belly

PregnancyThe Story

For Funsies- 1/2 Way There Belly Pic

by Jill
written by Jill

Consider this a Tuesday bonus, or an early Wordless Wednesday (although the real Wednesday isn’t looking to be all that wordless if I can carve out some more time to write). Anyway, whatever you call it, it’s a belly pic with a shout out to baby girl’s favorite food, taken by my lovely friend Mandy (and her BAD. ASS. Olympus Pen camera, which I really wanted to steal) at Blogher.

Looks like the belly has officially surpassed the boobs in the growth department. And yes, those are HUGE bags under my eyes. I don’t wear exhaustion very well.

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PregnancyThe Story

Going…going…gone

by Jill
written by Jill

There comes a time in every pregnant lady’s miraculous journey through growing a fetus that the region below the belly button becomes an invisible waste land, not to be seen again without the help of a mirror for months.  I am sad to report that as of this morning’s shower, I have reached that point.

It happened so suddenly.  The last time I groomed down there, a couple days ago, I was still able to see enough to navigate if I craned my head in the right direction and put my leg on just the right spot of the bathtub’s edge.  As of this morning, no matter how hard I tried, I could no longer see past the swollen bump.  I went ahead with the blind technique and managed not to cut off anything important, but I’m afraid even this will have to stop soon.  I’m sure the bigger the bump gets the harder it will be to stretch my arms around it.  I will soon have to go au naturale.  I know there are other options out there, like a professional wax, but I have never had a stranger pour hot wax on my lady parts and tear out the hair with little strips of cloth while I scream from the horror – and I don’t intend to start now….when I can’t even do shots of tequila to dull the pain.

25 weeks 4 days

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PregnancyThe Story

You can call me Stretch

by Jill
written by Jill

He’s GROWING! Wanna know how I know? No. No stretchmarks – yet. (Please God, spare me my tummy! My boobs are already shot. Give me a chance to have that banging hot, flat stomach I’ve always fantasized about! I promise I will cherish a no stretchmark midsection and give it the attention I never did in my pre-fetus sharing days. Mommies can have sexy stomachs, right? I mean, hell…Kelly Rippa shrinks 50 % after each child. If she has any more, she’s going to float off to Canada the first time she lets one rip.) Anyway…. for the last week my stomach has had a mild sunburn, except that my stomach hasn’t seen the sun in…. I don’t even know how long. It’s a light shade of pink, itchy, turns white where I touch it. It’s stretching out!

And my belly button, which I swore would never pop out (severe innie), is getting dangerously close to looking like a turkey thermometer when the bird is done. It’s not quite there yet, but the ring around my belly button is very clearly skin that was once inside of it. It’s softer and a yellowish-brown. I have ring around the button! I’ve also noticed it’s becoming increasingly difficult to bend over without feeling like something is jabbing me in the gut.

Speaking of jabbing…with increased growth comes increased ass kicking from the inside! Actually, crotch kicking would describe it more accurately. He has really picked up the movements, but for the longest time the only place I could really feel those strong kicks/punches/headbuts (I have no idea what body part is inflicting the crotch kicks) was way down on what I could only envision is the top of my bladder. And I could only feel them on the inside, never from the outside. Although thinking about how one would go about feeling a crotch kick from the outside makes me think that I never really had the opportunity to walk around shoving my hand down my underwear whenever I felt him karate chop my bladder while out and about.

It was really bothering me that at nearly 25 weeks my husband hadn’t been able to feel him kick yet. I felt behind the curve. Like my baby was maybe not strong enough or not active enough. This, my friends, is a direct result of reading too many websites and message boards and hearing too many women say, “MY husband felt the baby kick and then do the tango inside of me at 20 weeks!” Ugh…must stop milestone comparisons. Now.

So this weekend, as I was Googling what could possibly be wrong with my son and all the reasons why my husband STILL had not felt him kick, I suddenly felt a very strong kick from the outside – just ABOVE my crotch. My husband, exhausted from a day of watching our niece, had passed out early. I ran to the bedroom, swung open the door, flipped on the lights and jumped in bed with him in a matter of seconds. I then shook him until one eye cracked open, grabbed his hand and shoved it down my pants. “He’s kicking! Hard! Can you feel him?!” His response…”Huh? What? What time is it? Oh….he’s kicking? Yeah…yeah…I can feel him.” Me- “YOU CAN?! YAAAAY! Is it cool? Are you excited?….Hey…HEY… are you awake? Did you really just feel him or did you just say that?” Him- “Uh…oh…yeah, yeah. I felt him.”

