Thursday, August 14, 2008

Travels and more

Packing is hard when you can only bring one bag. Since Isaac flies free, he doesn't get a piece of luggage. That means we are both supposed to fit everything for five days into one bag. Not easy when you need 8 diapers a day and bibs and burp cloths galore. Not easy when that one bag has to be under 40 pounds. Ultimately, I've had to edit my original plan and go to a second bag that I can carry on in order to fit everything and keep it under 40 pounds. I could fit it all in one bag but not while staying underweight. I'm very happy I chose a direct flight. It did mean flying into O'Hare over Midway, but I think the decision will be worth it when I don't have to try to lug that second bag and the stroller from gate to gate. JB also showed me how to strap the two bags together so once I get my luggage from baggage claim, I'll be able to pull my luggage and push the stroller at the same time. Needless to say I'll be breathing a sigh of relief once Kathleen picks us up in Chicago.

Today I went to give some blood to the pregnancy people. They weighed me again and I have gained about 8 pounds. This is only a guess since I'm not positive what my pre-pregnancy weight was. I didn't know I was pregnant for two months so when pre-pregnancy started is anyone's guess. I've made an educated one, and we're going with that. And according to that I'm eight pounds and counting . . . steadily.

It continues to feel very strange and surreal that I am pregnant. Most of the time I forget I am until someone reminds me (or I try to put on my pants). Thanks to my cousin Kathleen's advice I purchased two "Bella Bands". What a fantastic invention! How do things like this take so long to get thunk up!? This will help me wear my pre-pregnancy pants for longer as I can leave them unbuttoned and/or unzipped and cover that problem with the BellaBand. This will also let me wear pre-pregnancy shirts that are starting to no longer be long enough for me. Hurrah Kathleen! Brilliant! I've also had two different people offer to send me some of their maternity clothes. Both of them are on the taller side which significantly works to my advantage. One of these is someone whom I met online. The other is, ironically enough, Bri. Can you believe this?! All of a sudden our birth mom is providing me with pregnancy clothes. Life is interesting.

Of course, neither of these individuals can provide me with pants long enough. A 37" inseam is not easy to come by. Many people chime in at this time that "Gap carries tall" or some other place carries tall. Here's the problem. Tall is not tall enough for me. Gap is usually 34". Sometimes you can find a 36" online. But truly, I need a 37 to not look like I was wading through a puddle. Thank goodness I found this one place online. I plan to wait until I cannot wait any longer and then order a pair or two of pants from them. There isn't a huge selection, but a small selection will do to help me get through the cool winter here in northern Florida.

One bummer is that when I adopted Isaac, I looked forward to people saying that I "lost the pregnancy weight really quickly." I only had a few weeks of that. Now people are looking at me thinking "She's still got that pregnancy belly going on." I thought about having Isaac wear his "Soon to be Big Brother" shirt on the plane tomorrow just to get everyone really confused, but as being the center of attention is not my favorite thing, I'll refrain.

The Lord has really been helping my heart as I take into account that my pregnancy is something that may hurt other people. I am coming to grips with the fact that this is His plan for my life, and He has a plan for all of our lives. But my heart is still incredibly sensitive to those women still waiting for their miracle. Please know you are not forgotten -- whether you be a single gal waiting for your husband and your baby, or a married woman waiting for your child, the Lord is present. He's there. Keep trusting Him. He is with you even when you feel very alone.

. . . time to watch some women's gymnastics. Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Olympics? Why can't they be going on year-round?!

12 comments:

Amy T. S. said...

Yep. I felt like an alien shopping for maternity clothes with a 6 month old infant in tow. It definitely appeared to be postpartum weight for awhile.

Have fun!

Anonymous said...

Regarding your pants. I was watching, "The Secret Lives of Women" the other night and, there was a beautiful young woman on there who was like 6'4" and had a 40" inseam! Wow! those are some long legs. To top it off, she wore a size 13 shoe and loved heels. She said her options were of course limited (a lot of drag queen type shoes ;)).
I love tall women who embrace who they are. :)
Linda

Gabbs said...

Speaking of tall women and their inseams, did you know the chick (can't think of her first name) Haneef-Park on the USA women's v-ball team is 6'7"?? I wonder what her inseam is?

And ya know, short people, well really short people at least, have a similar problem in reverse. At least I do. My inseam is shorter than what all the stores carry in their "short" sections. Pants are always too long for me.

Anonymous said...

spacebags work wonders for traveling, they allow you to get more than the average amount of clothing into a suitcase. We had the same problem when traveling just a couple of weeks ago and decided to just buy a package of diapers at the location we were going to which worked out better than packing all we needed was what we would need to travel with in a diaper bag.

Anonymous said...

Have fun! Wish you could come on over to Rochester while you are up this way.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you can only take 40 pounds? I was allowed 50 when I flew a couple weeks ago!

Wendi Kitsteiner said...

Depends on the airline. This airline is 40.

Blessed Blackman Bunch said...

that band is awesome. what a smart person to think of it!!! :)

Anonymous said...

I am one of the waiting .... your thoughts are appreciated

Anonymous said...

Because Wendicious, if the Olympics were year-round they'd be as interesting as pre-season football games and you wouldn't get nearly as excited about them ;-)

Yay gymnastics!

TAV said...

wendi- when can we have some real not-so-subtle belly pictures?? :)
olympics until MN and getting up early for residency do not mix well... i slept for 14 hours last night to catch up!!!!

Wendi Kitsteiner said...

Tara, I really don't have a plan to share non-subtle pics. Should I? :)