Wow, your belly just popped!

18 Weeks
Dragon Fruit (or, if you are boring, Sweet Potato)
My exotic little dude is kicking a lot more now. I can't quite make out a pattern to it yet, so kick-counting might not happen for another week or two. The fantastic news is, I will get to see him on ultrasound in just a few days!!! Pics will be posted. No worries. Everyone loves ultrasound pics, right? Right??


My workouts have had to adjust. I'm now to the point where my center of gravity is shifting up and forward, so I can't dart all over the place in multiple directions. I also can't be on my back anymore (so no more bicycle kicks). Sad as it may seem, someone who was working out near me asked me why I wasn't showing yet (at 16w, 5d). Someone who was with the asker (who also happened to be a family medicine doc) replied, "Oh, she shouldn't be showing yet." How little he knew! Even as a health care provider, he evidently didn't know that there's a wide range of when the "bump" appears. I'm short in stature and have had two kids before, so there's really no surprise that I had a little "beer gut" by then.


However, in the past few days, I have noticed a rapid progression to roundness. I lamented to some colleagues at the gym that I might need to start bringing a beach towel instead of a regular bath towel for my post-workout showers. The bath towel doesn't quite cover all the naked real estate anymore. It sort of happened suddenly, which is just as I remember it before. Moving toward the fifth month of pregnancy, it's about time he decided to get large! Right now, Blueberry (the size of a dragon fruit) is about 5.6 inches long (from the top of his head to his little bum) and weighs about 6.7 ounces. I switched to my maternity ACU this week as well. I couldn't button the trousers anymore, so... here we are, elastic.


I have decided, however, that my next mission will be to redesign the maternity uniforms. One major flaw in all of them (dress uniforms or no) is that they are almost entirely devoid of pockets. I dreaded switching over to the maternity gear, not because I was ashamed of my growing midsection, but because I didn't want to be without pockets. Where will I keep my keys, wallet, lip balm, cell phone, ID badge, and all the other junk I carry around? I certainly can't use a PURSE. Obviously, whoever designed the maternity uniforms (a) is a man, (b) has never had children, (c) lacks practical thinking, or (d) all of the above.

Why Pregnant Women Change Clothes So Much

Without fail, I will go through a wardrobe change at least twice in a day. Part of it is because I am taking off a uniform and putting on "real people" clothes. Sometimes, however, it's because I just need more space.


The following two photos were both taken on the same day, at 14 weeks, 4 days.

The first is from the morning, and the second is from the afternoon. No, I am not deliberately pushing my belly out. I am actually trying to "suck in" - which is why the bottom looks so pronounced, I guess.

This is REALLY what it's like to deal with bloating and junk. And why it's really frustrating to wear clothes that fit one minute and don't the next. Or, to be asked if you are twice as far along as you actually are.


Ladies, if you want to look small for your "bump" pictures, take them in the morning. If you are just too excited about that baby belly and want it to appear larger, take your pictures in the afternoon or evening. Or, if you are forgetful and neglect taking regular pictures of your growing belly (in the event this is something you want to document), just take some morning and night and tell people the night picture is actually a later week. It'll totally work.

It's a boy!

I never thought my dreams were really telling me anything until the ultrasound technician showed me a winkie on the screen, and I was not the least bit surprised to see it.  I have been having dreams for about the last 2 months about the sex of our unborn Deuce.  I have NOT EVEN ONCE dreamt he was a girl.

However, after preparing to ship keepsake clothing to my mom and donate the rest to charity (we can't store it anywhere here, and it may be quite a while before the next kid(s) come along), I've started having doubts about getting rid of them for fear that Deuce is really a girl and everyone was wrong, or that he has a twin sister hiding in there somewhere.  It is, of course, ridiculous, and I'm trying not to go nuts about it.  But there is something painful and final about packing away all of your baby girl's clothes that she can no longer wear and NOT save it for a future sibling.

I am really having a hard time letting this all go.

I am excited about my boy, though.  Luckily, we chose not to find out the sex of our firstborn, so we have plenty of unisex stuff to get us started, and I feel good about being able to use that stuff.  I am also quite unashamed to ask for free clothes from other families with older male children who don't need their baby clothes anymore.

But the bottom line remains.  I am certain I know how the mother feels when she sends those baby clothes away.  Wow, what an intense feeling!