Month of Mae - Waiting

The word was out and our families and friends all knew our exciting news. I was pregnant! Now all I had to do was wait. Wait for my tummy to get big. Wait for food cravings. Wait to wear pants with lots of elastic and 'panels' in the front (then wait to not have to wear them any. more.). Wait for my readiness to kick in. But we all know that no matter how much one prepares, no one is ever truly prepared for what comes next.

My pregnancy was, for the most part, uneventful. I was fortunate to not get morning sickness, although I tried to always eat at the first sign of hunger (which was about every hour, so it seemed. can you say 'annoying'?!). However, around the 20 week mark I got real bad pains in the area of my kidney. This was when I realized my threshold for pain and what happened when I reached that threshold. It made me sick. We never really found out what the pain was since I couldn't have x-rays due to my condition. But it was either a kidney stone that I later passed (I doubt that it was it was) or it was the baby pressing on something and cutting off the flow from my kidney. The pain would come and go, but I found that if I laid on my side (the opposite from the one that hurt) then the pain would go away within minutes. This was when I also learned that although I may be pregnant and not allowed to take simple things like ibprofen for a headache, that I was allowed (given!) vicoden. Crazy huh?

This was also the time that I had the long awaited ultrasound. Ryan and I had decided to find out the gender of our baby. We figured why not be surprised before the baby was born. Although we would tell everyone the gender, the kicker was that we had also decided not to reveal the chosen name. So, we found out that we were having a girl, but mum on her name! I'm glad we kept that bit to ourselves, it was fun to have this little secret between us. It was also nice to not get negative feedback on our chosen name, for it's rude to say such things about the name after the baby is born (so I discovered).

The name picking process was difficult. Never before had we both had to agree on something like this in our marriage. I don't why it was so hard for Ryan to accept the names I liked! This concept escapes me (and him as well, apparently). But it wasn't too hard, not really. We chose the name Mae out of honor of Ryan's grandmother who passed away when I was about 5 months along. It was her middle name, and we tended to like classic names so it was perfect. Mae's middle name, Elisabeth, came from our mutual love of the movie Pride and Prejudice and it's heroine . The spelling of the middle name was us trying to make it a little different.

I never got really big when pregnant. Although I would have disagreed with that statement at the time.

Here I was at 7 months. This was taken after my baby showers from family and friends in California.













This picture was taken about a week before Mae came. The day before Mother's Day.



Not too big and not too bad for a young mom-to-be. I chalk it up to being in my twenties and being my first pregnancy. It would be the only time I was 'small'(ish) during pregnancy. *sigh*

The thing I enjoyed most about being pregnant was food. I've always been the type of person that ate for survival and not much for enjoyment, and it was fun to get a craving and fulfill it. My cravings never lasted for very long and sometimes I never knew I was craving it until I started eating it. Like the time I grabbed a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos from the lunchroom.....oh boy were those the best tasting Doritos I had ever had!!! The next day, when I sympathetic co-worker bought me a bag, the chips were good but not the best thing in the world, not like they had been the day before. That was my new thing to say about food 'the best thing in the world'. Other food items that filled the category during my pregnancy was; Vernor's Ginger Ale (no other brand worked), beef jerky, Jiffy blueberry muffins, biscuits and gravy, and orange sherbet ice cream. I've never enjoyed food more than when pregnant with girls (for some reason food was never 'the best thing in the world' when I was expecting Caleb).

The weekend before Mae's birth day eight years ago, Mother's Day 2001

I will never forget my first Mother's Day. Although, at the time I didn't consider my own claim on the day as I wasn't technically a mother yet. I remember my neighbor wishing me a happy Mother's Day as I sat on my front porch in my new rocking chair. I was enjoying my new rocker, waiting for the time that I'd sit there with my new baby, and it was going to be any day I was so sure! That year Mother's Day was a week before my due date, May 20th. And I was certain that I'd deliver early. My reasoning was that My mother delivered her two babies early, 6 weeks for my brother and 2 weeks early for me. So it only made sense that I'd deliver early too.

Pregnant women should not put their hopes in false things such as early delivery.

But it turns out that I was going to deliver early, just not as early as I had thought......