14 weeks

week 14... lemon

At week 14, the book says the Peanut is the size of a lemon.  Last week it was a peach.  I'm not sure what produce stand these people are going to, or if maybe in the pacific northwest lemons are just seriously small, but from my point of view peaches are bigger than lemons.

Oh well, I'm just passing on information provided to me.

By the way, I'm still being INFORMED that the Peanut will be a boy.  This is neither irritating nor aggravating, but I find it funny that people have a "sense" of these things and feel adamantly that they need to tell you.  I am just as guilty, in the past I have gender identified someone's baby bump without any real evidence.  Boy or girl... we will be happy.  We don't have a boy name picked out, so if it is a boy we will likely go with young Collin's suggestion of Snakehead.  However, Cletus the Fetus has a ring to it.

I'm feeling good, have experienced a few strange pangs along the way.  I stood up (mildly) fast from the couch the other day and got a sharp poke in the lower left front pelvic area.  I was strong enough to elicit a hand to the belly and a "Ouch" from me, thus scaring my sweet, and helpless fella.  It was gone in an instant and didn't repeat or have any lingering pangs.  Thankfully, we read the very next day that at this stage, sudden stretching of the pelvic area can cause pangs as the ligaments and baby area expand.  The book had a more technical description, but the important take away is for the most part, these little aches are normal.

I'm thankful for the reading material that comes as we progress.  It is strange (and wonderful) how we're hitting milestones right on time.  

Regarding my expanding size, I can certainly feel the firm poochie popping out, but mostly I'm just feeling squishy all over.  However, other than the weight I have added from my lowest weight, I am not "up".  I just stepped on the scale (fully clothed, after breakfast) and I'm about 2.5 lbs lower than I was at my first ob appointment.  I swears, I'm not dieting - I'm eating well and trying to move.   It is a little validating that maybe the 'bigness' I feel is baby related and not that there's hope I'll be able to restore my girth after birth.  (oh, I'm a poet.) 

Perhaps my mental illness about my size is stemming from the fact that the firm baby bump is layered under what was already a squishy layer of fat that I haven't been able to get rid of.  The fat isn't going to go away and be replaced by the bump, it is going to get pushed out further as the Peanut makes room for (apparently) himself.   These are things that as a normal, reasonable person I should realize, but you have to remember that I'm insane these days.

Not, drown small puppies at the park insane, but totally scattered and at many times incapable of a coherent thought. For example, I totally forgot that I had a car reserved for this last business trip.  My two other co-workers and I piled in a cab at the airport and zipped over to the office, where about an hour later I remembered that I had a car reserved.  I had to hitch a ride back to the airport to pick up the car.  This wouldn't have been so bad had I noticed that my ride not dropped me off 6 feet from the door to the (new) rental car building.  I immediately hopped on the shuttle bus and waited for it to make the 15 minute around the airport circuit back to the same damn place I started.  See... INSANE.

That's it for now, I suppose I should start working on boy names.  Snakehead is cute, but I don't think the grandmothers will approve.