This week marks the 23rd week of pregnancy. So what can I expect now? Well, according to the American Pregnancy Association, the baby has now reached one pound in weight and 10 inches in length. My uterus is now positioned directly above my bladder, making bladder control an issue. What a joy! I'm not dealing with that, but I am going to the bathroom 100 times a day. I can feel the little one moving around all the time and I might start feeling braxton hicks contractions. I don't know if I'm feeling those yet, but I am feeling a lot of pain in my lower abdomen, which usually gets worse when I'm being active or trying to sit up or roll over or sneeze or laugh. When it's really bad, it wraps around the side to my back and shoots down my leg. All just growing pains, I've been told, and totally normal. But I do have to sit down a lot when I go shopping or out for a long walk. If it means the baby is growing normally, I guess I shouldn't complain.
The newest thing I'm getting lately is darkening of freckles on my face. Not just the normal "start of summer" freckle explosion, but a very specific existing-freckles-becoming-extra-dark-overnight thing. Apparently there is a thing called "chloasma" or the "mask of pregnancy."
From the APA: "Mask of pregnancy" is also referred to as melasma and chlosma. Melasma causes dark splotchy spots to appear on your face. These spots most commonly appear on your forehead and cheeks and are a result of increased pigmentation. When you become pregnant your body produces more hormones, which causes an increase in your pigmentation. Nearly 50% of pregnant women show some signs of the "mask of pregnancy".
I noticed a blotchy freckle above one of my eyebrows a few weeks ago, and another in the same area last week. Then this morning I woke up and a freckle on my chin is way darker than it was yesterday. I'm also getting red blotchiness all over. Ergh! As a fair-skinned woman who always has skin cancer concerns in the back of my mind, overnight changes to my skin pigmentation is a little scary. But knowing that it is a normal part of pregnancy makes me feel a little better. My dermatologist will be getting an urgent phone call if it doesn't go away after I give birth, though! I really don't want the whole "mask" of pregnancy, though, because that doesn't look good. A few dark freckles, a few splotches...fine. But no more. Earlier in the summer I bought a big floppy hat to wear when I walk the dogs to cover my face so hopefully that will help keep too much pigmentation at bay.
Nothing else exciting going on. I bought a pass to Chatfield Resevoir since we seem to take the dogs 2 or 3 weekends a month and the day pass rate went up to $7! The $60 annual pass will certainly pay for itself over the summer, and it lasts until next May.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
My first knitted baby thing
I started knitting my first baby thing, a cute little cardigan sweater. It's also the first article of clothing I've tried to knit (not a scarf or hat or dishcloth, etc). Very exciting. I bought a nice gray-green color that is gender neutral. I'll either keep the sweater for my own baby girl, or give it to Alisa's baby boy. Depends on how it turns out and how many mistakes I knit into it. :)
Monday, May 12, 2008
Mother's Day and Furniture
Happy mother's day to everyone. This was my first mother's day as a mom, sort of. Maybe half a mom. Jon got me a very cute maternity t-shirt that he made. It has a robot graphic on the shoulder and says "made in Japan, assembled in America" on the belly. Made me laugh.
I talked to my mom, Jon and I took his mom to brunch, and then we headed to the shops to look for a dresser for the nursery. We wanted something low, something that can double as a changing table, and we ended up purchasing this sassy item from Z Gallerie. We actually looked at it, then went to three other stores, and came back. It was on sale, almost 50% off, and it is lovely. Not very "cutesy" or little girl like, but it will work. Now the last big baby furniture thing we need is a comfy chair.
I talked to my mom, Jon and I took his mom to brunch, and then we headed to the shops to look for a dresser for the nursery. We wanted something low, something that can double as a changing table, and we ended up purchasing this sassy item from Z Gallerie. We actually looked at it, then went to three other stores, and came back. It was on sale, almost 50% off, and it is lovely. Not very "cutesy" or little girl like, but it will work. Now the last big baby furniture thing we need is a comfy chair.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Such a pretty face
Can you see the face in this ultrasound? Jon was excited because our baby's first picture just looks like a skull, and he loves skulls.
It's hard to see, but it is the face with a hand partially covering it, and an elbow sticking out. The print-out we got was pretty small so the scan isn't very big either.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
It's a girl!
It's a girl! We had our 21-week ultrasound today and everything looks great. After much poking and prodding the ultrasound technician was finally able to get the baby to uncross its legs for just a moment, long enough to see that we are having a girl! I was a little surprised, to be honest, but not disappointed. It is fun to buy frilly girl things! Oh, but girls are so much trouble! :) Jon is excited, too. We're just happy that everything looks good, everything is growing normally, and that we have a healthy little bundle on the way.
I have to have a second ultrasound in two weeks because the little bugger wouldn't stop squirming around long enough for the technician to get a good picture of the heart from one particular angle. She also wouldn't get out of the way to give a good picture of something else. A trouble maker already!
So now we're thinking about a retro 50's cowgirl nursery theme and trying to decide on girls names. We have two that we like, and we may just see which one "fits" better when the little one is born. How exciting!
