So, here I sit at nearly 3:00 a.m. Wide awake. Just awakened from a bizarre dream. No inclination of falling back asleep. Wishing I had taken a Tylenol PM (which IS legal by the way). Welcome to my pregnant world.
It's been an interesting past few weeks for me. Around week 15 I started to feel the baby move. At first it really did feel like "butterflies" in my stomach (and not from nerves…just little flutters moving here and there). And then about 2-3 weeks ago I was sitting at my desk at work and suddenly I felt this little poke at my abdomen. My first baby kick! Then, with increasing frequency the baby decides to run a marathon one day (that's the only logical explanation I have for it), and then sleep all day the next. On Sunday the kicks were finally palpable enough that Steve was able to put his hand on my belly and feel them for himself. It definitely makes the experience much more real.
The most obvious change has been my ever-expanding belly. Seriously. The only pregnant picture I have posted here is at week 14. You can see a round belly starting to emerge. It's crazy now. I am in week 20, and when I tell people I'm due in May they give me this look that seems to indicate fascination-horror. If I had to judge, I'd say I look more like I'm about 7 months pregnant than 5. And, what started as a slight overall weight gain has gone straight to my belly. (When I walked into work Monday, my co-worker Brandie looked at me and told me that SHE thought my belly had gotten much bigger over the weekend, and she sees me practically every day). This has made life slightly more uncomfortable. First of all, sleeping has become quite a challenge. I have to sleep on my side (and my body desperately wants to be on it's back). This causes leg cramps, and even though I am following all the advice in the book (sleeping with lots of strategically placed pillows) it's not generally working for me. Also, beginning this past week I've started to experience lower back pain. I don't think there is too much that I can do to prevent this (I mean, I can't even see my feet when I look down any more, it's all belly). Luckily for me I have a loving husband who doesn't seem to mind the fact that I am growing like a whale and gives great back massages.
There are other slightly un-pleasant parts of pregnancy that I am also experiencing, but I don't feel like going into that much detail on my blog. Let's just say that pregnancy is a total body experience.
Finally, the biggest thing that has happened in my pregnant life lately was the ultrasound we had on Tuesday. Now, keep in mind, EVERYONE was telling me that based on every old wives tale in the book (baby's heart rate, how I was carrying, etc. etc.) that I was absolutely having a girl. Even my own mother (who rarely gets the gender wrong) was so convinced that she was calling me up every few days with suggestions for girls' names. I was trying to keep an open mind here. I mean, I didn't have the evidence to support the fact that I was having a girl, but deep down I knew that's where I was leaning. I'd already had visions of sharing experiences from my childhood with my daughter and decorating her nursery pink and putting her hair in bows and buying her all of my old favorite toys – Rainbow Bright, Care Bears, My Little Ponies. You see, secretly I am afraid of having a boy…I grew up with 2 brothers and Steve had 2 brothers (so I know the gene pool towards boys is strong). And, I HATE, I mean HATE football… and I know that Steve would have the little man watching football with him all day on Sunday, every Sunday. I also don't like to wrestle or play with cars or those violent Playstation games.
However, I know several friends of mine who have recently had boys and absolutely love them to pieces. I also know how horrible and catty pre-teen/teen girls can be (yes, I was one of the "picked on" ones in grade school and it was on of the worst feelings in my life). So, I didn't want to have that all waiting for me. As girly as I can be, I HATE drama.
So, here we are on Tuesday, sitting at the doctor (and yes, I did have to drink all ungodly 32 ounces of fluid to have this ultrasound). The doctor covers my belly with that gel-like stuff and starts to look around. I let her know that we want to know the sex if possible. Immediately she smiles and definitively tells us it's a boy (and trust me – he is most definitely a boy, absolutely no denying it, a very proud boy. We have the blackmail pictures – which I didn't post - to prove it.) I was immediately shocked and so was Steve I think. Although, I could tell that he was incredibly excited (I mean, what father doesn't want his own little man around?). At this point though I was so relieved to see that my baby was healthy. It's amazing to see what detail they can show on those ultrasounds (you can even see all 4 chambers of his heart). He was growing like a normal baby and that made me so happy. You see, I was secretly worried that I'd be at the doctor and they'd tell me my baby had like 2 heads or it's spine was growing outside of it's body or something like that. Not the case. He was a large healthy boy, contently kicking his feet and rolling around. Needless to say, I have to re-adjust my mindframe towards having a boy, but I've started to come around. We've got some cute nursery themes in mind – I just really,really hope that he's a momma's boy, you know?
His Little Foot
But, at least now I think that my massive belly is starting to make sense. See, my husband is 6"4' (compared to my 5"3' height), and all of the men in his family are super tall. And, this kid obviously has Steve's genes. He is in the 75th percentile of size for his age. He should weigh ¾ of a pound and he's already at least a pound. And, he has super-long legs (which the doctor noted with his femur length). Yeah, my belly doesn't stand a chance here (again, the doctor noted that my abdomen was larger than normal). When I told one of my friends who I had dinner with on Wednesday about my predicament, she emailed me a link to this girl's blog who recently had an 11 pound girl! (She is about my height/weight and her hubby about Steve's height). Near the end of the pregnancy her belly could have had it's own zip code. Seriously. I had a foreshadowing of the future. I don't think it will be pretty. I just hope that Steve can keep up with the back massages!
Well, that's all for now. I wish I had different subjects to blog about, but this pregnancy thing is kind of all-consuming and the most interesting thing going on in my life right now. I will attempt to find my way back to bed now that it's almost 4:00. I guess I could have another 2 good hours if I am lucky.
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