Sleep, I Used To Love You

I used to look forward to sleep. I loved my bed and comfy pillows. I equally enjoyed my soft couch on a Sunday afternoon for a nice nap. But now being horizontal is not comfortable for me and hasn't been for quite some time. During the 1st trimester it was, at first, only a problem at night. When you first get pregnant you pee a lot because of the hormones and the increased blood flow to your organs. It doesn't last too long and you go back to normal until much later on when you start to pee a lot again as a result of the baby pressing on your bladder. But my early pregnancy pee-fest was causing me to get up in the middle of the night, every night, for weeks to use the bathroom and I haven't had a decent nights sleep since.

Eventually this stopped and another nighttime inconvenience took over. Before I even hit 4 months I was starting to have back pain when I would lay down. If I would lay on my side the bottom leg would go numb and wake me up so I would toss and turn all night. I bought one of those pregnancy body pillows, used regular body pillows, got fancy with my regular pillows - but nothing really made it better.

As the second trimester came on and my stomach got bigger new sleepy time challenges arised. Laying on my back wasn't really wise anymore so I was forced to sleep on my side (enter the numbing leg and back pain problem again). This also took away couch napping options. And my growing tummy was now starting to get in the way of how comfortably I could actually position myself. Now at 24 weeks the weight of my belly actually pulls on the rest of my torso and so it's just kind of awkward and it takes me a while to settle in.

Oh yeah, forgot the mention the dreams. So the hour of uninterrupted sleep I do get between turning from left to right/right to left are filled with the craziest most bizarre dreams I have ever had in my entire life. I've never had dreams like this even when I've been "intoxicated". Some are scary some are disgusting some are just really weird and they wake me up out of my sleep.

I keep hearing from people to enjoy it now because once the baby comes I'll never sleep well again. Well frankly, I haven't slept well since November. I actually look forward to what sleep will be like when the baby comes because even if I will only be sleeping a few hours at a time, I will actually be sleeping and not tossing, aching, peeing or having effed up crazy nightmares of god knows what. I honestly can't wait.

Growing Attachment

I can't wait to meet and hold the baby. I wonder all the time what will he or she look like? Will it be a boy? Will he have my father's eyes and James' knack for computers? Will it be a girl? Will she look like my mother and love to dance like me? 4 more months to go and I feel like it is so far away and I want to speed up time. But while I have these excited anxious feelings I also want time to stand still. I don't want to let Dash go. The world is a crazy place. Right now my baby is safe and warm inside my womb. I can feel my baby move and grow. It's me and Dash every moment of the day so when I feel happy or sad I touch my belly and feel comforted by knowing Dash is there with me. And when I feel the baby moving it makes me so happy because I feel like we're communicating. It's so amazing and I'm so in love! 

Here are some more baby bump pics. As you can see Dash is growing and I couldn't be more proud!

16 Weeks

17 Weeks

20 Weeks

 

22 Weeks

Workout Beef

It is not easy to workout while pregnant because it can be physically and mentally challenging. If you weren't working out before then the exercises you start doing will be limiting. Your body feels and behaves differently and your range of motion and balance are not the same. You may also have reservations about exercising because of safety concerns. You have to change the way you breathe, they way you lift, the way you move... But if you had a routine pre-pregnancy then generally you should be able to continue whatever that was once pregnant - with some simple modifications of course.

Before my pregnancy I went to the gym about once a week to work on my back problems and do some cardio and then kind of went to yoga class on Saturdays. I also walked everywhere and would do stretching at home at night so I figured I was moderately fit pre Dash. Now my routine consists of pre-natal yoga once a week, trainer at the gym for weight training once a week and an attempt to hit the gym myself one more day to do cardio since walking everywhere has been difficult with my sinuses this winter. This exercise regimen was going swimmingly for about a month. I had gotten over my apprehension with working out and was in a groove with my trainer. I was loving my yoga class and even made it to the gym on my own twice to walk the treadmill. I felt good and started to think that maybe I could make it through this pregnancy with a good weight and look all belly. But chance and happen-stance pumped the breaks on that.

My trainer left the gym and I couldn't find a replacement for three weeks thanks to the aweful mishandling of the trainer management team. And because of Valentines Day, President's Day and work craziness I didn't go to yoga for weeks either. So in this short period of time my pregnancy went from feel good bouncing around all belly looking happiness to body aching stiff jointed heavy poundage feeling suckiness. I was not feeling good and really began to understand how important it is to keep it moving when you're pregnant.

So after some not so nice and pretty direct conversations with the gym I started with a new trainer tonight. I hate him of course because he is not my old trainer. I'm not entirely convinced he has as much pre-natal experience as he or his manager says he does but he is the only one certified at my gym. He didn't remind me to breathe once and seemed kind of disinterested in training me. He also had me doing a lot more during our time then I'm used to and I was exhausted by the end. And he seemed more concerned with fitting in other clients than accommodating my schedule. To be fair, before we started he told me that he had just injured himself and was on pain killers. So I've decided that if I don't get some good vibes from him and feel better about my workout next week I may look to transfer my sessions to another location or ask for my money back. I'm not working out with someone I'm not comfortable with.

Anyways I'm at least happy to be back on a schedule and back to feeling somewhat physically normal. Well as normal as one can feel with a basketball for a stomach. A basketball that moves a lot now these days (tee hee). So for now it's off to bed for me with a pack of ice on my back. Nighty night.

Look At That Face!

Last week we did our 2nd trimester scan AKA the Anatomy Scan. The tech checked all the organs to make sure they were there and functioning. I was nervous all week leading up to the appointment because I was worried that his left lung may be in her thigh or something. But everything was fine. We saw 10 little fingers, 10 little toes, two kidneys, a liver, a heart, a spleen, a brain and all of his little organs all in the right place and seemingly functioning properly. At first Dash was hiding her face with his little hands. So the tech shook my belly and she moved his arms out of the way and opened her mouth as if to say "What??". And that is when we saw his little face. Everyone who has seen the picture thinks the baby looks like a boy. See and judge for yourself. My girlfriend told me that if we all turn out to be wrong and Dash is a She then we need to make sure we never tell her we all thought she looked like a boy. 

During the scan the tech told us a lot parents aren't finding out the sex these days. I think it's awesome to be surprised. There are so few real surprises left in life and this is a big one. The hubby of course brought up that he did in fact want to know so right there we had that conversation again. And again I won. When it was time to check under the hood we looked away and I made sure to cover his face so there would be no peaking. There is no way that he can know and I don't. We have to be in this together. And I know that if he knew I would somehow find out. There would be some tell, some smirk or slip. He swears he wouldn't but I know it would happen and I would be really upset if I found out by accident. Anyways for now it is still a secret. 19 more weeks to go!

Update!!!!!

I FELT THE BABY MOVE!!!! This wasn't a gas flutter this was a movement. I was just talking to my pregnant coworker this afternoon about not having felt anything yet and she reassured me that I would soon. SO..... I'm on the subway falling asleep and then all of sudden MOVEMENT. I sat still and waited to see if I would belch or fart because that would just be another gas bubble but no, nothing like that. Dash moved around for a few more seconds and then all was calm. Just like that. It felt like bubbles rolling up my stomach. Very subtle actually but very clear. It completly made up for trekking all the way to my pre-natal yoga class only to see a sign that they were closed tonight. So exciting. So cool.

Oh btw, women are totally beating men in my 'who gets up to offer me a seat on the subway' tally. Thank you ladies :)