Holy kaMoly, this pregnancy is whizzing by fast.
And more and more of my activities seem to be centered around the approaching birth date (June 3).
My belly still seems small to others, but believe you me, it does not feel small to me. Rather, it’s like I went on an adventurous trip to the pet store and got a pet shark – a three-pounder – it’s in a plastic bag filled with water, taut with air, and tied with a rubber band on top and I carry it in front of me where ever I go. The baby is kicking and thrashing day and night – oh dear, I think we have a real live wire coming. In fact the kicking is so intense I can now just lay back and watch my belly undulate in one spot and then the next. Other times it feels like the baby’s arm or leg kicks free of the amniotic sac, wriggles through a host of my organs and pokes me right where I am most sensitive: that little spot just above where your thigh connects with your torso and your skin is thinnest.
I sleep well the first half of the night, but when I wake up to go pee, I wake the baby up and so I get back in bed and lay awake in the wee hours trying to divine a personality from the nature of the baby’s kicks.
My bowel movements have become shockingly regular – I think of the baby as a gut tromper. Those little bare feet going up and down on my intestines, just like my own personal grape stomper.
Yesterday I went to my second La Leche League meeting (the group in Irvine) and had my second (only my second!!) prenatal visit. Everything is well: urine tests negative (for?? I didn’t ask), my belly measures 28 cm, I’ve gained 20 pounds (I gained only 25 with Bella…), my blood pressure is low (good low), and the baby’s heart beat is vigorous.
Tonight is our childbirth class – only two more to go.
I practice squatting and tailor sitting (while watching Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica), and I’m doing hundreds of kegels a day (you know, that muscle that controls the flow of pee, or makes your penis twitch).
What else?
The pregnancy yoga by Bikram is saving me. When my body feels over-extended, too taut and full, I do a session of the pregnancy yoga. It stretches me beyond my daily flexibility and suddenly I am able to breathe and sit easier.