Movement

Movement can now be seen on the outside of my tummy. If you very carefully look at the left side of my belly, you can see the baby bump out. You can also listen to my mother talking about nuns. The movement was, at times that I didn't catch on video, much more dramatic.

Baby Dream

Last night, I dreamed that I went into labor. Labor was very short and my mother ended up delivering the baby on a bed. The bed had white sheets and I was concerned that they would get dirty. I was also concerned that I wouldn't get to teach winter term at all.

The baby was very small (what with not being due till the end of March), but active. It was very important that he eat as much as possible, so the end of the dream focused on nursing the baby. The baby was definitely a boy.

Dreams

Mike commented to me that I hadn't posted any dreams recently. It's not that I haven't had them, it's just that I haven't gotten around to posting them. Also, there haven't been any that were particularly interesting.

For example, last night I dreamed in great detail about this lentil dish that I wanted to eat in the dream. There were many different items that got added to the lentils and I had to go around to various locations to try to find them. I never did manage to find the black beans.

Car Seat

My dad came up today to help us clean out the back yard. And by that, I mean he and my uncle cleaned out the back yard, I did laundry and such, and Mike puttered about. The back yard looks excellent.

He also brought us our Christmas present (in addition to cleaning the back yard). I'd picked out the car seat I wanted online and put it on my amazon baby registry.

Car seats are more complicated than I had imagined. It came with a 40-page instruction manual. There are lots of different adjustable pieces and straps all over the place.

I must be pregnant...

A lady asked me in a clothing store today if I knew where the maternity section was. She said I looked like I was expecting.

Cord Cutting

Mike found this article about cutting the umbilical cord. It's got cool pictures of what a cord looks like right after birth,

several minutes later,

then 15 minutes later after the blood has stopped pulsing through it.

That's a pretty major difference!

Musical Baby

Mike decided to play music for the tiny squee last night. I'm not sure whether flopping about means that it was enjoying the music and dancing, or not enjoying it and trying to get away... but here are the reviews so far:

Beatles: no real response.
Barenaked Ladies: much flopping to one song (with a strong beat), not so much to a second.
Phantom of the Opera: some flopping. Obviously it's a musical theater baby, but would prefer a show with a somewhat faster beat.

Squirrel dream

I'd meant to post about this dream yesterday when I had it, but I never got around to it. Mike and I, as well as some other undefined people, were at an event. It was outside on a large grassy lawn. Someone remembered that they were giving away free beer. They had Budweiser, Sam Adams and one other kind, so we needed to hurry so we wouldn't be stuck drinking Budweiser. We started sliding across the lawn on our stomachs, which everyone else was doing so it was obviously the generally accepted travel method. We turned a corner and started down a hill, picking up speed. There were jumps that we went over (mostly logs and bumps in the grass). Near the logs and in the taller grass there were bunches of ground squirrels, looking very much like this California Ground Squirrel (I actually identified them as such in the dream).

I'm actually pregnant.

Today, one of the people I work with asked me if I was pregnant. This is the first person to actually ask. I think other people must suspect (since one of my department chairs said I was showing 6 weeks ago), but this is the first person who actually asked.

The funny thing is that my doctor mentioned the "Dave Barry" rule for asking about pregnancy this morning at our appointment: if you don't see a baby actually emerging, don't ask a woman if she's pregnant. My coworker said I was getting bigger "just in the tummy" so she suspected. It was actually kind of nice to be asked.

Nothing too exciting to report regarding this morning's doctor's appointment. Baby is measuring small and has apparently been measuring small the whole time. That lines up with my view of the situation - I don't feel like I look that pregnant compared to other women who are equally pregnant. I'm sure the tiny squee will catch up on growth later on. Baby's heartbeat seemed sort of variable. Dr Liz said that baby didn't like me laying down. I wonder if it's because it cuts off circulation. Supposedly the weight of the baby can press on the vena cava and inhibit blood flow somewhat. I had found myself sleeping on my back sometimes (mostly to save my hips from hurting), but it's getting pretty uncomfortable to do that.

I've solved the hip pain when sleeping problem (at least for the time being). If I put a pillow between my legs, I can sleep pain-free through most of the night. I usually wake up once (to pee), then flip over to the other side for most of the rest of the night. It's been much better the past few nights that I've done that. I must be sleeping pretty well because when I wake up, I'm still in the same position that I started.

Trouble sleeping again

It seems like the biggest part of being pregnant involves sleep: either too much or too little. Last night was a too little night.

The first part of the night wasn't too bad. I had a dream about being in Japan with Lacey in her weird open-courtyard apartment. It was completely pouring down rain.

Then, I woke up. My hips were really sore, to the point where I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. My left side, where I normally sleep, was really sore from having been slept on all night. When I turned onto my right side, that side started hurting along with my left hip. Laying on my back, which is how I used to escape from the hip pain, has become pretty uncomfortable. When I'd finally find a more-or-less comfortable position, the tiny squee would start flopping about. Apparently baby was disgruntled about me tossing and turning.

I went for a really good walk yesterday with my pregnant lady friend. We walked up and all around Mt Tabor. We walked and chatted for about 2 hours. I didn't feel too sore yesterday, but maybe it hit me in the hips last night.

I headed to prenatal yoga this morning. I was hoping it would help with the hip pain. What with the walk and the yoga, my legs are a little stiff and sore this evening. The yoga was really nice, though. Very relaxing. The tiny squee started bopping about as we were relaxing at the end.

One of my favorite parts of yoga is looking at what all the other pregnant ladies look like. There's a big range between least pregnant and most pregnant. Most people seem to be in week 30+, but one woman was only 14 weeks today. I don't look very pregnant at all compared to the majority. I didn't really look that pregnant compared to the other two ladies who were 24-ish weeks. It will be nice to check in with Dr Liz next week and make sure baby is measuring the appropriate size.