Dancing belly, amazing boy

Right at the moment I'm a little distracted by my dancing belly.  I love this part of the pregnancy, where baby's movements are so big I don't just feel them, I can see them.  Anyone who happens to be looking could see them, too.  It's so weird and wonderful.

Trimester three, month #7, has begun in earnest, and I am definitely super pregnant.  All my appointments with Dr. M between now and my due date are scheduled.  The c-section will be scheduled, soon.  I've had my glucose test (no gestational diabetes, yay!) and all my numbers are looking stellar.  Sally's heartbeat and movements are strong and delightful.

There is terrible heartburn, there is an almost constant need to pee, there's muscle pain, there's a great deal of hunger.  There are weird, vivid, exhausting dreams: usually I'm planning a huge event or yelling at people for no good reason.  These I'm familiar with from being pregnant with Walter.  But there are some differences, too.  I'm still able to wear my wedding ring, which I couldn't do from the first trimester on with Walter.  My hands and feet are just starting to get slightly swollen, but nothing like the first time.  I'm not as heavy and I look better overall: healthier.  And I'm not on bedrest.  That's a pretty big difference, right there.

I'm grateful for my good health, and for Sally's.  Next week we fly to Philly and head to the shore to visit with Sean's family for a week; I was worried I might be too pregnant to have any fun, but I think I'll be OK.  Maybe some whimpering, but OK.  I'm looking forward to seeing Walter run around on the sand.

Walter is all sorts of remarkable, as you know.  Tonight he counted to ten.  On his own he can count to six quite reliably.  He is a very good dancer.  He's still not very consistent with identifying different colors, but he's intrigued by the idea and he's working on it.  He opened up to one of the kids at church on Sunday and demonstrated his excellent command of every possible animal noise, including giraffe and camel.  He's been doing that for so long that I hardly think about it anymore, but D. was so impressed.  "Listen to the this!" he told us.  "He's AMAZING!"

Mama, Walt and Sally: pretty amazing

Lullaby

We're well into the third trimester, the trimester in which we are all very sleepy, all the time.  Sean is sleepy because he's doing all the household upkeep by himself.  I am sleepy because I'm 32 weeks pregnant.  Hank the Dog is sleepy because he's bored out of his mind. He wakes up every hour or so and checks to make sure I'm still breathing.  Once satisfied, he goes back to sleep.

You know who isn't sleepy?  Walter Paul.  This baby is all about the moving and the shaking.  So, I wrote him a lullaby.

It goes like this:

Walter, Walter go to sleep
May your dreams be always sweet
God loves you and we do too
Walter, Walter through and through

Walter, Walter you are loved
By friends on earth and friends above
Love surrounds you everyday
And when you sleep, in love you stay

Walter, you're our precious boy
And you bring us so much joy
Tomorrow is another day
To learn and work and grow and play

Walter, Walter go to sleep
May your dreams be always sweet
God loves you and we do too
Walter, Walter through and through 

It's going to be a very lovely and effective lullaby if I can ever get through it without crying. I love this kid a whole, whole bunch. Singing him his lullaby reminds me of all the times my mom sang me to sleep (when I was little, and then sometimes when I was not-so-little anymore.)  I remember the day she told me that she wrote my lullaby for me.  I was amazed.  I was a little skeptical.  "Really?" I asked.  "You wrote the words and the tune and everything?  How did you do it?"  She responded that it wasn't really that hard to do.  It all just came to her.

I remained skeptical.  I tried to write my own lullaby that very night (I must have been 15 or so.)  Nothing doing. I worried that I would be a complete failure as a mother.  Surely my creativity was not going to improve with age.  Where would I get a lullaby?

It turns out that my mom was right.  Once inspired, it's not really that hard to do.  One afternoon I laid down for a rest and got kicked extra hard in an already-sore spot.  I wondered if singing might help.  I started thinking about all the things I wanted to say to Walter in that moment: I love you. God loves you. The whole communion of saints, on earth and in heaven, loves you. And for the love of all things holy, stop kicking me so hard.

The tune and the words came easily from there.  Sean joked that we're never going to remember all the verses.  My mom thinks we will--and we will probably come up with more.  Sometimes babies really, really don't feel like sleeping.  

There's a lot of love in a lullaby that's written just for you.  Not some hypothetical, platonic ideal of love: love inspired by real events, like sleepless nights and cranky days.  When I sing Mom's lullaby now--my lullaby--I think about those real life events, and I'm even more grateful than before (and that's very grateful, indeed.)

Here's baby Annie's lullaby, written and composed by Sue Edison-Swift, inspired by real events.  It's called Tukka Vessa Dokka ... Norwegian-sounding nonsense words, but Dokka means "Dolly" and was what my mom's dad used to call her.

Tukka Vessa Dokka
Annie's getting sleepy
Annie's getting tiah
Now's the time for bye-ah
It has been a busy day
Now let's settle down
Now's the time to dream sweet dreams and put away all frown

Tukka Vessa Dokka
You're our little Annie
And we love you dearly
'Cuz you're part of the family
And we think you're wonderful
And we think you're smart
And we know you've come in the very middle of our heart

Hank the Dog is snoring on the couch.  Sean is upstairs catching a much-needed Sunday Afternoon Clergy Spouse Nap (not as famous a phenomenon as the Sunday Afternoon Clergy Nap, but just as real.)  Walter is kicking me again, but gently.  We are a sleepy family, but we are well, and we are loved. Tomorrow is another day to learn and work and grow and play.