and there, and pressure from odd angles inside, a lot less swift kicks.

Today at work I felt a lot of pressure, and my hand found a large round body part in my upper right side – I assume a bum. The front of my belly was hard all the way down from there (slightly diagonal), which I assumed was a back/body. The funniest part was that when I pressed down on the bum, I could feel the other side of his body pushing down into my pelvis! That was the oddest thing! I did a couple of times for giggles, little pushes, and then started thinking that perhaps it wasn’t very comfortable for him, having his head squished into my pelvis. (Upon later reflection, I decided that babies get through labor without being too traumatized, and they are FAR more squashed during contractions than a little push with my hand while he’s still safely floating in his bubble.)

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House progress. Yes, this is what I actually opened up this window to write about, then promptly forgot about.

First, the basement is coming along in leaps and strides. I have to take more photos tomorrow and then I’ll post them all and give an update. It’s wonderful seeing an actual room take shape.

Den is also making progress on our bedroom! Remember when Den started and we unmasked the ugly wallpaper? Today he took more panelling down and then started taking down wallpaper in one area… to see how it was going to go. It’s like I feared: not only is it wicked old wallpaper, it was applied directly over the original plaster walls…. no paint or primer or anything. So we confirmed our suspicion that the wallpaper is original to the 1955 house. (Which is kind of cool, in one way – but it’s still being removed.) Den did get a section off, but he said it was a bitch. Great. I don’t even want to think about what shape the plaster wall is going to be in after the wallpaper’s been scraped off. Ugh.