baby hiccups and braxton hicks!

After weeks of no changes, finally, two new exciting events occuring in my pregnancy! Well, at least one.

I've said before that the baby's movements feel like a twitch or sporadic muscle spasms. I say sporadic, because muscle spasms or twitches "keep a beat" so to say, and the baby's movements are random, differ in strength, and happen all over. So, imagine that in your abdomen - that's exactly what they feel like. The past couple days, I have noticed tiny little movements that I figured at first were the baby's kicks, but then I noticed they happened one after another in a pattern, like someone tapping me slowly. I thought then that they might be actual muscle spasms, but they were so light and were happening right where the baby usually hangs out. After some thought, I realized - these are baby hiccups! I talked to my mom about it to confirm. How exciting - my baby's first hiccups.

The second, now, I'm not too sure about. I'm just reaching my 27th week (and my third trimester, hooray!) and I've read that Braxton Hicks contractions generally start happening around 25 weeks. About a week ago, I started noticing this feeling sort of like my stomach was being pulled down and I would get this strange sensation that almost felt like it was doing flip flops, like when you're on a roller coaster. When I felt my abdomen, my stomach would be rock hard. It's mildly uncomfortable and kind of annoying. I thought it was the baby doing the flip flops, and that she had just changed positions, but this week it's been happening a lot more, maybe two or three times a day. It dawned on me that these might be Braxton Hicks contractions, mainly because the hard feeling of my abdomen. I didn't have to do much searching on the internet before I came up with a woman describing pretty much the same thing on a message board, and asking if these were Braxton Hicks. Everyone who replied to her post said it sounded just like them.

Now I'm excited! It may seem silly to be so excited over some Braxton Hicks, but for me it's like a milestone. I'm that much closer to having my baby, finally! And the fact that she's giving me an entertaining show of hiccups - now that's cute. She's getting ready to make her appearance and I can't wait to hold her!

::edit:: I went back and realized I wrote the word "exciting" four times. Catch my mood? ;-)

now that i'm showing...

...Jamba Juice employees bring me my drink instead of calling my name and Wal-Mart cashiers call me sweetie and let me go in their lines even if they're closed.

In short, I'm catered too. Not complaining. ;)

baby dreams

I am currently writing a piece about why hubby and I have chosen to have a homebirth. As soon as I finish, I will post it (I'm a bit scared - it's getting very long).

The pregnancy is now just something I want to get over with already. I love feeling the baby move, but I want to just hold her now. I've gotten so used to the fact that my belly is growing and will continue to grow, that my back hurts, that I have to pee all the time, and the excitement of being newly pregnant has finally faded. Mind you, it took 25 weeks. The excitement of being a mommy hasn't faded (of course), and all the dreams I've had about the baby just adds to my excitement . Since we've found out I was pregnant, I have had six dreams about the baby once it's born. They are the most amazing dreams I have ever had - in my dreams I get to touch her, hold her, cuddle with her, nurse her, and I wake up wanting to go back to sleep so I can "feel" her again. They are so real and vivid. (What they say about pregnant dreams is true!)

My grandma asked about the baby's gender in my dreams - she said whatever gender I dream the baby is, that's what it's going to be. Unfortunately, I've had four dreams it's a girl and two dreams it's a boy. So, we still have no clue. :)

Something I just found out that did make me excited - our baby is about 13 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 pounds. Also, that I have only one more week until I am in my third trimester. That is a milestone.

how am i feeling?

People keep asking me how I feel. Actually, they've been asking me how I've felt since the week we found out I was pregnant. And the answers haven't changed much. I mean, in my first trimester, the general answer was "Like I'm going to puke," except, maybe put more eloquently. Now, the general answer is, "Back to normal." Do they want more details? Because I can give them more details. I could go on and on about how I sleep until 11am and feel dead by 10pm, about my uterus stretching and muscles hurting, about my backache, about my dire need to be drinking water at all times, about the headaches I get when I'm hungry, about how my boobs hurt, about how I pee every hour during the day, etc. etc... Yes, I can give you details.

But I won't. So, plan on the response for at least the next two months to be "back to normal," until I can't breathe or see my feet anymore. Because right now, back to normal means I don't feel like I'm going to throw up on your shoes.

yep, i'm definitely pregnant

My midwife Alisa told me a little bit about the history of belly dancing. One of the ladies she leads a pregnancy class with teaches belly dancing for pregnant women as a means of exercise (and something to do to keep them feeling sexay). As it turns out, belly dancing was originally a way for women to teach their daughters about birth -- they would dance it with their daughters as a celebration of birth. A dance about the pregnant, vuloptuous woman preparing her body for birth by the fluid movements of her hips and abdomen. It was later that the dance was sexualized, but its original purpose and meaning is so beautiful to me.

