21 Weeks

I cannot believe we're only 19 weeks away from seeing our little girl.  I know the first trimester seemed like it took forever to get through, but I have to say that the last 9 weeks have flown by.  I think it has a lot to do with me being so busy at school.  And they say the 2nd half of pregnancy flies by - I guess we need to get moving on our registry, furniture shopping, and house preparations!

This week, baby girl is about the length of a banana from crown to rump.  And she weighs in at about 11 ounces.  She is now able to taste - so when she takes a drink of amniotic fluid she is getting a taste of different flavors of whatever I've eaten recently.  I'm trying to make sure I eat lots of different foods as babies tend to like whatever they've tasted in the womb.  Also, baby's arms and legs are proportion and cartilage is turning into bone which will make baby's movements more coordinated (and probably make it more certain that I feel all of those movements!).

People keep asking how I'm feeling and truly, my only complaints at this point are less mobility and horrible heartburn.  Tums now accompany me everywhere.  And the less mobility part - it's difficult to get up if I have to get down on the floor for something, and I just generally feel pretty immobile in my upper body. 

Oh - and another unpleasant pregnancy symptom has emerged.  I pee so freaking often - but now, on very rare occasions when I sneeze or laugh too hard, a few drops of pee come out.  EWWWW!  I've been doing kegels everyday and that seems to be helping.  I cannot believe I just shared the fact that I pee myself a bit on a public blog.  But hey, I promised you'd get the good, bad, and ugly of this pregnancy.  So there you go.

Baby girl has become very active the past few days - now her movements aren't as random, and are happening more regularly throughout the day.  And they are becoming much stronger - when I feel them strong, I can't help but sit and stare at my belly.  Our little girl is also proving to be quite stubborn because every time she starts kicking hard, Ian rests his hand on my belly to feel the kicks and she immediately stops.  Then he'll wait a few minutes and take his hand away, frustrated, and she'll start kicking again.  Well, last night was a good night.  She was kicking a lot, and stronger, so Ian sat with his hand on my belly for like 10 minutes.  Finally, he felt a kick!  He got excited like a little kid...it was so cute.  He encouraged baby girl to do it again, but she decided that was enough excitement for the night. 

Here are two pictures (sans makeup and with hair up) - the first one is of me sucking my belly in, the 2nd is when I'm just letting it hang out comfortably.  There's a slight difference - but honestly I think it just proves that I can't hide it.  That, and I have a lot of ab work to do after this little girl makes her debut.