Baby D's Gains: This week, according to babycenter.com, Baby D is 3.75-4 pounds in weight. He/she is gaining a half a pound a week. Baby D is nearly 17 inches in length and is compared to the size of a small watermelon. And my belly looks like it... Baby D now has hair on his/her head, though it may not last long. His/her toenails and fingernails are also formed now. (Please don't scratch my insides!)
Total weight gain: I gained 2 pounds this week, making my total 22 pounds! We invested in some Easter candy this week... I may have eaten a LOT of peanut butter eggs...
Stretch Marks: None. I read this week that some women never see stretch marks until after the baby is born and their tummy goes back to normal. Maybe that will be me!
Belly Button: Strangely stretched out. It's super smooth. But I don't like people touching it. Maybe I'll take a picture of it one of these days. I should have taken a "before" picture because it looks very different than it ever has...
Movement: Baby D needs some ritalin. I was up a good portion of the night last night with Baby D's wiggles and squirms. Some of the movements cause legitimate pain now. She/he is quite strong. And one big movement can cause harm to both my ribs and my bladder at the same time. It's pretty impressive. I feel like Baby D might be throwing tantrums in there, I'm not sure... Baby D also gets the hiccups multiple times per day now. Sometimes I can feel them low and sometimes they are high (I guess it depends on where Baby D is positioned). My mom would say he/she is growing. :)
Exercise: Still running/shuffling along. Although, my tummy has started to get very hard during exercise and my bladder is taking longer and longer to recover. So, we'll see how much longer I put up with all that. I'd love to say I ran through 40 weeks... However, I don't think it's worth birthing a child prematurely over. I feel like I do a pretty good job of reading my body, so I should be good.
Biggest Pains: SLEEP. I don't know why I was under the impression that sleep would cease after the child was born. Clearly, when the child comes out, the mother is already sleep deprived. Things start going numb from laying in the same position for too long. My back kills when I get up in the morning. I long to lay down in comfort! I have been napping much more frequently, which helps!
Our Preparations: It's Spring Break!! So, we are planning to do a little shopping this week. Also, I am in the process of getting everything squared away for maternity leave. I know my sub, and he's GREAT, so it should be a smooth transition. I verbally committed to April 30 being my last day, so my goal is to make it to that day! I'm trying to convince Mike to help me rearrange furniture in the bedroom that will better fit Baby D arriving. I can't move it on my own, and I'm not sure he's totally convinced of my stellar plan yet, but I'll keep trying!
Miscellaneous Happenings: I had another strange dream the other night. I birthed 6 babies. And then I had no idea what to do with them, so I laid them all on the floor. I was awake all night afraid someone would step on them or the dogs would trample them. Four of them were boys and two were girls. I also called my mom and made her bring me formula and distilled water cuz I didn't think I'd be able to feed all six of them. On a different note, I've been finding everything to be hysterically funny lately. Maybe it's a hormonal shift... Mike thinks my fits of laughter are in themselves funny. I think I tweaked one of my stretched out ab muscles laughing hysterically at nothing last night. I broke a mirror the other morning and that was hysterical. I try to tell Mike about events at school and they end up being hysterical. If you knew me as a middle schooler with Pepsi, you can picture this all very clearly.
Well, that's it on Baby D and this pregnancy for this week!