He loves the light! I'm using a brighter LED light now to shine into my belly, one so bright that held under my hand my hand glows just a little bit. It took a few days for him to react, so we may have started early and his eyelids hadn't finished opening yet, but last night and today he punches and jabs at the LED when I put it up to my belly. I told the doctor today about it just to make sure that we aren't harming him in any way and she wanted to know if he reacted to the light and she wasn't surprised that he did. I should have asked her where the baby can see the light the best and where he can't on my belly. I've mostly been keeping the light near my belly button where I know that the uterus is very close under the skin. When the doctor did the amniocentesis, he only stuck the needle in 1/4-1/8" in order to extract the amniotic fluid. I had no idea that the inside of my womb was so close to the outside of me. Stick me with a thumbtack and you'll puncture my womb. Scary.
I also meant to ask her exactly where are my ovaries located now, because my boy keeps kicking me in a place that is extremely painful and I suspect that he might be kicking me in the ovaries. Before I was pregnant, I knew that pregnant women could feel the baby kicking her organs, but I never knew how much more aware I would be of my own organ activities. For example, he reacts to his environment a lot, the sounds and movements around him, so that when I eat, he'll kick and punch my stomach. I guess it probably makes a lot of noise to him, gurgling and moving around. When food is traveling through my intestines, he'll also react to that. I never realized that I would be able to feel baby kicks in my rectum and vagina, too, which was an extremely weird sensation the first dozen times, and now is just sort of annoying. Thankfully, a little hip wiggle or one footed hopping usually moves him around enough so that his kicks are directed elsewhere. A person really can get used to almost anything if exposed to it enough times. TheBF still gets a little creeped out when his boy kicks him while we're having sex because he's not used to the constant motion the way that I am. It just weirds him out. He doesn't want to think about the third person in bed with us! I worry about the baby kicking TheBF's penis during PIV or anal sex and TheBF realizing that the baby is kicking him, because if that happens, we probably won't have sex again until February 2010. :frown1:
The doctor praised my weight gain since I've been underweight this entire pregnancy. I actually lost weight between my 4th and 5th months even while my stomach continued to grow larger. The doctor said that the baby was stealing my nutrition and that I was losing the weight, so I didn't need to worry so much about depriving him of nutrients but I really needed to gain a lot of weight fast in order to remain healthy. She was very pleased by my newest weight gain, and I've worked hard to meet our weight goals. I now weigh more than I've ever weighed! I've gained 20 lbs, which puts me at 118 lbs right now. I gained 6 lbs in the past month. She told me that she wants me to continue putting on 6 lbs every month! I don't see how that will be possible. My stomach is squashed flat like a pancake and when I eat too much, I get pains where my right side ribs are located, the size of my stomach pushing against my liver and those ribs (I found this cool graphic tool that shows the organ squishing that goes on as the womb grows). I figured out last week that a lot of the pain I was experiencing was actually my expanded stomach crushing everything on my right side, so I started eating less and those pains went away. I don't think I'll be able to gain 6 lbs every month from now on, but I'll try. My doctor told me to drink and eat whole fat milk products (which I never do) and to eat butter (which I never do) and lots of other fatty foods. I asked if I was allowed to eat doughnuts and milkshakes, and she said that for everyone else she would tell them not to eat those foods, but she wants me to eat all those things because I need to gain the weight.
I'm having trouble imagining keeping up the pace of growth from this past month. Surely the growing pains are just going to get worse and worse, and my skin is starting to reach it's limits. But I'll do what needs to be done for my son because he's my boy and he's relying on me. His whole life is in my hands.
I also meant to ask her exactly where are my ovaries located now, because my boy keeps kicking me in a place that is extremely painful and I suspect that he might be kicking me in the ovaries. Before I was pregnant, I knew that pregnant women could feel the baby kicking her organs, but I never knew how much more aware I would be of my own organ activities. For example, he reacts to his environment a lot, the sounds and movements around him, so that when I eat, he'll kick and punch my stomach. I guess it probably makes a lot of noise to him, gurgling and moving around. When food is traveling through my intestines, he'll also react to that. I never realized that I would be able to feel baby kicks in my rectum and vagina, too, which was an extremely weird sensation the first dozen times, and now is just sort of annoying. Thankfully, a little hip wiggle or one footed hopping usually moves him around enough so that his kicks are directed elsewhere. A person really can get used to almost anything if exposed to it enough times. TheBF still gets a little creeped out when his boy kicks him while we're having sex because he's not used to the constant motion the way that I am. It just weirds him out. He doesn't want to think about the third person in bed with us! I worry about the baby kicking TheBF's penis during PIV or anal sex and TheBF realizing that the baby is kicking him, because if that happens, we probably won't have sex again until February 2010. :frown1:
The doctor praised my weight gain since I've been underweight this entire pregnancy. I actually lost weight between my 4th and 5th months even while my stomach continued to grow larger. The doctor said that the baby was stealing my nutrition and that I was losing the weight, so I didn't need to worry so much about depriving him of nutrients but I really needed to gain a lot of weight fast in order to remain healthy. She was very pleased by my newest weight gain, and I've worked hard to meet our weight goals. I now weigh more than I've ever weighed! I've gained 20 lbs, which puts me at 118 lbs right now. I gained 6 lbs in the past month. She told me that she wants me to continue putting on 6 lbs every month! I don't see how that will be possible. My stomach is squashed flat like a pancake and when I eat too much, I get pains where my right side ribs are located, the size of my stomach pushing against my liver and those ribs (I found this cool graphic tool that shows the organ squishing that goes on as the womb grows). I figured out last week that a lot of the pain I was experiencing was actually my expanded stomach crushing everything on my right side, so I started eating less and those pains went away. I don't think I'll be able to gain 6 lbs every month from now on, but I'll try. My doctor told me to drink and eat whole fat milk products (which I never do) and to eat butter (which I never do) and lots of other fatty foods. I asked if I was allowed to eat doughnuts and milkshakes, and she said that for everyone else she would tell them not to eat those foods, but she wants me to eat all those things because I need to gain the weight.
I'm having trouble imagining keeping up the pace of growth from this past month. Surely the growing pains are just going to get worse and worse, and my skin is starting to reach it's limits. But I'll do what needs to be done for my son because he's my boy and he's relying on me. His whole life is in my hands.
