Week 16 - No movement yet
April 13, 2006
At my doctor appointment this month they started to ask me if I had felt the baby move yet. I wanted to remind both the doctor and nurse who asked me that the baby did have a significant layer of fat to kick through on my stomach, so I’m not really expecting to feel the kid for the next week or two. 16 weeks is generally the earliest one might feel movement. Although I’m not feeling anything yet, the baby is definitely moving. When the nurse put the dopplar on my stomach to listen to the heartbeat, the kid kept moving away from her. She had to chase the kid all around my stomach trying to find a spot where the baby stayed still long enough for us to hear the heartbeat. Eventually she caught up with the baby, and the heartbeat is somewhere in the 140’s, which is apparently still good. We’ve got the sonogram coming up in a few weeks, so hopefully I’ll be able to post a picture of that soon. I’m a bit worried that if the baby won’t cooperate for the dopplar, he or she also won’t cooperate with the sonogram, which could be rather frustrating for us parents who would like to know where it is a he or a she. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the baby won’t have its legs crossed!
My baby bulge is actually starting to be in the way when I pick up things (boxes, etc.) Most people get this panicked look in their eyes when I pick something up, like if the box is too heavy the baby is going to drop out of me right there. From what I’ve gathered (research on google), lifting isn’t too much of an issue if (a) you’re having a healthy pregnancy (b) you don’t have a history of miscarriages (c) it’s safer after you’re out of your first trimester. If you could lift stuff before you were pregnant, you should be able to lift stuff while you are pregnant. That being said, I am not a medical professional, so if there are any expecting mothers reading this, please check with your own doctor and don’t take my word for it. Besides, it’s kind of nice to have everyone else do the heavy lifting for a while, so although I feel a little like an invalid when I’m told not to lift things, I do enjoy the break.
I finally gave in and went shopping for maternity clothes this weekend. It’s both an exciting and somewhat depressing adventure. It’s exciting that this little person is finally getting big enough to be making its presence known, but depressing that I can no longer fit into my regular clothes, and I’m pretty sure that no woman enjoys getting fatter. I scouted many retail stores and didn’t have much luck.