22 Weeks

Stretch marks?

Luckily I haven't found any of these little gems on my stomach yet. However, that one on my hip that I told you about a while ago is still rocking it's nice shade of purple, and I have recently inherited an army of them all over my chest. Welp, one's body certainly does experience quite an undertaking during pregnancy, so I guess it was only a matter of time.

Maternity clothes?

Can't get enough of them! I look ridiculous in 90% of my pre-pregnancy shirts, and I don't even think about squeezing into my old jeans. No one wants to see that. My favorite attire is currently some leggings, a big shirt, a belt, and some boots. I can look like I'm trying to look good while secretly just wanting an excuse to wear spandex. Lots of spandex.

Baby movement?

This is my favorite thing. Every week I can feel the movements getting stronger and stronger. It cracks me up when I can look at my stomach and see the baby is deciding to cram into one side of my uterus, morphing my stomach into a weird shape. I read that the baby is starting to establish sleep/wake cycle and that I should be able to distinguish that soon. Right now it's most active at around 9pm-11pm. I'm still in the phase where I actually enjoy it, however I hear the "stop-kicking-me-in-the-ribs-and-bladder" phase is fast approaching.

Cravings?

Is milk a legitimate craving? Because if it is, then I'm all over that one.

Dreams?

Every night is like a new adventure for me. I never know if my sleeping self is going to be featured in a violent action movie, a really random romantic encounter, a monster situation, etcetera. My dreams are always vivid and always weird. They never disappoint. 

Last night's was about strip poker and pumpkin pie filling. No joke.

Weird habits?

Nothing too out of my normal amount of weird. Right now, I just feel this incessant need to organize and prepare everything in my home. People have told me this phenomenon is called "Nesting". I call it "Paranoia". 

Emotional? 

My poor husband. Here's the thing about pregnancy emotions: they are very real. Although we might acknowledge (inwardly, of course) that the crime doesn't warrant our reaction, WE CAN'T HELP IT. We really feel THAT mad about the stupidest of offenses. The other day I got mad at Will because he didn't know if the hamburger meat had been in the fridge or if it were left out. I got so mad that I threw the entire container of hamburger meat into the trash and was slamming around the kitchen. And then I'm mad that I through away dinner and I need to go to the store and get some more. And then I'm in the bedroom on the floor, BAWLING. So dramatic. Sorry, honey. Only 18 more weeks.

20 Weeks

Dear baby,

We're half way there.
You have been growing in my belly now for 20 weeks. 20 long, hard, exciting, tiresome, emotional, beautiful weeks. While I've been here taking naps and eating too many sweets (I'm sure you appreciate), you've been hard at work becoming a breathing, kicking (YES, I can feel those), swallowing, dreaming little human.
I've been told you're about 10 inches long from head to heel. 10-12 ounces. Your arms and legs are now the proportions that they will be when you're born. Your ears and eyes are in the right place. You taste and swallow amniotic fluid, and your digestive system is preparing for it's big job of keeping you healthy when you're here. You make faces. You get hiccups. You have unique facial features, hair, fingerprints, and tooth buds. You know my voice, daddy's voice, and can recognize familiar sounds (I'm thinking Liam's barking, dad's guitar and the theme song of Bones).
I feel you every day dancing and kicking and doing somersaults in there. I can feel it when you turn from back to front and when you shift from one side to another. Your kicks and punches are getting stronger and make me laugh sometimes. Your dad, uncle Joe, Meemaw, aunt Jessi, and Great-Grandma have all felt you move, too. I like to think it's our little special secret when you kick and punch, and no one feels it but me.
When I start to feel sad about how big my tummy has gotten, I just remember that it means I am that much closer to holding you with my arms and not my belly! You consume our thoughts, conversations, and our prayers. You are already so loved, considered, admired. You make me proud and happy and anxious and nervous all at the same time. Excited doesn't even begin to explain how we feel about meeting you in just 20 more weeks.
We're half way there.

