Alien Contortions

I've been getting braxton hicks contractions since I was about 22 weeks along. At first they were relatively infrequent (maybe one every couple of days) and quite mild in terms of "discomfort." As the weeks have worn on, however, they've gotten to the point where I get at least one every hour or so and sometimes they're strong enough that I can't talk and have to retreat within myself until it subsides 30-60 seconds later.

I usually enjoy looking down at my belly as I feel one coming on because it goes from nicely rounded to eerily lopsided. The baby typically likes to spend most of her time with her back up against the front right side of my belly (hooray for anterior babies! Since I have an anterior placenta, I was afraid she'd stay posterior - and I did NOT want to deliver a posterior baby). When I have braxton hicks, the uterus tightens up all around the baby and you can distinctly see her back protruding out the front right side. It is the strangest and coolest thing!

This was the best I could do for this post (from the perspective of me looking down at my belly). If you look hard enough, you can see the left picture is normal belly and the right picture is during a mild braxton hicks contraction. You can kind of see the right side of my belly sticking out a little farther.

When the contraction isn't too strong and I'm able to function through it, I like to put my hand on belly and just feel how perfectly my hand fits over her tiny curved back. As we're getting down to mere days (hopefully) or weeks (more likely) before we get to meet this girl, I'm finally starting to feel a little bit more connected to her. I'm really looking forward to feeling how perfectly my hand fits around her back as she's laying against my chest.

As I type this, she's wide awake and bouncing around in there. I can see my belly jumping and contorting in ways that must look so foreign to outsiders, yet have grown so familiar and normal to me. These are the moments I'll miss about pregnancy - when it's just the two of us playing together and the world has no idea there's something special happening.

And just for fun - this was a few days ago at about 38 weeks.

Third Trimester

I'm 2/3 of the way through the last 1/3 of this pregnancy. That means I only have a month left to go (give or take a little bit, depending on when she decides to arrive)! I can't believe we're getting down to the wire now. I feel SO lucky to have had such a great pregnancy so far. Maybe I'm jumping the gun here. Maybe the last month will be hell. But I feel like I can honestly say I like being pregnant and I'm probably going to miss it after the baby gets here. Crazy? Like I said, maybe.

The first trimester was pretty much a breeze. I only felt nauseous a few times, I typically wasn't any more tired than normal. Almost nothing about my life changed much except that I started checking out midwives/birth centers (though, I think I actually did all that research before I had even confirmed I was pregnant). We told our parents really soon after finding out, then told family around 6 or 7 weeks, then told "the world" about 12 weeks.

As I entered the second trimester, I initially thought I was finally going to start experiencing all the negative effects of pregnancy everyone complains about. For a couple of weeks I was exhausted. As I mentioned in a previous post, my gag reflex suddenly turned on though I never did actually throw up. And then that subsided after a month or so. I did have to start sleeping on my sides instead of my back (which took some training for my body), but once I finally figured out the proper "nest" of pillows, that became fairly comfortable. My main annoyance was incredibly superficial. By the end of my second trimester, I still wasn't looking pregnant, just fat. But so what? I was healthy and the baby was healthy. And aside from several super intense bouts of heartburn near the end of the second trimester (in which I temporarily thought I was possibly having a heart attack), I was still feeling pretty great.

Because I had gotten so lucky for the first 2/3 of my pregnancy, I figured there was NO way my last trimester would follow suit. It just didn't add up. The women in my family all seemed to suffer during pregnancy either from morning sickness, migraines, intense swelling, extreme dehydration (probably from the morning sickness), or whatever. I couldn't possibly be so lucky as to actually somewhat enjoy pregnancy.

Yet here I am, less than a month to go (theoretically) and I'm still comfortable enough that I'm not anxious to get this baby out. Sure I've got braxton hicks quite frequently (but I've been getting those since about 22 weeks), my feet and ankles are so swollen they're even stretching out my flip flops, and I've recently developed carpal tunnel syndrome and now have to wear splints on my wrists day and night, but those are my worst complaints! Seriously, that's it!

For me, pregnancy has been such a cool experience. I've loved getting to feel life form and thrive inside of me. And even though by the time I deliver I will have probably gained close to 60 lbs, I've loved seeing my body expand so uniformly and perfectly. It seems to be getting soft in all the right places that a baby would want to snuggle. Sure I'm covered in stretch marks and I'll never look the same as I did before kids, but why would I want to? I'll never be the same person I was before kids. I love my body for so effortlessly doing exactly what it was made to do.

(36 weeks and a couple days. Please note my crazy swollen feet and also Indiana's prime position in this picture.)