Pregnancy Journal: Busy Week!

Wow.  It’s been a crazy week.  Here I am, almost 19 weeks pregnant.  Almost halfway!  I keep saying, if this baby is early like my other two, then I pretty much am halfway now.  And maybe that “jinxes” it and this baby will be late.  I kind of hope the baby is late, though, so I’m okay with that!  I think (right now, ask me again in 20 weeks or so) that it would be cool to actually go overdue, for once, see how patient I really am!

If you haven’t heard, I started writing at Babble last week.  I’m blogging big time on pregnancy over there.  Here are a few of the more awesome posts from there:

• Rahna Reiko Rizzuto is a “Happy Part-Time Mom” 
• The Lunch Conundrum, or What Pregnant Women Eat
• Baby Showers…Two, Three, Four?
• Hello. I’m Pregnant, and I’m Crazy
• My Son Was Born in His Bedroom!
• 10 Fun Things About Peeing Yourself
• Watching Your Vitamin A Intake?  You Might Be Hurting Your Baby
• We Can Choose to Abort, but Not Where to Birth?
• 10 Ways to Get Your Kids Involved in the Pregnancy

Yes…I really do have way too much to say.  I have this thing about having to be honest, accurate, and detailed.  Oh, and I like to work hard.  A lot.  I’m insane that way.  (And look back later today for posts on “Dads in the Delivery Room: We’re Setting Them Up for Failure,” “The 10 Most Embarrassing Pregnancy Symptoms,” and “Why I Preferred my Drug-Free Birth.”)

Right after I wrote last week’s post about how hard this pregnancy is, I got really busy.  I’d been sitting down a lot, resting, and writing.  But Tuesday my farmer came and dropped off our farm order (biggest yet, literally less than $1 short of $1000!  And no it’s not all mine, we have a big group of us — which you’re welcome to join if you’re local), so I was up and about a lot, talking to them and getting it put away.  Then people were coming by to pick up most of the rest of the day and on Wednesday.  I didn’t get much chance to sit.

And…I felt better.

I really think that when I sit around and think about how tired and blah I feel, then…I do feel tired and blah.  When I get up and get on with my life, then I feel a lot better and much more normal.  Energy begets energy, I think.

It’s also been pretty exciting because starting last Friday (right when I hit 18 weeks), I started to feel the baby move consistently.  Prior to that I’d feel shiftings and flutters every now and then, and cramping that seemed to come when the baby was probably moving, but nothing really definitive.  But since Friday, several times a day I feel like kicks and taps.  Real baby movements!!

This makes it feel more real to me now.  It’s not just a “pregnancy” or an idea anymore.  It’s not that I just intellectually know that this summer, I’ll have another baby.  No, this is a real person inside of me now.  It makes me feel happy.  When the baby’s moving, I like to just sit still and feel it.  That is always my favorite part of pregnancy, just sit and feel my babies move.

I immediately got baby names on the brain, too.  I mean…if I have a real person inside me, I have to name him or her, right?  I’m still leaning towards her but of course I don’t know for sure.  We’re not planning to find out this time, since we aren’t getting any ultrasounds.  We have a couple boys’ names we think we can agree on (definitely not announcing the baby’s name until the baby arrives, since again, we won’t actually know), and maybe one girl’s name.  I’m not sure, though.  It’s something we’ll need to sit down and talk about.  I haven’t really cared before but now I am excited!

So that is where I am!  And if you love hearing about pregnancy, don’t forget to come and read over at Babble!  You’ll find me posting on pregnancy-related topics several times a day!  (Again…yes, I’m crazy.)