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: