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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

6 Months-ish

Not that anyone counts by months, as I'm a bit over 25 weeks now. I guess this means I'm in the last trimester now. While the first trimester felt like a year, the second seemed to whiz past in a few weeks!



I have been feeling more confident of my ability to actually squeeze the baby out without freaking out since we've been taking the Bradley class. TheLimey also expresses a lot more confidence in his role as coach. We are now halfway through the 12-week class, although we have a lot of reading to catch up on for the past few weeks. And some of the exercises, too. Given the eating, the exercising, the walking, the relaxation practice, and the readings, it could easily take 6 hours a day every day. (Some of that time just me, some both of us.)

It's really been hard to find the time to do it all in the evenings, and our weekends have been chock-full of various social things as every single freakin' individual we know is graduating, getting married, leaving town, and having babies right now. Each of which require some kind of get-together, including ours now that I think of it.

Supposedly pregnant women are mosquito magnets, since there is simply more heat pouring off of us as we radiate for our babies, too. However, on recent nature walks I have only gotten a few bites, while my poor husband is still stalked by lots of the little bloodsuckers. (Perhaps it's the exotic foreign meat aspect!)

I have a very few odd muscle twitches here and there, but nothing like the terrible cramps some people describe (well, maybe once or twice). The only annoying thing is that my eyelids have been twitching like crazy (I'm sure it looks quite crazy) for a few weeks now. Top, bottom, left, right--they all do it at various times. I'd say at least a few times per hour.

Also, my hips have been aching when I wake up for maybe a month. Whichever side I was most recently sleeping on is the one that aches. It wakes me up in the middle of the night so I have to turn over and cook the other side.

6 Comments:

  • I thought it looked about the same, but when I A/Bed it with the last one on Flickr, it definitely looks bigger.

    I've seen a few women (live and/or in pictures) lately who are just HEEYUGE and the weird thing is that they look like a child's drawing: it's an abrupt U-shape sticking out of the body. It looks like they just nailed it on there. It freaks me out. But then all of this has...

    Will there be more sonograms, or do they lay off at some point?

    By Blogger argotnaut, at 12:55 PM  

  • Probably not any more ultrasounds than those first ones. I already got more than my fair share because I switched doctors right at the beginning.

    Studies show changes in fetal cells after being exposed to sonograms; no long-term studies have shown them to be safe.

    Possible risks include fertility of female fetuses later in life (as all egg cells are already present while they are in utero). There's also the ever-popular possibility of being carcinogenic as with every other thing we do to "the pre-born".

    The first crop of girls to be exposed to regular ultrasounds is just now coming of child-bearing age, so I guess we'll see soon.

    Fetuses appear to dislike sonograms, and attempt to avoid the path of the beam.

    By Blogger liz, at 1:01 PM  

  • Maybe they sound like that mosquito ringtone.

    Oh, and don't your hips actually become wider (or more spread out) during pregnancy? Achy growth pains?

    By Blogger argotnaut, at 6:35 PM  

  • I'm not sure about wider; it could be. I do know that all the connective tisue in your joints goes to Jell-o so that the hip structures can squeeze apart when the baby's coming out.

    Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. But it affects all your other joints and makes them squishy, too.

    Mine, I mean.

    By Blogger liz, at 7:49 PM  

  • I was completely freaked out (a.k.a. absolute denial - "I'm not doing that.") about squeezing the baby out too. But having now done it already, I can tell you that your body gives you lots of drugs to deal with it. I love dancing because it takes me into a trance-like state, and being in labour was a lot like the trance of dancing. But then I did a lot of bellydancing while in labour.

    Figure out what takes you into that zone and do it while you're in labour? You probably don't need any more advice at this time, but we already-mothers just can't stop giving it. Sigh.

    By Blogger Gwen, at 1:34 PM  

  • No no, I'm happy to hear from women who've done it (with less or no drugs) (at least the ones who were more or less prepared), because it seems more likely I can actually do it!

    Before it seemed a lot scarier, even though I was determined.

    I am really glad for the Bradley classes and a supportive partner.

    Also for my home-birthing aunt, who said "It's not like you're being horribly tortured. You just have to concentrate a whole lot on dealing with it, and it's hard work. That's why it's called labor."

    By Blogger liz, at 2:32 PM  

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