Week 27: More of the strange, childbirth ed

Still enjoying the antics of my geographic tongue, which for several weeks has caused my tongue papillae to do their own doodling. If I'd had my camera, sense of humor, and decent lighting in the same place when it started, I'd have started a time-lapse montage of the doodles on my tongue just as a silly retort to all those bump time-lapses I see, tongue-in-cheek because it's taken me this long to be able to tell the difference between my pregnant belly and the fat belly I had a year ago. (Hint: the fold above one's navel finally smoothes out. I still have a crease there, though!)

Other strange symptoms that have crossed my attention: The occasional worrisome elevation of my pulse to about 120 for up to an hour at a time; the very sudden (within a week!) expansion of my rib cage by a whopping three inches (no wonder I can't breathe!), and a change in the cell-phone sensation in my lower uterus. It now pulses from time to time; shorter duration but longer intervals of sensation. So help me, Dean is going to put his ear to my belly one of these days and instead of a heartbeat, he's going to hear the T-Mobile jingle and then a mischievous giggle. I'm sure of this.

Speaking of Dean, haven't yet persuaded him to dad-blog but hoping I can soon; I'd really like to get his perspective on our childbirth education class. We're the only second-timers there, in a room of 15 other couples all on their first. It's our first together, of course, and I need a refresher after 17 years, but more importantly, I want Dean to get a better understanding of how to work with me and guide me through the experience. He gets very squeamish during the class, and when I notice this I tend to take his hand and squeeze it, or lean on his shoulder to let him know I'm there and I understand. During dinner afterward, I realized what this was. "I'm banking my positive energy with you," I told him. "So that you can feed it back to me when I'm in need of it." In other words, I'm being strong for him now, as I have been since the beginning of this pregnancy; I resented it during the first trimester but now I am enjoying it because I do see it as feeding him with the energy I will need in three months, and knowing it can be safely stored with him.

About 8 months in our relationship, I was felled by a gallbladder attack that landed me in the emergency room at about 3 in the morning. Dean didn't leave my side the entire night, even when I vomited prolifically and was howling in pain. Similarly, when Dean dislocated his shoulder earlier this year, ER staff had a hard time prying me away from his side. Glad they did though, because it was later that week I found out I was pregnant and the further I was from the X-ray machine, the better. I've realized that with both of us, when we see the other suffering we do all we can to radiate healing energy and compassion toward the other. And I sense it radiating back to me when we're practicing breathing. I feel that love and I'm just amazed by it, and know oh so well that Bunky was created out of that love.

Well, that and a generous helping of absinthe. It was a crazy Valentine's Day night, after all.

So anyhow, here's hoping I talk him into writing a post soon. I'm wagering his perspective on childbirth education will be much less mushy and much more hilarious.