S's sister arrived from out of state on Thursday, followed quickly by S's parents, my parents, my grandfather, and my uncle, traveling here from anywhere from 850 to 2000 miles away. They were all visiting for Passover, which started this past weekend, and since everyone except my sister-in-law bought their plane tickets before finding out we were pregnant, I can honestly say that they came to visit us, not because of the baby. Probably the last time I will be able to say that.
The weekend was full of cooking, cooking, and more cooking, interspersed occasionally with some furniture moving. We had the first Passover Seder on Saturday night, with just the 9 of us. Our traditional Second Seder on Sunday night was 26 people. I cook for this every year, so I'm used to the quantities and I have the timing down by now to make sure everything is done and hot by the time we start the meal, but it was nice having the extra help this year, because I get tired so easily. (To give you a sense of the menu: the 9-person seder had the usual symbolic seder foods, followed by chopped liver, fish, lamb, potatoes, and two vegetable dishes. The next night, the 26-person event included the same symbolic seder foods, plus matzo ball soup, brisket, lamb, two vegetable dishes, and 3 different kugels, all in huge quantities to feed so many people.) I cut corners this year by asking several friends to make the desserts, so that I didn't have to bake as well. Still, I think it's safe to say that I'm over my no-cooking-during-pregnancy streak. And with so many family helpers this year, the clean-up was done in record time (and with very little participation by me -- can't beat that!). Oh, and the furniture moving: in order to fit 26 people in our house for a sit-down meal, we have to move all our living room furniture into other rooms of the house. Thank goodness S has strong and helpful friends, since I'm not really in couch-lifting shape right now.
On Monday, with the last of the clean-up in the capable hands of the men, the two future grandmothers and I went shopping. I found a few cribs that I like, a changing table that I'm happy with, a glider that I absolutely love, and I'm almost settled on a stroller. Not bad for one day! All are contingent on S going with me to the stores sometime to look at everything himself, but I know his style by now, and I'm pretty sure he'll like the picks. Progress is being made!
All the out-of-towners left this morning, so we have the house to ourselves again, at least until September. I have a ton of work to catch up on (being out of the office and away from email since Thursday morning leaves quite a backlog by Tuesday!) and am feeling a quite a bit overwhelmed, which is odd -- you'd think the feelings of being in over my head would have happened before the family visitors and 26-person meal, not afterwards. So, though I have lots of pregnancy and fertility tidbits to report, they'll have to wait for future posts. Brief sneak preview of topics:
- S's mom reacts to the news about our fertility struggle; it includes the phrase "just relax."
- Sometime last year, S's mom secretly snuck Japanese fertility dolls into our house, hidden inside other gifts. Not because she knew about our infertility, but because she thought that we didn't want kids, and thought that she might be able to make it happen anyway by accident.
- Barack's future nursery is closer to being emptied, but we've been accused of owning too much stuff (true, but we're handling it), and of not working on it enough (ouch!).
- Lots of discussion with family members on furniture, health, cars, names, childcare, and circumcision. Several of these discussions reached the annoyingly pushy level.
- Negotiations continue over grandparent visitation after Barack is born.
PS -- Migraines continue. Lack of appetite continues, despite the abundance of good food. Kicks are getting stronger. Exhaustion, backaches, swollen ankles are all mild annoyances but supremely manageable. Overall, I'm feeling great!
2 comments:
Happy 20 weeks. Any way the migrainse can be from lack of appetite/low sugars?
Sounds like a busy holiday and a whole lot of family. Sounds like you have some very amusing posts forthcoming.
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