...and the third trimester begins

mood: exhausted

first, i have to say i love getting emails and messages from all of you about the blog! it makes it even more fun to write. keep 'em coming!

i can't believe the third trimester is already here! at this point (week 27) BG weighs almost 2 pounds, measures around 14 inches from head to heel, and hears noises, responds to light, and is generally more aware of her surroundings. in the next 13 weeks she is going to gain about 6 pounds! where the heck is all that going to go?! i feel huge already! sometimes i don't know what to do with this big belly. it bumps into things (lightly) and seems to lead the direction i'm going in even if i planned on going the other way. i think BG is definitely playing games with me. she's already such a tease! i haven't gained any weight in the past two weeks, though, which i suppose is a bit concerning. she's still kicking away all the time, but i've only gained about 12 pounds in all so far. as long as i gain about a pound a week for the next 13 weeks, i should be fine, though. i started buying 2% milk, eating more chocolate, not getting anything low-fat, eating ice cream on a thrice daily basis, and in general eating the way i haven't eaten since high school. it feels good!

i'm getting kind of nervous. the only things we've bought so far are some books, stuffed animals, a crib and an armoire! that's not exactly going to feed and clothe the baby. we've been looking for and registering for bassinettes and play yards and gliders and blankets and pumps and all sorts of random things that i'm sure our mothers did without, but somehow seem crucial now. i'm trying not to fall for all the hype about the super brand name items or the ridiculously expensive 'must haves', but i find myself wanting things more organic. i read reviews like a maniac! anything under four stars from more than 20 people and the item is out. i know, it's a bit excessive, but that's really all i have to go on right now. everyone around me is having babies, but they're all being just born, so the experience is only starting to kick in for them, too. i'm sure by the next one i'll be like, 'that costs $2.99 and you have no idea what the reviews say? i'll take it." after we sort-of impulsively bought this beautiful armoire because we got a great deal on it, we realized we don't have any space in our bedroom so we have decided to turn the den into a nursery. rups put together the crib (it was very cute!) and moved the armoire in, aso the nursery is definitely starting to shape up!

this week i've reverted back to my first trimester exhaustion. i just don't sleep well at night anymore. rups says i've started snoring! i take offense to that! i do NOT snore, i just breathe deeply because my lung capacity is greatly diminished thanks to HIS child. (that excuse still doesn't prevent him from having to sleep in the guest room sometimes.) i wake up at random times throughout the night and have to find things to occupy myself (email, eating, reading random textbooks to bore myself back to sleep), and then all day the only thing i want is a nap. i start scoping out places to sleep at work--this office, that chair, that corner that looks semi-vacuumed. no, i don't actually just curl up in random places, but i do daydream about it. a lot. today i had about 24 minutes between work and a dentist's appt and i came home for a quickie nap. and it actually helped!

everyone keeps asking me about names. i'm not telling! we have one picked out but we're keeping it mum until she's born. too much input otherwise. and i'm keeping a backup just in case she doesn't look like the first name. we've gotten so used to calling her by the name that i really hope she looks like it!

25 weeks and the physical symptoms kick in

mood: more tired than usual

today (tuesday) is rups' birthday and BG (baby girl--very original, i know) got him a card and baked him a chocolate cake with reese's peanut butter cups crumbled in. he thinks it's funny and cute when i hold my belly and attempt my far-from-perfected ventriloquism by talking in a high pitched little girl's voice as if BG is talking to him, or do things as if she's the one doing them. and who am i to not further the developing bond between father and daughter? we haven't been as good about reading to her at night because our schedules have been so erratic and i've been out of town on my own for a week, but we're getting back into it. she seems to respond to his voice really well--she often starts kicking when he talks to her, which makes him even more happy to talk to her. it's really quite cute.

i also had my o.b. checkup today. at the last visit one month ago, my o.b. was concerned that i hadn't been gaining enough weight. that definitely wasn't the case today. i had been instructed to gain a pound a week over the past month, and i gained five pounds (total, not per week). so there! i definitely look pregnant now when i wear a dress, but when i wear looser shirts, people still can't always tell. i'll have my gestational diabetes test done next month. i'm a little concerned because i love love love sweets and there is a family history of diabetes, but my ob feels given my age and prior birth weight, i should be okay.

BG is doing really well. she's a lot quieter during the day nowadays, but at night, she loves to kick up a storm. she's about 1.5 pounds (how the heck does she kick so hard?!). she's obviously not ready to be born, but it is some comfort knowing that if i did go into labor this early, she is now old enough to be viable. she'd be in the hospital for months growing and avoiding infections, but she would likely survive. i'm scaring myself just thinking about it, so enough of that.

the heartburn kicked in a couple weeks ago and i finally understand why it is so awful! it's this searing discomfort that runs up and down your esophagus, and i found the only thing that makes it better is ice cream or chocolate milk (well, i guess regular milk would work but chocolate milk tastes so good!). this is not an excuse to feel like i'm doing something beneficial by gorging on ice cream, but it seriously is one of the only things that makes it go away. the heartburn doesn't happen every day, but when it does, it seriously makes me feel like an old wrinkly man melted into in his rocking chair complaining about and expecting a badge of courage for every ache. yes, heartburn makes me think all that.

to get my second badge/war wound, i have to mention that today i had the first pangs of back pain. you know, the achy kind that is so deep rooted that no massage even makes it feel better. that might be because i was trying to give myself a massage (rups was at work) but i don't think anything would have helped. i try to minimize the amount of tylenol i take; i usually only take it if i have a pretty bad headache, but if this backache keeps going, i might give in to the siren call of the tylenol.

AND, to top it all off, i haven't slept well in weeks. i just can't find a comfortable position, and i have three and a half more months of growing to go! i'm not quite as elatedly happy as i was in the past few posts (in fact, i'm a little grumpy in the evenings for about half an hour at a time), but i don't let myself take it out on rups. i'm pretty sure it's because i'm not sleeping well.

so there's all my complaining. the good news is that i feel pregnancy has been bringing me and my mom even closer together. we've always been close, but i think she feels that i can understand better the things that she's gone through (and she's right), so our conversations are longer and less hierarchical than they used to be. we talk basically every day now, whereas i remember when we'd go 1-2 weeks without talking before. it's nice. i feel lucky to have her support, especially as i've heard stories about moms who really just don't get involved in their daughters' daily pregnancy woes or make them feel like talking to them so regularly is kind of a nuisance. since we can only have two relatives in the room when we deliver, she is definitely going to be one of them. rups will of course be the other. sorry, anj!