The baby is supposedly around a pound and a half this week! She also is quite active and moving around quite a bit, which is fun. Neil has felt her movements several times now, which I think makes it even more real for him. The kicks and punches have gotten much stronger too, sometimes I feel two at the same time, one low and one high. And other times it feels like my whole stomach is jumping. Everything I read says you don't need to really pay attention to fetal movements until 28 weeks, but I've become so used to feeling them pretty often that the other week I didn't notice anything in the evening or a couple nights when I woke up at night and started to panic. I ate some food, drank some juice and rubbed my tummy until she started moving around. Maybe she was just having a couple days of more relaxation.
It seems that everyone asks me how I'm feeling these days and I don't really have any exciting answers. I honestly feel pretty normal. Sometimes I feel short of breath or a little nauseous. I have gotten a couple bad headaches, but then it goes away after a while. I was out for a walk last week and suddenly got stabbing pain in my right shin and have heard that shin splints can come on with pregnancy. I iced it and kept it elevated while I worked the next day and it hasn't bothered me since. I think I am still going to buy some new tennis shoes for walking though, since mine are a bit old and probably not as supportive as they should be. Sometimes after a long walk or doing stuff around the house for a while I will feel some strains in my lower sides, but if I lie down or rest for a bit it goes away.
A few of my pregnant friends have asked me if I've felt any contractions at all, but I haven't or at least don't know if I have. No tightening or anything, which I guess is probably a good thing. I read the other day that premature babies born at 24 weeks have around a 20% chance of survival, which seems crazy to me that they could even be born at this stage. I'd much rather have our little girl wait until at least 37 weeks! Which is really only 13 weeks from now, yikes!
Our next door neighbor works for the fire department and I was chatting with him yesterday. After he asked how I was feeling he then asked what my blood preessure has been. At my last appointment a month ago it was really low, so I haven't been concerned. My mom had preeclampsia with both my sister and I, but then my sister didn't have it with her two pregnancies, so there is no telling. Now I am curious what my blood pressure is and am looking forward to when my appointments move to 2 weeks apart. A month seems like a long time to go without knowing how things are going!
Speaking of which, we have an appointment tomorrow morning for the second ultrasound (to hopefully get the good picture of her heart and the umbilical cord attachment to the placenta) and a visit with the midwife. I always get a bit nervous before the next appointment just because I really want everything to be going alright. My mom and Neil both say, "What good does it do it get nervous when there is nothing you can do?" Which is true. I keep feeling her move around a lot and feel pretty good, so I just have to assume all is well.
We're excited to see our baby on the ultrasound again tomorrow though! And just to get an update on how things are going.
Another thing some of my pregnant friends have asked me is if I'm eating normally. I really feel like I have been. No crazy cravings or anything like that. I've noticed with acidic foods (pasta sauce, etc.) that I get indigestion/heartburn easily, but that happens to me normally too. Earlier in the pregnancy I was really loving to snack on sour things like pickles and green olives, but lately I've been more interested in sweet things, like chocolate frozen yogurt or a couple squares of dark chocolate with almonds. I'm still loving cottage cheese and a glass of milk for my early morning snack when I wake up around 2-4. I've also been sleeping a lot, which if you know me at all you know that is not something new, but we'll go to bed around 10-10:30pm and even if I wake up for an hour or two in the night I'll sleep until 8-8:15am on work days and 9 or 10 on weekends. Gotta take it while I can get it!
Neil and I have been swimming a couple times a week lately, which has been really fun. I'm not so big that I like the weightlessness of it, although I'm sure I will get to that point, but it's a great way to get your heart pumping and use your muscles. I've still been able to wear my two piece swimsuit too, but may soon have to switch to the maternity suit a friend gave me.
I guess I did have one day where after sitting all day for work I felt a bit uncomfortable and I started to see a glimmer of the uncomfortableness that many women talk about in the third trimester. I'm just going to try to enjoy every day though, because I can already tell that this time of being pregnant will be over before I know it.
The temperatures took a nose dive this last week from a high of 70 one day to 30 the next. I think it was even down to 10 the other night! Neil has been really dedicated working on our latest home improvement project...installing a wood stove! Every weekend he has been collecting firewood with a couple guy friends and splitting and stacking it on our porch. And last Thursday he demolished our old living room fireplace to make room for the new wood stove. We're actually moving the old gas fireplace upstairs into our bedroom, which will really make it a fancy master bedroom! And much warmer in the whole house! I've been bundling up in my ski socks, big sweatshirts and even my puffy vests that I can still just barely zip up. Tomorrow we are also getting all of the tiling materials and the wood stove installers are supposedly coming this week to start! Soon it will be warm and toasty in here, without us spending a fortune on propane. And of course, then the temperatures are warming back up to about 60 today with no snow in the near forecast. Winter isn't quite here yet, but when it comes we'll be prepared. Prepared to keep it toasty warm for both me and this little lady when she arrives.
Okay, I take that back on my belly not being much bigger. Neil and I just did the 24 week photo shoot and I feel like I look huge! I couldn't get a photo I liked...either the photo was blurry, or it looked like I was pushing my stomach out (which I wasn't!), or I look gigantic. So, finally Neil just took a bunch in a row making me laugh. He's just not the photographer that I am! :) Oh, and you can compare these with the 14 week picture where I'm wearing the same shirt. Here's the series...you get the idea of my belly size, even if I am becoming less photogenic.
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