22 Weeks!

Made it another week! I feel like these pictures are becoming less and less flattering! In my defense I'm fighting a cold and this was early Sunday morning. Oh and I gained 13 pounds in the past month. THAT COULD HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT! I saw my midwives today and it is optional to get weighed, but I opt-in to see if I'm on track. Well.. apparently I caught up! I've gained 21 pounds so far... now I need to get back to the one pound a week thing or I'm gonna be one of those women who has 90 pounds to lose when its all said and done. Also, this was a different scale than I was weighed on last time and I had my shoes and jacket on. All those things could add up to a 5lb difference, right?

Anyway, other than the giant jump in the numbers and the cold I've been feeling good. I was still running 2-3 times a week until early this past week. It started getting hard! Baby was bouncing on my bladder so I'd feel like I needed to pee almost immediately after starting, my feet hurt, and my calves cramp up. I'm throwing in the towel on that one. I'm trying to continue to take Olive on long walks and I walk around downtown alot for errands, etc. I also do prenatal yoga once a week... did I tell you that? I've been doing it since we moved back and I LOVE IT. I'm going to buy a DVD so I can do it at home a few more times a week. I go to a class at the Matt Dishman Community Center and its awesome. A great group of women and after people have their babies they come back to show baby off and tell us their birth story. I love it. Everyone is very open and supportive even though we are all making different choices in pregnancy, birth, and baby-rearing.

At my appointment today baby sounded good - heart thudding away in there and laying transverse across my belly. When I ran last week Olive stopped to say hi to a bum that is always hanging out near the Hawthrone bridge. He is always really cheerful and nice. I slowed and was encouraging her to move along when he said, "You have a boy" I thought he was saying Olive was a boy, but I noticed he was looking at my belly! I laughed and said, "Oh, thanks. We'll see" and he repeated, "its a boy" Cracked me up. Apparently me and the bum are on the same wave length regarding our guess for baby's sex. Wonder if we're right?!

Apparently we have entered the stage where baby's growth isn't quite as dramatic each week so we just get one fruit a month. Its the month of papaya! Baby is working on refining his facial features and is in general looking like a mini, skinny newborn. He is also working on kicking his mama nice and hard! I love it! That anterior placenta made it so hard to feel the nudges, but now they are very distinct. I'm just waiting for a time when the kick is hard enough that Grant can feel it! 

Wanna know something really weird and sad? The youngest baby I ever took care of in the NICU was 22 weeks. OMG they are so little and fragile! Breaks my heart to think of my baby being outside the safety of my body when its so tiny. Its amazing medicine can even keep them alive at this stage, but sometimes I wonder if its for the best.