baby # 3, five months

how is it already the end of april?  just a couple more months and we will be half way through the year.  thankfully the really bitterly cold days seem to mostly be over and more and more we are surrounded by sunshine and the return of green and bright color every where.  out our front window we see a giant vacant wooded area and it looks like a water color painting that someone is filling in a little day by day.  a few weeks ago it was still brown and bare.  now it is incredibly lush and bright green and constantly full of birds and scurrying animals.  

all this growth and life makes me think inwardly even more, as i am constantly feeling the movements of our sweet baby.  it seems appropriate to be acutely aware of the blossoming life inside of me in a season where i am witnessing the blossoming of life everywhere outside.  and even in with eden and etta as they spend more and more of the day and evening outside and end each day covered in dirt and red cheeked.  we have been reading through a beautifully illustrated copy of the secret garden and it seems like every category of our life, from our romps in nature to our read alouds to this growing baby, all tell the same beautiful story. 

as far as how im feeling, i think i have settled in to my normal pregnancy symptoms; throwing up at least some most days, and feeling nauseous most of the time.  i do still have really bad days that remind me of the dark days of this pregnancy, but on the whole i do think i am feeling better.  it could be that i just dont remember well, but i think i am having more aches and pains this time around, and earlier.  i am also really surprised at how constantly and consistently i have been having braxton hicks contractions.  i had to stop mid walk through a parking lot yesterday because they were so intense. 

etta mae is going through a really interesting phase, one which i dont remember eden going through.  she is really clingy to me, and gets sad very quickly, and does not want to be alone.  this is a big shift for her as she has typically really enjoyed alone time and tended to venture off on her own alot.  i have not experienced this type of clinginess before so i am wondering how long it lasts and how i should either adjust my expectations because of it or help her figure out how to meet the expectations despite it.   

i am feeling hopeful that the spring and summer will make the rest of my pregnancy fly by, since those are seasons that always are always gone before we know it.  and thankfully there are a whole slew of special babies due between now and then, including my own niece or nephew next week, to keep me up to my eyeballs in all the new baby feels.