Halfway Point

I've been hearing a lot from my good friends from the States who want to see my baby belly, so here you go! Not very glamorous - to me it looks like I've been eating too many Quarter Pounders. OK, maybe I have. But I am actually about 5 months pregnant, too. Besides McDonald's, I don't have any major food cravings. In fact I think my appetite has decreased. This could be due to the three and a half months of excruciating nausea and the past couple months of heartburn. Or maybe the baby is squashing my stomach and other digestive organs. It's certainly squashing my bladder...but I won't digress.

My first ultrasound was about a week ago. I wish that people didn't build up this phenomenon like it's the holy grail for the expectant mum. "It's so great! You really get to connect to your baby! I cried tears of joy!" The experience wasn't like that for me. The nurse or whoever administered it was very abrupt and rushed through the images as if she had a souffle baking in the next room that she had to check on. She also pushed down on my abdomen so hard that it hurt. So I was struggling through my grimaces to actually watch the screen and take it all in. The photos she printed were pretty bad, in my opinion, so I have not posted them in this blog. I'm hoping the next ultrasound will be a better experience. We didn't find out if it's a girl or a boy... what do you think it will be?

All in all, the second trimester is heaps better than the first. I actually have the energy to take walks (some days) and last through opera rehearsals. But I still get very tired just as easily. Occasionally I feel something, which I normally would write off as gas, but I think it is probably the bub kicking or stretching or doing yoga. I have a hard time sleeping on my left side all night so I end up on my back and then wake up because I'm not supposed to sleep on my back (bad for circulation apparently) so I go back to the side but wake up from pressure area pain. No wonder I'm so tired...

Most importantly, all of my tests and checkups have turned out to be "normal." Fingers crossed, I'll have a complication-free pregnancy, one hour or less in labor, and a pain-free delivery. "To dream...the impossible dream..."