Happy Birthday, Mom!

We celebrated my mom's 50th birthday yesterday!! This is a picture of the two of us on her patio during the party. (I'm at about 25 weeks.) At least one of us can enjoy a good martini!!

The belly ring stays!

I get to keep my belly ring!! I found a retainer that replaces the jewelry you would normally wear, and instead of a metal bar, it's made out of medical-grade plastic that bends and stretches (up to 2 inches!). I got it in the mail today, and I am so happy. :o)

24 weeks

We are 24 weeks in now, and this update is for women who have never been pregnant: You will read that the second trimester is the golden stage of pregnancy. You're showing, which is exciting, but you still feel really good. This is mostly true... You will also read that that around 20 weeks or so your body starts producing a hormone called "relaxin" (I'm not making this up). Relaxin lives up to its name and starts relaxing the ligaments that hold your joints together so that your hips can start to prepare for delivery. I had braced myself for this inevitable truth of pregnancy: your hips widen. What you won't read (and what all other mom's have apparently forgotten since they delivered their little bundles of joy): this process hurts like hell! For the last couple of weeks I have had what I would describe as excruciating pain in my lower back and in the pelvic bone itself. I can't say that I've ever really been aware of where exactly my leg bones attach to my pelvic bone, or where exactly the center point of my pelvic bone is. Now I am. And consistent with pregnancy's normal 1-2 punch, you can't take anything like ibuprofen to deal with joint pain. You just get to enjoy it. And since this hormone travels throughout your body, it isn't just your hips & lower back that get this pleasure. My wrist ached and felt weak to the point I couldn't support my weight on it for a couple of days. This may not sound like a big deal until your center of gravity changes daily and you find yourself constantly trying to catch your balance on something until you locate your feet. I'm happy to report that this seems to have finally passed in the last couple of days, but I still find that walking for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time aggravates my lower back now. I didn't realize I would appreciate benches this much before I hit my gold years! ;o)

Hiccups!

I was working on an expense report today (exciting stuff) when Mia got her second bout of hiccups! It's definitely an odd sensation to feel hiccups coming from your abdomen!! ;o)

Kicking Milestones

We hit a couple of milestones yesterday. First, Mia is kicking hard enough now that she actually woke me up from a nap yesterday. I laid there for a second as she continued to kick the same spot with vigor. This lead to the second milestone when I realized that if she kept it up long enough for me to walk downstairs, Jeff might be able to feel her moving. And she did! So she finally said hi to her daddy yesterday. :o)

How to make a pregnant woman's day

I am 22 weeks in this picture. Mia is kicking pretty consistently, and I've felt a couple of her kicks with my hand. I can't wait until Jeff is able to feel her move, and I don't think it'll be too much longer at this point. I've been getting to the gym about 3-5 days per week, which makes me feel really good and seems to help keep my ankles at a normal size... As I was leaving the gym after my workout today, I walked passed a girl who looked at my belly and said, "You're so cute!" I wanted to hug her.

21 Weeks

This picture was taken at a friend's wedding on April 30th, so I am at about 21 weeks here. I love the shirt I'm wearing, which was part of my anniversary present from Jeff.

Eyebrows

Mom, this one's for you: I made eyebrows this week! ;o)

Hello!

I had to add this little update on the kicking. I've been noticing that Mia has been getting stronger and stronger over the last week, but I mentioned to my mom last night that she'd been pretty quiet most of yesterday. Well, I think she was saving up her energy for today's crowning achievement... Jeff and I were at Target, and I had spaced out while the checker was ringing up our stuff. WHAM! She kicked me so hard I actually let an "ow!" escape, and then I just started laughing because she'd caught me so off guard. (The checker must have thought I was crazy.) I actually felt a little tender for a while after the impact, so I can't even image what she'll have in store for me in the coming months when she more than doubles in size!! (Erika - thanks for the heads up on the flashlight idea. I think I'm going to get a mini mag light to carry around with me if she starts targeting the same area with efforts similar to today's!)