Halfway-ish

Tomorrow, we will officially hit halfway through our pregnancy: 20 weeks. Whoa.

The week before I went to Chicago, it became obvious that I was pregnant and showing. The weeks since, it’s eye-popping how huge my belly has gotten!

Unexpected things:

• How uncomfortable the feeling of constantly stretched skin feels. Try poking your tongue really hard against your cheek and see how your cheek feels. Except it’s a baby/my uterus against my abdominal flesh. This is 10x worse after I eat, because it’s crowded in there.
• How fast that dark weird line in the center of the belly came on. And I hate it. It’s so weird! I will refrain from speaking in detail of other lady parts. 😐
• How quickly it has become difficult for me to put on my shoes, pick up things from the floor, get out of the car, etc. I can do it still, but bending over that far means I need to put a lot of pressure on my belly which is being squished and it is both really uncomfortable (hard to breathe, that kind of thing) and it makes me worry.
• How often I forget I’m pregnant when I’m sitting down.

Great things:

• Feeling like I can eat like my normal self. I love being able to eat without the constant terror of headaches/nausea/vomiting hanging over my had (or actually in progress).
• Not feeling like I’m going to die while I’m at work.
• The teeny little feelings I have in my belly region. I think  have been feeling the baby for about two weeks now. At first, it was tiny flutters, but now, I think I feel actual movement. I think in another week or so, we’ll be able to feel the movement from the outside.
• Feeling a lot more relaxed about the pregnancy and the potential for things going wrong. The doctor and all the books have pretty much said that you make it this far, and there is little to worry about. I know things can still go wrong, but those odds are much better at this stage.
• As a result of the item immediately above, feeling more free to speculate about the reality of the baby: will it be a he or a she? Will s/he have our tiny eyes and short yet substantial legs? Hee.

Stuff to worry about:

• Getting more of the house stuff done
• Finding a pediatrician
• Finding daycare
• Getting more of the work stuff done so it’s left in a good state when I take leave
• Figuring out how to get a good night’s sleep with the weight/discomfort of the bulge. It’s actually already starting to give me trouble.

We should really start taking regular pictures and posting them somewhere. I went to a baby shower for a friend who is expecting end of July, putting her about 2.5 months ahead of me, and my belly was much bigger than hers, which makes me worry that I’m getting too large, too fast.