23 weeks (+1 day)

Our baby girl is weighing in at just over a pound. I've felt her a lot more this week. And usually if she's kicking  I can lay down and watch my tummy move. I read that each day from 23 to 26 weeks the baby's chance of survival outside of the womb goes up 3%. After 26 weeks chance of survival is 80-90% - pretty amazing all things considered. In any case she needs to stay put for months to come! The average baby is 7 1/2 pounds & I also read that babies born without induction tend to be more fully cooked at 8-9 pounds... so she's got a lot more pounds to put on, as do I (unfathomably). I think I'm up about 13 lbs. right now.

We're starting our Hypnobabies childbirth classes on August 15. Yikes! I am super excited about this, and glad to have 'homework' for the class. It feels like I'm preparing for a marathon. Though god knows I'm much more naturally inclined to succeed at birth versus any road race!

Today I had a bit of a scare. I was in the midst of cooking dinner feeling very totally okay, and then all of a sudden felt hot and like I may have to puke. Thirty seconds after that I had to stop making a lovely orange-ginger sauce & lay on the floor. And then I felt like I was dying. I had a massive pain in my stomach (high up, where it's probably squished now), I was sweating and had goosebumps. I could not for my life get comfortable. As I'm writhing all over the carpet my husband is asking if he should turn off the sauce. I think I screamed something about not caring about the effing sauce, because I'm dying. I wanted to call the birth center to notify them of my impending death but then I couldn't talk. The pain was so intense and I just could not get comfy - I just wanted someone to knock me out.  I laid down in bed, and then - just as quickly as it came on - it passed. I was totally fine. Can anyone tell me WTF was that??!!! 

I have a prenatal appt. Tuesday so that will be high up on my agenda to discuss. If anyone can shed some light I'd love to know in what new way by body is morphing into something else. My guess is a monster pang of heartburn, because I had 4 Tums when I first started feeling weird. 5 minutes to take effect? Who knows. I've felt fine all the rest of the night. 

The other bad news is that I finished a cake today.  It's all gone. I made it yesterday when I got a craving for a berry cake. I'm not usually that into cake but it was seriously the best cake I've ever had. And no chocolate anywhere in it! I'll have to write up the recipe and post it here. 

This week's belly picture is another embarrassing bikini one. Taken right before I went swimming tonight, which was the best thing ever. I fully appreciated being weightless this week... my belly has expanded to a point where it's in the way. I've burned my belly on the stove, squished it getting dressed, bumped it into walls, etc. Floating around in the pool was exquisite.

Oh, and this is the week in which strangers have no qualms asking me about my pregnancy. 

nursery inspiration

My mom and I went to an estate sale when she visited and she suggested I get this weird ugly clock for my baby's nursery. My first thought is it would give her nightmares. My second thought was hmm... it's cool in a slightly creepy retro way and I bet I could build a nursery around it. Here it is:

Mother Goose meets Children of the Corn, no?  It has definitely grown on me. So the working theme of the nursery is 'Vintage Storybook'. Not that it needs a title. Today I went to a yard sale and got these three pieces of old art for free:

I am looking at pale pink and white bedding and lace curtains, a handmade butterfly mobile, glow in the dark stars and maybe a chandelier. I am mourning my first idea of bold prints and whimsical birds, owls and trees. I am surprised I'm considering pink & lace. But I think it's unique and I love books. This theme means I get to make art out of them :) 

Here's a close-up of the words, which are the first line in a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale:

I also did a collage based on 'The Land of Nod' but it's not quite finished. And I did a glittery tile project with her name. Name is top secret so I can't post all the letters. We've also had second thoughts about the name this past weekend and are coming up with new possibilities. All a little stranger than the last. Poor little no-name girl, with maybe this initial:

It's a shame you can't really see how much the tiles glitter. Perhaps here:

Trust me it sparkles.

this guy has my vote

for National Appreciator of Rainbows.

(btw, i can tell i'm spending too much time on youtube because usually i find out about these viral video things 412 parodies down the road two years later)

Week 22 belly picture

Here is a belated belly picture, taken at 22 weeks, 3 days:

 Yesterday and today I can feel her movements more strongly and have seen my belly move on the outside - she's getting strong!

some comic relief

22 weeks: alone time with the baby

On Friday night we 'planned' a camping trip to Asheville for the next day. My husband was in dire need of mountain air to clear his mind. But Friday night I coughed my lungs out, had a stuffy nose, could not get comfortable in bed, and the baby kicked all night. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. So on Saturday I said good-bye to Gabe & the puppy. I do love alone time and was excited to spread out all my art stuff and not worry about talking to anyone or keeping the dog from eating anything. But it was hard, too. Unexpectedly so. He is camping in the state forest, not a campground, and I was worried Conan would run off, they would get lost, Conan would get eaten by a bear, Gabe would eat weird berries and get sick., etc. I'm not usually such a worrier, but I'm fiercely protective of these two creatures. 

