Mini Eggs, anyone?

I don't know if I'm really having a pregnancy craving per se, but man those Easter treats have been calling to me. Frequently. Even after I've given in. Still want em. Today I saw some scattered on the ground in a parking lot and I thought about holding a moment of silence for the wasted chocolate and for whoever had the misfortune of dropping those precious morsels.

More importantly... we're at 32 weeks now, and today was ultrasound day. Fun surprise: even though this was at the clinic, requested by my doctor, and covered by msp, we got to see some 3D images! Like at a private office, where you spend a decent chunk of cash to do it. Certainly wasn't expecting that! I didn't want to ask too many questions so as not to jinx it, it was such a nice bonus. It would be pretty cool if that got to be the norm. Anyhoo I'm told the baby is 4 pounds 14 ounces now (how do they know that? crazy), the heart rate was 128 bpm, and everything looks right on track. Now for the fun part... photos! Well, one photo. We only got one 3D photo printout, so here it is:

Baby was playing shy, wanted to keep it's face hiding behind it's hand. From this angle, the hand is covering up part of an eye and part of the mouth on the right side of the photo, but you can see the other eye, the nose, and part of the mouth pretty clearly. Or, at least, the parents of this beauty can see it. Maybe it's not so clear to others!

Right after we got home from the ultrasound, I laid down on my side on the bed and starting feeling a new kind of movement. Up until today mostly I was feeling what seemed like rolling around, but not those kicks you hear so much about. This time there was several minutes of kick kick kick over and over again, nice and strong so Ray could both feel it and see it. It was so constant, almost like a tick. But it's cooler to think it was kicking, don't you think?

Going to wrap this up now so I can send it along to those of you who can read from work... I'm excited!

Now why isn't that husband of mine back from his chocolate run yet...

Weighing the Issue

Well, good news and less than good news.

Good news, doc says my weight is back on track now.
Less than good news, doc said not to keep up the same weight gain pace.

Oh, sure.

For the last four weeks I changed my eating habits so as to try to gain some healthy weight. I was successful. Now I need to change my eating habits again, so as to continue a healthy weight gain BUT not as much as the last four weeks. How in the heck is that supposed to work? He's toying with me I think. Don't you think? Because that doesn't sound reasonable to me. Surely it's not considered reasonable to ask a pregnant woman to increase her food intake, then take it back and tell her to decrease it again. That is some form of cruelty. Right up there with tickling. Am I right or am I right?

I hope the preceding rant was perceived with its intended humour :)

Onward and upward: next scheduled cruel joke on this pregnant woman is Feb 22, when I get to drink approximately 42 gallons of water without releasing it until given permission. Hooray!

More Milestones

Last Sunday, at 28 weeks, I had another milestone. Ray very nicely made me a virgin strawberry margarita. No, that wasn't the milestone, he does nice things for me all the time :) It was such a sweet treat, and I sooo enjoyed it. Anyway I was lying in bed when he brought it to me, and I had a bit of it then sat it down absentmindedly. Ray left the room and came back with his own, and caught me laying there with my coffee mug of margarita balanced on my tummy. That was a first! Wonder what I'll balance next... It was a bit of a cheat since I was lying down and the cup was also balancing against my chest too, but then again I never would have done that a few months ago without the belly I've got now.

The next day, I went to the mall for a haircut and a little clothes shopping. The hairdresser was the first stranger to comment on my pregnant belly – that was pretty cool. She said they're told not to comment on that with clients for fear of being wrong, but I was wearing a pretty tight fitting shirt and she said my popped out belly button was a giveaway so she felt pretty safe saying something. Then I went to do a little shopping, still trying to avoid actual maternity clothes by buying larger sizes of regular tops that happened to be designed to flow around the belly. Normally when a store staff person asks if I need help with anything I always say no just out of shyness, even if I actually do need help. But since I'm looking for pretty specific stuff now I went ahead and said yes. The girl right away pointed me to just what I was looking for, saying that about a year ago she was in the shape I'm in now and was still avoiding maternity wear too. She said she managed to get through with zero maternity tops and only one pair of maternity bottoms – she lived in yoga pants and let the waistband sit below her belly. I wish I could get away with that at work – I'm down to wearing the same pair of jeans every day (yes, I wash them frequently) but who knows how long I can milk that for.

I had my test to check for gestational diabetes two weeks ago. If it had bad results I would have been called back already for the longer version, so I'm hoping no news is good news. I'd heard terrible things about the repulsive orange drink you have to chug, but actually it wasn't so bad. The comparison I heard was it was like McDonald's orange drink, but just the syrup without being watered down. Yuck. But actually it was cold and carbonated, and sure it was fairly sweet but really it was just like Orange Crush. Not hard to chug at all for me. More annoying part was sitting in the waiting area for an hour alone so they could make sure I didn't eat or drink anything else before they took my blood. Boring! Next check up with the doctor is this Tuesday, right before the 30 week mark. Yikes, three quarters of the way there! We'll see what doc has to say about my weight this time – I've been trying to work on it, but honestly I can't tell one way or the other what the change has been since early January.

I've said that I've enjoyed my pregnancy so far, I think I've been spoiled with few low points. Ray asked whether I'm actually enjoying being pregnant or I'm just happy that we're going to have a baby. I told him – both! I really have been enjoying being pregnant, and to borrow his term the “wonderment” has been amazing. Every day I think about how amazing this process is, how much is going on inside of me without me consciously doing anything at all. And the physical sensations, all of this baby's movements, I wasn't prepared for how cool that would be, definitely my favourite part of it all. And I do think I have been spoiled with few low points – sure I had some morning sickness, but it was isolated to the first trimester and I never actually threw up at all. And I had that nasty heartburn just after Christmas, but it was only a few bouts of it, over in a week or so and nothing since. I've been having a more difficult time with certain movements that used to be easy and mindless, especially moving around in bed, but so what? It's logical that I'm not able to move quite like I used to, and though I may have a bit of pain in the moment, it doesn't linger. So far, I'm counting my lucky stars that both baby and I have been been healthy so far and all those little symptoms have been just that – little. Here's hoping the rest of the road is this smooth, and hopefully payback doesn't come during childbirth!

PS - here's a photo showing my belly's progress... more on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=862609&l=d71f8&id=577420408

PPS - woops, thought that would be public, let's try that again for you non-facebookers: