Eighteen Weeks

This week: Wolverine Baby is five and a half inches long, or about the length of a bell pepper.

Development: This week, Wolverine's blood vessels are visible through her skin.  Her ears are in their final location, as are her uterus and fallopian tubes.  According to the app on my phone, she is "busy flexing her arms and legs."  Based on how much I feel her moving, I feel like this is pretty accurate.  I've been trying to get her to move for Ray, but she won't.  I've only been able to feel her move by putting my hand on her three times, so most of her movements are still very faint.  But every now and then, she'll get a really good kick in.  And, of course, it never fails that as soon as Ray puts his hand on her, she stops moving all together.  Stubborn already... I have no idea where she might have gotten such a trait.

Are you craving anything? On Monday, I might have given my right arm for a glass of wine.  Instead, I settled for a chocolate milkshake.  It wasn't quite the same, but it was a good distraction!

Is there any food that turns you off? The thought of scrambled eggs makes my stomach lurch...

How do you feel? Meh.  The nausea has come back several days this week.

How is your sleep? I've been getting great sleep since Ray got home from his training!

Most surprising thing you've noticed or experienced:  Ray telling me the picture above "doesn't accurately show" my stomach.  Had he said it with something other than disappointment in his voice, I think I might have been insulted.  But he seemed genuinely disappointed that you couldn't tell just how pregnant I look in this picture. 

Something you're surprised you haven't noticed or experienced: Nope!

Favorite/most comfortable article of clothing: Yoga pants.  I wish I could wear them to work.

How is Ray doing? Very well.  He's got a plan for our big move and is working hard to keep me as stress-free as possible during the transition.

Seventeen Weeks

This week: Wolverine Baby is five inches long or about the length of a Droid phone.

Development: Wolverine's skeleton is changing from cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord is growing thicker and stronger.  Her sweat glands will begin to develop this week, and she can move her joints now.

Are you craving anything? Still Bamboo House but now also slices of pizza with Feta and chorizo from Decent Pizza.

Is there any food that turns you off? Not right now...

How do you feel? Pretty good!

How is your sleep? Lately, not so great.  I must stop drinking so much water before I go to bed... But that's when I'm really thirsty!

Most surprising thing you've noticed or experienced:  The baby moving, hands down.  I wasn't expecting it, so it caught me off guard.  And I am surprised by how often I feel her moving.  There appears to be no rhyme or reason to when she's the most active.  It also surprises me how easily distracted I become when I feel her moving.

Something you're surprised you haven't noticed or experienced: Nope!

Favorite/most comfortable article of clothing: The new maternity jeans I got this past weekend.  I really expected trying to find a pair that was comfortable and flattering would be a nightmare.  After all, buying regular jeans is.  But the first pair I tried on was so comfortable (and nice-looking) that I think I would have paid $300 for them.

How is Ray doing? He is doing very well and seems to be pretty keenly aware of the pregnancy progress these days.

"THESE Are Spirit Fingers! And THESE Are Gold!"

All the things I've read in books and online told me that I could expect to feel Wolverine Baby move sometime between 16 and 22 weeks.  Aunt Stacey told me that she felt Bryce move for the first time at 16 weeks, and Leah at work told me she didn't feel anything till about 20 weeks. 

Most of what I read, too, said that most women have a very hard time describing what the baby moving feels like, and many of them say it feels like they have gas.  Others suggest it feels like hunger pains.  Fewer suggest that the movement feels like butterflies.

On Saturday evening, I was sitting on Laura's patio after a delicious dinner of homemade chicken Parmesan and green beans.  We were just sitting and chatting when I felt something that was unlike anything else I've felt.  I thought, "Well, that was odd," and sat there for a few more seconds and then it happened again.  I realized that I was probably feeling Wolverine moving.  I sent Ray a text message telling him that I thought I'd felt the baby move, and he wrote back, "Are you sure?"  ...  Um, no.  I've never had a baby before, so I don't know for sure what it feels like.  But it was very, very different from any of the other strange sensations I've felt since getting pregnant.

