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Week 17 Milestones: According to a couple of pregnancy guides I've been looking at, this is a time of rapid growth! The baby is getting bigger at a faster pace and the placenta is now about the same size too. Baby is working on such refinements as fingerprints and developing fat under the skin. My Journal: I can't believe how active the baby is now!!! After two weeks of being my little butterfly, baby bunny is now more of a little soccer player! I have gone from feeling a few little flutters and wiggles every few days to feeling some very definite "kicks" (which could be anything from punches to kicks to jumps to head-butts, etc. so I'll just say kicks)! I am also feeling them more regularly - at least once a day. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to have that "feedback" from the baby, to know that she/he is doing just fine in there and moving around. I absolutely love all those little movements and kicks, and feel so connected to my baby when he/she is letting me know he/she is there! There doesn't seem to be any pattern yet to the movements, but I usually feel kicks when I'm sitting down after walking/standing for a while, especially when I go to bed at night. Also, the baby now seems to "flip" when I lie down on my back, so maybe it is too cramped now for him/her to lie in a favourite position when I do that and he/she has to readjust positions? Who knows, but I still think it's all so adorable! Paul and Harmony have both tried to feel the baby moving too, but I guess it's still a little difficult since I'm feeling them from the inside. Hopefully soon! Test Results/Ultrasounds/Appointments: My appt. was last week (Thursday) and baby gave me quite a scare! I had assumed the heartbeat would be super easy to find since my OB found it pretty easily even at my 11.5 week appointment, but the nurse started to look and kept on looking for about a minute! I was really starting to get very worried until finally we could hear that little heart beat. Of course, as soon as the doppler was off my belly, the baby gave a good little kick (why couldn't he/she have given me a kick while I was worried!). I guess he's already got a good sense of humour! The heart rate was 156, so a little higher than last time, but still well within the normal range. The rest of the appointment went well. I asked about painting (we are painting Harmony's room this weekend) and about aquafitness classes I've started, and the Dr. gave me the okay to do both, but said to let my partner do most of the heavy work with painting. I also got a phone number for prental classes while I was there, so I'm going to call soon and see when their next set of classes are. I would really like to go again myself, and think Paul would really find the classes useful too. Physical: Well, I knew this little physical milestone would come along eventually and don't mind that it has because it's later than I thought it would be - that's right, the first stretch marks have appeared! Although 2 teeny stretch marks at 4 months is really not too bad. My belly continues to get tight, but hasn't had another big "pop out" yet. Maybe that's why I've been able to feel all those little kicks and flutters so well. I find what I notice more so than the size of my belly these days is the weight of it. I have that really heavy feeling right in the middle, that I notice when I stand up and especially when I get back out of the water after aquafit class! It really feels more and more like a big stone in the middle of my belly, I guess just because everything's so packed into one small space still. Weight Gain/Food: Happy to say I'm still at a 5lb total gain and still eating healthy! And I've stopped craving french fries so badly, so hopefully I can keep it at 5lbs for a little while longer. Emotional: Well, I'm glad I'm a pretty polite and non-grumpy person to begin with, because I find it has been a little more difficult this week to keep the patience that I do have! I'm a little more fussy than normal, especially when it's hot or I'm tired. One morning at the grocery store, I had Harmony and my 84-year-old grandmother with me, so we had two carts going back to the car! I was trying to get everything into the car from both carts, get Harmony settled in her carseat, and get my grandmother's door for her to help her in, all at once! and then all of a sudden I hear honking! There was a car blocking the right-hand lane, so this lady was trying to drive (in the wrong direction!) in the left-hand lane around the other car and she yells out her window to me "Move your carts!". Normally I'd just ignore stupid behaviour like that, but I didn't have the patience for it that day so I marched right up to her and said "Excuse me!? I'm trying to get my small child and eldery grandmother into my car first so don't you tell me that!". Then I kept on helping my grandmother sit down in the car before dealing with the carts because she'd already been standing on her feet for the whole trip at the store so why should I hurry up and move my carts for some impatient stranger instead of helping my daugther and grandmother first? I just have no patience for things like that these days. Even though I try to stay calm and think of the baby and "our" blood pressure, etc., it's hard. I really hope the heat is at least partially to blame!
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