I have heard how much nicer the second is than the first, but I was astounded at how quickly the transition happened for me. Like the flip of a switch about a week and a half ago, the exhaustion and irrationality vanished. And yes, I can admit now that there were a few days and nights during which I gave Jay a run for his money in the argument department. I never would have known it was possible to sustain a 45-minute wrangle over whether the workers moved the chimney liner six inches or two feet. Complete with drawings illustrating my point. Over breakfast.
But suddenly it was like I found my old skin and crawled back into it (although it's a big larger now, har de har har). I feel great. Except for my constant fruit cravings and occasionally overwhelming desire for cake, I feel pretty much like my old self. Except I no longer look so much like my old self. Here's my old self, taken about one month ago, right before I was convinced that I was showing, at about ten weeks:
And here I am yesterday, right at 14 weeks:
That bump there? That's pretty much my intestines right now. But see how the bottom of the bump doesn't just flatten out towards my pubic bone like it should? THAT my friends is my uterus. It is growing up a little at a time and eventually will come out in front of everything else to look like a pregnant belly instead of a beer belly. For those of you who have had babies this is perhaps obvious. For those of us who haven't, it's like the strangest most mysterious thing ever. And also quite fun and neat-o.
We had a 12-week ultrasound as part of what they call the First Look screening process.This is where they measure the skin at the back of the baby's neck to ascertain risk level for Down Syndrome, so we got to see a lot of him or her because he or she was stubbornly facing my spine instead of helpfully facing frontwards. This is perhaps a sign of future stubbornness, which means he or she will have at least one of my character traits. Heh.
Ok, so we saw the baby twisting around, sucking a thumb (!) and basically being quite busy. In an ultrasound image you see mostly bones and organs - no skin since what you see are densities instead of surfaces. I knew this going in, but ever since seeing those moving images whenever I try to envision the baby in my belly I see a skeleton in black and white. I have tried looking at images of fetuses online, and that has helped a bit, but it's difficult to sort through all those nasty pro-life propaganda images. This isn't a problem. I know I am not carrying a skeleton. But I used to see a little pink baby in my mind's eye and I'd like to get back to that place. I'm workin' on it.
In other news, I have had to stop running long distances. I don't like this. But if I run for more than 20-25 minutes per day my abdominal muscles ache that night. Nothing harming the baby, but I'm uncomfortable. So I have tried to make peace with the elliptical machines at the gym. So far I hate them, but I think the feeling is mutual judging by the way they treat me. At least I can keep up a fitness routine, and I go to yoga once a week to stay limber and relaxed. This I like.
I have finally figured out how to eat enough protein without stuffing myself with chicken and boiled eggs. This I also like. I have been enjoying a lot of cottage cheese and yogurt, which has also been helping me avoid the various GI tract pitfalls that plague some women in pregnancy. Enough about that.
On a non-baby note, I'm finishing my semester this week with a couple of quick papers, then it's back to work on the literature review as I head into the home stretch. I'm supposed to turn it in at the end of January. Wish me luck.
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Yay--you look great!
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