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

[elisem.livejournal.com]

You look great!