25 Weeks

It has been a terrific week! I did go for my glucose test, which was really no big deal at all. (Of course, it was the one-hour one. Had I been asked to do the three-hour one, it would have been another story.) My results were normal, but they did tell me that I need to "beef" up my diet. Literally. My iron is low, and while they didn't say that I'm anemic, I'm treating it as if they had. I'm taking iron supplements now (in addition to the prenatal vitamins I've been on for a year) and am trying to watch my diet to make sure I'm eating more meat and berries and green veggies. It really came as no surprise that my iron was low, and I was just relieved that everything was okay with the glucose.

I've still been feeling good, but there have been some new things going on. My back has been hurting pretty badly, for one thing. Heat helps that, so I'm not thinking about a chiropractor or anything at this point. If it gets worse, though, we may go that route. Baby Girl might be sitting on or playing with a nerve somewhere, too, because the other day I had a couple of spells where my hip/butt area hurt for a second and then my left leg kind of went weak and tried to give out. It hasn't happened since then, though, so I'm guessing the baby either moved or got bored with playing with my nerves.

It is quite likely that she's just moved away from that delicate spot, though, because she is moving almost constantly. Also, she's definitely bigger than she was. (Of course, I know that for a fact because, well, for one thing, growing is what babies do.....but my Baby Center updates are telling me that she's now 14 inches long and almost 2 pounds!) For the longest time, I could only feel her moving on the left side; this week, though, I've been able to simultaneously feel her moving on the left, right, and in the middle. She's moving and rolling around all day, and I absolutely love to watch my belly bulge and roll and bounce around. I could watch her all day, because it's still so surreal to know that she's in there. I love it. I absolutely love it.

She also got the hiccups one night this week. Very cool. My whole belly was jumping and it was a perfect rhythm for a few minutes....definitely different from her normal movements. When I told Scott that was going on, he said, "Poor thing. I hate the hiccups!" It was sweet - it somehow showed me that he's relating to her and thinking of her as a real little person in there.

Scott and I were talking this weekend, too, about how we're feeling about all of this. We're pretty much in agreement that this is still very surreal - almost like someone's playing some kind of joke on us - and that this will stay that way until we're holding her in our arms and can actually see her. There's no way to really prepare for this, because we realize we have no idea how this is going to affect us; all we can do is pray that God will make the necessary preparations within us since He does know what's in store.

As a part of her consistent growing and moving around, she has - of course - affected my body in other ways. For one thing....well, my belly button has popped. (It has been moving that way for awhile now, and I've gotten to see parts of my belly button I've never seen before. It's been flat for awhile, and now it's reaching outward. Pretty strange to look down in the middle of church or shopping and see my belly button through my shirt.) It's weird, though. It isn't always out there. It's kind of like when I first started showing - sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. (Now, though, I definitely am! This was the first week that strangers spontaneously rubbed my belly. This might change, but for now, I kind of like it. I love being pregnant so much that I think it's my way of sharing the joy.)

Other than that, things are pretty much just moving along. My hair and fingernails are growing like crazy, my skin is better than it has ever been, and I'm eating what I want when I want to eat it. Life is good, and getting better every day! I've been so blessed through this whole thing. I know that not everyone has such wonderful pregnancy experiences, and not everyone feels so good, so I'm definitely thankful that this is my story.