Love,
M

Wives Tales, Theories and Folklore

According to some interesting ideas, I can predict the gender of my baby without and medical intervention at all! Thank goodness, because I was thinking some people were going to start an uproar about Will and I's decision to keep it a surprise until birth. Here's a few of my favorite myths I've encountered thus far:
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If you have heartburn, your baby will be born with hair. Or, it's a girl

I actually would really like to hear the logistics behind this one. I mean, let's think about this for one second. Is your uterus even REMOTELY connected to your esophagus? Is there even a relative proximity between my throat and my placenta? If there were, I would probably be concerned about much more than heartburn. The truth is, heartburn comes down to a few simple physiological explanations. 1. Any lady that's been pregnant can attest to the fact that as our pregnancy progresses, our muscles, tendons and ligaments loosen- a lot. While it makes sense for our ligaments in the pelvic girdle to loosen later in pregnancy, it kind of makes for an uncomfortable time up until then (think sore back, knees, etc). This is the same phenomenon that is a main cause of heartburn. The valve between our stomach and esophagus, called a pyloric sphincter, is significantly looser than it was prior to pregnancy. This causes the acid from our stomachs to reflux into our esophagus, causing heartburn. 2. This one is a little more obvious. As the uterus grows to accommodate it's ever-growing tenant, it puts pressure on the stomach, thus pushing stomach acid up against the pyloric sphincter and into our esophagus. I know, you liked the explanation of hair much better.

If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you'll know that I've been getting heartburn since about 12 weeks. Apparently it's going to be a hairy girl. 

Carrying low? Boy. Carrying high? Girl

Again, the logic is just not there. What is the rationalization behind this theory? If baby girls and baby boys are both born at the same 7.63 pound average weight, why would the gender change the position of the fetal growth? The only factors that truly effect the way a woman carries are muscle tone and body type. If a woman has strong abdominal muscles, she will tend to carry higher until late in pregnancy when the baby "drops". If the mother has had previous children, is older, or has, um, neglected her ab workouts, chances are she'll carry lower. The length of a torso will also effect the direction in which the baby grows.

I am carrying low and out front so far, so according to this wives tale, it's a boy. According to reality, I need to hit the gym.

Fetal heart rate: High is a girl, low is a boy

The first time we got the hear the heart beat, it was 165 beats per minute. The second time, it was 142. According to the wives tale, what does this say about our baby? In reality, if you were to take a fetal heart rate 10 times within an hour, you'd likely get 10 different rates ranging from both above and below 140 BPM. The variation has more to do with the developing fetal brain than the genitalia (what a thought, huh). While the nervous system develops, the baby's heart rate spikes when stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system and falls when controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. Interesting, eh?

Judging by the heart rate theory, we're having a girl.

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Although I invest no weight into these wives tales, they are still kind of fun to hear about. I have had lots of women POSITIVE that I am having an XYZ because of so-and-so theory. It's kind of funny to hear their explanations. Cast your lots now, people. We'll see if these hold any truth come October!

Pet Peeves

When people find out I have a Great Dane for a pet, there are a handful of puns that I can predict they will choose from. These puns include some variation of the following: "You should put a saddle on that thing!", "That's like a small horse!", "Did you ride that thing to work?", or my personal favorite, "That thing is huge!". Thanks for the comments, peanut gallery, but I hate to break it to you; your jokes are far from original.  

The same phenomenon occurs whenever someone finds out I'm pregnant. While the intentions are always pure, the results are sometimes skewed. Allow me to explore a few of the comments that are my personal favorite pet peeves.

Pet Peeve #1: "What do you want it to be?"

My answer to this used to be pleasant and polite as I entertained their inquiries. I would say something like, "Well, we are going to be happy with whatever we get!" Now, I'd prefer to say something witty like, "You know, I was really hoping for another puppy.. But I just don't see that happening." I don't think Will would appreciate my sarcasm. But in all seriousness- don't ask people this. I don't want anyone to give me an opportunity to entertain the thoughts of preferring one gender over the other. What if I start saying I hope it's a boy? What if it is a girl? For a split second, am I going to dislike the fact that it's a girl? Am I going to resent it? I don't want to even for ONE moment be disappointed with the outcome. So I'll just help us all out with this one and tell you what I want: I want a healthy, happy baby. That's all.

Pet Peeve #2: "Just you wait until...!"

