07.08.08 ~ Week Nineteen

Finally, a Belly!
Somehow over the last week or so I’ve developed a real pregnancy belly. Last week I was tired and cranky and irritable all week. I had a data training to attend, and was getting ready to be gone from work for a week since Jason and I were heading to the beach with his family on the 4th. I thought maybe I was just stressed until I realized that suddenly I had developed a real belly. Over the course of the week I must have gotten a fresh batch of pregnancy hormones delivered because it seemed like the baby grew at monster rates over the course of about 5 days. The skin on my belly was so tight and stretched that it actually hurt. I finally caved and started putting cocoa butter on it – although if stretch marks are in my future, I think no amount of cocoa butter will hold them at bay. It’s a little scary to watch such a sudden transformation (even Jason seems surprised since he keeps re-realizing that I’m pregnant: “You really are pregnant!”). But it’s also thrilling. And best of all I think I’m finally graduating out of that awkward in-between stage where people probably don’t look at me and see pregnant but rather see a girl who just ate thanksgiving dinner for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every day for the last week. There have been two concrete examples of my new pregnant belly actually sending out the right message to people. One, Jason stopped in to chat with the guys who work in the deli on the first floor of our building to let them know we are expecting. They looked at him like he was crazy and responded with “Oh yeah, we already knew.” And the second happened at my data training when a girl who I had met in a class I was taking over this past spring semester came up to me and said “Soooooo…..???” and looked at me expectantly with one eye brow raised.
I innocently replied “What?”
“Soooooo???” she repeated and her eye brow went up even further.
All I had to say was “Yup!” and she squealed with delight. I was so excited that someone could tell I was pregnant (and could tell enough to basically ask) that I ate an extra big lunch that day just so my stomach would puff out a bit further.

Knock, knock, I’m in Here
One huge bonus of the baby growing so much is that I can feel it moving all the time now. At first the movements were little jabs here and there (we totally skipped the fluttery butterfly sensations that others describe). I could feel it mostly after I had eaten something if I sat nice and still and waited for the food to hit the baby. But now, I can really feel the baby moving all the time. It definitely isn’t a boring baby. If it’s any indication of how the baby is going to be after it’s born – Jason and I better brace ourselves for some action. When I lay down on my back, and all of my muscles relax, the movements are even noticeable from the outside. Jason describes it as the baby swimming around in its little baggy (like a fish in the bag you get at the pet store). But if you lay the bag down on the table, the water disperses and the fish doesn’t have much room left between the top and the bottom of the bag. So, I lay on my back and the baby’s little house collapses in on it, and it starts wiggling around to free itself. Jason and I were laying in bed a few days ago and the baby was trying extra hard to push its roof off of its head. So I put his hand on my stomach and after about five minutes of “Did you feel that?”
“No”
“That?”
“No”
“What about that?”
“No”
There was finally a “Did you feel THAT?”
“Yes!”
Both from the inside and outside it feels like I’m having muscle spasms, or like there’s pop corn popping in my stomach – one kernel at a time, very spaced out. Almost all of the movements are short and abrupt like that, but every once in a while I can feel one long continuous movement. I imagine this isn’t a little baby limb kicking our punching, but instead the whole baby turning over or switching positions. This sensation is often followed by an intense need to pee. I think my bladder might already be in the way.

Our Last Beach Vacation (pre-baby anyway)
So now we’re in Corolla, North Carolina on the Outer Banks with the Hetzner/Steele family. Last Thursday night we packed everything up and then took the bus to Baltimore on Friday morning (July 4th). That afternoon we stopped in and saw Shawna, Christy, and Erin and all of their kids. Everyone was telling us to really enjoy this vacation since it will be the last beach vacation like it – maybe for the rest of our lives. Christy said that heading to the beach with kids is of course still possible but is much different than before kids. She said she never gets a chance to just lie on the sand and read. The kids need watching and entertaining and get hungry and need naps. And she said even when you go on a trip without them it’s not the same because you think about them while you’re away. So both Jason and I are determined to make the very most of this vacation. We’re in a big house with Carol, Tim, Gram, Aunt Bar, Jeff, Jessica, Katie, and Katie’s friend Christine. Emily and Jarred aren’t here because Emily is already a centimeter dilated and her doctor advised against traveling. The house has a pool, volleyball court, kayaks, bikes, is stocked with tons of food and is close to the beach. And we have a whole week to lounge here, eat, and enjoy the outdoors. I haven’t been this relaxed in ages – it’s a pregnant girl’s dream. The only thing that might make this better is a nice cold cocktail. But that’s something I can live without.

I’ve made other slight accommodations like sitting under an umbrella while on the beach (instead of sun bathing myself into a sunburned delirium like I usually do), and wearing a bathing suit that’s a WHOLE SIZE bigger than before. I had to buy a new one once I realized that neither the tops nor the bottoms of any of my old ones fit anymore. Jill helped me pick out a new one that holsters the new ta-tas and has enough coverage in the back to be appropriate. The belly is out for the world to see and I, of course, developed a red itchy rash that makes it look even more freakish sticking out in front of my body. The rash is still there now which is why I’m inside on my computer rather than out on the beach. I think the rash is from the heat, sweat, sun, and sunscreen combo that hit my pale, stretched out, used-to-the air-conditioned-air skin on the first day. But it’s already getting better and I’ve made a mental note to remember how miserable and itchy it is so that I have sufficient sympathy the first time our kiddo gets a diaper rash.