Fall reminds me...

Fall reminds me of:

• School: Both high school and college
• New seasons of television
• Halloween haunted houses
• Apple Butter Festival
• Sleeping with the windows open
• Football

AND most of all, pregnancy.
I was pregnant through all four seasons and when I think about it, out of all of them, fall is the one that stands out most in my memory of pregnancy.  I barely even remember being pregnant in winter, spring was a blur, and what I did experience of summer while pregnant, it flew by.  

I must remember fall the most because we had just found out we were pregnant and things started to change so quickly.

The smell of fall and the crisp, cool air reminds me of my drives to work through the mountain, twice a week, listening to a book on cd that told me specifically every little thing about pregnancy and what to expect.  I am reminded of those drives, fighting the nausea, sea bands on my wrists and "preggie drops" in my mouth.  I remember the bath and body works lotion I would put on my hands, the smell of it...  The point of all this is and the funny thing about it all, is that nausea kind of ruined last fall for me.  I could not (after the first trimester) and STILL cannot wear that particular scent of bath and body works lotion.  It reminds me of being sick.  You know how when you might smell something and it "takes you back"?  Well, that's what happened in this situation.  And the same kind of thing with that pregnancy book on tape.  After the first trimester, I had to stop listening because the woman's voice made me want to throw up, seriously.  And that cool, crisp air of fall is what I would roll down my window to breathe, to make sure I wouldn't get sick on the drive.  Most of last fall, I was found on our couch, trying to sleep away the nausea and tiredness of the pregnancy.  I lived on wheat saltines and caffeine free ginger ale.  Though, I was thankful to be experiencing symptoms that told me my baby was in there.

Anyway, I am looking forward to enjoying this fall season. Eating pumpkin flavored treats, walking outside in the coolness, celebrating Halloween, and most of all doing all these things (excluding the pumpkin treats) with the little boy we dreamed about this time last year....

This exact day last year, in fact.  October 11, 2010, the day that changed our lives.  It changed again when Liam was finally born, but the first change came when we realized that I had a living, human being inside of me.  It was the start of realizing, that now, I would be living for someone else.  I needed to accommodate this little person so that "it" would grow to be big and strong.

This was a day that brought so much emotion and feeling and I can't even really explain those things in words.

I can still feel all of this, when I think about it.  It makes me smile and get butterflies at the same time.