Twenty Five Weeks

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.See what's going on in your uterus this week.
This week has been tough. With the holidays coming, I have been running around from errands to house cleaning. I think Frank and I collectively decided since we have lots to do this December, we may not unpack all of the Christmas Decorations this year. Our goal is to get the nursery up and ready by January 1. Just in time for my first big shower on the 11th. That way we can unpack everything into the room. So this year, we will for go the massive amounts of LED lights Frank usually puts up outside. Our neighbors will probably be grateful. We literally have the BRIGHTEST house on the block! The bright lights gleam at you once you turn the corner. It takes all of my driving expertise to stay on course and not head straight for the lights.

We’re putting up our tree tonight. We have an artificial tree that looks so real; we fool almost everyone who sees it. Each branch has THREE different kinds of needles on it – giving it a very real texture. We got it at a warehouse that makes the trees. They open to the public for two weeks in December and we got a great deal on a very life-like tree. It’s kind of like a secret operation, once you find out when they’re open – you have to find the actual warehouse in a very sketchy area. It was fun!

This past week has brought an onslaught of new symptoms…

Bring on the heartburn! I have never been one to have heartburn, or agida as Frank says. So I had no idea how painful it can be! I’m downing Tums like no tomorrow, they help for a few minutes. Some surprising foods that cause heartburn – peanut butter and chocolate… I’m beside myself. Those are my two staples! But I think I might have to stay away from some acidic foods and visit my cousin’s ice cream shop a little more often. Oh poor me ;)

Carpel tunnel syndrome? Whose brilliant idea was it to tack on this new side effect of pregnancy to an already swollen, grumpy, tired pregnant woman? I think this is a pretty new side effect, or more women are complaining about it! Either way. I get numbness in both hands, with shooting pain up to my shoulder. And best of all, the numbing pain is mostly at night. So I have a very attractive wrist stabilizer that I wear to bed. Now that it’s affecting both hands, I’m going out tonight to get another. Last night I was up several times trying to regain the feeling in my hand, the one without the splint. Telling myself, just ignore the pain… you can do it… I finally found a comfortable position, then wham – a kick to the bladder from our little guy. Thank you so much.

I still know exactly where my sciatic nerve is. Seems the baby really likes to lay on it causing pain and me to have this really awkward limp in my right leg. Kind of like I need a hip transplant or something. But it’s really awful. I may ask one of the PT’s at work for some advice. But these are pediatric PTs – how many 10 year olds have problems with their sciatica?
The swelling is back in full force. I can no longer wear my wedding ring, and I’ve reverted back to wearing my crocks. The only shoes I can fit in. I tried some cute Mary Jane type flats, but when I took them off, my feet still looked like they were wearing the shoes with the indentation!

I totally feel like I’m whining. I got myself into this mess, right? Any suggestions from the readers would be so greatly appreciated. I’m sure someone has a magical potion for heartburn or a special pillow to recommend for sciatic pain.

We have our monthly doc apt tomorrow with Dr. Purdue. I’ll post the updates next week. I’m sure she’ll say that everything that I’m feeling is normal and to take it easy when I can. I have to take my second gestational diabetes test. I'm not worried about that. We are also going to talk about writing our “birth plan.” We’ll see how that goes.

I’ll end on a good note. I don’t think I mentioned when Frank felt the little guy for the first time. It was at about 3:30 a.m. on morning, he just got home from work. I was almost 23 weeks along. We had to get up early the next morning to fly out to Nebraska and I was trying desperately to get back to sleep, but the little guy was up, doing his own little jig. Frank waited patiently with his hand on my tummy, then all of the sudden, thump thump.

“Did you feel that?” I asked.


“I did!”

We both were so excited that we couldn’t sleep and ended up staying up and talking into the wee morning hours.

Our little guy was sweet enough to give me a few wakeup kicks this morning that I felt from the outside. I’m definitely bonding with this little one. And I’m excited for others to feel him too.