20 week pregnancy update.

[rivka]

I'm twenty weeks pregnant. If I go full term, then this is the halfway point.

Holy cow. I'm nowhere near ready enough to be halfway through.

Except for the back and side pain, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm pretty emotional - I cry easily, I get irritated easily, I get mawkish easily - but I don't think I'm too awful. I'm enjoying getting bigger, despite the tight skin and the stretch marks. It's fun to have people I haven't told start to notice. And I'm starting to feel more confident that this is really going to happen - that the pregnancy will continue, and I'll wind up with a baby at the end. Not certain, mind you, but more confident.

Except when I shop, apparently. I bought my first things for the baby this weekend. We went to Ocean City, and they had an outlet store for our favorite-to-date baby clothes manufacturer. It seemed like fate. I picked up seven insanely adorable tiny outfits, and then spent the rest of the day afraid that I had jinxed the Li'l Critter and was about to have a miscarriage. The same thing happened when I bought my first maternity clothes and when I bought my first pregnancy book. I think this is probably all part of the crazy hormones, but knowing that doesn't really help much.

Speaking of crazy: I'm heading there, trying to figure out whether I can really feel the Li'l Critter moving or not. The thing is that most of what I've thought was movement has happened on the side where I've got the scar and the pain. It's not that the things that feel like movement hurt, but I do wonder whether, for example, a slight painless throb is a tiny kick or just the scar being weird. This morning, though, I felt something that felt like soda bubbles traveling sideways across my belly. I'm pretty sure that was the baby.

Michael and I are talking a lot more about the details of parenthood. We're feeling some pressure to start a gift registry, which means figuring out what things we'll want for the baby, which in turn means an extremely long list of options to research, debate, and decide. tammylc sent us an incredibly detailed book called Baby Bargains, and we also have a copy of a more general book called the Girlfriend's Guide to Baby Gear. We still feel kind of lost. Or maybe "intimidated" is the better word. No, wait, how about "overwhelmed?"

We are given to understand that the second trimester is not too early to start looking at our daycare options for when I go back to work. In July. Eep. Did I mention "overwhelmed?"

So, on to the belly pics:

The funny thing is that I look at these pictures and say, "there's no way in hell that I'm that big." Except that I think I probably am. I'm starting to have trouble lifting heavy things and making certain abrupt movements, and if I'm not paying attention there's a bit of a lumbering quality to my walk.

It's the weirdest thing, but my belly seems to grow in noticeable spurts. At the end of last week, my belly felt sore and tender, especially when I moved. "Oh, the Li'l Critter's having growing pains," I said. Sure enough, this weekend my bump was noticeably larger than it was earlier in the week. As in, Michael noticed that it was larger. And it's not tender to the touch anymore. Growth spurt over, temporarily. Isn't that weird.

Anyway, this is the dress I wore to ladysprite's wedding. It didn't fit like this then. (Actually, it doesn't fit like this now, because I'm not usually plastering it to my belly like this.)





The final picture shows why I love this dress so much. I halfway believe that I don't look pregnant to most people when I wear it - at least, if I'm not doing the belly-plastering thing - because their eyes never travel past my cleavage.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a fabulous belly and beautiful smile! :)

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

You look so happy and so lovely.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I think there's a noticable difference just since last Thursday.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I think so too! That's what I mean about the rapid growth spurts. How weird is that?

[boxofdelights]

Oh, yeah, I had growth spurts too. I had one stretch mark that went straight up from my belly button. There'd be a day when the skin just ached, and the next day that mark would be measurably bigger. It was six inches long and an inch and a half wide near the end. But don't worry, it shrunk back up and now it's just a wrinkly spot above my belly button.

Bodies are so weird.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Go you!

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Soda baby!

[melebeth]

Dude! There's a baby in there!!!

(Plus, I feel compelled to say "nice breasts," because that is a very good cleavage dress)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

*grin* I was waiting for someone to compliment them. Thanks.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

At 20 weeks I started to relax. At 28, which a good viability threshold, I was doing much better.

Isn't it all so cool and exciting?!

[erin-c-1978.livejournal.com]

You are a gorgeous person.

