3rd Trimester

I'm officially in the "home stretch". All of the symptoms held off until now... and now I'm feeling a whole bunch of them.

My back hurts. Like I really need to crack it. The only thing which seems to make it feel better is lying on my back with a rolled-up towel or blanket under the affected area. But that's not exactly comfortable either.

I'm tired all the time. Not in the 'I need to sleep' way, but, in the 'why am I out of breath from climbing one set of stairs - and with my heart "racing" (ok, 100 bpm) as well.

The strangest feeling, though, is because of how I'm carrying. All the weight I've gained is right in front of the stomach. It makes it feel like something is going to fall through when I'm walking around - like my skin & muscles aren't strong enough. I've heard about these belly straps/support bands... I may need to get one soon.

I finally stopped bouting completely. I just don't have the energy for it. People said it was going to be my balance that would probably go. But my balance is just fine. Its that bouting for 10 minutes means 20-30 minutes of recovery time. About a month ago I was almost back to fencing like I used to - when I was somewhat decent. Ah well.... the goal is to fence at sectionals & hopefully qualify for D1A.

DH and I are making slow progress with names - we're down to 12 in total now. And setting up the nursery. And buying all the stuff we'll need for when she gets here. It will all get done in time....

Veteran's Day

I know I've been around long enough to know better, but, I am still amazed by the people who don't know which war this day was set aside for. OK, the observation is on a Monday. But this is 'Armistice Day': end of WW1.

I asked some fairly intelligent people at work last week about this holiday. Most of them couldn't tell the difference between WW1 and WW2. They thought this was like V-J day - a state holiday in Rhode Island.

Of course, this was followed up by talking with a very bright high school senior who is going to Northwestern U with a fencing scholarship. She's been taking college courses for a couple of years. She couldn't find Chicago on a map of the United States (with state borders). She put it somewhere in the Dakotas. She lives 5 miles from the New Hampshire border and can't tell the difference between New Hampshire and Vermont.

Perhaps the saddest though, was, when faced with a map of Eurasia and trying to locate Moscow, she picked somewhere close to Bonn. Only 2 countries away... but how do you miss the absolute largest country on the planet?

Sigh.