7:04 p.m. - 16 April 2004
Pregnancy update
Lee took this picture this afternoon, so it's what I look like these days. I'm already starting to get a few comments about how big I am, which I think is something you should never say to any woman, much less a hormonal and paranoid pregnant one.
I saw the doctor last week, actually, and as of that day, I'd gained a whopping 3 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, so it's not like I've been buffet-busting over the last seven months. My doctor is actually very pleased with my weight; she said I'm right on target to gain about 15-20 pounds total, which is exactly what she wanted me to gain from the beginning.
The entire doctor visit went very well, actually. I had blood drawn when I went in for the one-hour glucose tolerance test, and my blood sugar level was fine. There haven't been any problems so far: my blood pressure has been normal, there hasn't been anything untoward in my urine screens, I'm measuring just where I should, and the fetal heart rate has been easy to find (well, it has since the first time she tried to find it). My doctor even commented on how perfectly normal this whole pregnancy has been -- I haven't really had anything other than the normal aches and pains of growing a baby. Which are nothing to sneeze at, of course, but compared to the complications that can happen, I feel pretty lucky.
This has convinced me, however, that I'm in for a hell of a delivery. We've been to two of our childbirth classes so far (and let me just say how thrilled to bits Lee has been with them), and they're being taught by one of the midwives in the practice who has a slightly more touchy-feely approach to the birthing process. Not unexpectedly, mind you, but it was all I could do to keep from cracking up at Lee while we were supposed to be practicing our breathing exercises last night. He kept hearing that I'd need to be distracted during labor, and he figures he has much better ways of distracting me than getting me to focus on my breathing. He's probably right, but I don't know if making me laugh during a contraction is really such a good idea.
He's still pretty active, although he's big enough now that it's not kicks and punches so much as rolls and wiggles. I was talking to someone at work today and he commented that while he though it was pretty cool, he wasn't something that he could completely wrap his mind around. He said he thought it was kind of weird to watch a pregnant belly move around, and he had no idea what it could possibly feel like from the inside. I agreed -- it's not something you can really explain. Lee has likened it to an alien trying to break free more than once, particularly when he's really moving around and my whole stomach starts going. I'll miss it when he's born, I think, but I'm also ready for him to be here. 10 more weeks, which seems both impossibly close and impossibly far away.
(Yes, I know the picture is too wide. But I don't want to make it any smaller, so I'll live with the broken template for this entry.)
