Evolution of the Belly

Here are photos of the belly as it grew along with Bernice. The first picture is from the day I found out and the last photo is from 5 days before she was born. They are in chronological order!

Holy, Holy, Holy Heartburn

via Stork Fund

Before being pregnant I experienced heartburn occasionally. I would just slam water until I forgot about it and it went away. I couldn't see how people would go to the hospital for indigestion or heartburn thinking it was possibly a heart attack.
With pregnancy, I experience heartburn frequently (daily, off and on) and as I get bigger and bigger, the intensity of the burning increases. I now wonder how anyone with true heartburn doesn't think "Oh my gosh, what is this? Something is WRONG!!!"
It hurts, y'all! BAD.
From my throat to my stomach (which is now located directly under my ribs) area, I just burnnnnn sometimes. Water only makes it worse, too. I'm trying tea on it today but so far, it hasn't stopped. Almonds work for me and I 'd like to try apple cider vinegar + water to see if it works, too.

Mama Kitty Love works, too.

They say when you have heartburn in pregnancy, your child will have lots of hair. We'll have to see. In the meantime, have a lovely weekend and please vote for my belly cast (if you haven't yet!)Shawn and I made by "Like"ing the picture on Facebook here!



Chin Whiskers... am I pregnant or a cat?

When I fell on the stairs last week I did NOT hurt the baby. My appointment the next day for my 16 week checkup went beautifully and the baby's heartbeat was as strong as ever: between 154 and 158.

Onto the next installment of "Being Pregnant is Weird" crap: today I woke up to about 5 chin whiskers. I'd be embarassed to share this but it was just so odd that I can't help but to extrapolate. I had a rogue 1 or 2 chin hairs before getting pregnant that I would pluck every couple of weeks or so and it was no big deal, but this morning I looked like a damn cat! I'm not even kidding when I say each hair was at least a half inch long (HOW LONG WERE THEY GROWING THERE?!).
Some of you may turn away in disgust now and the rest of you who are like me are more than welcome to collapse onto your keyboard in fits of purple-faced laughter.
Some days I admit that I have a hunch that the baby is a girl and then days like today I wonder if this is from extra testosterone... or just plain hormone changes in general. I really can't make a guess. Even when I dream I don't even give it away to myself; I always see a chunky blonde baby with beautiful green eyes and it has been a boy in a couple of dreams and it has been a girl in the last couple dreams as well.

In 3 and a half weeks I'll be 20 weeks pregnant and we go to see our baby's arms and leggies and all of the baby's other body parts... except for the between-the-leg bits. We want to be surprised and I am saying this like 5 times when we are finally in the room with our ultrasound tech next month just to make sure they don't say anything, label anything or show us anything. I am going to have to look away when they check for the baby's sex because I have looked at so many ultrasound photos and videos that I would know if I saw either set. At this point I wouldn't be disappointed either way but I would be disappointed if I knew; I'd be the only one... and I can't keep things like that to myself.

Please promise to exclaim my bravery in the face of the hem-and-hawers in response to my new status as a cat. I only share because googling this morning offered me solace in the midst of other catlike mommies-to-be and I wish to pass on the feeling. Thanks.