32 weeks

 

 

 

 

Oh, this pregnancy.  Do all second pregnancies feel like they last for.ev.er?  It feels like I've been pregnant my entire life, except it truly feels like yesterday that I saw that little pink line in the middle of putting Sweet Pea to bed, then choked back tears of joy while I read her a very special book.  (Note: Don't read loving/sweet/emotional books about families and siblings and new babies moments after you get a positive pregnancy test.  You will vastly confuse your 2.5-year-old.  "Mama?!  Why you crying?!!)

My first pregnancy was tough, much tougher in many ways than this one has been.  But I call my first pregnancy my bi-polar pregnancy; I either felt terrible (I had to go to the ER 3 or 4 times) or I felt totally fine.  This time around?  I'm just always a little exhausted, always a little sick, always a lot in pain.  I never really hit that sweet spot with lots of energy like last time.

But nesting?  Pretty much in full effect.  It was worse a couple of weeks ago, when I did things like decided on a whim that we needed a different couch and drove to Virginia to get one off Craigslist at like 8 at night and when I decided all of my base boards HAD to be washed and painted, starting at 6 pm at night.  I'm not kidding when I say that at one point I was sitting on a step stool in the kitchen, clutching my contracting belly with one hand and continuing to push the mop with the other at one in the morning.

That's when I realized that "nesting" is made up of almost all the same letters as "insane."

But no matter how hard or easy it is, pregnancy is pretty miraculous.  I can't believe my body can do this.  I love how introspective this time is, and I love that all the things I know about this baby only I really know.  I know his patterns and what foods he likes.  I know he likes it when I read to Sweet Pea, so much so that now I just consider that I'm reading to both of them.  He honestly-truly plays with us; Sweet Pea and I like to tap on my belly and he taps back in the same place.  Sweet Pea doesn't get super excited really about talking about the baby, but she often just spontaneously talks about him on her own or hugs my belly out of the blue without any prompting.  She loves to cuddle her head on my belly and giggles like crazy when he "tickles" her.  I swear he knows she's there and does it on purpose.

He's head down and while I feel massive, I've only gained 13-14 pounds so far and his growth as of today is a little on the small side.  He's about 23 percentile.  I want him to be healthy and strong, and since it looks like he is, I think it's okay for me (and really, I'm speaking on behalf of my ribs) to say that I'm glad he's on the small side at this point!  As stretched as I feel, he's actually positioned pretty comfortably at the moment; not so low and with all the pressure any more, but not so high (like Sweet Pea was) that I can't breathe.  Well, relatively...breathing normally is kind of a luxury when you're pregnant!

He loves to poke me with his little knee and elbow on my right side, and the elbow often hits a ticklish spot right by my hip.  I think he knows and does it on purpose.

I just want to meet him and hold him over my heart instead of under it.  He has a lot of fun in store for him in our family!    

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