28 Weeks

I missed last week's update and belly shot because we were up on Mackinac Island for four days.  I even forgot to get a good profile shot of my belly.  I had just mentioned to Jeremy that we couldn't forget to take one when we got to a pretty spot, but then I walked up 304 stairs, so my only thoughts were death and I forgot all about it.  But I did get some shots that give you a pretty good idea of how big I was.  These were all taken on Friday, when I was one day away from 27 weeks:

The baby makes her first visit to Arch Rock

Beautiful weather for our 8-mile bike ride around the Island!

I felt the need to pose for Tommy's camera.  One of my friends said the caption for this picture is "I'm too sexy for my belly!"

I am wearing HEELS in this picture!  So stupid!

We all had loads of fun, but unfortunately, I was a big buzzkill.  The day before we left, I was working and packing and cleaning and preparing directions for the dog/cat/housesitter from 7 AM until 2 AM ... and then I looked at my feet.  They were bigger than I had ever seen them, and my body told me there was no way it would allow me to sleep with my feet elevated while I laid on my side (per doctor's orders), so I went to bed and hoped for the best.  I woke up four hours later to leave and, surprise, surprise -- they looked about the same.  Then we spent 3 hours in the car, half an hour on the ferry and then started a vacation that included a lot of walking, standing, and socializing.  So, basically, my feet never had a chance to return to normal, and I walked around getting shocked looks from people when they saw that my ankles were bigger than my knees and my swollen feet were jammed into dress shoes like ten pounds of sausage in five pounds of casing.

So, I was pretty lame, complained about it, and put my feet up on people's laps whenever I got five minutes to do so.  At one point, I went into my mom and dad's suite and she had some friends I had never met hanging out in the sitting room.  I plopped my feet on her lap and they both gasped.  The husband said "Is there anything we can do for you??" and the wife immediately ran back to her room and got a tube a cooling lotion to use on my feet.  She even insisted that I keep it because I needed it more than she did!  

Also, I don't know why, but the beds killed me this year.  I have stayed in this hotel for years and years, and usually I wake up feeling rested and ready to take on the day.  They are very nice mattresses.  This year, the same bed I slept in last year felt like a torture device and I woke up every morning exhausted and with every muscle in my body aching.  On the last night, my arms were actually going numb because of the knots in my back, and instead of letting Jeremy drink and party with everyone else, I insisted on an hour-long back rub because I was certain I was about to die.  So ... sorry fellow travelers!!  And especially Jeremy. :(

Well, that was a big re-cap, but now here we are at TWENTY EIGHT WEEKS!!!  I am offically seven months pregnant and in my (drumroll) ... THIRD TRIMESTER!!!  

Look how big she is!!

This week our amazing baby has probably reached two and a half pounds and could be as long as 16 inches!  Along with being able to cough, hiccup, suck, and take practice breaths, she can now blink and experiences Rapid Eye Movement when she sleeps!  Thankfully, her lungs are fully mature at this point, which is the milestone I was waiting for with bated breath.  Although she would still need a LOT of help if she were born at this point, she is out of the "danger zone."

It hit me in the shower this morning that it was my third trimester and I frantically started listing all the things we have yet to do (because we had SO MUCH time) like finding a pediatrician, pre-registering at the hospital, and taking a childbirth class.  Of course, when I freaked out, Jeremy just patted my hand and told me we couldn't do ALL of those things today, so we will sit down tomorrow and make a schedule of when to get those things accomplished in the next month.  What a guy.

Tonight I am off to a Girls Night with some old friends from high school.  We'll see how the baby likes the car trip from Rochester Hills and back.  She has been giving me some trouble to and from work lately.  I often have to lean really far to the right so the pain in my left side will go away. Oh well, I have a lot of working left to do and that means a lot more driving, so we will both just have to get used to it.

