Week: 23
Baby Size: 8 inches. She's about the size of an ear of corn, and weighs in at about a pound.
Sleep: I'm already starting to have some problems again. I'll wake up having to use the restroom (baby on the bladder), and then I won't be able to turn my brain off to go back to sleep. Or else, the baby will start kicking like crazy and wake me just as I'm dozing off. I then lie awake for an hour or so before getting back to sleep. It's affecting my classroom performance!
Diet and Exercise: I got 4 days of exercise in this week. I did 2 days on the treadmill, and then 2 days of yoga DVDs. I really enjoyed the yoga--it was nice to stretch and relax in a different way. I think I'm going to try and keep up this schedule as much as possible. Diet was pretty good as well. I'm getting better at having healthier snacks around and going to them instead of the unhealthy ones!
Movement: She's still very active in the mornings, and about half an hour after I eat. She also moves around when I'm stressed or angry--my road rage is pretty intense now-a-days, and she always gives me some thumps. I think she's telling me to chill out! I did feel with my hand her move a limb (arm? leg? foot? head?) across my abdomen, which was pretty cool!
What I Miss: I don't really miss anything right now.
What I'm Looking Forward to: 24 weeks is considered viable, so I'm looking forward to knowing that if something should happen, she'd have a fighting chance outside on her own! Of course, I'd rather she stayed put until the end, but it will be a load off my mind come Thursday!
Best Moment this Week: Brian's parents bringing up all of the baby stuff from his sister and brother-in-law. We have so much stuff piled in our front room, it's kind of ridiculous! I'm so grateful that they saved it all and are giving it to us, since I know it's going to save us a ton of money. Not to mention I don't have to register for it all now!
Pregnancy Body-New and Exciting!..maybe: Everything seems to be going well. I got my hair cut today, and my hairdresser commented that it's super shiny and healthy. If I could only get back to sleep at night, I might actually be "comfortably pregnant"! I am getting more uncomfortable with bending and stretching to get things, but it's certainly tolerable for now. I keep getting told how tiny I am for being as far along as I am. I'm pretty sure I can thank the exercise and my very long torso for that. I know it won't last forever, but I'm going to enjoy the cute, tiny little belly while it lasts.
Baby Milestones: Brian and I tried shining a flashlight on her last week, but didn't get much reaction. I'm thinking she was probably asleep and didn't even notice. She has very saggy skin right now, since apparently the skin grows in before the fat layer, but she's going to be filling that out. By the end of the 6th month, she should be a whopping 2 lbs! Her skin is still transparent, but is starting to look red due to the arteries and veins that are building in.
Funny anecdote: Snowball was sitting directly on top of her today (I mean directly on top of her--she completely ignored my open lap and decided to sit on the bump instead), and Jacquizza was kicking up a storm! She just kept tapping and tapping under Snowball like "hey, I'm getting crowded here"! Snowball still didn't notice (or did and just didn't care), but it was pretty hilarious for me! I'm just waiting for the day when Jacquizza gets a really good kick in, and Snowball freaks.
Food Cravings: I haven't had Chipotle in a few weeks. Must fix that. And I admit to doing a silent happy dance in the grocery store when I realized that there were blackberries on sale.
How's Dad?: The bathroom is tantalizingly close to being done. He's installed and varnished the trim, and has painted the doorframe and the trim outside. He has to put everything back together (light switch, plugs, hardware, toilet) and then he'll be done! It'll be so nice to have the bathroom back. I'll put some pictures up in the next post, because it is going to look awesome!
He's also so cute when he gets to feel the baby kick. He always jumps a bit and says "Oh!" He actually pushed down on my abdomen where I think Jacquizza's legs are and got several taps in return. He was so excited. It's nice to share that with him--I do feel bad that I'm the only one who gets to feel her most of the time. I can't wait until he feels some of the rolls that I get now!
Wine Making: The proto-wine still in the carboys inside. I think we're going to rack next week, and then wait some more!
Tid Bits: So to explain the blog title: this morning when I got back from my haircut, Zoe was sitting on the couch and I saw something shiny in her paw. It looked like an earring was stuck there. I pulled on it, but it didn't come out, so I called Brian downstairs. He took one look at it and realized it was the fishhook from the fishing rod that he stores in the exercise room closet (which I didn't know about, and he'd forgotten about). Since the hook is barbed, neither of us felt comfortable just pulling it out, so I called the vet. We took Zoe in, and she would not let the vet anywhere near her to look. The vet said that since she was so skittish, Zoe would have to be sedated in order to get the hook out. Most of you know that I had a bad experience losing my cat Addy in April, and I basically freaked out at the thought of having to put another cat in a vet's hands (different vet, but still). I held it together, and the vet took her back. They gave her a very short-acting anesthetic (it was actually the same stuff that supposedly killed Michael Jackson), and took out the hook. The vet had to make an incision, push the hook through, cut off the barbed end, and then pull the rest out the original hole.
Zoe apparently is very sensitive to anesthetic, so she took awhile to wake up, meaning Brian and I were sitting in the room for what seemed like forever. When the tech brought Zoe back in, she was still really out of it and sleepy, which again made me think of Addy and how she looked the very last time I saw her conscious. I cried a bit when Brian went out to pay, but it quickly became obvious that Zoe was coming around. She was up within about 10 minutes, and we were out of there! We put her in the office for a while until she was totally awake (her front end was fine, but her back end was flopping around a bit--it was actually pretty funny). We got some of the litter made from rolled up newspaper pellets for them to use until Zoe's paw is healed, but really, looking it, I can't even see where the vet made the incision or where the hook was. I know cats heal fast, but geez!
She's doing perfectly fine now, and didn't even get any antibiotics, since it was obvious that no one had ever used the fishhook (Brian claims he went fishing about 5 years ago, but that hook was pristine). Zoe seems to have gotten over her adventure, and forgiven me for my part in it, since she's currently sound asleep on my lap!
Overall, I feel like having a kitten is, in a very small way, preparing us for parenthood. Kittens are insanely curious, and will get into things that you've forgotten you had. Since getting Zoe, we've both started thinking from a very low point of view on the floor, and making sure that things she can use to hurt herself are not down there (this is also a legacy of Addy who ate the oleander leaf off of the floor). I'm not saying we are now parenting experts and will never make mistakes, but I think we'll be a bit more prepared safety-wise than we would have been without the kitten!
Besides the scare, (which made Zacquizza jump around like she does with my road rage), it's been a pretty good week. My classes are still going well, and I am enjoying the extra free time now that the University of Phoenix class is over. I should hear from them sometime next week about whether or not I'm hired on as faculty. I only got rave reviews about my performance, so I'm actually not too worried.
The semester has been going really quickly for my community college classes as well. We're down to a little over a month for both classes (they end in early December), and I think I've got a nice groove going. It's challenging some weeks working every single night when all I really want to do is stay home and veg out, but it's certainly worth it to know that I am contributing to the household. I think that'll be the hardest part about not working next semester--knowing that I'm not doing my part as a breadwinner. I know I'll make up for it by taking care of little Jacquizza and the house, but I'm really not used to being "kept"! This is why University of Phoenix is ideal for me, since I can still work, but do so at my own pace.
So uneventful week, followed by a very eventful (so far) weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment