20 Weeks

I am not sure exactly what it is. First time around I was trying to look pregnant. Wearing tighter tops, showing off the bump. This time around I am very aware of how huge I feel and stretched and cumbersome. I think some of it is that I miss my excercise routine. I ran for 6 minutes yesterday and that was all I could manage. I really hate treadmills, and swimming, and all those other things people suggest I do... so for now it is yoga and walking for me. Unfortunately, my back is so messed up right now even yoga can be rough, so I'm just trying to take it easy and be kind to body and baby. I've gained about 25 lbs. at this point which puts me at about the same weight I was at this time with Kate. It's a lot harder to find time to go for walks than it was the first time around though. I'd rather spend my evenings with Kate and Daddy P than working out, and I'd rather sleep in these last few precious months rather than get up and work out. I was getting up to do yoga in the morning pretty consistently before cedar fever hit. I'm hoping once it's over I can go back to it. In the meantime I hardly sleep so sleeping later is all I've got.

Also having a lot of nightmares this time around. I don't recall that with Kate. But once or twice a week Daddy P has to wake me up because I'm crying or yelling in my sleep. Many of my dreams are about miscarrying, but some of them are just general awfulness. I'm hoping they stop soon. I thought they'd stop after the 20 week ultrasound when all was okay, but they haven't.

Kate talks about the "baby in mommy's tummy" a lot. Sometimes she says she has a "horsey" in her tummy, other times she asks Daddy P if he has a baby in his tummy. She likes touching my belly and kissing it. I can't wait until she can feel the baby kick. I'm so curious to see what her response is.

I'm starting to realize that I need to slow down at work some soon. I think come March I'll stop taking new clients and start talking to my current clients to prepare them for my time off. I was off 9 months with Kate so wrapping my head around 6 weeks (and starting to see clients after 3 for the critical ones) is a little hard to get used to. Luckily, Daddy P is covered by New Jersey's paternity laws and gets 6 weeks half pay leave which will help hugely. We're planning on keeping Kate in daycare for her sake throughout the whole thing. She loves that place and the consistency will help her adjust I think.

Kicker

This kid moves.  Kate moved, too, but this is of a different quality.  Daddy P can clearly feel his kicks already, starting last week at 19 weeks.  I remember sitting with clients when I was pregnant with Kate and getting jarred back into my own body with each kick.  It felt like a tug-of-war of attention. 

Like the rest of the country we're having some chilly weather.  With windchill it was down to 5 degrees last night, 19 proper.  We did what we thought we should to prepare the house:  opening the laundry room door so it got some heat and the pipes didn't freak out, opening cabinets, putting up heavier curtains to help block our sole remaining crappy window, turn off the sprinklers.  Oh wait, we turned off the **timer** to the sprinkers.  Apparently, the timer had other ideas.

We woke up to drips of ice all over all the bushes, ice on all the walkways, and ice dripping off anything we'd left outside.  Our neighbor's homes were ice free.  Apparently we have a malfunctioning timer on our hands...

Rolling blackouts this morning they say to manage the energy load.  Schools in town are open and delayed in the suburbs.  Nothing like freezing weather to make the humid awful summer a little more tolerable.

park day

We took advantage of the insane spring-like weather and went to the park for the afternoon.  It was a "new" park, meaning we stretched our legs a bit to get there.  Well, you can see that Kate didn't.  

Kate's become an insane little person.  She's just amazing.  I used to hate those moms that would say that all the time about their kid, but damn, she's really cool.  She lately enjoys reversing roles.  So, when we're reading she'll ask "What's that?" not because she doesn't know but because we do that to her as we read.  If you say "I don't know" she'll promptly tell you.  Daddy P realized this game the other night when he answered "I don't know" to some strange looking animal in her big book about every conceivable animal in existence.  In response she said, "Mommy and I see those all the time."

Today at the park she did this when Daddy P and I spent a good ten minutes trying to help her to see the small turtle heads poking out of the water.  We thought she was seeing them, but then she took us around to the other side of the pond telling us "turtles are over there."  She then stops, points at the blank water, and says, "See the turtle?  Turtles are way over there."  

On the mini-baby front, I'm 20 weeks.  And huge.  Stand me next to a 20 weeker first time mom and I look like I'm a month away.  My body is definitely ready for this kid.  I'm sure you all are dying to know about names.

Well, here's the story.  I dreamt before I was pregnant that we were having a boy.  And voila!  Boy.  Okay, and now I have had this recurring feeling/dream that the baby's name is James.  I don't particularly love the name, but I don't dislike it.  It's a decent name.  But I honest to goodness *Feel* like it's the baby's name.  Like, it already is his whether we choose another or not.  Okay, so Daddy P dislikes the name -- not his fav -- and is not buying into this whole intuition thing.  

So, what is a wife to do?  I sit down at the Social Security website and say, "Fine.  We're picking a name.  Pick a year."  He says 1631. Well, the SS website didn't start tracking popular names until the late 1800s.  So, I pick Daddy P's favorite number (those of you who are truly loyalists will recall that baby Kate's number in utero was 51) and pair it was 1900.  

Guess what the #1 boy name is 1951 was?  I shit you not.

James.

Now, you tell me this isn't the baby's name.

art

My daughter is a minimalist.

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It's a Boy!

We saw proof that baby is a boy.  He was very cooperative and there was no doubt.  Kate musta had a sense since she picked blue for the baby room.  Although, I knew all along...

Baby is healthy and doing well.  All signs are we have a healthy little guy waiting to come out.  We went to the new OB and really liked the practice.  I love them actually.  And now I am going to tell everyone I know to go there.  Or maybe I will if they have a due date way after mine.  I don't want them clogging up the works.