19 Weeks

Little preggo update:

I feel very fortunate to have such a delightful second trimester. They say this is the time in between the two bad periods - the first and third trimesters can be pretty brutal (and the first was). But as a record, I will mention the couple of things that "stand out".

I am having some "round ligament pain" in my abdomen. Essentially the growth of the uterus and the lengthening of the muscles to support it can all create a lot of discomfort (maybe not as much with your second child). This essentially means that every time I move or sneeze or cough I have lots of shooting and dull aching pains on the sides of my abdomen.

Sleeping is getting slightly more difficult. I realized a couple of weeks ago that if I sleep on my right side, my arm "goes to sleep" to the point of almost not being able to "wake it up". Then later I read that some major [pregnancy] veins are in your back and that laying on your back or your right side can potentially slow or block blood to the placenta (and apparently my arm!). So I sleep only on the left side now. It probably doesn't sound that hard, but I'm a person used to tossing and turning pretty much all night long - I get sore if I don't change positions frequently. But it hasn't been too bad constantly being on my left. I have a feeling that will all change in a couple of weeks however...

Some days are more energetic for me and some days I literally work in my jammies all day. I am still dealing with depression over my mom's death (obviously - that will be for a long time), so I never really know if it's pregnancy or depression that makes me so "quiet" at one time or another. But I try not to push myself too much and just let the day unfold as it will. Right when I got pregnant, I developed the urge to be alone A LOT - a general feeling of not wanting to be around people or to be on the phone, but just wanting to "nest". It's more of a content feeling rather than a depression thing. But since my mom's death, it has intensified a bit more - I really have to work hard to get myself out of the house and to hang out with people. I was an introvert before but I may as well be out in the country now. Thankfully I am productive when isolated. I never watch movies (or TV since we don't have one), but instead I do all kinds of stuff on the house and in the yard. I certainly don't prefer house work to company, but they are all things that need to be done...

I am constantly encouraging Erik, however, to make friends and attend meetings. He's been going to several meet-ups and gatherings lately of folks that have the same computer interests. He's really been enjoying all of the different kinds of meetings and communities that exist, and he's working on creating his first presentation for an upcoming meeting (these geeks are pretty organized!).

I have been working on bringing a farmers market to our area. Currently we have to drive about 3 miles to the nearest one, and it's an amazing one - they have everything I need and more. But my goal is to help our own neighborhood become more "self sufficient". We moved here for the promise of how "urban" it was becoming - our house is close to the latest and most environmentally developed parts of town. And while there are many cool things (the park and shopping), there is no farmers market or [good] grocery store within 3 miles. There is a growing interest in our neighborhood for the market, and our neighborhood newletter called out for others to get involved, so hopefully we will make some headway!

Now we are off to our first midwife appointment (the other appointments have been with doctors, but we have stopped those and will only see a midwife from now on). Will report on that next time!