My ligament pain has also returned with a vengeance, at exactly the same time when I am having a hard time hauling myself in and out of certain positions.  At night, I usually wake up about ten times, whimpering because the hip I'm laying on hurts so bad.  When I have heaved myself halfway to the other side, my ligaments stretch and I feel like someone is stabbing me under my belly, so I flop back down.  It can take a few tries to roll over now, and all the while I am grunting.  Of course, Jeremy sleeps right through this.  I am going to need a system of pulleys and levers soon! :)

I guess I never appreciated being able to just get up off the couch or go from sitting on the floor to standing or roll over in bed without effort and embarrassment.  I will cherish when I am able to again! :)

A few big achievements also took place this week.  The baby has been SO ACTIVE and sometimes I feel like she is beating me up in there, but every time I put someone else's hand where she was moving, she would instantly freeze, then the second they gave up and moved their hand and I put mine back, she would go bonkers again.  Sigh.  She also moves so much now that I see my belly moving like an alien movie all the time.  I even freaked a student out in the Writing Center because she was doing it, but Jeremy couldn't see it.  But THIS week, Jeremy felt TONS of hard kicks AND saw my belly moving around!  AND I finally found the baby's heartbeat and put Jeremy's hand on it ... and he FELT IT!!!  It has been a good week! :)

23 weeks

Today is 23 weeks, and that means that the baby is embarking on a weight-gain extravaganza over the next four weeks.  Today she is probably a little over 11 inches in length and a little over a pound, but in the next four weeks she will more than double in weight!  YAY, but ... she already seems to be taking up a lot of room, so ... we'll see.

Her hearing is also getting better and better every day, to prepare for all of the sounds she will hear when she arrives.  She is also supposedly able to feel me moving around now because her sense of feeling is so well developed.  It only seems fair, since I can DEFINITELY feel her moving around in there!  She continues to be a big mover.  I have to constantly remind myself that she is only a pound -- it is hard to believe she is so little but can make her presence known with as much force as a bowling ball! 

Her skin is also reddish in color right now because of the rapidly developing blood vessels and the fact that her skin is so thin.  The blood vessels in her lungs are also developing to prepare for breathing.

I continue to get bigger and bigger -- big surprise -- and have been getting some fun comments lately.  

Strangers will say, "OH MY, you are ready to POP!  When are you due?" and of course, I tell them "In four months" and they look horrified.  This past week, FOUR different people at work asked me, "Are you SUPPOSED to be this big?!?!"  I REALLY wanted to say, "I don't know.  Are YOU?" but I just smiled and said something vague and walked away.  

Other than unwelcome comments, I am feeling the stretch in my muscles all up and down my torso and am getting some unwanted pressure on my diaphram, making it difficult to talk a lot when I am teaching (which, if you know me, is a CRYING shame, since it is what I do best!), but things are pretty good overall.  Still some feet and ankle swelling, aches and pains, and trouble sleeping, but nothing unusual, and nothing that I don't already know is going to get worse as time goes by! :)

In just a few weeks I will be in the third trimester, and I can't wait!

Update on Kicks

I was still feeling a little scared that I wasn't feeling the baby move a lot.  I know another mother who is due only 3 days before me, and she mentioned she is feeling a LOT of activity.  I was a little scared, and even took to poking my belly from time to time, asking the baby to move (which horrified Jeremy beyond belief!).


Thankfully, since Monday I have been feeling more movement, and yesterday the baby must have been having a dance party in there!  While I was teaching from 12 to 6 yesterday, I don't think the baby stopped moving!!  Whether it was loud or quiet, I was standing or sitting, the baby was bouncing around like crazy!  


One of my students came up after class and said "It is so cool to see your baby move while you are talking to the class!  I'm sorry, but I will be watching your belly all semester!" and I was SHOCKED!!!  The movements still feel like little tiny pops to me, so I never considered that anything was visible to others!  On the other hand, she might have just WANTED to see movement.  Most of my classes this term are heavy on the female side, and about 90% of them are mothers and want to talk to me about the baby before class and during breaks.  I will never be short of advice!


Anyway, last night, the little one kept up the dancing long after I was done teaching.  It was grooving while Jeremy and I watched a movie and then for the three hours that I laid in bed trying to all asleep after Jeremy did.  Nothing much yet today, but it must have tired itself out from yesterday!  


I also read today that skinner women feel movement earlier (which I kind of figured) than heavier women, and all the moms I know who felt lots of early movements were skinny-minnies, so that makes sense that I would have to wait a week or two more than them.  


