Greetings and welcome to week 23, Baby Bi is apparently now the size of a large mango - nice job hon!This past weekend we went on a little adventure, Baby and I. Being 6 months pregnant and getting only bigger day by day, I thought it a good idea to visit my family in Maryland before Im too big for the journey. I spent a total of 29 hours actually with my family, and 15 hours traveling. Worth it? Yes. Do it again sometime soon? No thanks, at least not pregnant and during crazy summer travel season.
Highlights included the fact that my mom was clearly happy to be able to see me pregnant and I think she enjoyed calling me "Da Du pwo" or "big bellied mama" and chuckling when I waddled to breakfast in the morning. My sisters got a chance to feel the baby kick and are excited to welcome their little nephew into the world soon. Dad was his usual quiet buddha self but with a twinkle in his eye that revealed his secret excitement to soon be a grandpa. Before heading to MD i had a massive craving for dimsum which was more than fulfilled, and I also got to enjoy some of MD's finest blue crab, and mom's cooking generally. Saturday evening I even got some time to slip out to see Vincent's new baby Isabella ("bella") and his 2 year old Dominic who are quite possibly the cutest Asian/Italian babies on earth. Holding a 5 week old baby made me yearn for Baby Bi to arrive sooner rather than later, but on reflection Id much rather he stay put for 17 more weeks (but oh how i want to nibble on tiny baby feet!!!!)
Physically, Im doing "well" and all seems healthy. But physical symptoms manifested... I have to admit to struggling a bit lately. The back aches are getting worse and are now producing back spasms on occasion. I sit with pillows all around, groan and make noises when I have to bend over or get up, and am feeling grumpy at the knowledge that I will only get bigger and more achy in the coming months.
However, the worst physical symptom by far to date, is my new found insomnia. I fall asleep fine, but for reasons to be discovered, I wake up every night at 2 am sharp with a mind that is not only alert, but practically racing and a back ache on top of that. I try to close my eyes and ignore my brain, I practice the relaxation mantra I learned from the one time I went to yoga class about 8 years ago (which usually works), but nothing seems to work and I have now spent nearly 3 weeks struggling with waking up and not being able to fall asleep and freaking out at the prospect of going to work with 2 hours sleep which of course, makes trying to go back to sleep only worse. When I share this information with others, hoping for sound helpful advice, all I have gotten thus far is something to the effect of "get used to it, your nights of good sleep are over"..
...thanks.
On physical manifestations of how Baby Bi is doing, he is without a doubt getting bigger and stronger. This is not only evidenced by my expanding belly, but the fact that at intervals during the day, when Im sitting quietly at my desk at work, I will suddenly be stirred from my concentration by a big punch or kick. In the past week at least 5 times now, Ive just been sitting at work, or watching TV at home and felt such a big kick as to elicit an "ooof" from me. These punches are now no longer concentrated on areas below my belly button, but are high and low, to the side and sometimes include rolling movements. Most excitingly, I can now not only feel the little boxer, I can see his punches when i look down at my belly. So when this was happening I started chuckling at my stomach and when I became conscious of the out-loud chuckling, I also realized simultaneously that a colleague was standing near my office waiting to talk to me... rather embarrassing. After I spoke to the colleague I called U in excitement to tell him about recent events that clearly only he and I would be excited about. I then spent nearly our entire evening after work making him watch my stomach when I felt any movement... but of course, whenever he would look the kicking would stop! Such is the nature of children I suppose... do what they please when they please and refusing to ever do what you want..
Belly pics taken before work this morning:
2 comments:
You look beautiful!
I used to wake up around 4am every night from about 6 months on. I'd be starving and wide awake, so I'd waddle to the living room and park my butt on the couch and watch some TV and have a snack. Luckily, they had a lot of baby-shows on Discovery Health at that time ;)
Monica - see now THAT is good advice. - simple acceptance. Its also nice to know that Im not just weird. I probably wake up partly from being hungry as well. These days, I cant fit much in my stomach for dinner so often eat a small one. So i guess waking up hungry makes sense. Let the late night snacks begin!
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