From BabyCenter:At around 4 inches long, crown to rump, your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. He's busy inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which will help develop the air sacs in his lungs. His legs are growing longer than his arms now, and he can move all his joints and limbs. That means his hands are more functional, too. Sweat glands are appearing, and although his eyelids are fused shut, he can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, he's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but his taste buds are beginning to form. And if you have an ultrasound, you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or girl! (Don't be disappointed if it remains a mystery, though. Nailing down the gender depends somewhat on how clear the picture is and the position of your baby during the ultrasound; he may be curled or turned in such a way as to keep you in suspense.)
2004.11.22. growing up too fast
My little Olive is growing up so fast! Or, more to the point, her home is growing very fast. At about 4:30 a.m. this morning, I awoke to get milk for my son, the dairy machine, and when I returned to bed my uterus was so uncomfortable I described it to my midwife later today as a "burning sensation."
Let me see if I can describe it more fully. I felt as if, at any moment, my uterus would be expelled from my body, violently. I was having pangs of nasty indigestion, but it felt like my entire organ was on fire.
Naturally, I immediately feared the worst. The baby! Something is wrong! I'm a hugely rare 15-week miscarriage! I considered calling the doctor's 24-hour freaked-out-mama line, but thought better of it - after all, what could they tell me now that would be any different from advice given 10 hours later?
As you can imagine, I received strange looks when describing it to my midwife, who said something I've never heard a medical professional say: "I've never heard anyone present with those symptoms before." This, according to my steely-gray-haired midwife, who has been working long enough that she may have delivered some of the mothers who are her obstetric patients.
And as soon as she put the "bubbles on mama's tummy," as Everett eagerly said (he wondered where the "TV" was, though, from last month's ultrasound), there was the heart beat, puhpuhpuhpuhpuhpuh, strong and right in the middle of the normal range, just like Everett's heart at that age. Puhpuhpuhpuhpuhpuh and I knew everything was fine.
We worry so much, we mamas, and so little of it has any real merit. But without the worry, where would we be? Out drinking margaritas and lifting 100-pound sacks without a care, or a healthy offspring, in the world, probably.
In other news, the midwife says lifting Everett won't be at all dangerous to my pregnancy, nor will sprinting after him to keep him from darting into rush-hour traffic. I'd wondered about that - the old wives' wisdom seems to be that lifting more than about a large grocery bag full of bread and lettuce is potentially fatal to pregnant women, but here women have been bearing babies, and carrying toddlers, for untold millenia. Certainly our ancestors didn't call their menfolk back from the mammoth hunt to pick up their firstborn and carry him back to their cave - and look, we're still here!
2004.11.26. too tired
What's that about energy in the second trimester? Feeling good all of the time? Waking up with the roosters to scrub and clean and go on long bracing walks?
Ummm, no. That's not my second trimester. My second trimester likes to wake up at nine with her son, turn on PBS Kids, and go back to bed until 11 (and still wake up grumpy). My second trimester sometimes turns in around 11 p.m. and groans when someone dares to call before 9:30 a.m.
My second trimester really, really wants to get about 11 hours of sleep a day. And is very unhappy when she doesn't get it.
On the bright side, my second trimester likes food, very, very much. So I'm lying around, sleeping and eating and, oh yes, going to the bathroom several times a night. Something tells me this child is going to keep me running from day one.
2004.11.27. s.e.x.
So...I've been having dreams, quite racy ones. Fortunately they're mostly about my husband. Unfortunately I wake up with BBC on the radio and my little toddler next to me in our big lonely bed...and the feeling goes right out the cold cold window.
I've never really had that supposed hot-and-heavy pregnancy that I've heard - and read - so much about. Maybe it's because I've always had an energetic man around and haven't had time to miss, you know, it. (Except in the very last days of my pregnancy with Everett, when it was the only thing that would bring on contractions and I was chasing my frightened husband around.)
I don't know if I should feel cheated - that I finally feel like this, but my hubby's not here to reap the benefits - or just sad, because I'm probably only feeling this way because there's no hubby. Something about these dreams makes me feel, well, relieved is the best word. In the months following the miscarriage I certainly wasn't having feelings like this. As I told my midwife when she wondered if we should do more STD testing, as it was all done in May...ummm...there wasn't much transmitting going on in the last six months what with miscarriage - nausea - husband leaving.
And for those of you who haven't yet decided that this is more than you really wanted to know, I just have to say that it's a little self-affirming knowing that I'm a "normal" 30-something woman in the area of it.
2004.11.28. weepy, emotional, tired
Oh, this isn't easy. It's less than three weeks until Jonathan gets home. But now (as any normal hormonally disturbed woman would certainly do) I'm already missing him - when he leaves again. I feel cheated. It's going to be such a short time! He'll be here for two weeks and two days, for the ultrasound and the tree gathering and the present opening and the dinner cooking and the party going and the Christmas Eve service and the New Years' kiss. And then he'll be gone.
I'm not ready for him to leave again - for nine more weeks, all the way to the end of trimester #2 and a good ways into #3.
All day I was in a funk. I tried to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon, because, you know, it's tough getting up before 10. Everett wouldn't let me (he, himself, fell asleep around 5) and for some reason I decided to watch a Lifetime movie marathon.
Here's a hint for those of you who are pregnant with your husbands far away: try to stay away from Lifetime. Do I really need to cry every 10 minutes for an entire afternoon?
And here's another hint: don't watch movies about husbands doing anything bad when you're far away from your own. For that matter, don't watch movies about husbands doing anything good, 'cause then you'll wish yours was here to do good things, too. (I heard you, little blog voice in my ear! I'm not schizophrenic! It's the hormones, dammit!)