So I'm here with the two cats and my increasingly active daughter. I usually feel her late at night and first thing in the morning, with some occasional rolls during the day. (During the day I notice her most in client sessions - I realized it's probably because I unconsciously lean forward and squish her a bit.)  When I sleep poorly I realize she's up intermittently throughout the entire night. Is this a bad sign? 

I had a dream last night I was laying in bed with my hands over my belly. I felt a big thump, looked down and saw part of her fist, three fingers curled up. Then it happened again later and it was her whole hand, which I held in mine. I called out for Gabe and told him what happened, but said I wasn't sure if it was real or a dream. Then I woke up, proving the latter. 

Today is 22 weeks. She is around 11 inches long and about a pound. She can hear and taste and touch. Gabe took our really nice camera into the woods so I don't have a belly pic. But  this is the week I officially feel like a pregnant lady. I got big enough to develop a shelf for collecting crumbs. The back pain got worse too. There are times the only way I'm comfortable is to meticulously arrange five pillows so I'm sort of squatting with my body thrown over them. I'm going to get one of those massage cushions stat. This all doesn't bother me so much until I realize that I have four calendar months of this left. I just can't believe I'm going to get four months' worth of belly bigger!

21 weeks (+)

Oops, a bit late this week. I'm 21 weeks and 3 days. I've gained 11 pounds! I think I've left my husband speechless on a couple occasions when he saw how much I was eating.  I saw a client today who said 'wow, you're really showing now, huh?'.  As big as my belly gets it's still hard to believe there is a little person in there. A person!! That I don't need to feed or burp or anything...she's just there by some miracle and developing just fine by the same miracle. It still boggles my mind to think about. 

The biggest news this past week is that we've found a house to rent starting August. It's lovely and I think we'll all be happy there. Conan has a fenced yard to run around in, there are two patio areas, a big kitchen for me, an office for Gabe, a craft room/workshop for both of us, and a nursery and separate bathroom for the little one. The cats have their choice of windows to lounge on.  There's also a a fig tree and blueberry bushes in the back! And space for an herb garden. It's great to be able to imagine where my daughter will live the beginning of her life and where our first pictures of her will be. 

I still have a lingering cough, and the back pain has gone from intermittently bad to predictably awful by the end of every day. It feels like a giant pinched nerve. This will make moving a challenge, unless I just succumb to help (not a skill of mine). But despite these things I feel really good. I love laying in bed at night and waiting to feel her kicks. I feel grateful for my amazing husband and I love watching him become a father. I love taking my puppy to the dog park and watching him run and play with his floppy feet and watching him turn into such a well behaved boy (with some exceptions!).  I'm excited about our new place and the happy life we've created here.

Here's this week's belly pic, sorry for the weird angle and how I look like I'm in a stupor. I might have to fire the photographer and learn how to use the self-timer on the camera soon.

my half-baked daughter

Week 20 - halfway there!  Baby girl is measuring 10 inches from the top of her cute little head to the tips of her cute little toes. She's getting big!  I also found out that I've gained 8 lbs. so far - hooray for me!  It must have been mostly in the past few weeks. I do have quite the appetite. Yesterday I made a vat of chili with everything from the farmer's market. I was telling Gabe how it will probably be even better the next day, but we'll never know. How do two people eat almost an entire dutch oven's worth of chili AND an entire dish of cornbread? I am feeling bulkier now, and sometimes move a certain way without thinking before my belly puts a stop to it. I am also walking slightly differently. I am assuming this is nothing compared to what it'll be like later.

I finally went to the doctor to see if it was indeed possible to cough up a lung and was told I have nasty bronchitis. For about 3 weeks now. My lungs hurt, I've hacked so much I couldn't breathe, peed myself and threw up (and yes, all at the same time). There's a 4-tiered treatment for this and so far I've only taken steps one and two, hoping to avoid more medication. I'm feeling slightly better but nowhere near healthy, so I think antibiotics are now in order. 

Gabe & I are spending all our free time looking at places to live come August. We have seen some weird homes - ones with no straight walls, ones with a dead cockroach in the bathtub, one with concrete floors & a woodstove.. and we're coming up empty. Either really amazing places just out of reach of our budget, or small places where we'd save money but would not be so comfortable with 3 people and 3 pets. I keep trying to be logical, and it's my husband who reminds me of things like this is where our daughter's first pictures will be taken. So then it's really easy to rationalize getting a lovely place and not saving a thing :)  I guess we'll keep looking - wish us luck!  

Here's the halfway belly: