Journal
Sign guestbook
Arthur's Mummy's Diary
Matthew's Belly Gallery
Nathan's Belly Gallery
Benjamin's Belly Gallery
My Fertility Friend Chart
2004-06-27 - 8.04pm��previous entry��next entry
21 weeks, 2 days - colostrum!
Hello hello!! I am in the most fantabulous of pregnant moods (!) today, so hooray, an upbeat entry! :) Thank you so much for the guestbook messages (have emailed you Kelli!) and yet more compliments about my photos that make me blush! ;) Ahh it's so much fun to be pregnant!!
I am 21 weeks pregnant, well 21 weeks and 2 days, because I was too lazy to update on Friday (sorry!). Or no actually, I wasn't too lazy, I just didn't get round to it. "Or no actually" is terribly incorrect grammar isn't it. Oh well.
Bean is now 27cm long from head to heel, which is just over 10.5 inches, and he/she weighs about 3/4 of a pound, or 360g (ish). It's all very "ish" of course, from now! Bean is a person, and people weigh all sorts of different weights and have all sorts of different body lengths. I have a hunch that Bean will lean towards the lighter/smaller side of average, since Neil and I are built that way too. But who knows! One day not too far from now, we'll find out.
Oooh ooh, and my scan is in FOUR DAYS!!!! HOW excited am I?!?!!! Wow I can't wait. I can't believe there's only 4 more days of "Bean" :( That's a bit sad. But I can still say Bean sometimes after we know Bean's real name and start using it. I can hyphenate too :) ___-Bean, that kind of thing (____ being the secret name!) because that's quite cute. And I'm one for messing around with names and making them cute or abbreviated just because I think the baby in question is cute! :) So that's probably what I'll do. But how weird that 4 days from now (if Bean co-operates) we will know we're having a little boy or a little girl. I know that Bean is clearly one way or the other already and has been since conception, but somehow it's like from the scan onwards, I'll be the mother of a little boy, or the mother of a little girl. I'll have a son. Or a daughter. That feels so huge. I already do have a son or a daughter, I know, but SURE knowledge does things to my feelings. Nice things though :) But weird, since I've gotten so used to Bean being a neutral cute thing called Bean. I'm so fond of the name Bean now, that I can easily picture a little toddler who looks like me and Neil, named Bean! I can picture me saying "Happy Birthday Bean!" or "Dinner's ready Bean!" or "Let's get your shoes on Bean." That kind of thing. But then I'm crazy so never mind ;) And I will get used to the real name quickly, I'm sure. Especially since I love the names we've picked :)
Bean is a very very active baby these days! And it is markedly clear how over the last 2 weeks Bean has developed hearing. I can really tell the difference in that time. Today Bean kicked every square inch of my abdomen from hip to hip and tummy button to bladder (plus a few thumps in the cervix and rectum for good measure!) during the loud amplified worship time at church, with me singing as loud as I could! It was so cool. He/she loved the clappy songs with tons of rhythm. Either that or those were highly irritating moments - I can't tell what kicks mean yet! I like to assume they mean, "Yay Mummy, this is fun and I'm happy!" rather than, "Aaaargh, the noise, the noise! And I can't escape!" Bean did some full body stretches during the worship time too, I know those because they are some of the strongest movements I have felt. They are a simultaenous wallop to the cervix/bladder at the same instant as a heavy double-footed bounce to the area near my tummy button! I am starting to be able to tell that one end is a head and the other end is feet. Definitely feet and not foot too. It's a really big strong movement. I love it though. Sometimes I can tell that it's the feet that are stomping on my bladder or cervix, and other times I know it's the feet up the top.
Anyway Bean is so cute. But very energetic! I got kicked to pieces through the church service, and then we had a church picnic at the park and Bean was totally and utterly quiet (ie. exhausted, hehe!) the whole time. When we got home a few hours later, I ate some mint choc chip ice-cream (mmm!!!) and right after that I lay down and Bean woke up quite suddenly and did a lot of bumpling and kicking. Neil and I sat/lay and watched my tummy rippling and heaving! Yesterday was the same, very very active day for Bean. Unusually so, and I figured a really active day might be followed by a quieter one because that happened once in the past. But nope! :) Bean loves the Friends theme.
Neil was poking my belly with his nose (!!) last night, and Bean did not like that. Neil laid his ear on my tummy because he wanted to "hear" Bean moving (bless), and Bean kicked him in the ear! He was quite thrilled with that though :) Oh did I tell you that earlier in the week we decided Bean could hear well enough for Neil to blow some raspberries on my tummy (he has been wanting to for ages!) and find out if Bean responded in any way? Well Bean was all pressed up with his/her back against my tummy, you could feel it clearly. And Neil blew three raspberries, big open-mouthed ones, like if you do that on your arm and it makes a very rude noise (!!). Poor Bean! No kicks or anything, but he/she instantly disappeared to the back of my womb, hehehe! I couldn't find the slightest ridge or bump or firmness indicating that any part of Bean was near the surface of my tummy! We're such wicked parents! ;) I am thinking that was DEFINITELY an irritable noise for Bean. Poor love! We love you really Bean, I promise.
Also - I can't believe I didn't remember to say this last entry! - another new thing happened to me this week! I think it must have been Tuesday or Wednesday or something. Halfway through week 20 anyway. It was hot and I came over all overheated while I was watching the tennis on TV for a few minutes, so I um, took some clothes off, and my bra because it was digging in too much (need bra extenders or new bras AGAIN! Tsk!). Anyway I watched the tennis for a while longer while I cooled down. And then I looked down at my breasts and saw some big beads of clear liquid on my nipples!!!! Great excitement!!!!! I haven't noticed any since, but I am so excited that my breasts are producing colostrum and I've really seen some!! It was quite a bit thicker than water, and some might think this gross, but curiosity got the better of me so I did a taste test. My colostrum was really sweet and mild tasting. I was pleasantly surprised! :) I didn't realise it would taste sweet. It's quite yummy really (!!) - lucky Bean! :)
My breasts are getting bigger again. They ache and they look different again, and also I have noticed the pigmentation is slightly darker than a few days ago. I had already had a bit of darkening pigment from earlier in my pregnancy so I didn't expect another stage of it! Also my linea negra on my tummy is a little more noticable. I think I am getting a line from my tummy button up to my breastbone now too. I like that. It's very "pregnant" of me :)
Hmmm, what haven't I said yet? No nosebleeds since my last entry, yay!!! Lots of heartburn but oh well. I don't mind things like that (yet!). It's not appauling or anything. I bought another full-body maternity pillow, half price and hardly used, from someone at UKparents. I get good support from the one I've got on the side I use it for, but the other side is uncomfy now without some extra support, and I have grown to like the pillow against my back as well as something supporting my front. Plus sometimes I need it in a V-shape behind my head so I can be raised up a bit more when I am regurgitatey (!), and so I figured 2 pillows would be better than one. And cheap since they were both second-hand! But hmmm, not sure how 2 full-length body pillows and two fully grown adults will fit in our bed! Hmmm. At least it's a king-size bed :)
I think I am going to try and make a doctor's appointment on Monday or Tuesday, because it started being sore to pee again yesterday and that reminded me that it's been a couple of weeks since my urine was tested. It's less sore today but I would much rather just get my urine checked than take any chances over possible infection. Plus I could get my test results back, the ones that were done at the hospital.
My friend Katie from church is having her baby!!!! I am so excited!!! She went into labour yesterday and had no sleep overnight, and then went into hospital this morning. She got to 4cm dilated and then things slowed down and she was really exhausted, so her brother stood at the front at church this morning and asked everyone to pray that her contractions would get stronger and more effective, and that she would have a natural birth like she wanted, because the hospital was threatening her with a syntocinon drip (stupid hospital). I love that we get breaking news and pray about stuff like that at church, as it's happening! :) It was great. We all stood up and prayed out to God that Katie would dilate to ten, and FAST, hehe!!! Anyway at the picnic after the service, her brother's mobile rang and everyone (about 40 men, women and children!) went quiet while he answered. Katie was dilated to 7cm and doing well :) So yay, God is great, and childbirth is AMAZING, and wow, isn't the body just so cool? And I hope Katie is happy for the whole church to be thinking of her cervix all morning, hehehe! I feel sure she will have delivered by now, and I hope she had a wonderful birth experience and is getting some much-needed rest now! I can't believe their pregnancy journey is over and their parenting journey has begun. It makes my own seem so much more real.
Everybody talked to me about my pregnancy today. Evvvverybody. I am showing and everybody is noticing and wanting to ask how I'm feeling and when I'm due again, and do we know if it's a girl or a boy? It's been so much fun to tantalise everyone by saying, "We're hoping to find out on Thursday at our scan!" because then they all get excited for us and want to be told how it goes next week. I am happy that we've decided to find out the baby's sex and tell everyone. I like that we can share that with people, but that we have decided to keep the baby's name a secret until the birth. Then we'll have something to share and something to be a surprise. I like that. Of course, you guys are part of my mind (!!) so you get to know everything as it happens! I don't think anybody I know in real-life reads my diaries, well, except people I've met THROUGH my diaries and now know in "real" life! :) So we are going to tell people if it's a boy or a girl from the scan onwards, but that we are keeping the name for a surprise when the baby is born. Our families will know though.
Well I'm too hot and no amount of blowing on my tummy occasionally is cooling me down, so I'm going to get out of this very warm chair and get some water to drink. If I've forgotten anything I will try to remember it next entry. I'm starting to get moving on those emails folks, so hang in there if I still haven't replied to yours! :)
Recent entries.....
Babies 7 and 8! :) - 2016-01-10
Babies 6 and 7! - 2013-02-17
Baby #5 !! - 2010-04-03
Nearly 3 months postpartum! - 2009-10-05
6 weeks old already! - 2009-08-25