Yesterday, Wolverine must have decided it was time for a workout because for a solid five minutes, I could feel her moving around.  When I talked to Ray, I explained how it felt this way: "You remember what spirit fingers are, right?  Well, it feels like the baby is doing spirit fingers inside me."  Thank goodness he was around when I was coaching.  Otherwise, I would have had to refer him to this helpful video:

So, for the record, I first felt Wolverine Baby move at 16 weeks and 3 days.  

It's such a strange experience.  Someone suggested that feeling the baby move is the first time pregnancy feels real, but I'm not sure I agree with that.  Seeing the baby on that first ultrasound and hearing her heartbeat made it feel very real to me.  But feeling her move inside of me.. I was struck by the thought, "There is something ALIVE inside of me!"  And then I thought of the movie Alien.  Thank goodness Wolverine, despite her nickname, is a human baby and appears to be quite gentle with her movements.  I can't wait for the time when Ray will be able to feel her moving, too! 

Sixteen Weeks

This week: Wolverine Baby is four and a half inches long or about the size of an avocado.

Development: This week, Wolverine has toenails, and her legs are much more developed.  She'll be doubling in size over the next couple of weeks, and her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood a day.  (That seems like a LOT to me, but I don't really know a whole lot about how much blood the average person has, so maybe not?)

Are you craving anything? Bamboo House on Sixth Avenue.

Is there any food that turns you off? Eggs.  Yuck.

How do you feel? It appears that the nausea is now an every-other-day thing.  And it also seems that I'll have a day where I feel great, but at about 9 p.m., I suddenly feel very, very ill.  Whoever's in charge of naming pregnancy symptoms really needs to rename morning sickness.  It's not just in the morning.

How is your sleep? Some nights, it's awesome.  Others, I'm waking up six to seven times and struggling to go back to sleep.  But I am able to stay awake past 8:30 these days, so that's a definite plus. 

Most surprising thing you've noticed or experienced:  I got my nails done on Friday, and while I was there, I told the technician I was pregnant.  (I had a question about what to do about the fact that my fingernails are so very thin right now.)  This man, who was very nice, then proceeded to interrogate me about my pregnancy, my due date, my plans for breast feeding, my plans for returning to work after delivery, and even asked me when we conceived.  He also shared that he is from Laos (which I'm hoping was his way of letting me know that there are some cultural differences and that's why he felt the need to ask me so many personal questions?) and told me all about his wife's experiences with their first baby.  Finally, he noted that our little Wolverine is going to be born in the Year of the Dragon under the Chinese zodiac.  According to my nail technician, dragon babies are harder to conceive, harder to carry (he said this explained why I was so ill that first trimester), and very, very lucky.  He also assured me that we would "be taken care of" and "receive many gifts."  I found this article from The Wall Street Journal about dragon babies that I thought was fairly interesting.

Something you're surprised you haven't noticed or experienced: Nope!

Favorite/most comfortable article of clothing: Yoga pants

How is Ray doing? He is well.  He's perhaps overly concerned about my safety (and suggested that I should never have climbed on a ladder while he wasn't home), but he means well.

I Am Not Budai, People!

This weekend, my brother got married.  While at the reception, I had three different people come up and rub my belly.  I don't mean a simple touch or pat.  I mean a full rub like one would rub Budai's belly.  And while these people were not strangers, they are a former teacher and two former students.  I like all three of them, but I'm certainly not comfortable enough to have them rubbing my belly.  To be honest, I think I got off easy with only three people out of the 250 people there doing this.  But it got me wondering... What makes people think this is okay?

It's only when a woman becomes pregnant that people feel comfortable rubbing her stomach.  I mean, before we announced the pregnancy, no one greeted me by doing that.  So why does it suddenly seem okay for people to say hello by rubbing my belly?  Do they feel that they're greeting my unborn child?  Do they think my belly is somehow no longer a part of me and is therefore okay to rub?

