24w5d update

Well, the holiday was wonderful. C and I went to his father's for turkey on Thanksgiving itself. His niece (I guess she's my niece too, but she was around a long time before I entered his life) was recovering from swine flu and bronchitis, but came anyhow and thoughtfully basketed the rolls when they came out of the oven. I avoided the rolls. And sat as far away from her as I could. Here we are more than a week later and I'm still healthy, so either that flu shot worked its magic, or my superb hygiene did the trick. Either way, I'm happy not to be sick.

Thanksgiving Saturday was a big Italian dinner at my parents' house (we're Irish... so of course Italian is our favorite food). It would have been a lot bigger except that my brother and his whole family stayed home. SIL and two of the kids were sick the week before, and my brother and their other two were sick on Thanksgiving itself. No technical diagnoses, but they suspected some strain of flu had made its way to their house and didn't want to spread it around. I'm grateful, but missed seeing them. I hope everyone's healthy for Christmas.

Pregnancy-wise, things continue to roll along smoothly. I feel movement all the time now, everything from flutters to nudges to full-body (I suspect) acrobatics. I have no cravings or aversions, and my overall appetite has decreased a bit so I'm eating less food and less often than early on. None of the scales in my house are accurate, but I suspect I've gained about 18 pounds so far (I was up 16 at the last MW appointment). I wasn't thin to begin with, so I'm hoping to keep the total weight gain under 30 pounds (originally, the goal was under 25, but with 15 weeks to go that may not be reasonable). My MW hasn't expressed any concern about my weight, and I'm still using my yoga DVD and walking several times each week. I'm eating healthy meals and rarely indulge in sweets or junk food, so I'm not really worrying about the pounds. I ordered the crib and changing table/bureau last week, when I learned that it takes 12-14 weeks for them to arrive. C finally joined me at BRU, and I let him handle the gun as we rounded out our registry. The next visit with the MW will be on 12/21, and I'll do the glucose tolerance test that day as well.

Sleep... I mentioned previously that I'd say something about it. Well, for about a month now I have been unable to sleep comfortably on my back. Historically, I've always been a back-sleeper, but lying on my back now makes my lower back ache, which wakes me up. I bought a c-shaped body pillow, and that's helped a lot- I wedge the long side of the pillow against my back, place my head on one curl and use the other between my knees. I slip another pillow under my belly, and "hug" a small travel pillow to keep my shoulders from slumping together. The cats love this arrangement. Instead of waking to an aching back, I awake to one furry body cuddled up against Ishkabibble and the other nestled behind my knees. It's very cozy, and I'm glad that cold weather has moved in because this wouldn't be nearly as pleasant if nights were warm. It took a few weeks to work out this pillow configuration, but it's working and I'm better rested than before I bought the c-pillow. Getting out of bed is quite entertaining, though. The edge of the bed is behind me, so I have to extricate my bottom leg from the c-pillow, roll on top of it (and hope I didn't start out too close to the edge... yes, I've fallen out of bed once or twice), and then swing my legs down to the floor. C and I may soon need to switch sides of the bed because I'm not sure Ishka will let me maneuver this way indefinitely.

The women in Chris's family have decided I'm carrying "high and round (as opposed to low and pointy)," so Ishka will be a girl. In the only baby dream I've had since becoming pregnant, Ishka was a boy. Over the next few weeks, I'll play with old wives' tales and see what they predict.