Baby Recap #2

The second installment in my reposts, this one was entitled "Halfway There," and was published on November 10th of last year.

Today was a very momentous day in the life of Jess Jacobs. Among other things, today marked the completion of the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy--the halfway mark! And just recently, during the past couple of weeks, things have been starting to happen to really "prove" my pregnancy in a number of ways. First of all, I started feeling, or at least thinking I was feeling, the baby move about a month ago. But last week, Baby really started moving around in there. It happened at night when I was in bed and just starting to unwind my mind and think about going to sleep. All of a sudden, I felt a big long "whoosh" against my tummy, followed by a flurry of smaller movements. Baby had learned how to do a somersault! It's been really fun ever since to be sitting in class and feel the little munchkin do somersaults and other gymnastics. It seems to happen more when it's dark, for some reason, so I tend to feel the little jabs when my professor will turn off the lights for a powerpoint presentation or when I'm just about to sleep. Even when it's dark for me but not for baby, like if I cover my eyes with my arm or something, I can feel them more regularly. Maybe it's just that I can concentrate on them better when I can't see the distractions around me.
On Sunday evening, I had Todd put his hand on my belly so he could feel the antics of his little baby, who had been active the whole day. He got to feel a few little kicks, but then the silly baby got stage-fright and stopped moving! Apparently, Todd needs to be more formally introduced to help Baby get over being shy, so he's been talking to my tummy and touching it at random times to see if he can "catch" the baby in the act. No wonder our baby's so silly with such a silly daddy! (Ok, ok, and mommy...) :D The baby has also recently discovered Mommy's bladder. There hasn't been any jumping yet, but I have received a few curiously explorative little punches. I have had an absolute blast feeling the baby move around and grow a little more every day, and I'm already getting a sense of who this little person is.
That sense is going to be even more refined when we go to our ultrasound appointment this coming Monday, the 15th! We get to see our little munchkin in person and find out if we're going to have a little girl or little boy. I'm so excited!! I've already got names picked out in either case; our baby will have an official name come 3:00 on Monday, and I'm so thrilled to be able to start using it! And I'm so excited to get the word that everything looks healthy and is developing right on schedule. It'll be so much fun to then visit my parents a week later for Thanksgiving and share the joy!
I guess I should maybe post some halfway pictures of my pregnant belly, which isn't as big as I would like it to be.

This is a Mommy's-eye-view. There's a definite bump!

See? I'm WAY bigger than I was pre-pregnancy!
I want the whole world to notice my pregnancy and be as excited about this baby as we are! However, as seen above, I am finally growing and getting more noticeable. In fact, last week, my Latin professor told me that she can now tell that I'm pregnant. She even said that I had the famous "glow"! Even my clothes are starting to cooperate. My old roommate Linds (who is due any second now, by the way) gave me a couple of new maternity shirts that her sister-in-law bought for her, but that weren't really her style. I took them off of her hands because, heck, I don't care enough about style to turn down free maternity clothes! Anyway, they're pretty comfy lately, and that quasi-maternity shirt I posted about a while ago (which is what I'm wearing tonight in those pictures) is really comfy. A few of my pants are needing to be unbuttoned to be comfortable, but I have a pair of dark jeans that are really loose around the waist and fit everywhere else. I usually just pull my belt to the tightest hole and hope my pants don't fall down anyway. I was wearing those pants on Thursday and noticed several hours later that my belt had mysteriously settled into the next loosest hole and I was still comfortable. The next day, my belt had graduated another hole! I can now comfortably wear my belt 2 whole holes looser than I used to! I don't even wear a belt to work at all anymore. It was a belt breakthrough, and made my day!
Of course, with all of this growing and stretching on Baby's part, there are some not-fun things that happen to Mommy. My back is starting to ache a lot more, no matter how I shift on the couch, and I can feel the ligaments stretching in my belly, which feels like short and sharp cramps. These are just little things, and they don't really bother me all that much, especially when I think about the precious bundle I'm going to be holding at the end of it all. One thing that hasn't changed is that Baby is still stealing all of my body heat, making me cold all the time; it's more noticeable, though, as fall turns into winter and the snow starts coming down. At least our new apartment will be warmer and better insulated than where we're living now. Which brings up the last reason today was so awesome: we signed our new lease today!! And we get to pick up our keys and start moving in next Wednesday! (We're waiting the extra week so we're not paying double rent...) I have to confess, when we got home from signing the lease, I wanted to immediately pull out all of our boxes and start packing right then and there. But we do have to be able to survive for the next week. *Sigh* Oh well, I have lots coming up between now and then to keep me occupied, right? Anyway, I survived the first half of pregnancy, and I'm looking forward to the next half. :D