21 Weeks!

Officially, we’ve hit the halfway mark on this pregnancy.  Sure, full term is 39 weeks, but it can also go as far as 42 weeks, so I’m calling this halfway.

Wanna see the newest pic of our little wiggleworm?  Here you go! 🙂

I love this picture because he already has so much character. He’s sucking his thumb, and has his other arm stretched out behind his head, just chillin’.  I really hope this is a portent of things to come.

Yes, I know that his hand kind of looks like a foot, but I trust the tech when she says that it’s his hand. She took pictures of his feet too. 5 fingers and 5 toes on each limb! His heart and kidneys look good too. I’m so excited that he’s developing well.

Oh yeah, and there’s also this other little thing I haven’t announced… we know he’s a boy! 🙂  I would post the ultrasound picture that confirmed that, but I don’t want to be the mom who posts pictures of her son’s genitalia on the internet before he gets the chance to make that mistake himself.

The “fruit of the week” to show baby size is either a pomegranate or a banana. I find this perplexing, as the two are very different shapes. At least they agree that the average size is 10.5 inches and 12.7 oz.

I found some weekly questions that I thought might be cool to share with everyone.

Total weight gain/loss: None! Not since conception. Doc’s not worried about it, so neither am I.

Maternity clothes? Um, YES. Belly panels are the best. I might not ever go back. I mean, it’s like having built-in SPANX that make your clothes more comfortable. Why don’t all plus-size pants have these?

Stretch marks? Not yet!

Best moment this week: A tie between turning 34 and Adam surprising me with a Snoogle!

Miss anything? DEAR LORD, YES. I was really sick this past week, and I have really missed decongestants.  I also missed wine at Christmas dinner.

Movement: Loads! He seems to like to wiggle the most when I lay down to go to bed or when I wake up first thing in the morning.

Food cravings: pickles

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really, but I’m still afraid to try turkey again. It made me so violently ill during my first trimester.

Have you started to show yet: Yes and no. Adam can definitely tell, but other folks might not be able to see it. If I’m naked, you can totally see the roundness of my lower belly, and how much my waist has changed — but with clothes, I just look like I did before I lost weight in order to conceive. The plus side of that is not having any new stretch marks, and still fitting in all my t-shirts.

Labor Signs: Had my first Braxton-Hicks contraction on Christmas day. MAN-OH-MAN do they suck.

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? Off my hand, but on a necklace.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Mostly happy, with scattered showers of irrational, silly crying over things like cartoons or adorable baby clothes.

Looking forward to: having a big, round pregnancy belly

My Most Recent Adventure With Time Travel

Earlier this week, I had my first time travel seizure in months.  I guess I was due for it, since I’d been really sick for about a week.  Sure, MS goes into remission when you’re in your second and third trimesters, but, sadly, that doesn’t preclude pseudoexacerbations.

I thought it was February of 2013 and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my tummy, and why it was hurting. I thought I was having some kind of awful gas. (Of course, I was feeling the baby moving around!) Adam asked, in response to my question about what was wrong with my belly, “What’s our goal for this year?” and I said, “To not want to kill myself?” at which point he realized that he was thinking of 2014…and that I was further behind.

The follow up was him showing me ultrasound pictures and me crying and asking him how on earth I’m going to be a good mom if I can’t stop thinking about suicide. He assured me that I’ve gotten much, much better. After the confusion lifted, I was very relieved to have done all the hard work in therapy and continued with good daily mental health habits.

Amusingly enough, I’m halfway through this pregnancy and am actually smaller in size than I was in 2/2013. I was amazed that I could have life inside of me and be “so much smaller.” I was my heaviest then, weighing in at 30 pounds heavier than I am now.

All the things!

As the big day ekes ever closer, I find myself starting to think about things that previously fell under the heading of “Eh, we’ll worry about it closer to time.”  Things like finding a pediatrician (?!?), making a short list of doulas to interview, budgeting for all of the things, making a baby registry (God bless you, Amazon, for having a universal registry.), planning for a nursery, and creating a guest list for the baby shower.

Baby Shower Guest List
Honestly, I don’t even know how to go about putting together a guest list for the baby shower. Most of my friends and family are scattered all around the country. Is a virtual baby shower a thing? Can I Skype/Google Hangouts/Live Stream the shower? What’s the etiquette on that? But more over, does the etiquette even matter, so long as I’m genuine in who I want to include and grateful for whatever gift they give – whether it’s their presence or their presents? I mean this is me we’re talking about. I’m not exactly known for following convention, and I want to include as many people that I love as possible because celebrations like this are rare and awesome. I just also don’t want people thinking that they’re only invited because I want stuff. That’s not the case at all. Then again, anyone I want to invite probably knows me better than that anyway.

Cord Blood Banking
I’ve also started reading up on things like, “what to pack in your hospital bags for you and baby” and whether or not I want to blow ~$3000 on cord blood banking. I mean, as someone with MS, I definitely see the benefit of having my kid’s stem cells available to him. On the other hand, tons of people opt to donate their kid’s cord blood, making it available to people who need it. It’s a much less expensive option, and seems to me like it would be a mitzvah. There’s no telling whether my baby will ever need his extra stem cells, so spending a bunch of money to hoard them for him seems like it might not be the best use of our money.

Then again, there’s a part of me that wonders if I could use those cells, since stem cell therapy has been proving very helpful in the fight against MS. That part of me feels, oddly, like I’m somehow being selfish even thinking that it might be an option. But then again, I’ve grown those cells. That umbilical cord is as much mine as it is his. *shrug* I can’t even begin to understand myself on this topic. I’m hoping my husband and parents will have some helpful thoughts.

The Great House Hunt
And then there’s the whole “finding a house” thing.  Adam is still hopeful that we’ll find the right house for us before the baby is born. I am much, much less hopeful. In fact, I would say that I’m sort of against the idea of moving at this point. My parents are going to be in town for the first month that the kid’s around and they’ll be staying less than 20 minutes from where we are currently residing. The idea of moving is just too stressful and complicated for me right now.  Right now, I just want to figure out how to keep this apartment clean on a regular basis and somehow fit all the baby things in here.  My best guess is that we’re going to need to either get a storage unit for all the already-packed boxes we have, or unpack and sell a ton of stuff that we clearly don’t need (since it’s been sitting in boxes for months).

Clean, Clean, Clean
The need to nest is real. Every day, I wake up and think about all the cleaning and organizing I want to do and then am thwarted by my body’s limitations. At least I’m regularly getting the dishes put away and the laundry done, folded, and mostly put away. It’s becoming increasingly frustrating to bend over and pick stuff up. I am sure it’ll only get worse as the baby gets bigger. Maybe there are some ab exercises I can do to make that better.

Too Hot For My Own Good.
Also, I’m surprised that TV and movies don’t make more fun of how disgustingly sweaty you get during pregnancy. I swear that it’s comical. I’m deeply in love with the Kool Max® Deluxe Cooling Neck Tie that I was gifted by Polar Products. It’s currently 70 degrees in my apartment, I’m in barely any clothes, and I’ve got it on because I can’t stop sweating. Adam, on the other hand, is enjoying his sweatshirt.

Usually, I try to find some kind of witty way to end a blog post, but I’ll be honest with you: today, I’ve got nothin.  Hope you and yours are doing well and that you had happy holidays and are headed for a very happy new year!