24 Weeks!

I am experiencing a few recent developments in the joys of pregnancy toward the end of the second trimester.  First: cankles.  I can no longer see my ankle bones, and my toes look a bit like piggies.  Hopefully my belly will help to mask this for me while standing soon so I don't notice it as much - I think I have another week or two before my belly eclipses my feet and I'll no longer be able to see them.  I'm hoping for an "out of sight, out of mind" experience.My hands are also swelling.  I think this is the most upsetting side-effect to pregnancy so far because of my most very dear, precious possessions are my wedding band and engagement ring.  So far, I'm still able to get them on and off, but I'm nervous about what the next few months will bring and will be a bit heartbroken if they need to be relocated to chain around my neck.  Hopefully with cooler weather in the fall, some of this swelling will go down.  Finding a position to sleep comfortably in is increasingly more difficult.  I'm a belly sleeper, and that's out now for obvious reasons.  My second favorite position is on my back with my arms up over my head.  That's out because of the pressure the baby puts on an important artery while lying down.  That, and, my stomach gets pretty gurgley in that position.  So, I'm limited to side sleeping, which is causing some tossing and turning, and am seriously considering investing in one of those big pregnancy noodley-like pillows.

I have just three more weeks left in the ever-popular second trimester which is both thrilling and terrifying.  The second trimester has been very good to me.  I think that these new pregnancy challenges of swelling and bloating and the like are just a sample of foreshadowing for what's to come over the next three months.  I swear, it wasn't long ago that it felt like it was going to be forever and a day before this baby got here, but now...I'm wishing I could slow it all down just a wee bit.  Yesterday, the confirmation for our birthing classes arrived in the mail which caused another one of those, "holy crap I'm really having a baby" moments of realization.  I know, you'd think that would have sunk in by now, huh?

15 weeks, 5 days and counting...