24 Weeks

October 25, 2005 - 24 Weeks

Awesome! I'm 6 months along, but still have 16 weeks until my due date...how messed up is that :) That's still 4 more months!

My friend Sharon brought up a thought about having this little being grow inside you for so long and then leave you in such a dramatic way. It is so strange sometimes, when I think about what's actually going on inside me! When I can feel him move and sometimes even SEE him move through my belly, it's so wild! I'm excited most of the time, and I completely stop what I'm doing and just sit there and wait to see if he'll move again. But then another part of me doesn't ever want him to come out, because I know how safe he is inside me, and I won't always be able to make sure he's that safe once he's born...it's so strange what you think about. I'm sure that when I get bigger and when it gets hard for me to walk/sit/move I'll be counting the days until my due date!

I'm still playing volleyball, and I'm always amazed at how good I'm still feeling. I seriously thought I'd be on the sidelines by now, but when I'm out on the court I feel so good. Mind you, I'm not diving or sprinting, but the activity feels awesome. I am definitely going to miss it when I have to stop, but hopefully I'll be able to bounce back quickly after the baby's born.

Mike and I are going to start looking at furniture for the nursery soon! Hopefully today, but it's not that pressing. I'm still blown away by everything we still need to get. How did people raise children 200 years ago? They certainly didn't have a battery-operated bouncer or disposable diapers! Did women just strap the babies on their backs and go work in the fields? But it's amazing, because even with all these "luxuries", raising a baby is still a lot of work. I sure hope I'm ready for it!

23 Weeks

October 19, 2005 - 23 Weeks and 1 day

Wow, I just finished eating a huge piece of this really good pumpkin/raisin cake with lots of icing. It was so good, and now I feel so gross. I cannot believe I just fed my child all that sugar and fat!! I have decided to buy some running/walking shoes so that I can start walking after work. Mike wants to start running, so maybe he can walk with me as a warm-up, and then go run afterwards. I'm still playing volleyball, but only twice a week, and I don't feel that's enough exercise. I'm not as active as I used to be during the games, and I get tired faster. Walking seems to be a little more gentle, and something I can continue doing after I have to stop playing volleyball. Geez...I still can't believe I ate the whole piece of cake! And, just yesterday, I went to Mike's brother's house for dinner...to which I brought a "sampler" cheesecake! Of course, my sister-in-law and I had to sample more than one flavor. So, I had cheesecake last night, too! In a way, I'm glad that I'm pregnant during the winter, so I can wear more clothes and cover myself up...but maybe the summer would have been better because I would be more aware of how I look (not that a pregnant woman isn't always aware of how she looks, because she's just getting bigger all the time! How could you NOT be aware of that??).

Anyway, my sister-in-law Michelle and I are still really cute! We got dressed up to attend a wedding for a family friend (Mike's side of the family).

22 Weeks

October 11, 2005 - 22 Full Weeks

Today I am officially 22 weeks pregnant. Wow! Sometimes it seems like time is flying by, and other times I feel like it's creeping...but all in all, I really can't believe I'm over halfway through my pregnancy. My little boy has been kicking and moving around quite a bit. Sometimes I will completely forget what I'm doing if he moves, and I find myself concentrating on him and what I'm feeling. It's so amazing. And Mike has finally been able to feel the little guy move. I think it was only the other morning, I knew he was kicking, and I put Mike's hand on my belly, and he felt our baby! He was so excited! I love that he finally was able to feel the little guy.

I've disovered my favorite time of day...in the morning, right after the alarm clock goes off. Since I don't get up very quickly anymore, Mike gets up and hits snooze on the alarm (we have the alarm clock on the other side of the room from our bed). After he hits the snooze button, he crawls back into bed and snuggles behind me, and puts his hand on my belly. The alarm will go off and he'll hit snooze at least 2 more times. But each time, he always crawls back in bed and snuggles with me. When I finally decide to get up and take my morning shower, he never lets me go right away...he always tries to keep me next to him and I have to pry myself away. It's crazy...Mike has figured out how to make me look forward to waking up in the morning!

Week 22

Monday, October 10, 2005 - 21 Weeks and 5 days

I'm in week 22 of my pregnancy, and I have REALLY started to feel the baby's movements on a more regular basis. They still feel mostly like muscle spasms, but this morning, while we were still in bed, I felt him kick really hard. So, I put my hand where I just felt the movement, and I felt him move from the outside of my stomach with my hand!! I grabbed Mike's hand and put it on the same spot, but the little guy stopped kicking. Mike wasn't disappointed, though...he said that it meant he would get to really start feeling the kicks soon :)

So, there are a couple more things that experienced moms don't tell you about pregnancy: 1) You have increased discharge...yes...down there. And a lot of times, you can feel it coming out, but you can't control it! So, unless you want to walk around with damp underwear for the next few months, I would begin purchasing some pantyliners. They also help with the little bit of pee that comes out when you cough or sneeze :) 2) Your ligaments loosen up. Apparently, in preparation for childbirth, your pelvis actually widens during pregnancy. There is a small bone that connects the right and left side of your pelvic bone together, and it becomes more fibrous (instead of solid bone) during pregnancy, in order to allow your hips to widen and let a baby's head through. Well, your hormones can't just tell that one bone to loosen up, so it tells your whole body the same thing! I had arthroscopic knee surgery about 7 years ago, and a few sprained ankles even before that (from volleyball), and everything has been more tender and achy lately. I have to really warm up and stretch, plus wear an ankle brace, when I play now. Yes, I'm still playing volleyball. It's great exercise and I just have to be careful not to dive for balls :) I will have to stop in probably a month or so, depending on how I feel. I'll have to start another form of exercising, then!

One thing I think about sometimes is what it must be like for my little baby inside me. All he's known is what he experiences from being inside me, but after seeing...OOOH, he just kicked again!! Haha..sorry...anyway, after I saw him on the ultrasound doing flips and playing with his umbilical cord...I just wonder what is going through his mind. When I'm jumping and running around while I play, is he being jostled uncomfortably, or is he kind of having fun, like it's a ride or something? Or, if I fart...is that SUPER loud to him, or is that just another sound he's used to? (At this point, I don't know how he couldn't be used to it...I'm pretty gassy!) Or, if I take a big dump, does that open up some room in me for him? I know I feel more relieved afterwards ;)

Today, Mike and I were wondering about who our baby is going to look like....it's actually a constant thing we wonder about. Mike seems to think the baby will look a lot like me, just because I'm carrying him. I really hope he has a lot of both of us, though. (He kicked again!) I've seen some babies who will look like the father in one picture and the mother in another. It doesn't matter, he'll be the cutest baby I've ever seen.