Babes and toys

We've got eight weeks to go, my friends, and this pregnancy has been far from "the usual" for me.

When the boys were in utero, I found that I had become, for the most part, a vegetarian. The idea of meat, poultry, and even most seafood completely turned me off, and even sickened me. I especially couldn't imagine cutting up meat on my cutting board, and it became verboten in my kitchen. I threw myself into Moosewood Cookbooks, and learned to cook vegetarian dishes inspired by every country in the world.

With this baby, I eat meat and poultry at any opportunity. I've fallen back in love with flank steak (the way my grandma Annette used to make it -- I'll share my recipe sometime), and have made meatballs more times than I can count (my mom's recipe, of course, heavy on the bread crumbs and shredded Romano).

The boys were very vigorous, causing me a fair amount of discomfort. Elijah especially had hiccups constantly, but Andrew also had them often. They both thought it was super fun to kick me in the ribs at any opportunity, and use their elbows in ways I did not see fitting.

While this baby has been trying to make more room for itself, elbow-wise, in the past few days, it has been nothing like the wiggly struggles that were going on with Andrew and Elijah.

With each of the boys, I felt that I could never eat enough. I was a human vacuum, and although I never gained a whole lot (21 w/Andrew, 32 w/Elijah), I just had to feed myself non-stop, and was always thinking about food. I drank a protein shake for breakfast (which is a good idea, since it takes goodly amounts of protein to properly feed a baby's brain), and ate beans and rice, tofu, and my favorite snack was a huge spoonful of peanut butter accompanied by a glass of chocolate soy milk ("Silk" brand only, since it tastes the best, and it fortified to be similar in nutrition to milk). I ate so much with them that I actually got tired of chewing.

With this child, I am almost never very hungry. I mean, I still want to eat sometimes, but it's just kind of "normal" feeling. I eat moderate portions of things and don't have an intense desire to snack.

The one thing that has remained consistent is the heartbeat, which is pretty much the same as Andrew's and Elijah's. All fall into the "mid" range. Some people think that you can tell the gender by heartbeat speed (girls are supposed to be faster, boys slower, I think), and although my current doctor says that's bull, the heartbeat falls right in the middle anyway. Just like the boys.

Andrew insists that "there's a brother in there". There's no way of knowing either way, but I know how much all of you like to speculate. So now, although it won't change things, you have some information to make a (sort of) educated guess, and possibly feel all smug after the Birth Day.

Andrew is starting to realize that I can produce cool things with my needles, and was all excited to find me working on these:

I let him pick out the colors for his (blue) and Elijah's (green), but I worked up the red and pink one just in case...

The boys think that their new toys are fabulous.

There's just something about a handmade softie. Storebought toys never have the same charm, and never get the same amount of play-time. It takes longer to knit or sew something up for them, surely, but I think that it's totally worth it. I mean, look at those smiles!