Baby Week 20 – Ug, Pregnancy Brain!!
August 20, 2008
20 week fetus
I am a type A personality. I like structure and orginization. I make lists, and I follow up on questions. I rarely forget the details. That is, until now… My hormones are driving me nuts now! I can’t remember even the simplest tasks. Sometimes I’ll have a conversation with someone, and completely forget about it by the next day – it’s like de ja vu to them, but it’s an entirely new conversation to me. Others at work have noticed too. I’m more forgetful and scattered these day. I’ve started making myself lists at work – lists of things I need to at work, lists of things I need to do at home and lists of things I need to talk about with Zach. Of course, I keep forgetting my home lists at work, so that doesn’t always work out in my favor… So far, this has been the most irritating pregnancy side effect. The nausea was the most miserable, but at least it didn’t effect my professional relationships, and I was still able to remember everything that I needed to get done. Now I just look like a ditz with a round belly. I don’t know if this symptom will eventually go away like the others, or if I’m doomed to another four plus months of being the pregnant idiot…
As predicted, the baby has been moving more frequently and seems to be getting stronger by the day. This week, the baby had its first bout of hiccups (or at least the first since I’ve been able to feel movement…). And in true child fashion, the hiccups couldn’t have happened in the middle of the day, or while I was watching tv at night – nope, the hiccups started right around 11pm, when I was just settling down to sleep. At first, I felt the rhthmic movement and wondered what that was all about. Then I recalled reading something about baby hiccups at 
I have no doubt about baby movement anymore. I have noticed that in the mornings and evenings my kids likes to get some exercises by doing some jumping jacks around my stomach. When I can feel kicks/punches in two or three locations at once, I know that kid is busy in there. I’m not sure if the baby is saying “hey Mom, what’s up?” or “geeze it’s tight in here!” Either way, if I get up to use the bathroom at 4am, I can be almost certain that a few minutes later my kid will be busy with the workout routine. I did finally get Zach to feel the movement. The baby was kicking hard one night, and Zach was able to feel the hard kicks, which quite entertained him, though I didn’t find the discomfort all that funny… The literature I’ve read says that I’ll be able to notice a routine in the baby’s movements after a while. The movements aren’t always a guarantee in the mornings or evenings, but the baby seems to prefer those times over the middle of the day, which is a plus, since they can be somewhat distracting in the middle of meetings, etc. I wouldn’t say that baby movement is exactly comfortable or fun, but I do find it reassuring when the baby kicks, it reminds me that things are still going along as they should in there.
I’m feeling pretty good this week. My morning sickness is pretty much gone, except sometimes when I brush my teeth (I know, it’s kind of weird – sensitive gag reflex…). My stomach continues to grow, which I’m still not ready for. Many of my clothes are too tight for me now. I’m going shopping for maternity clothes this weekend. I’ve picked up a few things here and there, but this is my first shopping excursion. It should be fun (I hope). I’ve been using two pregnancy websites, 