25 weeks

I know you guys have been waiting with baited breath, but the comparable picture of me pregnant in last week's post was ..... me at 33 weeks with Piper. That is almost 9 weeks difference and I still look the same, gah! What am I going to look like at 40 weeks with this pregnancy?

Besides the aging I've done by turning 33 this weekend, I'm still feeling great. I had a weird side stitch/cramp thing that lasted about a day or so this week. It was weird and felt exactly like a runners cramp on my side and it would come and go, but was really uncomfortable. I knew nothing was wrong because the baby was moving constantly and it didn't feel like a contraction or anything. I tried everything to get rid of it: walking, drinking lots of water, yoga, drinking carbonated drinks, holding my arm up above my head (runners do that) and nothing helped. It just slowly got less and less annoying and I woke up 36 hours or so later and it was gone.

We went to a BBQ on Monday that lasted ALL day and it was hot as holy hell and when I got home I thought I saw the faintest hint of swelling in my feet. I'm 99.9% sure it was just paranoia because no one else noticed it at all.

Our current running list of names, as listed on the chalkboard:

Girl
Margot
Margaret
Matilda
Josephine (Josie)
Clementine
Charlotte
Sadie
Grove (there is no way this one will make it)
Hazel
Caroline
Norah

Boy
Rexford (Rex. This is probably the top contender right now.)
Ryder
Elijah
Patrick
Oliver
Jude
Milo

I just asked Patrick if he likes the name Maxine for a girl and he immediately said no,
because it reminds him too much of this comic strip lady:

This cracks me up because that would be the LAST thing I think of if I heard the name Maxine. There was a little girl in my playgroup in St. Thomas whose name was Maxine and I thought it was so cute, but I would be worried that people would tease her later calling her Maxi pad.

24 weeks

I have been feeling large and in-charge this week. Lots of rolling out of bed and pushing up on stuff to get out of a chair. I have to chuckle because this is WAY too early to be doing this and I've still got a good 4 months to go. Also, I really do forget I'm pregnant and will be happily working or doing something and then I go to get up and I wonder for a second why I'm having so much trouble getting off the couch until I think oh yea, I'm pregnant! The baby moves pretty much constantly and I'm starting to pick up on sleep/wake cycles. When the baby is positioned right you can see movement across my tummy.

So just for fun Patrick and I looked up a photo from Piper's pregnancy to see if we could find a week that matched up with how I look now. We both picked the same week, pictured to the right. Just to make it more clear, I included a current photo of me. What do you guys think? And guess how many weeks I am in that picture (leave you guess in the comments). Winner receives...nothing.

Me at 24 weeks with #2----------------------------------------------------------Me at ?? weeks with #1

This week has been great. Patrick and I have taken several evening walks by ourselves since Carol and Greg are staying with us. It's been so nice - like old times when we were pregnant with Piper and could stay out late in the evenings walking down to the river and peering in all the mansions to see what everyone is up to.

I had my first dream about the baby this week. All the dream details are really fuzzy, but I just remember that I had a baby and it was a boy (yikes) and I was walking around showing him to everyone. For the record, I feel like the baby is a girl right now.

23 weeks

This week we had our monthly OB appt. We met with Katie, a new midwife to the practice who graduated a year or so ago from the Florida School of Midwifery. She was the student midwife who attended Piper's birth and she was so calm and sweet during Piper's my labor. I remember at one point during my labor I turned to her in complete exhaustion and with absolutely no modesty left whatsoever and told her that I felt like I was bleeding or leaking or something. She calmly got a warmed wash cloth and wiped my entire nether region down while I leaned over the bed in a contraction. I remember thinking "man, what a crappy job she has." And now look who is cleaning off other people's nether regions...me!!

She has a really great personality and a very calm, self-assured spirit. At this last appointment I told her that when I was pregnant with Piper I couldn't fathom actually giving birth. It didn't seem possible for me and was just way too big of a notion to get my head around. I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle the pain or wouldn't be able to push or wouldn't be able to stay calm. And I did it all (shockingly) and now I'm here looking at that big mountain again. This time I'm not worried about not being able to birth my child, I'm just dreading going through the pain again. Of course I know I can forgo the birth center and have this baby at a hospital and get my epidural and everything. But despite the pain of Piper's birth, it was exactly what I wanted to experience and I would go through it all over again to know that I'm doing this how I want to do it, in an environment that I'm comfortable in, blah blah blah you guys all have heard this before.

I didn't realize it at the time, but Katie was pregnant with her first child at Piper's birth and since then has gone on to have two little boys in 3 years, wowzers. Her first birth was horrendous (worse than yours Lisa) and long with contractions for days and an eventual transfer to the hospital. She told us her second birth was fast and quick and efficient. And while it was obviously still painful, her body had been through the motions and knew what to do in a much more orderly fashion. I know (and hope!) the second time around will be quicker and easier for me. Piper had an absolutely text book perfect birth; one that I hope occurs with this baby as well. I am not looking forward to the pain (AT ALL), but I can't wait till I feel that first contraction and know that a wild ride is ahead of me for the next few hours followed by the blissful moment of meeting my second born.

