136.5 pounds - no surprise after the endless eating we've been doing over the past 10 days.
Also, my linea nigra is appearing! It starts at the top of my belly and runs all the way down to my hairline. And my belly button is completely poking out. If I wear something thin like a t-shirt, it pokes through the shirt.
The baby moves a whole lot now. He's supposed to be head down at this point, and this is corroborated with lots of pressure and movement felt deep in my pelvis, not to mention the occasional trampoline jump of his head directly onto my bladder. Then again, I am also feeling lots of wriggling around higher up, around my belly button. I'm guessing that's feet and knees. He gets the hiccups at least once a day and man, that is annoying.
If you’ve been feeling butterflies moving around in your belly, it’s not just your run-of-the-mill pre-birth performance anxiety. No, it’s your amazing baby with a case of the hiccups: a fairly common occurrence at this point resulting from practicing breathing for their big birthday. In addition, to getting a round of butterfly-like hiccups, your little swimmer has arduously managed to accumulate enough baby fat to account for nearly 3.5% of their overall body weight. Yeah, compared to we adults, it’s not a lot, but when they’re little like that—it’s certainly a healthy (and warming) accomplishment in its way. Another fantastic accomplishment: your baby's spleen is now in charge of hematopoiesis—the 10 dollar name for the process involved in building up certain important blood components. Another fantastic-accomplishment: your little monkey has been peeing into their amniotic sac for a little while now (this is why potty training takes a while) and if you didn’t know, actually swallows it along with the rest of the amniotic fluid. Although the concept is nasty, their urine is sterile and as part of the amniotic fluid base, is replaced several times throughout the day. So if you didn’t know before, now you can tell people, that yes, you drank your own urine—you were still in the womb, but nonetheless, you’ve been there.
You know how you’ve been feeling a bit like a barn with legs? Well, that feeling won’t subside before… well, you know, when you finally give birth. For the time being, you’ve got yourself a baby in the business of collecting fat and lots of it! In spite of the dubious joys of being a human-barn, this baby fat business is very serious and you’ve got to put up with it because it’s going to keep your little porker warm and healthy after birth. Other good stuff from inside: their eyes are doing lots of blinking this week because they’re now able to respond to light and dark. Also, their industrious little bone marrow is now a major construction site for developing red blood cells, while their super-cute adrenal glands are actually producing androgen and estrogen—which will stimulate your hormones to begin milk production. Can you say, “Moo?”
132 pounds, getting bigger!
Current thoughts...
Definitely getting more scatterbrained. Poor Dave has been very understanding and tries to draw me back to the conversation/question/etc. at hand as gently as possible. Work has been more difficult as I've found it harder to stay focused. And I find it nearly impossible to pick up my train of thought once I've been interrupted.
I've also started to experience "Psycho Chick." Irritability. Large-scale reactions to small-scale events. Quick-change mood swings. Lack of patience for pretty much anything. You know, all the good stuff you've come to expect from a pregnant woman. So consider yourself warned - any other abuse you get at my hands will probably be without any warning whatsoever! :)
Physically, just feeling bigger, and feeling the baby more. He's quite active and seems to be especially kick-y when I lean forward. As leaning forward is a big part of the day for computer workers like me, I find I'm constantly having to re-adjust my sitting position.
OK, here's the downlow from our latest doctor appointment.
Weight 132.5
Blood Pressure 111/69
Heartrate 102
(If those numbers doesn't make sense, I probably wrote them down wrong.)
Out of curiosity, I asked what the first weight recorded in my chart was - it was 119.
The doctor used a doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It was 148, going strong.
This was also the day of the glucose test to screen for gestational diabetes. I did feel a bit high after downing the oral glucose solution, and didn't calm down for a number of hours. The baby was pretty jazzed up all day long, too. Luckily, I passed with a 69! Yay! Also, they tested my iron level while they had my blood and I got a thumbs-up there.
So, all is going well. It sounds like we may have another ultrasound soon to check the location of the placenta - it may be a little low. Otherwise, it was a very brief visit and all seems well.
Your not-so-tiny-anymore brilliant baby (about 2 pounds and 14.5 inches long!) is slowly rotating in preparation to “head out.” Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight, but when you start to feel an unfamiliar pressure on your cervix, you’ll know you’ve got a fully flipped baby locked and loaded for the countdown to their birthday! Even now, at the beginning of the third trimester, their little lungs are already capable of breathing air while the pulmonary vascular system can provide sufficient gas exchange and the central nervous system can generally regulate rhythmic breathing as well as their basal body temperature. For what it’s worth, at this point in a healthy pregnancy a premature child (with intensive care) could easily win on the show: “Survivor: The Early Years.”
I'll add the photo here soon, but for now I'll just post my commentary. Still holding at 129.5 pounds, I'll have to see if I get yelled at the next time we have a doctor appointment. So, what's new?
For starters, if you're a month-counter rather than a week counter, you'll be happy to know that we're 6 months along. Our due date is only three months away!
The little man is moving a whole lot more, and beginning this week, I've begun to feel movement above the umbilicus. Up til now, most of the movement has been very low in my abdomen. As he's getting bigger, he's taking up more and more room. I guess that will be more obvious as the weeks pass, huh? It's fun to watch the surface of my belly pop around like the skin of a drum.
As for me, I've been feeling pretty good, though more and more hungry. I just ate dinner and I'm starving. Wacky. I'm going to have to work harder at keeping myself fed on a regular basis with good, healthy food rather than impulse-driven sweets and snacks. I've been getting larger and larger (proof soon to come) and am thankfully still pretty comfortable, though I think I'm a little quicker to get tired. I'm trying to take it easy and allow myelf to rest when I can, because I know I won't always be able to do that! :) The good news is that I'm not having any real trouble sleeping at this point.
On a funny note, the cats have been spending lots of time on my belly and chest purring. Dave says the baby's going to be disappointed when he arrives and finds out that his mommy doesn't purr. Too cute!
Update: Adding Photo, with today's guest star, Cayce!
That's what I'd like to tell my brain - Hurry up, keep pace!
Instead, it's starting to turn to mush! I'm getting the baby-eats-the-brain syndrome I've heard so much about. It started last week so I figured I'd better document before I forgot about it.
Here's what I'm experiencing:
- Difficulty focusing and concentrating.
- Hard keeping a train of thought.
- Really tough to finish a sentence.
- Easily distracted.
- Difficulty making sense of complicated processes.
Gah, is it too early to start taking maternity leave?
129.5 this morning. My belly sticks out past my boobs!! Speaking of boobs and weirdness, I think I'm starting to produce colostrum! My body's getting ready for this inevitable approaching event!! How cool is that?!
The baby moves every day and seems especially kicky when I'm bent forward, which unfortunately happens frequently at my desk at work. I figure he's a little uncomfortable when I've got him all jammed up like that. Oh, and he's also getting hiccups occasionally, though it's not in the least bit annoying at this point.
Today the scale reads 129, thanks to my recent and frequent trips to Waffle House. YUM. Damn, somebody should bring me a waffle right now.
Anyway, I did indeed do a costume change this week - just too cold for the bikini. Cristin, the socks are for you. :)
Feeling the baby move lots more now, sometimes a little uncomfortably but still, nothing to complain about. Peeing all the time, too.
