30 Weeks, 2 days

30 Weeks 2 daysIn anywhere from eight to 12 weeks, I will be a mother to someone who is outside of my body. Time is starting to go fast now.

I got a surprise shower with my family at our annual girl’s weekend. We better pray that Skeletor is definitely a girl because she got a lot of beautiful pink clothes. At worst Skeletor will be a cross-dresser for a few months. Men wear pink too, right? My cousin who had a baby girl a few years ago also gave me boxes of her old baby clothes, along with other baby things. It was really generous and Sean and I are very thankful for it.

I had to go for a non-stress test yesterday. It lived up to its name and was non-stressful. Just a belt with some sensors attached to my stomach to track the baby’s heartbeat and movements. I need to get this test done once a week until the end of the pregnancy due to having elevated AFP levels (that’s what made Skeletor’s risk for spina bifida so high). It’s more precautionary at this point I think, but better safe than sorry, especially when it is not an invasive or scary test.

So, we’re still kicking, squirming and incubating around here.

28 weeks, 1 day

28 weeks, 1 dayWent to the doctor today. Everything is still ticking along as expected. I got my pre-registration package today, so I need to fill that out. I also need to sign up for our prenatal classes.

I was hoping Skeletor would do some big kicks when the doctor was checking her out, but it didn’t happen.

We’ve done so much, but there is still so much left to do.

Skeletor is growing…

27 weeks, 3 daysThis 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

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.

Skeletor’s moving!

Skeletor is finally moving! No kicks yet, but I’ve been feeling her move on and off all weekend. I was beginning to wonder if I was missing something. Hooray!

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
This work by Melissa Price-Mitchell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.
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