OOPS!

Well, I went and took my 22 week picture and I was sure I made a lovely blog post about it, and then I come check here and oh. No. I didn't do that at all. Pregnancy brain, maybe? Well, here it is:

Now that I'm over being sick, things are awesome. My belly is quite literally bigger every day, and the most common reaction people have when they see me is OH MY GOD! Even if it's only been a couple days. I think that's a good sign. I'm definitely beyond looking like I might possibly just have a beer belly, and strangers (my customers) comment all the time, but so far only in a really nice complimentary or helpful way, and I haven't yet been the object of any undesired belly-rubs. Good good. I'm finally filling out my maternity clothing, and I'm feeling much more fashionable again. I am a little worried that nothing is going to fit in another month if everything is fitting now, especially if my belly keeps exploding at its current rate, but if so, oh well, we'll do more shopping.

I have quite a bit more on my mind that I'd like to get out here, but I'm still trying to compose my thoughts, but didn't want to leave forever between posts, so updates soon!

Week 21

Picture is not so fabulous today, because I'm still not feeling 100%, but whatever. The belly is... significant. It's been coming out of nowhere I feel like. I don't know why this is so surprising, but whenever I look in the mirror I'm like WHAT? Where did that come from! Maybe I will get used to it eventually.

I mentioned briefly in my last post that my navel is already doing freaky things. I feel like it's a little early for that sort of thing, but maybe since I have an outie already I get a head start? It hasn't completed it's outward journey yet, but it's starting to make a little progress, and my skin there feels very soft and... I don't know how to really describe it, except that it isn't how it normally is.

I really can't wait for Kyle to be able to feel the baby kicking. He laughs at me, because every time I feel a kick I will say something like "hello there!" I can't help it, but he thinks it's ridiculous, probably because it's so often and it's been going on for long enough that you would think it wouldn't be so novel anymore, but! Baby kicks! Amazing! Hello!

Today I bought tiny socks and yoga pants that actually fit, so even though I'm still sick I feel like it's been a success.

achoo.

So I was doing all fabulous and everything when I got hit with a motherfucker of a cold. They weren't kidding when they said this shit hits you harder in pregnancy. I spent all of yesterday and Sunday in bed. Eating chicken soup and drinking gatorade. I tried a goddamn neti pot I was so desperate. (It was effective, but disgusting.) This is serious business.

I'm glad I took it easy, something I rarely seem to do when I am sick, because I felt much better this morning. Good thing, as I had a midwife appointment. Standard. I am the most boring and uncomplicated patient ever, so my appointments are boring and uncomplicated, but I guess that's a good thing. I finally did gain some weight, though and I am officially on the plus side for the first time this pregnancy. Four pounds! Go me! They also had a little trouble finding my fundus because apparently my abs are so "rock hard." Hilarious and awesome at the same time.

However, it seems that the exertion of driving out to a belly-poking and helping my mother pick out a pair of glasses and eating a bagel was too much for me, because by the time I got home this afternoon I started feeling like I should probably lay down immediately. I did, as I am actually learning to listen to my body (hurray!), but at some point I had to run to the bathroom to vomit. Violently. Good grief. Clearly this is no longer morning sickness, and more likely just related to post-nasal drip, but really, I have barfed more than enough this pregnancy, thank-you-very-much.

The good news is that even though I've been sick, my appetite seems not to be suffering at all. Although all I want to eat lately is chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to crave food with actual nutrients in it, but what do I know.  I'm sure once this cold passes I'll be back to pregnancy-is-awesome-land. I could do without the freaky things that are happening to my navel, though.

Dizzy in the Noodle

So I kind of feel like Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella in the 1965 made-for-TV Rodgers & Hammerstein production when everyone is home from the ball and she is waxing poetic to her step-sisters about how wonderful it all is. "What all is?" asks her step-mother.

This pregnancy thing is freaking amazing as all get out, I tell you. I keep writing these posts about how OMG, you guys, the baby is kicking FOR REAL this time! And then two days later I'm feeling like I should tell you more about these kicks because they are so much freaking better today than they were last time I posted you have got to try this!!

So at the risk of sounding like a broken record, omigoodness, I just love feeling him moving around. I'm feeling it all the time now, not just when I don't have other things to distract me, and it's more often than not real, discrete kicks instead of some vague wiggly feeling in my gut and holy cow I am in love.

