Betsy Bailey

Not a lot to report here – I am ALWAYS tired and very busy with work and family. Unfortunately that has negatively impacted my energy for blogging. I know how these things cycle around, though.

In the meantime, here's the latest tummy shot:

Belly-20weeks

Belly progress series:

Belly-progression-20-weeks

And, finally, something completely different: A shot of B and me from a couple weeks ago. She'll be 11 on Tuesday!

Me with my biggest girl

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Not a lot to report in this update. This pregnancy is blessedly uneventful and I do hope that continues! I am recovering from a very unpleasant virus – lots of sinus pain and a persistent, dry, uncomfortable cough – ugh! My abs hurt from coughing so much. And let's just say it's risky for me to cough with a full bladder. It's been uncomfortable for the better part of 1.5 weeks, but today I seem to be on the mend.

I can report that my belly is definitely getting bigger, mostly because it's starting to get in the way – like when I bend over to put on socks, for example. I'm also finding myself requiring more lumbar support in my office chair, in the car, etc. I'm not feeling a lot of baby movement yet, but every once in awhile the baby seems really active and I get a cluster of rolling sensations, pokes and flutters.

I have a midwife appointment this coming Wednesday and an ultrasound exactly one week later.

Scott just snapped some belly pix in the backyard, many of them quite unflattering, lol. The sun was in my eyes. Plus the sun was feeling kinda warm and I was ready to get back into the cool house.

I was planning to delete the scowling face one (the last one in the set above) from the camera entirely, but my Scott says, "No! The one with the Mad Face? That's the cutest one! It's the real you!"

"Mad face? I wasn't mad, baby – look, that's just intensity."

Yeah, yeah – anyway, he thought I should not delete the photo because he says all the other smiling photos of me are not truly representative. I have to admit: I think he has a point.

And just for fun comparison, the progression set:

Belly-progression-18-weeks

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1. Chronic heartburn.

2. I think I'm feeling the baby move most days. Delicate little fluttering.

3. I think we have our names picked out! Not in stone until it's on the birth certificate of course, but our top contenders are:

For a boy: Jackson Scott
For a girl: Clara Elizabeth

4. We have an ultrasound scheduled for February 28 – I'll be 19 weeks. I'm a little anxious about it – just praying for a perfectly healthy baby!

5. Most likely we'll find out the gender at the ultrasound. I don't usually do that – in fact, with my other babies, I didn't have a mid-pregnancy ultrasound, so it was easy to keep the gender a surprise. This time, since I'm significantly older, I want some reassurance that the baby is generally healthy (and if there are any problems, we'd like a head's up).

I know, I know, we could have the ultrasound and NOT find out the gender, but Scott really wants to know and I know I'm weak. (For example, I did have a 39 week scan with HM. And I caved. It's true, I found out she was a girl ONE WEEK before I would have just found out the old-fashioned way.) So I'm not kidding myself here. If I have an ultrasound, I consider it a foregone conclusion that I will therefore want to find out the gender (assuming the data is available, of course.

6. Belly pix! I thought I'd compile a little progression timeline to demonstrate the little *pop* that happened in the past couple weeks. Yay!

Growing belly

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This pregnancy is moving right along! Hey, I'm composing this entry at 11 pm – that says a lot right there about my 2nd trimester energy levels. A month ago at this time I was lucky to still be conscious at NINE pm.

Morning sickness appears to be well and truly gone, though my toothbrush still has the power to make me retch (as I recall from past pregnancies, that lovely symptom will linger for the duration. )

The kids ask me everyday if I can feel the baby move yet and when will THEY be able to feel it move. I'm looking forward to that stage. It's a little weird that the morning sickness is gone – and with it some reassurance that everything was okay. Mostly I'm comfortable, though – it helps that my tummy is growing and changing. Oh, plus now I have heartburn – pah.

Last week I had an OB appt. Next week I have an appt with my midwife. This concurrent care is a LOT annoying, but unfortunately necessary. All because of fucking stupid state legislation based on bad science and biased data impacting MY very informed decisions about birth.

Okay, <deep breath>. I'll rant about that in another entry, another day. It's much too late to do adrenaline shots – I would like to sleep tonight!

In fun pregnancy news, I scored on maternity clothes today! We got a mailing earlier this week from a mother/baby store that's just a few miles from our house – and they resell gently used maternity clothes. I got three VERY cute summer tops – as good as new! – for $3 each. No doubt I'll be visiting that little shop frequently in the months to come.

And my mom-in-law sent a couple packages of some CUTE, cute bitty baby clothes goodies over the past couple weeks. Maybe I'll get some pix of those later to share with the vicarious among my friends.

Scott just snapped a belly pic for me to post (thanks, baby . Here's a progression series for the sake of comparison:

Belly-13w6d

A couple weeks ago:

belly-11w3d

Not that you can really tell in these photos, but there has been quite a bit of tummy changing. It's just not really visible to those who aren't me. At 11 weeks, it was all about displaced pudge. The belly today is more of a firm little baby bump now.

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LOOK! It's a little baby belly! At 11 weeks, my tummy just popped.

I owe a big thank you to my sister-in-law who stopped by for a visit on New Year's Eve with a box of maternity clothes to lend me. Just in the nick of time!

belly-11w3d

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