So what do you guys think about my belly growth? Am I looking bigger or do I look like I've sorta been maintaining the same size for the last few weeks. My vote is the later.

22 weeks

The most interesting thing about this week was the EXTREME exhaustion I've been feeling. Like first-trimester exhaustion. I don't know if it's me, the baby or school stressors but I have been totally run down this week. I'm not really much of a coffee drinker at all, but I've been pouring a little cup each morning and then getting sweet/unsweet teas in the afternoon for an added afternoon kick.

I remembered this stage of pregnancy with Piper being full of energy and deep sleep. Of course, that was then and this is now and right now I am going to bed late after doing schoolwork, housework, packing lunches and waking up early to go to the hospital and deal with old men pooping in their beds and unhealthy fatso's who will be back in the hospital in a few weeks. At night Patrick and I collapse in bed and give each other a quick, tired smile before we fall asleep and then we do it all over again in the morning. Is this what it feels like to get older? To have a family? And responsibility? I'm thankful for it and would choose this job of Wife and Mother a million times over. But dang can it be tiring some times.

Anyways, where was I? Other than the exhaustion, this week has been great. No real changes, cravings or interesting updates.

21 weeks

Hmm, not much to report this week. Now that I am right in the middle of the second trimester I don't really have much that seems to change from week to week. I still feel great, the belly is growing and the baby is moving. I'm sleeping well and am nice and comfy in this little pregnant body. I really have no complaints at all. I feel normal and happy (and also very tired, but that is because school is a beyotch).

I really am trying to control myself, but I have been having such a sweet tooth this pregnancy. It is VERY unlike me to eat ice cream and brownies and milkshakes because in real-life (not pregnant) I try and avoid being a fat-fatty. But I can't help myself with this pregnancy. I will eat my usual hospital lunch of a gigantic salad from the salad bar and then after I've scarfed down the salad all I can think about is getting my hands on a cookie. I'll try and resist and eat peppermints or chew gum and if I'm still dreaming about a cookie (or to be exact: vanilla ice cream mixed with broken bits of chocolate chip cookie. Not chocolate chip cookie dough, but baked and broken up chocolate chip cookies mixed in to vanilla ice cream. That is what I'm always daydreaming about and I haven't been able to find it yet) then I'll either break down and buy one in the hospital cafeteria or I'll eat a smallish handful of chocolate chips when I get home.

I am trying to be healthy and good but I am extremely busy with this last semester of school and when I'm at clinicals I am on my feet all day and when I'm home I'm non-stop with Piper so I am cutting myself some slack and if I want a freaking cookie then I'm going to eat one!

In skin news: I'm starting to get little teeny tiny spider angiomas all over my upper body. I got these with Piper and they went away shortly after her birth. I could care less about them and, if anything, I actually sorta kinda like them because I've got one or two on my lips and I think they make my lips look rosy. I find it interesting the way my body is doing the exact same thing with this pregnancy as the last one - maybe that means this is another wibble girl!

20 weeks

HALF WAY! HALF WAY!!

I know it sounds completely cliche, but I can not believe how quickly this pregnancy is going. I can't believe I'm half way to the due date! In some ways I feel like I've been pregnant (or planning this pregnancy) forever, and then I feel like the baby is gonna be here before we know it and I've got so much to do (graduate, pass boards, figure out jobs) before the arrival.

The baby is still doing soft little movements pretty often. I'll go a few hours without feeling anything and sorta freak out and lie down on the couch and will the baby to move. I'll mentally speak to the baby until I feel a kick "Kick...and kick now...kick, kick, kick" I'll say quietly in my head until the baby kicks or I give up and go about my day. 99% of the movement I feel is to my insides (I'm assuming this is b/c I have an anterior placenta. Am I right sisters?), which is so different from how Piper moved and I wonder if it will feel this way through the whole pregnancy.

I've never really had a pregnancy craving before but twice this week I've been willing to mame and kill someone for a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. Each time I've indulged my craving and woo nellie, it was nice.

I can't get over how big my tummy feels. I went to tie on my jogging shoes tonight for an evening power walk and I had to do that thing where you tie your laces on the outside corner of your shoe because your belly is too big to lean directly over and just tie your laces in the center of your shoe. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I looked at my shoe sorta flabbergasted for a minute because uh...I've got potentially 22 more weeks of growth and I'm already having trouble tieing my shoes?

On a completely different note, how pretty is this rose? Patrick has always wanted a traditional rose bush for our yard (he doesn't like Knock Out Roses) and I got him one for our 8th Anniversary (Happy 9th Anniversary today Malloys!) and it is blooming so pretty!