Jeremy has only felt one kick so far, and I am trying like crazy to get him to feel more, but whenever I feel something and slap his hand into place, the baby freezes.  I feel bad, because I know he wants to feel it too.


Anyway, I know in a few months I might be wincing from these kicks, but right now I want them all the time!!!

REAL BABY KICKS!!!

For real this time, guys!!!  Drumroll .... I felt the baby kick last night! And kick and kick and kick.  It was crazy and fun and amazing.


I was at a huge college-wide meeting last night, and I was just sitting there with my hands on my belly (to signal to the strangers at my table that I was pregnant and not just bellylicious -- we had assigned seating so we could meet new people.  Like a cruise ship.  Lame.) when one speaker handed the microphone over to another speaker.  This guy REALLY wanted to make sure we heard him, and he was SHOUTING into the microphone.  He was so loud that I felt the vibrations.  It was unreal.  Then, all of a sudden, I felt a little pop under my hand.  I knew it had to be a little kick, but I waited and thought about it for awhile. What if I had imagined it?  But then, pop pop ... pop ... pop pop pop!  A bunch of little kicks, like my little one was saying SHUT THIS GUY UP!!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM AND WHY CAN'T HE MODULATE THE VOLUME OF HIS VOICE?? I AM TRYING TO RELAX HERE!!  It was amazing.


I kept feeling little kicks, and then as soon as loud guy handed off the mic, they stopped.  I have a sassy little baby that is sensitive to loud noises, just like momma. 

12 Weeks

Twelve weeks already.  I would love to report that I am feeling better, but now it's more like intermittent horribleness.  One day I will be feeling awesome (and then I stupidly say something like, "Jeremy!  I think I am turning a corner here!") and then the next day I will be back on the couch unable to lift my head.  But at least I am having some good days!


On Thursday I was actually thinking about posting about how much better things were getting, but I decided to wait for Friday.  Friday morning I was feeling fantastic.  I had a morning meeting at work (still feeling fantastic) and then I was driving home and ... BAM.  I threw up in a Tim Horton's bag while driving on the expressway.  It was so freaky and came out of nowhere!  Most of what I have been dealing with is just that overwhelming nausea feeling, and I wasn't even feeling nauseated when this happened!  I called Jeremy panicked and crying (which turns out, didn't help), and then got home and took a 3-hour nap.  What a weird day!


Anyway, two more weeks and the first trimester will be a distant memory!  This week the baby is the size of a lime ...

... and I am apparently already the size of a house! :)


But amazing things are happening this week.  The baby is developing REFLEXES!  Reflexes!!  I told Jeremy (through sobs, of course) and he was just as shocked as I was that the baby is opening and closing its little fingers, curling its toes, and making SUCKING MOVEMENTS!  It is just too amazing.


Nerve cells are forming rapidly now, and synapses in the brain are forming furiously.  The face also looks more human now.


The baby probably looks something like this today:

Except, let's be honest -- my baby probably already has a MUCH bigger butt than normal babies at this point! :)


The next doctor's appointment is this Thursday, and Jeremy will get to go with me to hear the heart beat!!  I am so excited!  Maybe they will also tell me it is twins, and that is why I am already as big as a moose!

Call Morgan Spurlock, Because I Think This McDonald's Relationship Might Be Official

I went back to work today ... let me just sum it up by saying it is TRULY embarrassing to have a hard time teaching a college class because standing up and speaking is enough to exhaust you and make your voice all wavery.  A few times I pretended that I was searching for a word so I could take a few deep breaths.  So now my students think I am so out of shape I get winded from standing AND I am inarticulate.  Maybe not the greatest strategy, but it was the best I could come up with at the time.


I also learned that the only reasons I was not experiencing certain pregnancy symptoms that people asked about was because I was living on the couch and the nausea was so overwhelming I could not feel anything else.  Well, standing up straight for 10 minutes in fancy shoes was enough for me to develop such an ache in my lower back I had the urge to grab at it like you can only get away with when you look nine months pregnant.  Yikes.


