Baby!

Jen's Baby Updates - 28 Weeks

Sunday, January 26th, 2003

I'm securely in the third trimester now, and so far it isn't so bad!

Movement

I woke up this morning to the baby kicking. What a great way to wake up! For the first time, I actually winced because one of his kicks was a little painful. Still amazing and cool, of course. Sometimes it feels like my flesh is getting sucked in, rather than pushed out, which I guess makes sense, because if he moves a limb away from the uterine wall, it might create some kind of suction.

Sometimes it feels like he is stretching, because I feel pressure on both 'ends' of my belly, and it isn't a sharp kick, but more of a pushing feeling that can go on for five or ten seconds.

Realizing that this will all be over very soon has made me try even harder to savor every moment. When he moves now, I often stop whatever I'm doing and just marvel at the feeling. I'm filled with wonder.

Sunday - he was very quiet last night. Usually he is really active when I lie down to go to sleep, so I was a little worried. He didn't really wake up and start moving until today at about 3:00, but since then he's been rolling around a lot, so everything seems to be fine. I'm just a worrier.

Symptoms

I'm just now getting to the point where I'm not comfortable. I still feel great, but oddly enough, the part that is starting to hurt me is the place where my belly starts swelling under my rib cage. It aches because the flesh there is bent in a strange way, and it is taking some getting used to. It makes my baths less comfortable. I'm starting to have to lie on my side, which makes it harder to read.

Braxton-Hicks Contractions

Tuesday - I think that I had a Braxton-Hicks contraction this morning. I woke up suddenly, and stretched. My belly felt very hard. It is always pretty solid, but usually there is some give. I wasn't very awake, though, so I'm not sure what I was feeling. I poked at it for a few minutes, then fell back to sleep.

Since I wrote the information above, I'm convinced that it has happened several more times. I can't tell when it is happening unless I poke at my stomach and find that it is really hard. I was lying on my bed lotioning my belly one morning when I felt it happen, so I went to show Travis, and he was duly impressed.

Hmm... It occurs to me that I've probably used the word 'belly' more times in the past six months than I ever had in all the previous years of my life.

Names

No new names worth mentioning right now, though we have been having many discussions about it.

Miscellaneous

Waiting

Travis was saying the other day that he feels like that we are both stuck in a kind of waiting state. There are things to do before the baby comes, of course, but so far we haven't felt any real pressure to get them done. All of the exciting parts of pregnancy seem to be over... starting to try, succeeding, telling people, hearing the heartbeat, seeing the ultrasound, finding out the sex, and feeling the baby move for the first time. I'm still enjoying it, but I'm looking forward to meeting him. Now all we can do is watch me get bigger and wait for him to come out.

Quote

Here is a quote that my friend Lorna sent to me. I think it is lovely!

"Those first few weeks are an unearthly season. From the ouside you remain so ordinary, no one can tell from looking that you have experienced an earthquake of the soul. You've been torn asunder, invested with an ancient, incomprehensible magic. It's the one thing we never quite get over: that we contain our own future....It feels like somebody's moved in. It's a shock. You find you're not the center of the universe, suddenly it's all flipped over, you have it in you to be a parent."

Barbara Kingsolver, "Animal Dreams" (HarperPerennial)