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

Y'know, even just in the photos, you're positively *glowing*. Hiow can anybody not know?

[boxofdelights]

Rivka! You're pregnant!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I know! How freakishly weird is that?!

[journeywoman.livejournal.com]

And I'm starting to feel more confident that this is really going to happen - that the pregnancy will continue, and I'll wind up with a baby at the end.

My 37th week starts today, and I'm still nervous about jinxing the pregnancy with too much talk. Before my ultrasound at 21 weeks, I actually used to get angry when people would talk about the fetus like it was already a live, healthy baby that was already born. Once I saw it on the monitor, and knew that it had just one head and ten fingers and ten toes (from the amount of movement I was feeling, in my calmer moments I was wondering if I might have somehow ended up with an octopus, and in my more paranoid moments I was picturing conjoined triplets), I started allowing myself to be a little more secure and excited about it all.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

You look wonderful -- the dress is lovely and I really do see the "glowing".

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I worried about the "glowing," actually, because I've already got a pink and shiny complection, and I was afraid I would wind up looking like a well-waxed beet. It took a couple of weeks in a row of looking in the bathroom mirror and thinking, "hey, I look pretty good today," before I realized that what I was seeing must be the famed "pregnancy glow."

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Rivka is a glowing, pregnant mammal!

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

You look great!

[elisem.livejournal.com]

You look great!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I miss this. I'm enjoying the hell out of every word of your pregnancy posts. You are radiant. Lovely. Wonderful.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

You, my very dear, are blooming like a rose. The word radiant springs to mind.

If a person had your address a person might be having some things to be mailing ot you. Just sayin'.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

That is a great dress. And you look so happy. Yay!

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

Ooh, baby with a Rivka wrapped around it.

Very cool.

[geekymary.livejournal.com]

You look terrific. here's another book you must have. It's very good for the sanity.

Yay!

[ailbhe]

Squeeeeee!

Yippee!

Gorgeous.

Also, stuff: choose a store with a good returns policy so that you can swap unused baby gear for useful house or mama stuff. We have a box full of still-in-packaging kit awaiting number two baby...

Wow! 20 weeks! I went to Barcelona.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

What WONDERFUL pictures! (OK, I'm male enough to admit I really like the bottom one best).

But, oh, if you're halfway there, oh, are you living on a prayer?

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

*lacivious grin* Wow, look at YOU.

Can I place an order for pictures in that same dress, in, like, a month? :-)

-J

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Just think, in three months I can model the dress for you in person.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

*smile*

(Also, see icon.)

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Halfway to home base! :>

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

You look *very* pleased with yourself!

And you are right I probably wouldn't get past the cleavage. I look forward to seeing you in that dress at APC. There's some tradition of PhD con chairs with hot con chair dresses...

Ryk

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

You look great. Very shapely. And that pendant must be the flaming-chalice birthday present.

I'm guessing the readiness thing is non-linear, that as the Li'l Critter gets bigger and her/his emergence date gets closer, the pace of getting-ready keeps increasing. It definitely works like that for me for things as varied as writing a dissertation, packing for a trip, or tidying for visitors.

[puppytown.livejournal.com]

Your friends are so well-behaved. HOLY BOOBIES!

Awesome dress, and please post more belly photos as the weeks advance.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Your friends are so well-behaved. HOLY BOOBIES!

Hee! The part that really scares me is being told that they will grow much, much bigger.

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

Dang, you're beautiful. And, I suspect, likely to get beautifuller and beautifuller over the next twenty or so weeks.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

*shakes her head in appreciation of the aesthetics displayed before her*

One suggestion about acquiring baby stuff of a more durable sort (diaper bag, frex), let your friends buy them at yard sales and thrift stores. No, these won't last for the entire time of usage, but it will let you figure out what works best for you....

Oh, and do let us know where you register and what you need. I've done a fair amount of retail therapy (for me) in acquiring stuff for new-ish offspring of friends.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We're still working out the details of the registry - it's got the major stuff, but nothing smaller. One thing we know we'll need is a library of children's books, though, so if you run across likely-seeming books in the course of your travels, that would be absolutely wonderful.

Not really related to Li'l Critter

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

But darned near as cute: more baby otters, dating back a few years.