Wow. This pregnancy seems to be flying by. Of course, if you had asked me how fast it was going 6-8 weeks ago, I would have said slow as molasses but that was the morning sickness talking. I really can't believe we are halfway to meeting our little "Dewey." We saw the midwife today and everything is looking good.
Cravings - Serious cravings now, but luckily mostly good stuff. I'm wanting to put lots of salads on menu which is unusual for me but its fun to search for fancy (and high protein) salads. My favorite "meal salads" lately have been a cobb-like salad (I made way to many changes for it to be official a cobb salad :-), and asian grilled chicken salad. And I have been eating up cucumber salad like it is going out of style, so much so that I have to make a double batch if I want it to be a side dish for dinner because I kept eating it all before dinner came. I'm still loving avocados which is good and kix which is not as good. (oh, and since someone asked and I never answered last time - kix is a corn cereal with really no flavor at all, not really sure why I like it :-)
Growth - I'm gaining quite well thank you very much :-) Actually, I was a little worried I wasn't gaining that much until I weighed myself last week. I think it just doesn't feel like it because it has been more gradual that with Lucy. With her I lost 10-12 lbs before I started gaining and still managed to end up 45 lbs over my starting weight (for a total swing of over 55lbs from lowest to highest) by the end so when I did start gaining, I really started gaining! But I'm not worried because my biggest problem at the beginning of my postpartum time was eating enough and trying to slow down my weight loss so my body obviously knew that it needed that weight (aka fat, and it was fat, not water weight. I wasn't very swollen at all before and I can still wear my wedding right now which is nice).
The negatives - Still getting sick occasionally. Now that I think back, I'm pretty sure that never totally went away last time either. Its much much better than it was and I rarely feel nauseous for long, I just get it over with and move on so I can deal, but it is annoying just on principle. Also, the joint pain. I did not have joint pain like this last time, especially on my hips. It was so bad I was lying in bed crying one night. I knew if I could just stand up and walk around, it might stretch out and feel better, but I couldn't move. I don't really feel the need to practice labor techniques before the big event but I was anyway. I saw a chiropractor on Monday and that helped a lot, as did learning a few stretches for my hips. Luckily she works out of her house and has a kid friendly area right there so while Craig tagged along this time, it should be pretty easy for me to take Lucy by myself for regular maintenance. Also, I've started having Braxton-hicks. I know they bother some women but they don't really annoy me most of the time. The exception is the ones I've been having lately that are brought on by my coughing fits. I've been fighting a horrible cold for about a week now and the coughs hurt so much but then I cough so much I have a b-h and I can't catch my breath at all. But I blame the cold not the baby. I've also been extremely moody lately so I've been looking into natural remedies for that. Haven't done anything long enough to see a change but for Craig's sake, let's hope that changes soon :-)
The positives - Feeling kicks now! I was pretty sure I felt them 4-5 weeks ago but they have been really inconsistent until this past week and it wasn't uncommon for me to go 5-6 days between feeling anything which of course, made me nervous. But now I've been feeling little nudges at least once a day for the past week and even a little back/butt bump that I pushed back in. I always rub it back and then start thinking if poor baby is wondering why mommy can't just leave me alone. Lucy still feels that way when I insist on double checking her toothbrushing, detangling her hair or putting daddy's boo-boo cream* on her face so Dewey had better just get used to it.
I was also getting my energy back before this cold kicked me down again. And here is where I confess, I am a huge natural birth fan with my "I don't need no sticking drugs" attitude but when I get sick during pregnancy, I want drugs. Really strong drugs. Not a neti pot, not one of the few baby safe cough drops, not some homemade garlic onion syrup or a little bit of vapor rub - drugs! I'm not saying I take any, I just really really want them. I think Craig has had to listen to me complain about "not being able to do this" and "isn't there something I can take to make it go away" much more this past week than he did during labor. I'm a cold wuss. But as soon as I kick this cold, I'm starting up an exercise program that hopefully energies me even more. Due to our new location, I can't really walk the way I did when I was pregnant with Lucy but that made a huge difference in how I felt so hopefully this works that way too.
I'm going to take a second to brag on my husband here. Craig is awesome during my pregnancies. He pretty much takes over everything during the first trimester (+ a few weeks). Laundry, grocery shopping and cookie, dishes, everything falls on his plate. He is so good about making sure I know that I'm doing good by just doing whatever I can - even if that is pretty much nothing. And I know he isn't just saying that so I don't punch him. I think we both know that our family is our top priority so if I'm not doing something, it is because I can't and he doesn't mind stepping in, even if that means working on house stuff after a long day at the office. That's how it should be but it doesn't mean it is easy for him and he never really complains. Even now that I'm feeling a little more peppy, he still gets up with Lucy in the morning and lets me have a bit more sleep. And today when I could only keep my eyes open long enough to cough up a lung then had to sleep more, he took a couple hours of sick leave to hang out with Lucy until I could take over again - see awesomeness.
That's about it. 20 weeks down, ~20 to go!
*"dada boo-boo team" = scar cream, "mama boo-boo team" = wild weed salve I put on her cuts and scraps. Not sure why she has differentiated them that way though since I'm often the one that does both
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