My Incredible Friends...and Halfway!

The last couple weeks have been hectic around our house.  This is always a really busy time-of-year for me for work, with the school year winding down, and many of my kids crunched to pass their classes and/or graduate on time.  We've also had a full social calendar.  It's so interesting looking back on the aspects of our life that have changed over the last 9 months.  Last year at this time, we were busy getting settled into our new house, hunkering down and nesting and getting ready for the arrival of our little Baby G.  We were homebodies who rarely left the house and much preferred spending time alone together.  Lately, our social calendar is FULL.  We haven't had a totally free weekend since mid-April.  Although we still prefer the quiet of being at home together, those days are few and far between.  Much of my social life has revolved around spending time with other loss moms, some I met right after losing Virginia, and some I've met just recently.  Many other women before me have experienced the sisterhood that comes with having a shared experience as powerful as losing a child, and I am so grateful to have come into contact with some of those women who can help me through this process, who inspire me and give me hope for the future.  This weekend was a glowing example of that.  We had dinner with some good friends of ours on Friday night.  They are all couples who have lost babies as well.  We meet monthly, and our get-togethers are often the highlight of my month.  These 3 other women have become some of my closest friends, and I thank God every day that we crossed paths.  I also had a few friends come to stay overnight last night from Reno.  We went to dinner last night and then attended a Subsequent Pregnancy support group meeting.  It's been a wonderful, yet exhausting, holiday weekend.

We also passed a major milestone this weekend with my current pregnancy.  I hit 20 weeks yesterday!  So I am officially half-baked!  (Although this baby will be an early scheduled c-section, so I'm actually probably a little further than halfway done).  I've taken a few belly shots already to document this pregnancy, but I've kept most of them to myself.  However, I feel like this is a big milestone, so I decided to share my 20 week picture.

I can't believe how quickly time has flown by lately.  How does it happen that weeks and months can creep by so slowly, and then suddenly you blink and a month has passed?  Sometimes I just want to hit the "pause" button.  I want to just stop time and remember what this exact time of my life feels like.  It's so hard to do that when we're going nonstop and barely have time to share a meal.  So despite all of the craziness with our schedules, I make it a point to climb into bed every night and prop my hips up, put my hands on my belly, close my eyes, and connect with this baby.  And it never fails that just when I start to panic that she won't move on-command (why would she scare her momma like that??), I feel a little thump or kick.  It's like she knows I need that reassurance and that's her way of letting me know she's still there, still alive and happy in my belly.  Man, that's a great feeling.

Happy Memorial Day!