So I left him alone and the next morning he says to me, “Did you really come in here last night trying to get me to feel the baby kick, or did I just dream that?” He then tells me he can’t remember if he actually felt him kick. Damnit! I’m sure he did. He said he felt him twice at the exact same time I felt him. Ah well… I’m still excited. He’ll feel him and remember it eventually. Just another excuse to shove his hand down my pants unexpectedly ; )

25 weeks

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PregnancyThe Story

For the record – what I love

by Jill
written by Jill

A reader made a very valid comment on my post below, and it occurred to me that I really only do provide a slice of what it is like for ME to be pregnant here. I would hate for everyone to think I spend the whole time obsessing over the destruction of my body, or that I’m not genuinely and extremely excited about being pregnant and becoming a mom in less that 6 months (holy cow….less than 6 months!). From day one of this blog, I’ve used it as an outlet for those not so “normal” pregnancy thoughts and fears. The ones that hardly anyone ever tells you you will feel or have. While I have no problems telling the people in my life, close or strangers, how wonderful this whole journey is, it’s a little harder to admit that I *occasionally* freak out about some of these things. From my viewpoint, society places so much emphasis on how pregnancy is supposed to be one of the most amazing times in your life and that you’re supposed to cherish each and every minute of it. It starts to make you feel a little guilty when you don’t.

Please, please don’t think that just because I vent about those things here, that I don’t wake up every day thanking God to be experiencing all this and pray every night that I will be able to continue to keep my baby safe and healthy. As much as I hated morning sickness, sometimes I wish it would come back because at least then I knew my baby was most likely healthy. Now that I’ve grown out of that stage, the days that I feel so absolutely fantastic I’m terrified that something is wrong. I know that I am so incredibly lucky to have conceived so quickly and to not have experienced a loss. I can not imagine the pain and heartache some couples experience in trying to conceive, and I never intend to take away from the blessing that getting pregnant is by venting about these things.

So to give you all a peek into what the rest of my pregnancy thoughts are, here are some things I LOVE about being pregnant:

1. I love watching my belly grow! I have always been so self conscious about my tummy. I never could achieve those tight abs that would make me look good in a bikini (although, I have this fantasy that after pregnancy something about my body will change and I will finally get my flat tummy – ha!), but now I embrace my little pooch and love to watch it get bigger. I show it off to my husband every night by lifting up my shirt and standing sideways in between him and the TV. “Look at how big I’m getting!” He just laughs.

2. I love pants with elastic waists. I have mentioned my struggle with clothes on here before, but even though the pants may not always fit just right, the elastic waists are amazing! I’m going to be the most comfy person at Thanksgiving : )

3. I love the anticipation of what is coming next. I read my weekly emails about what the baby is developing this week and am so amazed at how quickly it grows. I can’t wait to find out if it’s a boy or girl and love to have conversations with my husband about what we think it is and how we think it will look. I love laying still at night and trying to determine if what I feel rumbling around in my belly is dinner or the baby, and can’t wait for the day I finally get a fat kick in the ribs or a punch in the belly button.

4. I love how this has brought me and my husband so much closer together, and we were pretty close to begin with! He really is so amazing and I’m so lucky to have someone as involved as he is. As much as I complain about his OCD tendencies and his constant watch over my food intake, I know he only does it out of love. He’s been nothing but supportive and has taken more than his fair share from me. He is going to be the best dad, and that makes me love him even more.

5. I love the thought of beginning a new stage in my life. I know it will change me, it will change my priorities. Things will never be the same, and I can’t wait! I know I will most likely look back on a lot of the stuff I’ve blogged about and think completely different about it because I’ll have a whole new set of eyes to view everything with. I look forward to meeting my baby and delighting in the small achievements. I can’t wait to see their first smile and their first steps. I can’t wait to see a carseat in the back of my Jeep.

Of course, this isn’t an exclusive list. Just a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head. I just wanted to take the time to clarify that I really do love being pregnant (most of the time) and am grateful for every crazy/sane thought I have because I know they would never even occur to me if I wasn’t lucky enough to be going through all of this.

14 weeks 4 days

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