pregnant – hellomelissa.net

Skeletor is growing…

May 1, 2009June 14, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

This is not the most attractive pregnant lady picture ever but it tells the story. Skeletor is getting bigger and thumping around lots. I’m 27 weeks, 3 days in this picture, so I will continue to get bigger. Hopefully I’ll document the growth a little more regularly.

I went and bought some maternity pants today. They have fake baby bellies in the dressing room that you can strap to yourself to see how the clothes will fit with a bigger belly. A saleswoman told me that they add about five months worth of baby belly.

So now I know what I will look like when I am 11 months pregnant – like I have an oddly-shaped throw pillow stuffed down my pants. Fortunately, I forgot my camera and didn’t document that sight.

26 weeks, 4 days

May 1, 2009June 8, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

The severe thunderstorms that are supposed to be coming our way are taking their sweet time getting here. We have clouds but they aren’t really storm clouds yet. It rained for a few minutes about an hour ago, but nothing else yet. We have a tornado watch too, which is unusual for this area, but the extreme heat and humidity have really thrown the weather for a loop this weekend.

I’m just relieved that we put in the air conditioning in the house after we moved in. I didn’t want to spend the money, but Sean insisted, and I’m glad that we did, especially this year. I find I’ve been more sensitive to the heat thanks to Skeletor. I went out to get my lunch on Friday, and by the time I got back to the office, my feet were all swollen up. I ended up putting the Yellow Pages under my desk and my feet shrunk down again after resting on that for awhile. We shall see if that continues to work.

In other Skeletor-related news, she now has a nursery mostly set up. Both of the grandmas (Sean’s mum and my mum) came up and painted the room and put up the border that Sean picked. Sean and I got the crib put together (which took longer than one would think), and things are starting to look pretty spiffy in there. No pictures yet because we don’t have a mattress or bedding and I’d like to do the documenting after things are done. I did try to take a picture of the grandmas in the room showing off their hard work, but my mom told us to wait until she could hold the baby and sit in the rocking chair with it. Fair enough.

I’m finally starting to look pregnant and not just fat, which is a relief. I’m starting to wear more maternity clothes, including some that Sean’s mum made for me – again, no pictures yet. I really need to start documenting this. Last week, I wore an empire-waisted top that I bought last summer (read: it’s not a maternity shirt), and a guy ended up giving me his seat on the subway! That was the first time that’s happened, and I really appreciated it. I don’t expect it to happen too much, but as long as I’m not falling over or fainting, I’m not bothered by it. I know I’m not an invalid and I shouldn’t get any more special treatment than anyone else, but gestures like that are awfully nice.

Skeletor is kicking and squirming regularly now. Sean finally felt her kick last week, which was such a nice moment. He kept asking her to kick for him and she wouldn’t. One day at work, I had been busy and hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I stopped for a minute and felt a few big kicks or punches (I really can’t tell them apart yet), and I looked down and said “All right, we’ll go and eat! Now what do you want?” I haven’t worked out a “one kick means yes, two kicks mean no” system yet, but we’ll see what happens.

So to make a long story short, Skeletor is behaving and incubating properly, and preparations are well under way. I can’t believe how quickly the second trimester has went. I imagine the third one won’t go as fast, but since it’s summer, it might – summer always seems to go by so quickly. Or maybe summer will go quickly, and it will just be me who is slow, and waddling and swollen and awkward. We shall see.

Update on the Little Critter

May 1, 2009March 29, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

I had my first appointment with my OB/GYN on Thursday morning. He must be well-liked as the waiting room was full of people (most of whom were pregnant ladies) when we got there. (He had been delayed due to being at the hospital attending a birth.) I like him too – most of the appointment was spent explaining how things work to Sean and I. He then asked if we had any questions, which a lot of doctors don’t always do since they are often so rushed, so I really appreciated that.

We got to hear the heartbeat at this appointment, which was something we were really looking forward to. The little critter’s heart was going at about 150 bpm, which seems ridiculously fast, but is quite normal in incubating babies. It was a real relief for Sean to hear it since he has been worrying that the baby stopped growing, even though I have been having normal pregnancy symptoms all along. We’ve done a bit of role reversal here – usually I am the worrywart and Sean is the one calming me down.

One thing that surprised me was that my due date may be further into September than we thought. My family doctor told me I was due around September 8th, so that is the date I’ve been fixated on. My OB/GYN said that I could be due on September 10th based on the dates I told him. However, when he measured me, he didn’t think I was that far along. So instead of being just over 16 weeks, I could be just over 15 weeks. So I’m being sent for a dating ultrasound to be sure. This is a standard procedure, but I think it’s usually done earlier – it just took me some time to get an appointment with the OB/GYN. I hope I’m further along, but the scheduler at the ultrasound said that my doctor is usually pretty dead-on with his dating, so I’m probably not as far along as I thought. I’m still optimistic that I will get my Virgo baby though – just like its mother! I do know that due dates are just guesses in the end and babies will be born when they see fit, but I like having an end-date in mind.

Somebody at work told me I was starting to show. I told them that it could just be my food belly showing and not my baby belly. I’m not sure if I’m showing baby yet, but I do think that my body is changing shape. (I’m in my grubbies right now, or I would take and post a picture.) Honestly, I’m convinced that my bottom is getting flatter, but I’m not sure if that’s a pregnancy thing or not.

Here's hoping I don't flood the subway

January 2, 2007 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

I have a pelvic ultrasound is at 9:15 today so I am sitting at the computer drinking my 32oz (950mL for us Canadians) of water. Here’s hoping I don’t pee my pants on the subway. Last time I had this test, I had to make a pit stop along the way. It was a desperate situation since I peed in a bathroom at the Yonge/Bloor subway station – eww! Worried that I couldn’t take the test after my releasing of water, I started drinking water again. By the time I had the exam, they told me my bladder was actually too full! Aargh! So I guess I’ll just sit like a lady on the train today and suffer.

I’m not pregnant so don’t get too excited about this. I’ve been having pain near my right ovary, and I thought it was a cyst (I’ve had them before). I went to my doctor and she said she didn’t feel anything, but an ultrasound would know for sure. She also told me that I could have a tilted uterus. I went all goggle-eyed and said “they move?” cuz I always thought tilted uteri were something you were born with. This is despite the rumour I heard in highschool about the girl who got a tilted uterus after sleeping with a guy who was rumoured to be quite hung. I didn’t believe that rumour then or now, but apparently the uterus can move around in there and press on other parts. Silly uterus, quit squirming in there!