Mo'Belly Blues

I've been trying to figure out why the area between my breasts and my belly suddenly poofed out two weeks ago. Back when I weighed 220, that was a roll that was the first thing to go when I started losing weight.

Reading a bulletin board populated by plus-size pregnant women finally made it make sense. What's happening is that the baby is taking up a good chunk of my lower abdomen and pushing my innards up. They'll get pushed back eventually as the baby grows even more.

I don't remember this happening with Kieran, but I weighed 130 when I got pregnant with him, so there was significantly less body mass to move around.

At any rate, I had a checkup today and met the first of my midwife's backup OBs. Fetal heart rate was a lively 159 bps, but she had trouble finding it at first. "Try toward the right," I said, because that's where I've felt the uterine distend when baby stretches.. not true quickening per se because that's an internal sensation rather than something one palpates externally, but I was convinced I'd felt it move on the right several nights in a row as I go to bed and try to meditate my way to sleep with my hands resting right above my hips. Guess I was... right? Anyhow, I liked her. She's in her 50s, had a very matter-of-fact disposition but we had a good time joking around about how everything has been reduced to insurance codes instead of people.

My linea nigra is starting to darken, and my belly skin is starting to itch. I get headachey real easily and my nose is usually stuffy and full of bloody ick.

I ate like crap today. I'm almost out of fresh food, and forgot to get grocery money from Dean the other day. The ants went nuts on the ground floor today and took over the kitchen. I went nuts on them and then cleaned the kitchen and my office (which had an ant attack over the weekend) to the point of utter insanity. I think a nesting trigger may have come early, perhaps because I watched "In the Womb," a National Geographic special, and sobbed hysterically when they got to the childbirth scene.