Only three months left!

I'm at 27 weeks now--roughly six months. I have exactly three months left from today, December 5th, to my due date, March 5th.

I can hardly believe it.

Yesterday I arrived from Halifax where I spent 4 days with my dear friend Shannon. She is very special to me and I had been planning to visit her before I knew I would be having a baby. When we discovered we were expecting I thought this would be a good opportunity to have one last solo journey and some special time with my dear friend before visits like that get more complicated for a number of years!

It was indeed a special time. While I was away I called Matthew regularly--I missed him a lot even though I was having a wonderful time. At the end of each conversation I would hold the ear piece of the phone to my belly so he could talk to our baby and the baby could hear his voice as usual. The first time I did that it was only about 30 seconds before the baby vigorously kicked me, exactly, and I mean exactly, where I had the ear piece pressed against my abdomen.

I am convinced that the baby is familiar with Matthew's voice and responds to it. It was an exciting moment for both of us, and for Shannon and her friends that were in the room with me.

I arrived home from Halifax yesterday to find that my book order from Amazon had arrived. Like a treat on top of a treat!

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin,

Your Baby and Child from Birth to Age Five by Penelope Leach, and

The Privilege of Being a Woman by Alice Von Hildebrand.

The first is about labour and birth, the second about infant development and care, and the third is a more spiritual, theological reflection on this time in a woman's life. I'm excited to read them all! In fact, I've already read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and I found it so good I decided I want to own it. Reading her thoughts and collection of birth stories in the months leading up to my own labour and birth will be so encouraging and empowering. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in trying natural birth. It is so wonderful to read encouraging words (based in observed facts!) about the amazing things a woman's body is capable of on its own, without some of the interventions modern medicine has assumed to be necessary for the last 60 years.

I think the baby enjoyed our holiday to Halifax too. Perhaps I was more relaxed than usual because I was away from responsibilities and stresses, but it felt as thought the baby was moving more frequently and vigorously than ever! Shannon is a Don at King's College at Dalhousie and is involved in the college chapel, as well as singing in the choir at St. George's Anglican Church in Halifax. I attended a number of choral concerts while I was with Shannon--all of them traditional and sacred works from the Advent and Christmas seasons--and the baby moved around a lot during those concerts. A budding music appreciator?

And perhaps the baby is just having another growth spurt. Matthew could see a difference in the shape and size of my belly when I returned--even after just four days.

I'm becoming more and more eager to meet this little one and hold them in my arms, as the reality also sinks in more and more and I am filled with a little bit of holy dread...our life is going to change in ways we can barely anticipate or fathom...

Glory to God in all things!