Monthly Check-Up

James got to go with me to the midwife's today, for the first time since the miscarriage last year. We got to hear the heartbeat, 152 beats per minute. I got a referral for the anatomy exam (which could also be used to determine gender, except that James doesn't want to know).

Out of the first trimester, I am continuing to be sleepy but am not sickly anymore. My general chest vicinity is tender, but there's really nothing to complain about. This weekend, I rode my bike 10.5 miles in one stretch, and except for being a little saddle-sore, it went swimmingly. I feel less sleepy when I'm up and moving (energy inertia, I suppose) the same way I felt less nauseous when in motion earlier on.

Because I was wondering when I first felt Daphne move, I looked through my old pregnancy journal the other day. First of all, I felt her move at 18 weeks, 6 days. Right now, I'm at 16 weeks, 6 days. I can feel where the baby is now, like there is a rock in my lower abdomen. No movement yet, though, and no feeling like things are being shoved out of the way.

I had lost some weight and am back up to what I weighed the first time I weighed at the office. That means, according to their records, I have gained 6 pounds this pregnancy, but I really just guessed when I told them what I weighed at the outset. The last time I'd weighed was when I was being seen by the Volunteer Healthcare Clinic last year with my back issues.

In reading my old Diaryland journal, I found three entries that were especially poignant. If you care to check them out, they're here:

1) September 11, 2001 (I was still expecting; Daphne was born on November 2).
2) The day I stopped breast-feeding.
3) The day I decided that the Ezzos aren't actually experts on anything and I wasn't going to live under the tyranny of their stupid sleep/wake/eat/play schedule anymore, because it was ruining my life (very literally).

From reading back through all of it, it's amazing how different this pregnancy is. Old-lady and prior-miscarriage concerns aside, I have so much less stress in so many areas. For one, working from home is about 4000 times better than working in an office. There's almost always a bathroom available, I can catch a nap if I need to, I can go on a walk and shake stuff off, and I don't have to deal with people except over the phone.

Our anatomy scan is in a couple of weeks, and after that, I'll feel comfortable buying high-dollar stuff like a hammock and rocker and other items that we'll need to move James out of his office and turn it into a nursery.