WEEK: 21
MONTH: 5
TRIMESTER: 2
GENDER GUESS: Boy. I really do wish for a girl, yes it’s true, but I feel like this is probably a little boy growing in there and I’ll be overjoyed and completely in love either way!
BABY’S HOMEWORK THIS WEEK: This coming week, the baby’s lips, eyelids and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and little tiny tooth buds are developing beneath the gums. The baby is covered with fine hair now, and it’s working on developing its pancreas! (via babycenter.com). It may be practicing its touch and gripping skills by grabbing onto the umbilical chord, and it hears my voice, loud outside voices, my heart beating, my blood pumping, my stomach making noises, and also any loud sounds outside as well! (via What to Expect When Expecting).
BABY’S SIZE: The baby is probably about 7.5 inches long now (head to rump), and weighs between 11 and 14 oz!
BABY LOOKS LIKE: The weekly diagrams now just show the baby in the belly, instead of having to do a closeup shot as well. I still can hardly believe that our baby is that big inside my belly, but my belly DID grow a lot this past week!!! 
(picture via babycenter.com) ::
BELLY PHOTO: Taken on June 19 – at 21 weeks, 2 days (my due date has officially been changed from October 26 to October 28, yes I know, a whole two days, but I had to change all the weekly dates on my calendar so I’ll be accurate!) ::
WEIGHT GAIN: About 13-14 pounds, and my belly has grown 2 inches in circumference since two weeks ago!
SYMPTOMS: This past week I’ve suddenly gotten a lot of new symptoms! While I don’t particularly like any of them, I guess it makes me feel like I’m really pregnant now (along with having an actual round belly now!!!) so that part is okay I guess! I still kinda wish though that they would go away so I could have a mostly easy and symptomless pregnancy. So first, I still have the bleeding gums every single time I brush my teeth, that’s so normal now so I hardly even notice it, just have to rinse with cold water for longer to make it stop bleeding. And I still sometimes can’t fall back asleep when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and also two nights this past week I couldn’t fall asleep at all, until 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. respectively, that sucked! – and then I sleep in too long in the morning, for some reason I get my deepest and best sleep after 5 a.m. so I sleep long sometimes.
Now to the new symptoms!
1) Acid reflux. Almost every evening this past week+ I’ve been getting acid reflux, starting early in the evening. I’ve been popping Tums like it’s my new job. So far no painful heartburn to go along with it, but the reflux is really annoying and bothersome. My friend told me to try eating carrots to help, and I have a whole bag of baby carrots in the fridge so I’ll try that to see if it helps.
2) Round ligament pain. I’d felt this a little before at various times throughout my pregnancy, but this past week it was really strong and sharply painful at times as opposed to just the slight stretching feeling that I’d feel before. The first couple times it happened was I think in the morning (a little over a week ago), and when I’d get up I’d feel a seering pain very very low on my right side, and it actually got worse when I went to the bathroom, but then it went away so I sort of forgot about it. On Monday morning last week I had my OB appointment, and it happened again when I woke up, but then stayed and kept hurting, especially when I would stand up to walk. And when I was walking to the OB appointment it was actually worse and also going up my whole right side. I told my doctor and he said it was the round ligament pain (as the ligaments stretch out to support my growing uterus), and when I was lying on the table he traced the pattern of the round ligaments down the right side of my belly and where he traced was EXACTLY where the pain was – so I’m so glad I had that appointment that morning so I know what it is and am not worrying about it at all! I was walking like an old lady most of Monday, and it was there about half the time on Tuesday through Thursday, usually when I would stand up to walk and occasionally it made me feel like I had to double over it was so strong. It seemed to be the worst when I would go from laying down to standing up.
3) Leg cramps at night. I’ve been having some slight muscle cramps in my legs during the middle of the night, or sometimes when I’m just trying to fall asleep. I’ve heard that some women wake up with extreme cramps in their legs and thankfully I haven’t had that yet, I warned Jody that it may happen and if so, I may need to wake him up to help him work out the kinks. But so far it’s just been uncomfortable, I don’t know if it’s from me sleeping too long on one side or if it’s from the actual pregnancy, but I wake up to go to the bathroom and one leg (or often it’s one hip) will be very uncomfortable and I stretch it every way and it just won’t loosen up enough for me to be comfortable again for awhile. It kinda sucks. But I know it’s better than the severe cramping so I’m trying not to complain too much to myself!
4) Sore middle and lower back. This one worries me, cause I still hardly have a belly and what’s it going to be like when I’m 8 and 9 months pregnant and have a much bigger belly and much more weight in that belly?!?! I feel like my back is always a little achy right now, and I reach back and try to massage the tight spots, and I try to do bends different ways to loosen it up, but it still remains partially tight. It’s probably the worst when we’re sitting on the couch, I have to keep adjusting myself to sit in different ways, and sometimes even go lay on the floor. And when I’m driving now my back gets all knotted up as well.
