Month 6: Weeks 21-24
Week 21
This week we had an ultrasound, and Doctor B didn't give us a very good picture to take home. He said the baby is a tad on the small side, but normal. Good heart and head, perfect little feet and hands, nice looking spine. It had it's legs crossed (Mike said "it's a girl, and she'd better keep those legs crossed for 22 years." heh heh) so we won't know for sure until it comes out what we're getting. That's ok, we originally didn't want to know, we just thought it wasn't fair for the doctors to know and not us. Maybe if this baby stays petite I'll have an easy delivery (har har har). The thought that it has to come out is starting to worry me.The wee thing kicks regularly, sometimes I catch a feel with my hand. I get a lot of pressure some days and can barely sit or lay on my back, depending on the kid's position.
Practicing to be the human coffee table. See those low-waisted maternity pants? They're the best. I don't know how I could make it through this whole pregnancy thing without them, they give support, they don't itch or make your belly hot, they have front pockets (woo hoo!), and they look great with a white shirt (no big blue panel showing through). Monday is Mike's 23rd birthday, so we're going out to a nice italian dinner and on Wednesday we're going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Looks like a good week ahead. Not like today, when I scraped another car in the parking lot. Whoops.
Week 22
Well, halfway through the month! The Red Hot Chili Peppers concert is tonight,
and I'm a bit trepidatious about running into old high school friends. Most
my friends turned into drunk pot-smoking retards after school, and I only
run into them at concerts anymore. At any rate, it'll be a very engaging evening.
Mike's birthday dinner was really good, I fed him fancy truffles and he tried
to eat the biggest calzone I've ever seen.
I'm carrying rather low, or at least that's what I'm told. I believe it, look at that low curve at the bottom of my belly. Some days I get a lot of pressure and can't sit down. I end up waddling like I'm full term. Yesterday I was poking around where the baby was kicking and felt a small hard lump which wiggled away from me when I pressed it. I can feel every kick from the outside now, and I can see each one too. I've finally started to get jabs up by my belly button, which I'm guessing are elbows because the hardest jabs are very low and must be feet. I'm finally starting to let myself get attached to the wee thing, now that we're approaching a point where it might survive if delivered early. Not quite there yet, though, so I'm still not willing to say I love it. But I do like it a lot, personally.
Week 23
Here's a picture of my ever-tightening (and fuzzy) belly button and my new
shorter hair cut.
I got really sick the last few
days of the week. Pounding headache, runny nose, blazingly sore eyes, no energy,
the pits. But I recovered enough to go to the No Doubt concert and see my
midwife. The birth center tour went well, there were plenty of good things
and some bad, but I think between Mike, my mom, and my midwife we can keep
the needle-happy nurses at bay. Carmen (our midwife) says they can't give
me anything if she says no, so she'll advise them to stay away when I check
in. The tour nurse looked kind of scared when I said I didn't want the obligatory
IV on the grounds that I am capable of drinking juice on my own. But they
were still pretty cool, what with having a jacuzzi in the tub for me to sit
in as long as I want, and they have a policy against removing the baby from
the mother.
Week 24
This is it! The baby becomes viable this week! How exciting. My next landmark
is 28 weeks, when I have to get my lousy rhogam shot and take the nasty glucose
test. I can relax after this week and enjoy the thought that if something
happened, my baby would stand a chance of surviving. Amazing, it's still so
small! (well, it's ten inches at weighs a pound, but still) Did I grow? It
looks like it, but I feel the same.
My mom came home this week, and she was suitably impressed by my growth. The baby showed off yesterday, kicking and wiggling so much we could all see the movement. Too bad for me, most of the kicks are below my belly button, which I can no longer see. But lately I can catch a glimpse of a few higher ones.
