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.