Baby Download 55% Complete

Today is twenty-two weeks of pregnancy. Baby is looking more and more like a newborn because of developed eyebrows and lips, and is also apparently sleeping in cycles of 12-14 hours. Squirmy must move in his or her sleep because I feel movement more frequently than that. Squirmy weighs around a pound by now and is roughly the size of a papaya, a fruit I'm not sure I've actually held in my hands before.

Thoughts from this week:

I think pregnancy has made me somewhat dyslexic.

The lower back pain has really started to kick in and I'm nervous because I know it's only going to get worse. Hauling around baskets of laundry and standing at the sink doing dishes for thirty minutes have become significantly more difficult tasks. And don't talk to me about mopping the floor.

Sleeping is also challenging these days, because in addition to my back pain my hips are particularly sore and hurt when I lie on my side no matter how much I stretch my I-bands (tendons on the outer parts of your hips) before I go to bed. Even though I prefer to sleep next to my husband, I am getting closer and closer to putting a foam topper on my father-in-law's old hospital bed and sleeping in that with the head of the bed inclined so I can finally just sleep on my back.

On Sunday I baked a cake, frosted it, and ate most of it over the course of two and a half days. I threw the rest of it away in a moment of sanity on Tuesday.

Last week I neglected exercise, partially due to the fact that my father-in-law was in the hospital with gallstone issues (he has since been discharged and is doing fine). This week I am trying to return to regular exercise of any kind because it seems to help with my back pain. (And don't forget all the cake I ate.)

I hear "boom" sound effects in my head when Squirmy gives a particularly strong kick, like the sound you hear on Jurassic Park when there's a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the distance and the glass of water gets rings on the surface because of the vibrations. I wonder what kind of sounds I'll hear at Christmas when I can't sleep at night because of the Tae Bo that will be occurring in my uterus.