That’s a big symptom update for one week! I went from basically nothing to having a bunch of them! While they haven’t been fun, I still feel lucky that they aren’t worse and I still feel like I’m having a really good pregnancy so far and overall I feel good. And I hope I have no new symptoms to report on next week!!!
CURRENT MOOD: Mostly happy (the non-happy part is in the next paragraph)! I feel pregnant!!! Not so much because of all the new symptoms that I just listed above (but a little because of those I guess), but mostly cause I have an actual belly now all of a sudden!!! It looks round (still not as round as many, but definitely round), it looks bigger, and when I touch it is really really feels round now! And I still look at baby’s profile picture all the time!!!! And last Tuesday I went in for the second quick re-ultrasound so they could get a good view of the heart and she saw it immediately and got great photos and she said it looked great, so I’m happy! I’m feeling now, because I finally am looking and feeling pregnant, like I can officially join “the club” of pregnant women! I feel secure in this pregnancy, and happy and comfortable with it and happy the baby is growing and looking forward to these next few months as the baby keeps getting bigger, my belly keeps getting bigger, and having fun planning for its wonderful arrival!
Now to the not-so-happy part of my mood. Like most girls, I’ve for years dreamed of when it would be my time to be pregnant, and be so excited about having a baby and going through the whole process and all the excitement and everything! And whenever I would think of it, I would always dream and hope that I would be one of the lucky ones and only gain weight in my belly – so I’d be a HOT pregnant lady and not get plump and fat at all! This was a big thing for me. I’m terrified of being fat and all that (which goes back years). Anyway, for the past couple months I’d been looking at my butt (bum for all the Canadians!) and wondering whether it was actually getting bigger or whether it was an optical illusion cause my belly was getting bigger, and desperately hoping that it was just the second option. And I’d look at my arms in the mirror sometimes and think they looked more plump, but I’d push those thoughts aside. Last night I finally admitted to myself that I’m looking quite plump, I think my butt has grown in proportion to my belly, my arms look big, my legs are looking bigger, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my face is looking a little plumper cause everything else is, but I just can’t see it cause I look at my face every day. This is all very distressing. I had quite a cry last night about it. Jody told me it’s no big deal, women gain weight when they’re pregnant and no one cares if I’m gaining weight cause it’s what I’m supposed to be doing – but as I cried to him, “I care!!!!” For the first time ever I wish I were pregnant in the winter so I could cover myself up with layers, and wear long sleeve shirts and scarves and all that, instead of it being hot outside and all my plumpness being on display. I’m very self-conscious now that I’ve finally acknowledged the unwanted body changes. I need to go shopping for more maternity shirts (since I wear my one shirt every single time I leave my house now!), and I’m going to try on everything I can and try to find the things that make me look least overweight. I hope just my belly keeps growing from now on, and the extra weight I need to gain will leave the rest of me alone. Otherwise I’ll be a very self-conscious and sometimes very unhappy pregnant lady in the latter months. This part is no fun. But I do LOVE that my belly is looking pregnant and round now, that’s the one part of me that I’m super happy to see getting bigger! Still, I want the rest of me to stop! I’ll still keep eating what I need to, and I know that really, the baby’s health is all that matters and I’ll work my literal big bum off to lose the excess weight after the baby comes, so I’m trying to remind myself that me gaining weight in other places shouldn’t matter and it’s temporary and the baby is all that matters, but I think because the realization and admission is so new that right now I’m just so bothered that I can’t see the big picture enough – that will come in the next few days probably and I’ll come to terms with my gaining weight and not being as attractive and somehow deal with it okay, but I’ll probably cry a few more times over this.
CURRENT FAVORITE FOOD OR CRAVING: Still no super strong cravings. I’m not even very hungry very often, although I make sure I eat. I made brownies the other day cause I was craving chocolate and they were good (and the small pan lasted a couple days so I didn’t eat the whole thing at once!). And I don’t know what else, I can’t think of any other cravings or odd or foods or anything. But I am kind of hungry for something right now, I just don’t know what.
So to summarize, I’m very happy, feeling pregnant and looking more pregnant, all of which makes me very happy! And I’m not happy about the added girth to my bum and arms and legs and probably everywhere else, and crying about that and wishing it would be a cold summer so I could cover up, but I know I’ll come to terms with it soon, too. And I’m very happy baby is doing well, and I still look at its photo all the time and it makes me so happy!!!
by Rebecca Whitney
3 comments