Week 25 - If This Keeps Up, We'll Be in Trouble

Why would we be in trouble? Because Brianna has started an interesting...habit. She has developed an intuition for knowing when I'm going shopping. And she seems to celebrate it. By kicking my bladder. It starts before we're even out of the car. She just seems to know that we're about to go walking around and gets so active. Hell, she even gets excited when I'm shopping online. And it happens so often that it's half joke between Andy and me now. But only half because it is so spot on. After all, the first time I felt her move was while we were shopping at Costco. And every time we go back, she gets excited again. I guess I better start saving now and figuring out how to teach her good financial habits.

The day before Christmas Eve (historically my bad luck day), we were on our way home from work and planned on stopping at the grocery store when she learned the kicking-my-bladder trick. Even better, she figured it out while we were on a street with speed bumps. Fantastic. So in between the bumps jostling me and making me need to pee, I get a well timed kick. Gee thanks. I'm grimacing like the dog does when she tries to itch under her harness and sort of grunting because I don't want to alarm anyone with an exclamation to make the Boondock Saints proud (if you've never seen it, there's a scene where they manage to use variations of the word fuck 9 times in about 5 seconds, 246 times in the entire 108 minutes).

"Why does everyone want to torture me?"

Which Andy takes as me smiling and laughing. No dearest, let me poke your urinary tract FROM THE INSIDE and you tell me how you like it. I bet you won't be laughing. She managed to keep up that new trick when I went out shopping again to pick up stocking stuffers for Andy. Because she's smart like that. However, I suspect my facial expression while waiting in line and the quite visible bump helped me get another register open. So, two points to Brianna for helping Mom, but minus one for kicking her the whole time.

[And about that day before Christmas Eve bad luck thing: I have sprained my ankle, had a locksmith break my car's back window, had pneumonia, gotten a parking ticket for being 5 minutes late, and assorted other crap. Generally not a good day for me.]

Anywho, we went in for our doctor's appointment on Monday. The midwife we met was really funny, but a couple of the things she did struck me as sort of...unprofessional, I guess. Nothing made me uncomfortable, but it rubbed Andy the wrong way. And then she moved my due date back to the 7th and argued with us about it being changed before. So something is funky. Either someone is not saving the notes correctly, or the date was changed back by the previous doctor based on the results of my ultrasounds, and she didn't tell me. It's the one problem with having a team of providers instead of a single doctor or midwife. I like knowing I'll be covered not matter what, but I don't like having to reintroduce myself to someone new at every appointment. Hopefully that will be less of an issue now that I've met most of them. I'm also hoping that since the next appointment is with the doctor who originally prescribed the clomid, she might be able to give us a definitive answer on the date. I know it isn't that big a deal since babies don't come on schedule (one friend's adorable daughter being the exception), but when April 14 rolls around, I think it will matter a lot if they start trying to schedule an induction. Or maybe Brianna will surprise us and come early. You never know.

So technically, I am actually 26 weeks and four days right now, but for the purposes of this post, let's assume we're talking about last week. Brianna would weigh over a pound a half and measure 9 inches crown to rump. She also has open nostrils now so she can practice breathing (not that I can breathe through my nose...everything is so swollen I sound like a tea kettle). She can grab her feet and curl her hands up into tiny fists, which probably explains some of the movements I've been feeling. Not a kick against me, and not a turn. Just moving. Her vocal chords are functional and she can get hiccups. The hiccups are really distracting, especially the ones she got in the middle of the Christmas Eve service we went to. She also didn't like the organ music all too much, a feeling I sympathize with. As for me, I still have a belly button for the moment. I've gone from being able to stick the end of my index finger in up to the first knuckle, to not quite getting the nail on my pinky finger in. Anyone want to take bets on when it will go?