Baby kicks

I swear I could feel the baby moving around somewhere between 10-12 weeks, but it wasn't until between 15-16 weeks that I knew for sure. By 20 weeks, Robbie was able to feel and see the kicks himself. And can this boy kick! He is definitely a mover, and when he's not sleeping he appears to be flaying those little arms and legs around constantly. It is amazing to feel a baby growing and moving inside me again! It makes me so excited!

32nd Week Update

Development at 32 Weeks

The weeks are going by much too fast as usual, now I'm already in my 8th month! I have gotten to the point where I am having appointments with the midwives every two weeks now. I had an appointment this past Thursday with the infamous Ellie. Whenever I talk to people who have had babies with Back Cove Midwives, they always talk about how great Ellie is, but I hadn't been able to have an appointment with her until now. She has been in the practice the longest, and is extremely knowledgeable and kind. It was great talking to her.

Everything is still going really well with me and the baby. My blood pressure is excellent (92/60) and my fundus measurements are right where Ellie wants them to be...slightly under 32 inches. She said that it's good if it's slightly under for me at this point since I am so petite. Mattimeo's heart rate was a steady 130 bpm, and this time she was able to figure out his exact permission in my womb. He is now head down (Yay! This means I don't need to worry about him being breached). At that moment he was laying with his spine against my spine, but he is still turning around in circles quite frequently. His bum is up just under my right rib cage.

When he moves now its really cool because I can feel the big bump which is his butt, and sometimes I can feel the curve of his spine at the same time towards the middle of my stomach. He has also been doing some pretty crazy frog kicking where he kicks out his legs simultaneously and I can feel him on both sides of my tummy, or sometimes, of my ribcage. He seems to be most active right after I eat something. More recently he has started to be wiggly while I am walking, which makes walking dogs even more interesting/challenging.

I have still been feeling top notch. Perhaps the only minor annoyance is sleeping at night. Now I have to get up frequently to go pee, and I have to have a snack at least once during the night or I will feel too nauseous to fall asleep. I also wake up at least every hour to switch sides. Since I can only lay on my side now (being on my back for more than a few seconds really makes me sick), my hips start aching if I don't switch sides regularly. Since I have to stuff pillows in between my legs to keep my hips from crashing into each other, I have to hug pillows against my chest so I don't wake up with intense chest muscle aches, and I have a much harder time of gaining enough momentum to move, rolling to the other side is quite the task. I have to move all the pillows and myself and quickly get comfortable and relax so I can get in some sleep before I have to either switch sides again, eat, drink, or get up to pee. Lastly, I've been finding that I get dehydrated really quickly at night now and will get headaches if I don't drink continuously through the night. This means even more peeing and waking up! On the bright side, my body seems to have adjusted to my weird sleep schedule and I still feel like I have a good amount of energy throughout the day.

So far I have only experienced swelling in my feet once (thank goodness!). At Jessica's (Robbie's sister) graduation from MassArt a couple weekends ago the temperature went from quite cool to really hot very quickly. Before the ceremony, Robbie and I took a nice long walk around a park in anticipation of having to sit for a long period of time. But I still ended up sitting for about 3 hours straight, and I think that in combination with the extreme temperature fluctuation was a bit much for my pregnant body and my feet swelled up substantially. I was pretty grossed out because my normally lean toes looked like sausages, and the sides of my feet were squeezing out my sandal straps. Thankfully they went back to normal after graduation. I really hope that doesn't become a normal occurrence for me!

One final pregnancy symptom to note is that I felt my first Braxton-Hicks contraction the night after we went hiking. These are just "practice" contractions that are completely normal and healthy that help prepare your body to know what to do when its time for labor. During these contractions my uterus (aka my whole belly) tightened up substantially and moved upwards a bit. I actually thought it felt pretty cool and gave me a little bit of a head rush. It happened twice in a row that night, but I haven't really noticed any since then.

I hope everyone is enjoying this fabulous weather! At least in Maine, the nonstop raining has ceased, and its really starting to feel like summer. This means there are more delicious fruits and vegetables available for us to eat, dog walking is a lot more enjoyable, and now I am able to eat breakfast outside with my 2 cats surrounded by the beautiful flowers on our balcony. Life is good!

P.S. I had a maternity photo shoot yesterday, but I am going to wait until I have the pictures to tell you about that

Dogs I walk enjoying the nice weather: Casco and Cooper

Me walking some of the east end dogs

Dogs I walk enjoying the nice weather: Cooper

Dogs I walk enjoying the nice weather: Gander

Me, Jess and Robbie at Jess's graduation from MassArt

Delicious summery meal: Quinoa, fresh mozzarella cheese, Maine tomatoes and fresh basil

Hamster Amigurumi

I decided to have a go at making my first amigurumi today. Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting small stuffed animals. A while ago, I picked up a book that I thought looked like fun titled The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amigurumi.

