Thursday, October 17, 2013

24 weeks down, 16 to go

Total steps yesterday:  12,587
Exercise for today:  3 mile run

Great news!  James is back at work today and while there are still some issues and questions regarding finances, I think we'll be just fine.  The biggest frustration today is hearing the various comments about the "three week paid vacation" that federal workers had.  This wasn't a vacation.  If, on September 30th, his boss had said, "Go home for three weeks, relax, and get paid at the end of it" that would have been a vacation.  But instead the message was "don't call us, we'll call you" and each day was spent pinching our pennies and watching the news for any sort of update on when James could work again and whether or not he'd get paid.  All is well that ends well, sort of, but I'm tired of people pretending that this was an easy few weeks.  It wasn't, and while James and I pulled through okay, I know other families weren't as lucky.  I'm grateful James is back at work, and am glad that in the end he gets paid, but that doesn't mean it's been a fun, easy-going October.

Anyway.  Tomorrow is 24 weeks for Lil W, who is now the size of an ear of corn.  I, on the other hand, am the size of a field of corn.  I feel like Lil W is definitely wanting to make her presence known to the world:



This is the first week where I've actually had moments of feeling unattractively huge.  And even those are minor.  Overall, I still feel pretty great and am not nearly as concerned about weight gain as I thought I would be.  It's a good feeling.

In terrifying news, when I was reading the updates on Lil W's size and progress this week, one whole section was about the dangers of preterm labor.  And now I'm misreading every symptom as being preterm related.  Pregnancy fear mongering is horrifying sometimes.
 
So I choose to ignore the fear and just keep swimming.  Or just keep running, as the case may be.


I've recently started following a new blogger who is also a pregnant runner, and she's adorable.  One of my favorite features of her blog is a list of pregnancy questions that she'll answer every few weeks, and this week I'm stealing her list since answering questions is more fun than original thought.


How far along?  24 weeks
Size of the baby:  An ear of corn, or about 1.3 pounds and almost a foot long
Maternity clothes?  All the time.  I briefly wore real jeans last weekend and immediately regretted it.
Stretch marks? None, so far!    
Sleep: It's been okay.  I'm super hot which makes sleeping hard, but overall have had better quality / less nightmares than about a month ago.  
Symptoms:  My body stops functioning at about 8:30 each night and I have to lie down.  And I'm still getting leg cramps a lot.  
Best moment this week: James legitimately feeling the baby kick.  He's had times where he thought he felt her before, but was sure this time.  Bonus:  his first time feeling the baby for sure was at about 3 a.m. in the morning in the emergency room, so it was a good distraction from not being able to breathe.  
Miss Anything?  Having a beer while cooking chicken etouffee.  It's so hot when making a roux.
Food cravings: Everything sweet carbs - cakes, donuts, cupcakes, coffee cake.  I can usually resist, but cave more frequently than I used to.
Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nope - for right now I seem to have fully left morning sickness behind.  
Have you started to show yet: See above picture.
Belly Button in or out?  Still in. 
Wedding rings on or off?  On for the most part, but comes off for exercise and sometimes late in the day.  My engagement ring is larger than my wedding ring, so I might switch back to that soon for the remainder of the pregnancy.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy most of the time, but when I get moody, I do it right.  Since I'm a fairly even tempered person, my occasional hissy fits seem to really entertain my husband.  He helps me keep things in perspective.

Looking forward to:  Still running for at least a few more weeks, and the impending arrival of third trimester!
New mom tips I received this week (which I love getting!):  I haven't really gotten any.  Mom friends, you need to get on this!
Favorite part of being pregnant so far:  Having a more live and let live attitude toward eating and exercise.  As long as I'm mostly doing what's right, I don't worry about the slip ups.
Still Running?  Yes, and I'm hoping not to have to stop soon.  My runs still feel good, if a little harder than usual, and I still anticipate there will be another drop in speed soon, but overall I still feel great, and the feeling when I'm done is better than anything.





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