Baby Stats:
Length: 9 inches
Weight: 2 pounds!
If he were a veggie, he would be a: hothouse cucumber (or as my pregnancy book says, just pick up a 2 pound chuck roast at the grocery store, and there's my baby!)
Aren't the holidays wonderful? I loved being able to have a lazy morning, knowing that my afternoon and evening would be all about family, which was equally as fun. It makes me extremely sad that my break is practically over, but at the same time, I'm super duper excited to start the new year, because the sooner it starts and gets going, the sooner this baby will come! I have become so excited for him to come. I used to be scared about him coming early, because I was scared to have to go back to work, but then I realized, it won't be for long, and it will give Jed lots of time to learn to be a daddy or it will give my mom/brothers lots of time to bond with him. Plus, pregnancy is starting to slowly get more uncomfortable.
First, I will talk about the great things about the last couple of weeks, namely, being able to see my stomach move when the baby moves! Seriously, it was only a little bit after the doctor told me, and bam it happened! It generally is most noticeable when I'm lying on my back. It's kind of crazy. It looks like someone is punching (or kicking) the inside of my right side, so my whole stomach moves in that direction and goes back in place. Sometimes he is pretty active and I can watch for a little bit, but usually it's not more than a kick or two. The sad thing is, Jed has yet to see it! I've tried so hard to get him to see it, but every time I call Jed over to look, the baby stops. Ha ha no joke. I wonder if it's because something in my body changes, like my blood pressure, because I'm concentrating so hard on the baby, so it stops because of the changes. It's funny though, when I see my stomach move, my first thought is that our poor baby needs something or is trying to say "Let me out of here!" ha ha. I know that's strange. It is very reassuring, though, to feel my baby. Last week I didn't think I had felt him all day and it scared me! So I turned on my left side like they tell you to, and just concentrated on relaxing (oh and I said a little prayer that my baby was still okay.... I hope that God doesn't mind my little 10 second prayers like this because they happen probably more than they should). But I shouldn't have been worried because I didn't have to wait more than 5 seconds to feel a little movement. I will have to remember things like this in a few months when the baby won't stop moving and it keeps me from sleeping. Then I can be grateful that I get almost constant reassurance that my baby is alive and well. Jed has been able to feel the baby more, which makes us both happy. I even have dreams, like last night, where I can feel specific parts of my baby. In last night's dream, my baby's foot was pushing out, so I could see this foot and leg trying to push through my skin. Describing it makes it seem a lot grosser than it was... but in my dream I could feel the head and the feet of my baby with my hands and let other people feel it too. I'm excited for when my baby gets even bigger and my brothers can feel the baby. I think they'll really like that.
Speaking of sleep.... I think the break has marked the beginning of a hard third trimester (which starts next week!). The first week of the break, I woke up wide awake around 3 or 5 in the morning and nothing would help me get back to sleep. I'd go to the bathroom, eat a snack, drink some milk, cool down in our family room because the bed was too hot, and after all that, I just had to lay in bed looking at my iPhone for a while until I fell asleep. I wonder if it had to do with how little activity I had compared to how much I move around when I teach.
The last few nights have been different. Long gone were the days of sleep on my stomach (it used to be the absolute only way I could sleep). Sleeping on my side was actually more easily achieved than I could have hoped, but I think that's because I sleep at a slight angle down, so my body still feels like it's sleeping on it's stomach. Well now, side sleeping is even slightly uncomfortable! I wake up after sleeping on my left side for a while and my side feels like it's being stretched way past it's ability. So I move to the right, sleep there for a while, and when I wake up, same feeling. Our bed has been over taken by pillows in order for me to sleep well. Poor Jed, he probably feels very cramped on his side of the bed, because I'm pretty sure my huge body pillow has found it's way over to him several times. I even resorted to trying to sleep on my back two nights ago. The only times in my life I've slept on my back were because I was sick and no other positions worked for me, or because I was recovering from my broken femur and moving even the slightest inch brought excruciating pain. But the other night, sleep would not come, and so I actually slept on my back (with the use of 3 pillows). Pillows are a pregnant woman's best friend.
Every day I feel more and more pregnant. I've been sick since Wednesday (really I've felt sick off and on all break, but I've been actually sick since Wednesday), so maybe that's why, but I have just been moving slower. The thought of picking up my feet to run sounds impossible. We have a Kinect, and anytime I have had to jump, I feel the need to hold onto my belly. I hope to goodness I can be fast with the kiddos at school, but I think as the days and weeks go on, I will only become slower and slower. It's kind of crazy how much of a difference I feel in the last two weeks. Quite suddenly, some of my maternity pants are no longer fitting well. The unfortunate thing is that the other pants I have are the ones with the huge band that goes over your whole belly, and those just don't stay up all that well yet because my belly isn't quite big enough yet. But if my belly continues to grow at the rate it's been growing (or at the rate I feel like it's been growing) I will be plenty big in no time and those pants will probably get snug themselves.
Well, as crazy as being pregnant may sound, it's awesome. There's just something about knowing your precious baby is in there that just makes even the awful things so great. And really, nothing has been very awful. I've been blessed with a fairly easy pregnancy. I would probably say the worst part of being pregnant has been my immune system. I have gotten sick at least twice a month, September being the worst when I got two different colds and two bouts of the flu. Let's hope that this has left along with 2011!
Oh, and two more awesome things: First, if my baby were born today, he would probably survive! I have no idea how long he'd be in the NICU, but he could survive! It is so nice to not have to be scared of a miscarriage anymore. Of course, any number of things could happen and we could have a stillborn, but odds are good that from now on, our little boy could be born and live!
Second awesome thing: I have less than 100 days to my due date! 94 days until April 5th. Awesome, right? I'm into the double digits.... it's crazy! Time is flying, and I hope it continues to fly by, because I can't wait for out little guy to come! And, like I said before, third trimester starts next week! (As in, calendar week, not week 27. It will start week 28.) I can't believe the second trimester is gone already! It passed by so fast. I think I can thank the holidays for that.
Anyways, happy new year! I hope you all have a great time going back to school.....
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