Holy crap, I haven’t had a period in 214 days!
Holy crap, I’m 75% done being pregnant!
Last two weeks or so, my belly has been growing by. the. minute. Little girl has to fatten up in there, so I’m just gonna keep on growin’. =) So far, it’s mostly belly, so I guess I can’t complain. =) I still kinda like it, actually. It’s juuuust starting to get a little uncomfortable. Only a little, and only sometimes. I’m sure the discomfort will be a more prominent feature of this pregnancy in a few short weeks.
She definitely FEELS different when she moves around. Those tiny little jabs are feeling more like actual limbs in there. Bigger limbs. Incredibly cute limbs. Okay, I don’t know how an incredibly cute arm or leg would feel different than a marginally cute one, but I’m quite certain that I’m right. =)
The uncomfortable part…I am starting to feel more of the pressure on my ribs. Sometimes it feels a little bit like a mild burning sensation, but usually just pressure. I guess pressure is the right word. It’s hard to describe. And sometimes it feels like I can hardly take a deep breath, but I read that I’m actually taking in a lot more oxygen than I did before. It’s really generally fine during the day or when I’m standing. It’s most noticeable at night when I’m just lazing about. She’s trying to teach me to have perfect posture. Good luck with that, little girl. I’m a horrible sloucher when I sit. =(
I’ve gotten so used to feeling my baby in my belly…her movements and just her presence in general. Sometimes I wonder if it’s going to feel weird NOT having a baby in there. Is that weird? Like, does it feel like something is missing? Will the lack of movement be unnerving? I suppose, by that time, I’ll be so happy to not be pregnant anymore and so distracted taking care of and enjoying my daughter I’ll barely give it a thought. I’ve just really gotten used to it. The only thing I still really miss is sleeping on my stomach, so I’ll be excited to do that again!
It has been a while, but I forgot to mention at the time that I had a really weird birth dream. At this point, my memory of the dream is foggy at best (it was pretty foggy as soon as I woke up), but I remember a little. I was just hanging out at some house. It might have been my parents’ house, but the floor plan was totally different than their real house. There were a bunch of people over, just hanging out. It might have been a Christmas gathering. Anyway, I was in labor at the house. At one point, there was someone there to help me (don’t remember who), but after a while I was just sitting in some room laboring by myself while everyone else was enjoying snacks in the dining room/kitchen area. And I didn’t mind one bit. Probably because the “labor” was ridiculously easy and absolutely NOTHING like the real thing. I don’t even have to know the real thing to know that much. So then the baby came out, I wrapped her up, and I took her into the other room to show everyone who was over there talking, laughing, and eating. Weird.
Sunday before last, I finally got around to registering for baby stuff. Before that, I got the registry started by shopping online. It was a grueling process…probably because I made it a grueling process for myself. Researching every little thing. Silly example, but it reminded me a little bit of optometry school when we had to buy all our equipment before we ever really learned how to use it. But it is kind of like that on a grander scale. So many baby things we’ll need before we really know how to take care of one. But it was a learning experience. Some of it I’ll love, some of it I won’t. Some of it I’ll use all the time, some of it I’ll hardly ever use. Some things, I won’t even know I need it (or that it exists) until I need it. But that’s the way it goes.
Anyway, Pete, my mom, and I tried to marathon it in one Sunday afternoon. We grabbed lunch, then went to Target. Since I had already registered for a lot of things online (especially the “big” stuff), I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. And it probably wasn’t, relatively speaking. But some things are better to register for in the store. Like blankets and onesies and miscellaneous smaller items. I already know I registered for too many blankets. As I went, I’d find some I liked better, so I figured I’d register for those too, then remove a couple of the others from the registry online after I got home. But after I got home and looked, I discovered that most of those were in-store only, so I had no idea what was what. So I’m either going to just leave it as is and re-evaluate the need for blankets at a later date, or go back to the store sometime soon to figure out what’s what. Probably the former, but who knows.
I just rambled a lot about blankets. Finally, we accomplished all I felt we could accomplish at Target. Time to hit Babies R Us. At this point, Pete was flagging, I was doing fine, and if my mom was having any problem, she didn’t show it. So off we went. Only a few more items to go. About halfway through Babies R Us, though, I started flagging, too. My brain was overwhelmed with baby stuff, my list of what I needed and what I’d already registered for was completely unintelligible, and I was getting cranky. So I zapped a few more things and decided I was finished. There were still some things left to research, but I didn’t care. Some of it I’ve since added; some of it I haven’t. I’ll be buying loads of stuff in the next few weeks anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. =)
One thing that really gets on my nerves though. Babies R Us keeps changing the color (at least online) of the bottle brush and some of the bottles I registered for. I’ve fixed it twice, and it reverts back every time. I think I’ll just leave it since it seems there is no permanent fix. Maybe my daughter will like blue sailboats better than pink and purple flowers anyway. I had a few problems with the Target registry at first too, but at least none of those are recurring.
Last night, we signed the doula contract and gave her the down payment. So that is all official. =) On the to-do list: register for childbirth and other classes and pre-register at the hospital. I need to call my insurance company to see about pre-certification before I send in the pre-registration form.
Took another belly pic almost a week ago. Not the greatest picture in the world, but here it is:
Also wanted to share a picture of our Christmas stuffs. Just because the tiny stocking in the middle makes me smile. =D
Next Dr appointment is tomorrow! So I’ll probably update again soon-ish. =)
Cartoon baby!