I have to say, though, I think the only reason I didn't end up on the floor in the fetal position, rocked by nausea is because I stopped for an Egg McMuffin again.  The only other day I remember not feeling like dying was the first day I stopped for an Egg McMuffin breakfast, so I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be the key to my success.  I guess it could be worse.


I also stopped at Taco Bell on the way home and got a Strawberry Fruitista Freeze, and OHMYGOD, I loved those things before, but NOW?  I want need a million a day.  Thankfully, I had found a recipe an hour before that for a strawberry-lime freeze, and Jeremy said he would make me one tonight.  Yumlicious.


There was one highly odd and scary moment today: I sneezed, and there was such a deep, stabbing pain across my abdomen that I gasped and nearly swerved off the road.  I have never felt anything like that before, and I am hoping there is someone out there who can explain it and ease my worries.  So, get on it! 

Meh ...

There has not been to much to report around here, except for the fact that I have been experiencing some serious ups and downs.


One minute I am feeling awesome and the next minute I have crumbled to the couch, my whole body overcome with ... horribleness.  I think the good moments are actually making things worse, because I get all excited and do exhausting things and forget to eat a nibble every hour, and then I plummet to the bottom of my "feeling like dying" meter.


My cravings lately have consisted of kalamata olives, Claussen pickles, and melted American cheese (on ANYTHING, but I can mostly only eat it on while grain bagels).


I am also VERY anxious to get to the doctor.  I need some proof and some questions answered.  I have been having some very slight cramping on and off, and I have read in a million places that it is normal, but I won't believe it is normal until she can say I am safely pregnant and things are progressing normally.  I am also VERY hopeful that I can get an anti-nausea prescription!  I start back at work tomorrow, and I really can't have any of this "bad day" nonsense.  I can't teach college composition classes from my couch.  I asked my dean, and he said no.  Booo.


So, more updates some time this week on how I manage to teach without puking or crying!  I am optimistic, but, you never know what the soybean has planned! 

Leaps and Bounds

Thanks to Arwen Mosher, I am no longer dying!  Let's give it up to her for telling me my blood sugar is likely all whack if I am eating things like saltines.  She suggested trying to get protein and fat into my mouth every time I eat.  She warned me it would sound terrible, but I trusted her and ate a nice fatty protein this morning and LIKE MAGIC the sea of sickness in my stomach calmed, and I probably could have eaten ANYTHING today.  I kept it up with a lot of small protein meals, and I am feeling like a rock star.


Her timing could not have been more perfect, because I had to head back to work today.  We had a 6-hour long meeting and I had been pretty worried that I would die 5 minutes into it and get fired.  But I survived!  And I even went GROCERY SHOPPING after the 40-minute drive and CAME HOME AND MADE CHILI!!!!  These things have not been happening lately because of all the death, but now it's like I'm a whole new lady.


The other great stride I made today is finally choosing a place to make an appointment for my first huge "intake" appointment.  I decided to try the Meridian's Women's Health Center on the advice of Miss Jess (you take a bow, too) and I liked the sound of the place.  I am even more excited that they have a certified midwife on staff, and I will be meeting her for my initial appointment.  The only problem is I still have to wait another two weeks to get in.  Grrr!  I am still having those terrible fears that I am not really pregnant, and I need some blood work or nice close up pictures of the baby (I kid) to provide me some evidence.  And I have lots of questions (surprise!).


In other news, this is what soybean looks like right about now:

Isn't she cute!?!?!  (Jeremy calls the baby "he" and I call the baby "she" -- just to be fair.)


The nose, mouth and ears are beginning to take shape, and the baby's heart is beating 100-160 times a minute.  Blood is beginning to course through his body, the intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to the lungs has appeared.  The pituitary gland is forming, as are the the rest of the brain, muscles, and bones.  The tongue and vocal cords are even beginning to form!


The baby is probably a quarter of an inch long and is about the size of a lentil bean.


I really wasn't prepared for how different it would be to read this information when it was MY BABY they were describing.  I cried when I read the 6-week physical changes descriptions to Jeremy from What to Expect When You're Expecting.  Well, no surprise there!


I continue to get GREAT ideas and advice and motivation.  Thanks to all of you, and keep it coming!