Pregnancy Journal: Preservation Season

I’m almost 31 weeks pregnant now, and it’s just flying by.  It’s kind of ridiculous.  I mean, my next midwives’ appointment, which is in 2 weeks, puts me at 33 weeks (almost).  Then two more weeks and I have another, at almost 35 weeks.  Then my home visit two weeks after that…and then weekly visits until baby decides to arrive.  I’m still feeling “late” but who knows.  I better be prepared from anywhere from July 22 (two weeks early) to August 19th (two weeks late)!

Every time I become convinced that I am crazy and it’s definitely not twins, something else happens.  Awhile ago I felt what I thought was two sets of hiccups simultaneously.  I feel movement and body parts all over my belly at the same time, and my entire belly is usually very hard.  I remember in the past that there would be a hard area where the baby was, but it would be a bit softer around that.  This time that’s not true.  I asked my chiropractor today what he thought.  He found the baby (head down again, though it changes practically hourly), but noted that on the other side it was unusually hard — just as I thought.  He said this could indicate either unusually high fluid volume, or a second baby hiding slightly behind and to the side of the first.  So, it’s not impossible.  He thinks we should definitely have the midwives check for a second one at our next appointment.  I also thought I felt two backs, one along each side, and two heads (one right above each of my hip bones) a few days ago.  I haven’t felt a lot of limbs, but it seems like “too much baby” sometimes.  So really…is it just the high fluid volume, or is it a second baby??  We don’t really know.

Now, ’tis gardening season!  And the very beginning of preservation season too.  We’ve put in a massive garden (no easy feat while 7 months pregnant) and gone strawberry picking, too.  It took me three days to get the whole later-season garden in, actually.  I had to work in short bursts to get it done.  But all in all I’m very glad I did it that way, and very proud it’s in!  Now I go out once or twice a day and pull a few weeds or water the garden a bit.  My lettuce is in a box and it gets dry easily.  The weather’s been really hot anyway (90s) so my tomatoes and strawberries often “need a drink,” as my daughter says.

I don’t know why I feel so motivated to do so much gardening and preservation while I’m so pregnant and when I’ll have a newborn.  I have no idea at all.  Perhaps my nesting instincts are kicking in already.  But I’m more on top of it than ever and feel so excited by all the progress I’m making!

We are planning massive preservation, too, which starts now (with some frozen strawberries and strawberry jam) and will carry straight into October, when we finish up with applesauce.  I can’t wait to have all those beautiful jars of delicious, fresh food in my pantry!  We are canning and freezing about three times as much as last year.  Even things we don’t usually like store-bought (like peaches), we loved home-canned.

People do think I’m crazy to do this now.  But somehow I don’t feel like I’ll need to “stop” anything for this baby.  I mean, I’m already super busy with two kids and friends and various activities, and we do need to eat healthy and frugal food all winter.  So…this baby will have to learn to live in a wrap and go with the flow!

Expect to see a lot more cooking and food stuff here soon as I dive into my gardening and preserving season!