For example: I wrote a status on an unnamed form of social media that said something to the effect of, "Sitting here feeling the baby dancing around in my belly. I can't get enough of this!" A few responses went something as follows: "LOL! You say that now, just you wait until that baby of yours is sitting in your ribcage and kicking you in the bladder!" I do realize that my sentimental sayings do, in fact, break down at some point. When I say "I can't get enough of this", I do know that there is an indeterminant time in the future in which I could, feasibly contain an adimate amount of "this" to be deemed "enough". I am aware. I wouldn't choose for my fetus to be in-utero for an eternal period of time, for serveral reasons. 1. I would hate for my fetus be be denied life on the other side of birth. There's much more to do out here. 2. I would concur that at some undertermined time post a 9-month gestation, the feeling of baby kicks may, indeed, become mundane. irritating, even. gasp. I said it. But hey, for now, in this moment, I am really enjoying every part of the experience. So please, let me enjoy it without having to jump months into the future and think about the moment when this feeling will become displeasing. 

I also like to call this comment "queen bee syndrome". This syndrome occurs when one human, typically female, feels the incessant need to one-up any experience, feeling, or situation one should find themselves in with an experience, feeling or situation of elevated decibles deemed significantly more severe. For example: In the rough of my 1st trimester, I state, "I feel so tired." Said queen bee smugly replies, "Oh you think you're tired now? Just you wait until that baby comes! Just you wait until you work full time, have two toddlers, a dead-beat husband and a screaming newborn. THEN you'll be tired." Hey, thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

Pet Peeve #3: "You only have X-amount of months left of child free life, enjoy it while you can!"

Ah, GREAT idea! Now if I could only get my sleep schedule, incessant vomiting, ever-growing stomach and ever-shrinking clothes to agree with your sentiments, then I'd REALLY be living large! What makes people think I am not enjoying it? I wonder what activities I would have to engage in in order for people to stop telling me to enjoy my time. Again, the intentions are good, but let's try not to use this cliche comment anymore, people. It suggests that 1. My life looks undeniably boring, or 2. All things fun in life are dead with the birth of a child. Neither sound promising. 

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If you said any of these comments at one point, I wouldn't remember. Honestly, I have heard them all so many times it would be difficult to keep tally. Perhaps it's important I included a disclaimer stating that while I joke about it, I really do appreciate everyone's intentions and attempts to be involved in my pregnancy. While I may poke fun, I promise that no feelings were harmed intentionally in the creation of this post. 

(But seriously, cut it out.) Haha!

Ultrasound

Moms and dads that have been through ultrasounds will agree with me when I say that there is no feeling in the world that compares to seeing your little one for the first time. Today we got to go in for our first (okay, technically second- but first "real") ultrasound. What a big change it was from the little black and white blob we saw just 9 weeks ago with indistinguishable appendages!

Thumb sucker already

This time, everything was so clear. We could easily tell the arms from the legs, fingers and toes, the facial features, even the beating of the heart. The picture was so clear that I could have counted the ribs if I wanted to, if I weren't so distracted by memorizing every piece of its little face. When we were watching it from the side, we saw a little arm raise up in the air. Totally fist pumping. Haha! We watched that same little arm curl back and extend it's thumb- headed straight for it's mouth! That's when the waterworks started. I couldn't help it but cry seeing our baby in action. I was so overwhelmed with happiness, excitement, and complete disbelief that all I could do was cry and smile, and let out the occasional, "awe".

I was surprised at all of the coordinated movements baby K was making. Itching it's ear, doing somersaults, crossing it's feet, and especially the thumb-sucking. I think s/he was showing off a little. We watched it yawn and then come down with the cutest case of hiccups I've ever seen. The weirdest part was that I could actually FEEL the baby moving from hiccuping while watching it on the screen. Talk about being blown away. After that 15-minute oogling session, the ultrasound tech got down to business. She took all kinds of pictures from different angles, taking measurements. According to said measurements, the baby is about a week ahead of schedule growth and development wise, and is in the 79th percentile! That being said, I could either 1. Have a watermelon for a child, or 2. Have the baby a little earlier than anticipated. (I am hoping for the latter.)

Tummy time
(head is on the left, you can see the spine along the top)

We got to take a closer look at the brain and the chambers of the heart as she took measurements. Do you know anything more amazing than looking at the brain of a child that has yet to be born? Yeah.. me either.

Guys, God is so good. I have never felt so full and blessed; He truly is an awesome God. I can confidently say that this was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Knowing that it only gets better from here is what is really getting to me. Only 5 more months, baby, and I'll be seeing you suck your thumb in real life!

Dinosaur yawn! (face is on the right)