Making Room for Baby

Discussed my rib pain with the doctor at last week's check-up and turns out it's not exactly due to stretching as I had hypothesized, but my stomach and internal organs protesting from being smashed up into my rib cage. I had a few Aha moments when I was told that. For one, I always feel better standing or walking, which is when gravity helps pull things down a bit and my spine can be 100% straight, giving my stomach more room. Secondly, it hurts the most when I'm full. This is probably why it was killing me so much during Memorial Day weekend when all I did was eat, eat and eat. Since I don't get heartburn or horrible gas, I guess I won't complain so much and just adjust as necessary.

Above is a screenshot of the best interactive animation I've found of how our organs literally make room for baby (The Museum of Science and Industry - Chicago). Click here to check it out! I'm at week 26 now, and you can see how Baby Bearhat has already rearranged my intestines and lifted my stomach. 

In other news, the dance party continues as BB has learned some new moves in the past few weeks. Instead of just random kicking and squirming, someone's also become quite responsive. It used to be that the little Bearhat would move and kick without any rhyme or reason, peaking around Prime-time. Nowadays there's a morning, afternoon and late night schedule of activity. Even more amazing is that a poke, rub or song will often be rewarded with some movement. It's not unusual to feel something pointy jab through, and even with clothes on, one would be able to see my belly flop and twitch. Again, very weird, but also pretty cool. There's a theme here. Basically all things pregnancy related are always both totally gross and freaking amazing all at the same time.

Luckily I haven't had any issues with waking up in the middle of the night as BB has yet to do enough damage to rouse me from my deep slumbers. No matter, the Charley horses and foot cramps seem to have that area covered! I'll never forget that one morning during week 23 when I woke up in horror to a double Charley horse at 5AM. I went from sound asleep to wide-awake in less than an second. With both legs out of commission, I was unable to get up and walk it off. Instead, I laid there pitifully rubbing my own calves for 10 minutes just praying for the cramps to release. I learned shortly after that bananas (potassium) and Tums (calcium) help keep those night terrors at bay.