So I’ve been thinking a lot about expectation and babies this advent season. Less about incarnate deity and more about that we in the Clawson household are expecting baby number two due this next July. So it has very much been a season of longing and hope of the more immediate kind for us.
My official due date is July 4th (and yes I am fully aware of the irony there). I know its not considered kosher to announce stuff like this before the end of the first trimester (I’m a few weeks short), but we mentioned it in our Christmas letter so I thought I might as well tell the whole world. And I desperately wanted a public forum to complain in. Sorry.
The last seven weeks or so of this haven’t been all joy and longing, more accurately they have been constant round-the-clock severe “morning sickness” (or Hyperemesis Gravidarum to use the official name). Basically I have been constantly sick since the start of November. Even on medications I can barely eat, I can hardly drink, I’ve lost over 10% of my body weight, been hospitalized for dehydration, and am so weak and nauseated that I have to spend almost all my time reclined on the couch. Needless to say, life around here has been a tad bit stressful. But the point is to do whatever I can to control the sickness so it doesn’t develop into the same complications as it did in my first pregnancy – pre-term labor, 3.5 months on strict bedrest, and a 6 weeks premature baby. We gambled on the chance of there being no complications this time around and so far aren’t doing so well.
But we, and Emma, are nevertheless very excited. Emma insists that it will be a “girl baby,” but we shall see. Names are still very much up in the air, but we do have our list of possibilities. And following that last post on naming trends those possibilities include both the trendy and the unique – and yes there is another LOTR name in the mix as well as a couple of names of Pagan deities to round it off nicely.
So Advent 2007 has been about joy, hope, and expectation, but with hefty doses of misery, worry, and fear. There is still a long road ahead and I pray that no further complications develop (I really really don’t want to do the bedrest thing again). We would appreciate your prayers as well. But above all, it is a time of celebration that I wanted to share with friends here.
(and I so promise not to turn this into a pregnancy blog 
)