Lessons in Motherhood

I’m learning an interesting (although dangerous) lesson. Pregnant women are allowed to be a bit selfish about everything from food portions to weekend plans. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’m unfairly using my “condition” to my advantage. How can I explain this without making it sound like Luke deserves a medal for bravery (although he probably does)? I just find myself taking a little more time (ok…and food) for myself and feeling a little less bad about it. Let me give some examples. I’ve begun going to the chiropractor, and I’m seriously considering monthly or biweekly massages. I’m also suddenly 100% behind the idea of getting a cleaning lady, and I don’t mind napping at 3:00pm on a Sunday. These are all things that I probably would have never considered before because they were always too expensive, too indulgent or just a waste of time. Now that I’m pregnant, my new motto is: I’ll gladly take that 90-minute massage and that bigger bowl of ice cream too.

Maybe it’s not even a matter of selfishness. It’s more an issue of having more needs than ever before and learning not to feel bad about that. I’m just not used to falling asleep on the couch or “needing to sit down.” Sometimes I feel useless or lazy. Look at the pregnant women chasing around 3 kids all day. I know that once Hailey comes along all of my effort and attention will be on her comfort, happiness, and safety. So, I guess that I should just enjoy these last few months of selfishness (or whatever you want to call it) before I give myself over to her every want and need.

Here is a picture of the pregnant belly at 22 weeks. As you might expect, Luke deserves the credit for artfully taking and editing this picture. I look like I’m leaning back to emphasize the belly, but I was just trying to stand up straight. I think that says something about either my terrible posture or the size of my butt…no comments from the peanut gallery, please.

If you’re like me (and hopefully you’re not), you’ve often found yourself watching pregnant women waddling around the grocery store or the mall or wherever and found yourself wondering, “what is it about a big belly that makes people waddle.” You may have also noticed that big, fat men with bellies larger than some pregnant women do not tend to waddle. So, what gives?

Well, now that I’ve experienced this phenomenon myself, I’ve decided to shed a little light on the subject. I have discovered that there are at least three reasons for the pregnant waddle. I say “at least” because I’m sure that there are more that I have not experienced because I’m not quite big enough yet. So, here are the ones that I’ve experienced so far:

1) “I have to pee waddle” – It’s no surprise that pregnant women have to pee every five seconds, what with a little person exerting constant pressure on our bladder. Sometimes that feeling becomes so uncomfortable that we try to move our midsection as little as possible. Thus, the “I have to pee waddle.”

2) “My stomach muscles are shredded waddle” – As our stomachs expand, there are abdominal muscles in there that are paying a terrible price. I find that those muscles tend to hurt from time to time as Hailey has her little growth spurts. This makes it very uncomfortable for me to use them for anything (including walking).

3) “Back pain waddle” – This waddle has an entirely different cause, but the same overall effect. If you’ve ever been pregnant and experienced a painful or stiff back, you know exactly what this one is about!

If you have any others, feel free to post them in a comment and I’ll add them to my second installment.

Today is the second day of Week 22. According to my baby book, Hailey’s arms and legs are moving with noticeably more force now as the muscles strengthen and the bones become stronger. I’m still not feeling her too regularly, but I’ve been pretty busy lately so I might not be noticing her. She’s also begun sucking her thumb, and her head hair and eyebrows are visible today.

In news of the belly button, it’s begun to flatten out completely. I guess that the next step is to become an outy! I’ll try to get a picture up this weekend.

First of all, it’s official…I can no longer fit in any of my pre-maternity pants. Up until today, I was able to squeeze myself into one last pair of grey work pants that I owned (don’t ask me why I owned them because they were 2 sizes to big on me before I got pregnant), but those days are over. I tried them on this morning, and all of a sudden I couldn’t even button them. I just wore them last week!!!! This only confirms what I’ve been saying for the past few days…Hailey is having a growth spurt. She must be growing because I’m getting all kinds of weird pains coming from her region. I’m not sure if I’m feeling her moving around or simply the wripping of all of my abdominal muscles to shreds. Either way, something’s happening.

On a subject that is completely unrelated to the fact that I can no longer fit into my pants, I’ve been having some serious cravings for Kentucky Fried Chicken over the past few days. I haven’t caved in yet because the disgust factor has been more than I can overcome, but it’s just a matter of time. They say that you crave what the baby needs nutritionally, so does that mean that Hailey really needs some greasy fried chicken skins?

After much review and debate, we’ve decided on Hailey Marie Hamilton.

Hailey’s grandmother, step-grandpa, and grandpa are all coming in and out of town over the next 5 days so I apologize if the blog frequency suffers. I’ll try to get another belly shot up as soon as it seems worthwhile. The belly is still a little incognito. Now I just look chubby. Oh well, I’ll take chubby over uncomfortable any day. By the way, tomorrow will be the first day of my 21st week.

Isn’t this the cutest baby foot that you’ve ever seen! Just thought I’d share another ultrasound shot. There’s also a 16 minute video of the whole experience, but even a proud Mommy thinks that’s a little much. In other exciting news, I bought my stroller last night for half off at Burlington’s Baby Depot. I saved $50 on it, and it was the exact one that I wanted (highest rated on Consumer Reports, of course). The bargains continue…

If you haven’t guessed already, it’s a girl!!!!

Haley is about 10″ long according to the ultrasound. She’s got adorable little feet that we could see very clearly. I’ve got a good picture of that. We also were able to see her heart, brain, spinal cord, kidneys, bladder, arms, and girl parts (of course). She had a heart rate of 138, and she might have been sucking her thumb at one point. I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see her moving around in there. She also seems to like her privacy because she was all curled up in a ball, and she wouldn’t let us get a good view of her face. We were, however, able to see her nose and upper lip. She looked perfect to me!

I’ve been thinking about the baby’s arrival and baby clothes a lot lately. Maybe it’s because we find out the sex (hopefully) on Wednesday, and I’m contemplating the evil conspiracy that declared that all girls must wear pink!

Anyway, when the baby arrives, it will be the middle of summer here. For those of you who have never experienced the joy of a Tennessee August, let me tell you that it is HOT! It’s the kind of heat that has you running from your air conditioned car into the air conditioned grocery store so that you don’t wind up with pit stains from the heat and humidity outside. Now, I’m typically a very cold person, so I can tolerate the heat for longer periods than the average person, but it’s not particularly pleasant. That’s why I think that the baby will probably spend a lot of it’s first few weeks on earth mostly naked (with a diaper, of course). I know that air conditioning is a problem with a naked baby, but I don’t like to keep the house too cold. So, I’m thinking that I don’t need a lot of newborn clothes because BH will probably grow out of them before it’s cool enough to wear them. I’ve already invested in some newborn onsies, and those will probably be the bulk of my newborn wardrobe. I don’t really know if this theory is correct or not. I guess I better ask some people who have had babies in the heat of the summer. In the meantime, it’s just something to think about when you get lured into the baby section at Target, as I find I frequently do.

There it is in all of its glory…the belly!!! Ok. It doesn’t look like much, but it is at 33″. Plus, the belly button is getting all hard and shallow. BH is now 5.5″ long and has all of his/her little organs. Today is the first day of Week 19. Apparently, in the next month the baby will grow 2 more inches. Yikes! There will definitely be some serious belly expansion then.