It's impossible to not notice the belly now. Huffing and puffing up stairs with the extra front load. The turtle paced walk down the street. The constant need to pee. Cankles. Little feet and knees digging into my ribs, kicking me in the belly button. Tired, tired, tired.
We have no idea what to expect in the coming months – but do anticipate that life will change. It will become more sleepless. And maybe more rewarding. We will become a family of three. We'll join the ranks of parenthood. We're excited and nervous and all of that for Baby Goss' entrance into the world. [I do admit that while I'm excited to meet the little individual who's been occupying my stomach for the past 9 months, I'm also really ready to not be pregnant anymore!]
As a celebration of the past 28 years of individual-ness and the year of excitement and change to come, we took these photos on my 29th birthday. It was a fun time indeed – and nice to remember just how big a girl can get when 9 months pregnant.
-amie
While Amie has been visiting the hospital for weekly checkups, I've also kept myself busy, at various other hospitals. For me it's been avoiding death by rabies. Ever since my great idea to 'get down to the river' at Kanchanaburi and a dog chomped my leg in defiance, I've been preventing rabies full time. I recommend anyone in Asia not vaccinated to get the pre-bite shots immediately. In Bangkok it is only $10 x 3 shots = $30. The 'post-exposure' treatment is a lot more involved.
Here's an account of my visit today. Needles #1 then #2 in my forearm to see if I react to equine (from horse) immune globulin. Side effects, ironically enough, involve wheezing and hoarseness in the first 30 minutes. This was not the case for me so then I get needle #3 in my upper arm which is my 2nd shot of 5 (separate hospital visits) for rabies vaccine. This was painful enough but stopped abruptly when I realized what was next – a huge syringe with 16ml of equine rabies immune globulin (believe me A LOT OF LIQUID!). This was administered via needle #4, #5, #6, and #7 around the dog bite area. After the shock of that prodding wore off, I realized the syringe had barely decreased. The final squirts came through needle #8 into my untouched forearm and #9 into my left buttocks followed by the final needle #10 into my right buttocks. I seriously have 6 bandaids covering needle entry points across my body. Back for more in 3 days!
-steve