Today John and I went to see a friend perform at a small festival, and the performance before his was a group of belly dancers. Immediately, what came to my head was what Alisa told me about the dance. The women looked beautiful on the stage. One lady (I assume she was the instructor -- she exuded so much confidence and performed solo, with more skill than the other women) was wearing a top that revealed her mid-drift. The first thing I noticed is that this lady was cut. I mean, wow. She had great abs. The next thing I noticed was that her skin was sort of lose and she had little stretch marks just above her skirt. Obviously, she was a mommy.

Then for a second I wanted to cry. Here was woman who was a mommy and had given her body to her child, and now was embracing her body, showing it off by dancing this breathtaking birthing dance (whether or not she, or anyone else watching, saw it as that) -- the whole thing was incredible to me. Incredible, beautiful, inspiring -- whatever you want to call it. (Clearly, I am a tad emotional.)

I can't wait to give birth. I know that may sound crazy, and I have people (mainly my younger friends who aren't even thinking of having a child anytime soon) ask me if I'm scared of giving birth, especially since I am doing it naturally, and I have found myself saying, "Actually, no. I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait." I'm sure once I'm 9 months pregnant and the birth is right around the corner, I'll be thinking a bit differently.

this thing is getting heavy

I have reached the point in my pregnancy where I am physically conscious of the child inside me, not only when I am leaning up against a counter and feel as though there is a ball between me and it, but even as I am sitting here typing this. Sometimes the baby is in such a position that I can tell where she is in my uterus without even feeling my stomach. This morning she felt so incredibly heavy and it was extremely uncomfortable and awkward putting on my jeans -- I have to sort of bring my leg up and out to the side of me and dangle the pant leg with one hand while holding my balance with the other. Meanwhile, I feel as though I'm carrying a backpack in front of me -- no, inside of me -- it's heavy and constricts my movements. You can only squish the thing so much! The heaviness is such a strange sensation. I've never experienced anything like this and find it so bizarre. As strange as feeling the baby roll around inside me, at times.

Just a minute ago, I could tell the baby had switched positions because I got this sinking, tugging feeling (a physical sinking, tugging feeling in my gut, not emotional -- emotional tugging feelings are so much more often felt! I imagine expectant mothers are the only ones to really experience the physical sinking tugging feeling.) and I had to pee all of a sudden. Another thing I've realized lately is that every time I have to pee (which is about every 45 minutes), I only pee a tablespoon or so, which is very frustrating when I just went in the last hour and desperately need to relieve my bladder again, and expect the second rendition of the Great Flood once my butt hits the toilet, only to tinkle. Frustrating indeed. They say right now that your bladder is right in front of your uterus (it will be underneath the uterus later on in the pregnancy). Well God, if I have to pee so often right now, when it's not even being pushed down, I wonder what the next few months are going to be like? Not to mention the baby is only about a pound in weight -- at least five more pounds to go. Holy crap.

There is so much more to pregnancy than people tell you -- I mean, even if they do tell you, you don't get it until you're there. It is still crazy to me that once you hit a certain week, you are completely physically aware of the growing baby! Crazy. No one could have prepared me. Nor could they have prepared me for how uncomfortable and inconvenient morning sickness was, the way baby's kicks feel, how your skin feels like it's been stretched to its limit at twenty weeks (Twenty more weeks of this to go? You've got to be kidding me!), how your belly button looks right before it's about to pop out, how much saliva and snot your body really can produce, how vivid your dreams really are (It's not a myth. All those pregnancy ladies are telling the truth -- my dreams have never been so real!) or how the baby takes up your every thought and how in love your are with the child before you even see her. It really is a beautiful thing.

So, I partially understand why some women can say they love being pregnant (the morning sickness and insanely sensitive nose taint my view of the whole thing, just a lil' bit). It is absolutely a glorious time. The experience is incredible and unexplainable. I really wouldn't trade it in for a better time, truly -- everything that happens altogether makes it so... wonderful. And when they say everything is worth it in the end, oh it is. I can already tell it is, and I haven't even reached the end.