The book supplies you with all the basic information you need to get started on making amigurumis, whether they be from patterns or from your own imagination. It includes a few different patterns to start you off, and I decided to try the simplest one out first: a hamster. It was really fun to make and pretty easy. It ended up taking me about 4 hours to make this one, and I know next time it will be a lot faster because I won't need to keep referencing to book to figure out how to do all the different stitches. My cats, Pi and Theta, kept me company throughout the process and I decided to let them have it as a toy when I was done (I put in a bunch of catnip with the stuffing).

Theta thought it would be comfortable to sleep in my sewing box

Crocheting with my meowheads

My first amigurumi

Hamster stuffed with catnip

Hamster stuffed with catnip

Me and my first amigurumi

Pi killing the hamster

Pi and his new hamster amigurumi

Pi loves his new hamster

Pi loves his new hamster

Theta loves the hamster too

This hamster was made with some really lovely yarn I bought from KnitWit Yarn Shop, which is right in the east end of Portland. The specific yarn I got is made by Quince & Co. who spins their yarn right in Biddeford. Their yarn is 100% American Wool, and the specific style I decided on was the lark, which worked out really well for the amigurumi with a size E hook. I used the colors Gingerbread (120) and Egret (101). Also note that because I wanted this toy to be safe for my kitties, I didn't use any plastic parts for the embellishments; I only used felt and embroidery floss. If this was for a baby or small child, you wouldn't want to use plastic parts either.

The whole reason I decided to have a go at amigurumi was so I can make some toys for my not-yet-born baby boy, Mattimeo. I think he is excited about it because he was kicking in my belly a lot while I was crocheting!

22 Weeks Appointment

22 Weeks Fetal Development

Already past the halfway point of my pregnancy! It is unbelievable how fast it has been going by, even though I have been trying to slow down time and enjoy every moment of it.

Yesterday I an appointment with one of the midwives, and I was happy to have the company of my good friend Lauren. Everything is going well. I seem to be gaining weight at a great rate and the distance from my pelvic bone to the top of my uterus is exactly 22 inches which is also good (generally this distance should correspond to number of weeks along in your pregnancy you are). Mattimeo's heartbeat was nice and strong, and she said his heart rate was perfect at 140 bpm. I'm so glad everything is continuing to go well. I had been getting worried that I wasn't eating enough food, so I was relieved to hear that I am on the right track. I really don't eat much more than I did before I was pregnant, but I do need to snack occasionally which I never used to do.

This week at my appointment the midwife (Kirstin) talked to me about water births. At the birth place there is a tub in every room, so everyone has the option of having a water birth. She told me that they have had very good success with water births and have never had any complications. However, she did tell me the risks associated with water births such as a chance of infection from all the gunk in the water (you also have a chance with infection on dry land though) and just the general lack or research conducted on safety of water births. She told me that some women go through their whole pregnancy saying they want a water birth, but once they are in labor and sitting in the tub they find that it isn't for them. On the other hand, some women don't want water births but use the tub to help ease pain and find that they don't want to leave the tub and end up having a water birth. Finally, she went over some circumstances in which they won't allow me to have a water birth which include if the baby poops before leaving my uterus (then they will have to clear his throat immediately to prevent infection) or if his heart rate is concerning (then they will need to monitor it more closely which you can't do in the water). I didn't really know that much about water births prior to that conversation so it was all very interesting information to me. I suppose I won't know what kind of birth I want until I get to that point, but it's nice to be informed about different options.

One last thing to note is that I can feel little Meo kicking now, sometimes like crazy! Officially, the first time I thought I really felt him kick was on February 21 (week 18) when Robbie and I were lying on the couch watching The Fellowship of the Ring. Before that I sometimes felt like there was something going on, but the books say its hard to distinguish the first flutters of a baby from gas in your stomach. I have never had gas bubbles that felt like what I was feeling, but then again, I've never been pregnant before so who am I to know what pregnant lady gas bubbles feel like! During the last several days though, Meo has been kicking up a storm at times, and now I feel confident that I am feeling him. His favorite times to kick seem to be in the morning when I am feeling sick after breakfast (yes, I still have morning sickness occasionally), at night when I am trying to fall asleep, or during the day when I am laying down reading a book. I guess when I am laying down and relaxed my uterus is more open so he has more room to move around and when I am active, my movement probably rocks him to sleep. It's really fun to feel him moving around! Robbie was able to feel him move for the first time two nights ago, and he really enjoyed that. From the outside, it is still difficult to feel, but Robbie can definitely feel him on occasion now.