25 Weeks!

Depending on which calendar you follow, this is my last week in the second trimester.  Pregnancy math is kind of weird.  I'm 25 weeks fully baked, starting 26 and the third trimester begins at the end of week 26.  Allegedly.  Some say it begins week 28, but I'm always early for everything, so let's just go with that...

At this point, the baby is now about 13.5 inches from the tip of her head to her toes and weighs 1.5-2 pounds.  About the weight of a rutabaga, they say.  If you can remember the last time you held a rutabaga.  She's starting to plump out with a bit more baby fat that she will continue to curse for years to come.  She also has hair.

Me, well, my belly is about the size of a soccer ball now.  I feel HEUUUGE.  My balance sucks and I have random bruises on my arms and legs where I ran into walls, doorknobs, counter tops.  If I overdo too much bending or lifting or walking, then my lower back begins to ache, and it usually results in a pretty awesome waddle the next morning.  Thankfully, some of the swelling I experienced last week has subsided, though I worry it's temporary.  I'm trying to keep an eye on my salt intake and drink plenty of water to help keep the swelling at bay.  It's hard, though, when you're craving chicken fried steak at ten in the morning and absolutely nothing else will satisfy you. 

I also experienced what I think was my first Braxton-Hicks contraction.  It didn't hurt at all, but for about 5 seconds my entire belly got rock hard pretty quickly, and just as quickly, it passed.  What I read is that these are "practice contractions" and totally normal.  Sort of like my uterus has started training for the marathon it's about to run.  

And that's sort of it in a nutshell.  I definitely have this sense of the calm before the storm.

14 weeks and counting...