I googled "why do people rub a pregnant woman's belly" this morning just to see what was out there on the subject.  The only thing I got were a couple of different forums where belly-rubbers said that they just thought it was amazing to feel the baby moving inside a woman's stomach.  While I can understand that this would be neat, I cannot understand why people are already feeling on my stomach.  Even I can't feel Wolverine Baby moving yet, so there's no way anyone on the outside could. 

And I'm still baffled at why people do this uninvited.  I imagine that, once Wolverine's movements are able to be felt by others, I'll share that with friends and family.  But shouldn't I, as an individual, have the right to invite someone to place his/her hand on my stomach instead of just having people randomly reach out and feel me?  I think someone should do a study about this.  Maybe I'll just start my own little (unscientific, of course) study.  Each time someone touches my stomach without being invited, I will ask, "What makes you feel comfortable enough to rub my belly without my permission?  Did I send an unintentional signal to you that said it was okay?  Are you trying to communicate with Wolverine?  Do you greet all pregnant women this way?"  If you can come up with other questions you feel would be helpful in this study, please feel free to mention them in the comments.

My final observation on this is that, for me, there is a distinct difference between someone placing his/her hand lightly on my stomach and someone actually rubbing my stomach.  I am much less likely to think violent thoughts and contemplate hacking your hand off if you just place your hand on me.  For example, my brother put his hand on my stomach while we were taking pictures.  It didn't feel nearly as invasive as the rubbings did.  I'm sure the fact that he is my brother plays a part in how invasive it felt, but truly, the way he did it mattered, too.  It really felt kinder and less like I was being mauled. 

Fifteen Weeks

This week: Wolverine Baby is four inches long or about the size of an apple.

Development: According my the app on my phone, Wolverine Baby can sense light this week, even though her eyelids are still fused shut.  In fact, the app informed me that if I were to shine a flashlight on my stomach, the baby would likely turn away from the light.  This left me wondering... Who does that?  I mean, what person decided to shine a light at her stomach just to see if the baby would respond?  That's kind of a random thing to try.  In other development news, Wolverine's legs are now longer than her arms (yay!), she's moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory track, and moving all of her tiny joints.

Are you craving anything? Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs.  I'm not sure that's a pregnancy craving as much as it is an Easter craving.  I love those things so much that I informed my Aunt Stacey this past weekend that, "Aside from the whole Jesus-dying-for-my-sins-thing, Reese's Eggs are the best part of Easter!" 

Is there any food that turns you off? Vegetables.

How do you feel? Pretty good today!  I have not taken a Zofran today, and I think that this might be a first.  I do still feel pretty emotional at times, though.  Ray seems to be managing my meltdowns pretty well, though, thank goodness. 

How is your sleep? Pretty good.  Even when I wake up in the middle of the night these days, it's not with the sense of anxiety that I felt before. 

Most surprising thing you've noticed or experienced:  I think I'm really starting to get a sense of how much push-back we're going to get if we opt not to share the name we choose for Wolverine Baby (if we can agree upon one).  Pretty much every family member I tell, "No, we've not chosen a name yet, but we're considering keeping the name a surprise anyway," seems to think this is a terrible plan.  Even some friends say, "But you're going to tell me, right?"  I know several couples who've kept the name a secret, and I know even more couples who wished they had because of blow-back they got from family members.  I guess because keeping the name a secret isn't unusual to me, I am really surprised by how many people are not okay with it. 

Something you're surprised you haven't noticed or experienced: Not that I can think of this week...

Favorite/most comfortable article of clothing: The blue skirt I'm wearing in the picture above.  I got it from Target, and it's just really stretchy and comfortable.

How is Ray doing? Amazing, as usual.  He stays calm when I'm feeling unprepared or inadequate, and he's said and done a couple of things this week that make me think he thinks my belly is pretty cool.