23 Weeks

This week I had my monthly appointment with the midwives, which went well. I measured right on target, gaining fine, and baby was still a bit feisty when she tried to listen to the heartbeat. We talked mainly about food and nutrition (which I'm doing well with, just need to eat more yogurt and perhaps fewer cupcakes), and it turns out they did receive my sequential screen results from 6 weeks ago (it was just filed in a different place online than I was expecting), so it turns out we're still in a really good risk category (i.e., very low) for the genetic issues the test screens for. New baby also is kicking harder, it seems, since I was able to watch it kicking very clearly from the outside :)

I'm participating in a couple of different studies, one of which is looking at any correlation between physical activity and duration of labor. I had the first interview to talk about that this week, and although I was feeling pretty good about my physical activity beforehand, I felt decidedly less so afterwards, since when it comes down to it, I apparently really don't carry Josie that much or play with her that strenuously. I have to keep in mind that that's on purpose, though, to avoid overdoing it while pregnant, but it was still a bit eye-opening and made me a bit more committed to doing some physical activity every day. I'm back to doing yoga once a week and walking at least 20 minutes every day, so at least that's something.

I had a couple of days this week where I felt I maybe was going to get over my lingering illness, but now it looks like I'm coming down with something else since my nose is stuffed up again and throat is scratchy. I don't have anything new to say about the sleep situation, except I've had a couple of odd dreams (at least of the ones I remember): one that Ryan and I renewed our vows in a foreign country, and I wore my same wedding dress (ignoring the fact that, in real life, the boning is messed up so it was quite painful to wear at our reception, and therefore it currently lives in a trash bag in our attic) and we were over an hour late to our own vow renewal. The second I don't actually remember the dream itself, but it apparently involved tickling Ryan's face in real life... which is when I woke up, a split-second before he did, and he was decidedly not pleased about the situation.

Below are my comparison pics for the week. For consistency, I've continued to suck in my belly for each picture, although since I'd gotten quite a few comments this week that I'm really starting to show more, I included one where I'm not sucking in too :)