Housesitting

We are down in Eugene housesitting and it has rained. Every. Day. It's great, because it means I don't have to water the garden or lawn (the main reason I'm here!) but it also means we can't enjoy the spray park, only two blocks away, or go to the pool (we have free passes!). In the meantime, though, we've got rain gear and we've been walking all over town. It's GREAT to see Aftasie walking miles. Sometimes it takes (a lot of) encouragement, but she makes it without any signs of fatigue. Just signs of boredom :P Our newest thing is counting the sidewalk blocks, and she knows the faster she runs the faster I have to count, so that's a little incentive for her :) 

Has anyone watched Babies? I highly recommend it. Aftasie is in her, hm, 6th time watching it? It documents 4 babies in different countries from birth to first steps. It really is quite endearing and in a certain scene, while a baby is born, Aftasie exclaims "The baby came out of momma's belly!!" It's great also since she'll have a little sibling here before too long :) 

Speaking of which, 19 weeks today! I can't believe I'm almost halfway through. Nausea is completely over, thank God, and the baby is moving a lot :) I felt it from the inside a few days before 16 weeks, and then outside a few days after 16 weeks! Porter felt the baby around 17 weeks, which if I recall is a lot earlier than last time. I was surprised it took till 16 weeks for me to feel him/her, because it's the same time I felt Aftasie and I expected to feel this one much earlier. But anyway! I'm sooo happy to feel the baby move. It makes me happy every time. 

Also on the baby front, Aftasie and I are down to two nursing sessions a day. Kind of :\ and kind of :D! I've decided that for my sanity I'm only nursing her to go down for naps and to go down to sleep initially at night. And she's doing splendidly. She slept last night from 9 to 5am, which is pretty amazing! That is a full night sleep for me, really. She asks for milk initially and then I explain that she needs to go potty, that I'm going to get a cup of milk and a snack, and then we're both going to go back to sleep and she's perfectly OK with it. She doesn't always sleep those hours, but I'm excited to be going towards a full night of sleep fairly regularly till the baby comes. Of course, I have to get up and pee now, and I wake through the night anyway :P 

But honestly, nursing while you're pregnant does NOT feel anything like nursing when you're not pregnant (for me, anyway). It's been so jarring on my nerves and it doesn't feel like nursing anymore. It feels like she's just twiddling my nipples for however long she nurses, which is extremely annoying and just too much sensation for me. I'm really hoping that it is more comfortable when the baby comes (and I trust it will be) because I loved nursing while unpregnant, for the most part, but I really dislike it while pregnant :( Just being honest, here. I feel a little like a failure for not completely letting Aftasie self-wean and that I sometimes refuse to give her milk, and I just want to stand up and say that it IS extremely wearing and I am having a hard time nursing her now. It is good to me, though, that she doesn't cry about it or anything. She will ask twice sometimes, but usually I just explain what's happening and she says OK.