It's coming fast!

We're having a baby.

I've been able to feel this little girl wiggle inside of me for over two months, but it still surprises me sometimes. There are plenty of days that I constantly have my hand on my stomach and all I can think about is the little person just inches away and I feel like I'm just twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the big day when we get to meet our baby- like my life is paused and will start again when she gets here.

And it's taking forever.

Except that it isn't.

The weeks are flying by.  It's unbelievable to me that on Monday I'll be 33 weeks along- my due date is  only a little over 7 weeks away (though she'll probably come closer to 9 weeks from now).  I feel absolutely thrilled but entirely inadequate.  Right now I'm sitting in baby's room, surrounded by piles of clothes.  A good friend gave me a giant bag full of clothes and I've been sorting them into sizes.  I've been able to feel this little girl growing inside of me for months, but seeing these different sized outfits side-by-side makes me realize how much she'll grow in the first months on the other side- there's a stark contrast between the first pile and the last.

Each day is precious and has elements that will never quite be the same.  Right now I'm soaking in the last weeks of one-on-one time with my husband and enjoying the flexibility of my own personal schedule.  I'm terribly excited though.

We're having a baby!

31 weeks

Lab rat #82613

All ready for bed, 27 weeks pregnant

I attended a research focused university and have worked in a a research lab for nearly three years; so when there isn't risk involved, I'm a willing test subject.  During this pregnancy I've been participating in a study that includes wearing a sleep monitor to bed once during the 1st trimester and once during the 3rd trimester.  It took a little while to get all set up, but it didn't disrupt my sleep at all- hopefully they learned something useful. And we got some extra spending money for baby!

Guns

            I was in 7^th grade when I learned of the death of a classmate due to an accidental shooting.  He and a friend were cleaning out a neighbor’s garage when they came across the loaded gun; the friend accidently shot him while handling it.  It was shocking.  A 12 year old, someone my age who I had gone to school with, was gone.  I didn’t know him especially well, but he seemed great.  He was usually smiling and worked hard at school and I think I remember him playing soccer.  I couldn’t imagine how his family was feeling, or the friend, or the neighbor.

            Guns have been in the news a lot lately- deliberate violence, accidental deaths, new laws, and 3D printing.  However, one article particularly has been on my mind, “Another ‘accidental’ childshooting shows that child shooting deaths are not accidental”*.  It isn’t suggesting that children are being shot deliberately, but that these deaths are preventable and shouldn’t simply be treated as isolated tragedies.   This made me reflect on my own experience.  I know a lot of gun owners who feel more secure because they have a gun in their home; however, I’ve never met a person who has protected his home from danger using a firearm, but I did know a child who died in an accident with a gun.  As I started searching for more information I came across an analysis/article about “unintentional shootings of Utah children” that found that there were “250 unintentional shootings or children by children in Utah between 1988 and 2003, or about 16 per year”.

            I want to come to a conclusion, a poignant observation about what we should be doing, but it is complicated.  It's frustrating- it is complicated but the answer is not to do nothing.  It is so frustrating to me how it feels like, excuse the expression, a loaded conversation whenever "guns" and "regulation" are in the same sentence.  But it seems absolutely crazy that we aren't doing more to keep people safe- we regulate cars, drugs, and many other things that contribute to the overall public safety of our country.  I'm not proposing anything specific, but the first step is to be open to the conversation.  The current system isn't working, let's try and change it.

*The author of this article recently posted a follow up: “Another day, another ‘accidental’ child shooting death”.