22 weeks, 5 days

Dizzy. I'm dizzy. No clue why. Probably dehydrated. But I'm sitting here listing steady to starboard. Sorry, I'm married to a sailor. Sometimes I can't help the nautical references. Took me years to be able to tell port from starboard. Only left and port having the same amount of letters finally clued me in.

Spent a good portion of the day with a backache so bad I couldn't pick up Bobbie to help her wash her hands after she went potty. Got a couple of Braxton-Hicks tonight putting Linda down to sleep. Third trimester starts...when? First tri runs til week 14, so second should be weeks 15 - 27. Which I guess means third trimester starts week 28. Yeah, the math works out that way. Sort of. The extra 2 weeks get thrown to the first tri because for 2 of those weeks you're not actually pregnant, going by LMP.

Was suggested on a UP/UC board that to determine if you have twins, you put on hand on one side of your belly and flick the other side. If you feel a "thrill" of fluid on the hand, one baby. No thrill, two babies. I do that, and my skin wiggles, but down inside, nothing. I wonder if that skin-wiggle is the thrill I'm supposed to be looking for...I'm confident there's only one in there, but it's a curious experiment anyway.

And now: to bed, to bed, jiggety-jig. Because I can't remember how to spell anymore, and that's the last faculty that goes for me...

Honestly, though, I'll spend about another hour reading and playing through-the-skin games with Baby.

22 weeks

22 weeks 0 days

My belly has grown to the outer limit of my breasts, at last. Admittedly, it doesn't look like much, but my breasts are pretty big. My tummy is 40" circumference at its largest point. My fundal height is 25.5 cm, so I'm a bit more than three weeks ahead; still well within the "normal" range.

According to Your Pregnancy Week by Week:

Baby now weighs approx. 12.25 oz and has a crown-to-rump length of 7.6 inches.
Eyelids and eyebrows are developed. Fingernails are also visible.
Organ systems are beginning to become specialized. The liver is now producing low levels of necessary enzymes.

And sadly, in some states and apparently also in Great Britain, I could still choose to kill my baby right now in the name of "choice."

21w 0d

Officially more than halfway through. According to Your Pregnancy Week by Week:

Baby is 7.2 inches long and weighs 10.5 oz. It is about the size of a large banana.

The baby is now swallowing amniotic fluid, absorbing much of the water in it, & passing unabsorbed matter as far as the large bowel. Which is to say, she's starting to create that lovely green tar I get to clean out of diapers for the first few days. Oh joy. That tidbit also reminds me that, by the time you give birth, amniotic fluid is mostly baby pee.

The dad tip says that it's not too early to talk about baby names. Meh? Some folks haven't yet? Well, I haven't wasted much time with it this time around, since Rob was so little help last time I wound up naming Linda on my own, essentially.

I have complicated rules this time around. There must of course be three names. First name preferably has two syllables (both Bobbie & Linda do), cannot start with B, L, C, or M, & cannot end in an "e" or "a" sound. That last rule makes it fiendishly difficult to select a girl's name, as about 80% of the blasted things seem to end in one of those two sounds. It's just that I want a rhyming name even less than a "matching" name. Middle name preferably has three syllables & cannot start with B, L, C, or M. Third name should have only one syllable, but that's actually the only rule. Methinks I'll call the next one "Hey, you". Or PoopMachine. After all, if the dude from Penn & Teller can name his kid Moxie CrimeFighter, what's wrong with You PoopMachine?

According to Childbirth.org's old wives' tales test, I have a 55% chance of having a girl, & a 44% chance of having a boy. I love that test, I take it frequently throughout each pregnancy. Thus far, it's been accurate. Not that that's saying much. The Chinese gender calendar also says girl. It has also been accurate both times. The sole disagreement is my wedding ring, which circles above my tummy, a sure sign of a boy.

Maybe it's surprise twins. ;-)

Twenty Weeks, Five Days

I should probably be starting a pregnancy blog much sooner than halfway through the pregnancy, but it's taken me this long to decide definitively to do it.

A brief exposition:

• I am due 19th October 2005
• I have two daughters, Bobbie who is three, and Linda who is one.
• I have had 2 c-sections, so this will be a VBA2C. Both girls tried to walk out into the world, and it was only very recently that I discovered (though the news really shouldn't have surprised me) that the problems with birthing footling breeches vaginally are caused by doctors, not any inherent danger in the presentation.

• I am avoiding a repeat c-section by going commando this pregnancy. I am doing my own prenatal care & will be my own birth attendant. But wait, you say, isn't it true that prenatal care is the biggest predictor of a good pregnancy outcome? Well, yes & no. If you've got high risk factors, then prenatal care is a lifesaver. But the truth is that true complications are such a tiny part of reproduction that most of us are fine with minimal prenatal care. When I have had it, it has consisted of being weighed, having my blood pressure (which is always normal) checked, my uterus measured, & the heartbeat checked. And exactly which of this did the doctor do? Um, NONE. Frankly, this is all stuff any reasonably intelligent woman can do on her own.

So, what am I doing to prepare? Reading, reading, reading. I am reading every bit of information on normal birth I can get my hands on, every bit of information on freebirthing I can find, every freebirth story I come across. I am eating well, I am exercising as much as I can manage (as I tend to go straight from morning sickness to physical pain, this isn't a simple task). I am getting in touch with my body, I am reveling in the utter lack of stress that goes hand-in-hand with avoiding the medical establishment.

**********

Baby likes to play. I like to spend some time on my back, with my hands on the most obvious tummy bulge. Usually, I am rewarded by a kick or a rub. Push back. Pause...What's that? Wait...Wait...Kick back. Push again. Pause...There it is again! Wait...Wait...Kick back. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's fun.


Bobbie is everything I could hope for. She realizes much more this time what's coming. She tells me sometimes she's got a baby in her tummy too. She is always trying to kiss the baby in my tummy, or tickle it. Once she even tilted her sippy cup up to my belly button to offer the baby a drink. You have to love that.


She has taught Linda to smooch the new baby too. Linda doesn't really understand it yet. Which is one reason I'd wanted to wait a little while before getting pregnant again. Best laid plans of mice and men, yada yada. (Which, btw, my friends and I were using long before Seinfeld.) But I keep telling her there is a baby coming and that this one is hers like she was her sister's.


And I must confess. I want a girl. Very much. I am just SO FUCKING SICK OF PEOPLE TELLING ME "MAYBE THIS ONE WILL BE A BOY". Yeah, maybe. So fucking what? Do my daughters have no value because they have vaginas? Am I a failure as a mother because I cannot produce a boy? (And what fucking biology class did you sleep through to get the idea that I am the one who determines that?) I am sick of it. Fucking sick of it. I don't want to have a boy so I can be petted and congratulated. "Oh lucky you, you finally had a boy." Not that I have anything against boys. Not hardly. But really, people, come into 1980s already! Didn't we realize a long, long time ago that women are as valuable as men? If I have a boy, then all well and good. But I want a girl, just as a sort of cosmic "Fuck you, you moron" to our families.