I have to have a second ultrasound in two weeks because the little bugger wouldn't stop squirming around long enough for the technician to get a good picture of the heart from one particular angle. She also wouldn't get out of the way to give a good picture of something else. A trouble maker already!
So now we're thinking about a retro 50's cowgirl nursery theme and trying to decide on girls names. We have two that we like, and we may just see which one "fits" better when the little one is born. How exciting!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Nesting, or just fed up?
I have a serious clutter problem in my apartment. This is by far the smallest place Jon and I have lived together, and possibly the smallest place I have lived even by myself since my college dorm. It is also the most unclean, cluttered, overwhelming space I have ever lived in. It drives me crazy every day, overwhelms me every day, to the point where I don't pick up or clean EVER unless someone is coming over. While every "declutter your house, declutter your life" book/article/website I have read emphasizes that every house has enough space for the things you need, and that clutter is really a product of a disorganized mind, I think I have a space issue.
If you don't have a broom closet or a kitchen nook or something, where can you put the mop/broom/bucket/etc? If your entire under-sink area is full of pots and pans, because there are only four cupboards in the kitchen, where can you put the kitchen cleaning supplies? If your bathroom doesn't have a single inch of built-in shelf space or storage, where can you put extra towels, cleaning supplies, hair products, make-up, etc? Everything ends up out in the open, out where it clutters up the corner of the kitchen or top of the toilet. Nothing is where it should be, nothing is within reach, nothing is quite right.
It doesn't help that I married a self-proclaimed pack rat. But this apartment drives me crazy. However, we don't want to move right now, we renewed our lease, so I'm here for another year. And we are adding another human being to the space, a person who will require a lot of things, even if we keep his/her items to just the bare minimum. Time to make the best of it.
If I had my druthers, I would walk through the house with an enormous trash bag and throw away 25% of the stuff we own. Seriously. I do not hold on to many things for sentimental value. But, really, the 25% I would throw away is probably 95% Jon's stuff, and that just isn't fair. He loves his collection of tiki mugs or comic books or whatever it is I don't care about. I have pared down my own items repeatedly over the last year of living in this small space and the only things left are necessities, often used items, a few jointly-beloved items, and Jon's stuff. Since he won't get rid of it, I need to find more space.
I've been making a list all morning of ways I can move things around within the house to make it more useful. Surely I can move enough things around, possibly getting rid of a few things, definitely decluttering common areas, to make room for what I need. Jon is less concerned about cleanliness and clutter and general housekeeping than I am. Since getting married I think I became more concerned about equality in the housework routine than getting it done. If it is more important to me, surely it makes sense for me to do more. I can recruit his help, and he never says no when I ask, but I can't expect him to have the same level of urgency about moving the kitchen broom and mop out of the corner. He doesn't care. I do. The end.
I feel so much better about everything when my house looks good, smells good, feels good. I need to move toward a cleaning routine that helps me achieve this happy feeling without feeling like I'm constantly cleaning up.
If you don't have a broom closet or a kitchen nook or something, where can you put the mop/broom/bucket/etc? If your entire under-sink area is full of pots and pans, because there are only four cupboards in the kitchen, where can you put the kitchen cleaning supplies? If your bathroom doesn't have a single inch of built-in shelf space or storage, where can you put extra towels, cleaning supplies, hair products, make-up, etc? Everything ends up out in the open, out where it clutters up the corner of the kitchen or top of the toilet. Nothing is where it should be, nothing is within reach, nothing is quite right.
It doesn't help that I married a self-proclaimed pack rat. But this apartment drives me crazy. However, we don't want to move right now, we renewed our lease, so I'm here for another year. And we are adding another human being to the space, a person who will require a lot of things, even if we keep his/her items to just the bare minimum. Time to make the best of it.
If I had my druthers, I would walk through the house with an enormous trash bag and throw away 25% of the stuff we own. Seriously. I do not hold on to many things for sentimental value. But, really, the 25% I would throw away is probably 95% Jon's stuff, and that just isn't fair. He loves his collection of tiki mugs or comic books or whatever it is I don't care about. I have pared down my own items repeatedly over the last year of living in this small space and the only things left are necessities, often used items, a few jointly-beloved items, and Jon's stuff. Since he won't get rid of it, I need to find more space.
I've been making a list all morning of ways I can move things around within the house to make it more useful. Surely I can move enough things around, possibly getting rid of a few things, definitely decluttering common areas, to make room for what I need. Jon is less concerned about cleanliness and clutter and general housekeeping than I am. Since getting married I think I became more concerned about equality in the housework routine than getting it done. If it is more important to me, surely it makes sense for me to do more. I can recruit his help, and he never says no when I ask, but I can't expect him to have the same level of urgency about moving the kitchen broom and mop out of the corner. He doesn't care. I do. The end.
I feel so much better about everything when my house looks good, smells good, feels good. I need to move toward a cleaning routine that helps me achieve this happy feeling without feeling like I'm constantly cleaning up.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Snow!
It's May 1 and we have snow coming out of the sky right now. Big sloppy wet flakes of snow. The weatherman says it won't accumulate here in the city, but it is definitely sticking to the grass. Yesterday, by the way, it was 82 degrees. Crazy.
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