The store I used to work at had kids and baby departments, but it was in the middle of downtown Seattle, and as such most people didn't bring their kids on shopping trips. Sure, there was always a munchkin or two, but nothing crazy. Certainly they were always outnumbered by mannequins. My new store is in a very family friendly suburban mall and out store is outfitted with a coloring table for the little ones and there is a parade of adorable (and sometimes appallingly behaved) children that come through our doors. Lately I've been watching the little boys. I'm going to have a son. I've never really imagined myself as a mother to a boy. A spitfire tomboy girl maybe, but for whatever reason, my imagination just didn't go there. So now I catch myself studying them. Will he be like that? Can I handle that? What have I gotten myself into?

But it always comes back to how wonderful it all is!

Obligatory 20 Weeks Post

I ought to have posted this yesterday when I was in fact exactly 20 weeks pregnant, but I was busy doing other stuff and then all of the sudden  it wasn't yesterday anymore, so oh well. Anyway, half way point, yay, etc.

And so it begins...

Hello blogfriends.


Things are awesome. I am definitely in the good part of pregnancy. I mostly feel great, except for a little backache or leg cramp here and there. My energy is back up, and barfing seems to think of the past (knock on wood). I get heartburn at night when I lay down, but it's not severe, and mostly just ends up serving as a reminder that hey! there's a baby in there.


Speaking of, tonight baby kicks just got real.  I mean, they were there before and everything, but in that sort of demented goldfish bumping into walls and kind of vague movementy feelings kind of way. Now I'm feeling real, discrete kicks.


Last night Kyle came home bearing a bag of baby presents. The mother of one of the kids he coaches sent it home with him. Tons and tons of stuff, omigosh! Elephant print onesies! Sleepers with turtles! TINY PLAID OVERALLS! So many things. I think that was the most fun I've ever had opening presents ever. Oh, the generosity of strangers. Unbelievable. I've never even met this woman!


Having actual baby stuff meant for my very own baby makes this feel another level of real. I spent a little time last night imagining my son (OMG! My son!) in tiny plaid overalls and it was lovely. Now that he's a he and he has clothes and he has a name and he kicks me in the stomach I'm just filled with JOY, however cliché that might be. It's definitely the best descriptor for the feeling.


My project for this week, then, is to actually find a home for all this baby gear that is assembling in my home. It's everywhere! In bags in my bedroom, on my desk, in my dresser. In a suitcase in the hallway. Crazy. I probably should have been expecting stuff to start showing up, but wow. I feel like there's tons of it already.

It's a...

BOY!

(Perhaps I shouldn't have posted that picture here, but oh well.) Yes, he's a him. Very unsurprising results, as everyone we know guessed that's what we were having. I felt like he was a boy early on, but as we got closer to finding out I felt less certain. But now we know. And, as you can see from the picture, we pretty darn sure.

I feel great. Honestly, I had no real preference, besides some superficial nonsense, but those things fell on both sides anyway. I can't say I was surprised, though. Yesterday when we found out I felt a little down, not because of the results, but just because I feel like everything is going by so quickly and I don't feel ready to be a parent yet and have him on the outside, and every milestone we pass reminds me how fleeting this time is.

Today I feel much better. I've had a chance to sit a while with the new normal, and knowing this, and BABY BOY I LOVE YOU! He has a pronoun and a NAME and we saw all of his fingers and toes and just wow. The doctor said he looks absolutely perfect, and all of his bone measurements were coming out a couple days to a week ahead. They said he weighs 10 ounces (plus or minus two), and my weekly email said he should be about 8.5, so he's clearly a healthy kid. And, goodness! The fingers and toes!

I'm getting bigger, too. My bella band is starting to not quite cut it, and I'm really going to need to invest in some maternity jeans soon. I was hoping to avoid maternity pants altogether, but clearly that was a pipe dream. I have picked up some more pieces, though, so I don't feel like getting dressed every morning is the hardest thing I've ever had to do any more, but I'm still not quite to a working wardrobe.

19 Weeks

I'm also getting tired of everyone telling me how small I am or how I barely have a belly. I know I am small. I started out little, of course I'm not going to be huge now. But I'm certainly very much bigger than I was 15 weeks ago when I took my first belly photo, and I'm the perfect size for where I am in my pregnancy. I would love for this to be acknowledged. I guess soon enough everyone will being telling me how huge I am and OMG what do you mean you have another two months left!? and that will irritate me too.

Kyle is of course thrilled to be having a son. He was definitely prepared for the possibility of a girl, and wouldn't have been disappointed or anything, but he certainly feels more confident about being father to a boy. He's been so excited to tell everyone, and it's the first time he's really been shouting from the rooftops about any of that, and it makes me so happy to see.

21 weeks until we meet our perfect adorable son. OMG!