Another Spring, another market season

From May 22

There's this annual ritual I've picked-up of bringing the camera to the Farmer's Market on one of the first days that it feels like spring has really arrived, nevermind the equinox date. That was yesterday for us, and here are the photos to prove it. The market was bursting with color--flowers, rhubarb, greens, more flowers ... it was just beautiful. It rained off and on throughout the morning, but fortunately cleared-up just in the thirty minutes before Maia's third soccer game started.

Brian and I have put forth a challenge to ourselves: this year, we're not going to buy any meat from anyone other than the farmer him/herself. Phew! We're very, very fortunate that this is even possible, but even with the options we have (MSU for beef, Ernst Farm for chicken and pork), it will probably prove challenging sometimes. Essentially, what this means for us is that we're going to be eating a lot more vegetarian meals than we did last summer! Fortunately, though, we've found a great local source for tofu, and that helped this challenge become immensely easier. Of course, this doesn't apply to the times that we eat at other people's homes, and our "rules" are a bit broader at restaurants (non-local meat is OK, but stuff from a CAFO is still off-limits). So, let's see how this goes! :)

I've finished with my last doula client's birth before our own Baby G arrives, and my last six-week childbirth series ends on June 7. My day care kids' last day is June 9, and then my calendar will be clear and wide open until Baby G's birth. It feels very satisfying to be checking-off each of my three jobs and moving them into the "Done" category for a while. I'm looking forward to a couple months of soaking up the sun, hanging out with Maia, wandering around downtown and campus, and taking it easy. I'm in my 30th week of pregnancy right now, so I'll be full-term in seven weeks, but we all know that I still waited a full five weeks past that point last time. This time around, when anyone asks me when I'm due, my answer is "late July or early August." Enough with this exact due date nonsense! :)

The baby's room (our former guest room--Aunties Jo and Katie, we'll be figuring out an alternative!) is finished and ready to go, our car insurance covered our new Britax convertible carseat after our hit-and-run accident, and I have a newborn-friendly wrap carrier. We used our baby stroller so rarely with Maia (and sold it on Craigslist relatively early into her life) that we've decided to eschew the infant stroller this time around. Despite the fact that we sold a lot of Maia's "big ticket" infant items early in her life, we haven't had much to do to prepare for this little one. Simplify, simplify.

I'll be returning for another appointment with my midwife in a week, and then I have what's hopefully my last ultrasound on June 4. At my 20-week ultrasound, I was diagnosed with a "low-lying" placenta, which is relatively common (something like 25%) at second-trimester screenings, and almost always becomes a non-issue by 32 weeks or so. Basically, the edge of my placenta was only about 1.2 cm away from my cervix, which is in "low-lying" territory. It's not placenta previa, in which the placenta touches or covers the cervix, but it's still something we'd like to see resolve itself and move up by a couple of weeks from now. Imagine drawing a dot on a deflated balloon, near the opening, and then blowing-up the balloon. The dot would move up and away from the opening as the balloon expands, right? Essentially, the placenta does the same thing the majority of the time. We'll hope it did so in the last several weeks for me, too! :)