21w

We have successfully completed half of a 40-week pregnancy. There were definitely times when I did not imagine that this would be possible. Certainly not with this pregnancy. But here it is.

It has now been seven weeks since I stopped spotting. We spotted and bled for seven weeks straight, which seemed like SO long. But now that we've been seven weeks off, it doesn't seem as long. In fact, I still look every time and expect to see bleeding or spotting. It's almost like a weird PTSD reaction, I have to keep checking.

Frankie has been doing quite a bit of movement which makes me happy. A lot of the times I still play the "baby or gas?" game but there are some times when it is quite obviously baby. Or that it feels like gas but there is no gas, you know? Either way, Frank seems to love cookies, raisin bran, milk, and orange juice. Because of course my baby has to be a sugarholic, too.

My newest fear, and one I see becoming prominant in the many weeks to come, is pre-term labor. I thought it would hit me a little later than this (like around 24 weeks) but there it is. A gal online on FF who is also due in July (she's 2 or 3 days ahead of me, actually) is now on complete bedrest in Labor & Delivery because all of a sudden out of nowhere she had NO cervix and her membranes were about to rupture. They now have her in a bed that is head down, feet up, and have basically told her they probably can't do anything for her. Talk about terrifying! Her only symptom was that she "felt like she was constipated when she knew she wasn't, like there was pressure in her bowels." I don't even know what that MEANS but now I'm paranoid about feeling constipated, too.

It doesn't help that my belly was feeling super tight last night - probably from gas but could have also been Braxton-Hicks. But it was like that for quite a long time and all I could think was, "Oh wait, next will come that constipation feeling." Gosh, I never knew I was so suggestible. Maybe I should take a break from that part of FF.

Otherwise things seem to be going well. Belly is growing, have some on-again off-again butt pain depending how I sleep, am trying to adjust to not sleeping on my back, have a kicking baby, still craving junk. And by "junk" I mean BK cheeseburgers (and I am not a beef eater) and BLT sandwiches. Thankfully Jen and I bought some turkey bacon and some fresher lettuce and tomato from Trader J0e so that I don't have to go to the greasy spoon diner to get my fix!