With any pregnancy, it’s nice to have some sort of constant affirmation that you are, indeed, pregnant. With Maddi, that affirmation came in the form of crippling fatigue, unbearable nausea, and — later on — unpredictable vomiting. With this baby, I am only somewhat fatigued, and I could quite possibly make Limburger and sardine sandwiches without the faintest intestinal twitch. So I’ve really been hoping to either find an ultrasound machine on my doorstep with a big red bow on it one morning, or feel some kind of movement from within.
Well, as of eleven weeks and a day, I felt movement. Unlike with Maddi, where I felt movement for close to a month before I became convinced that it really was the baby, I knew right away what I was feeling. More nights than not over the past few weeks, as I’m lying down after dinner, I’ll feel a faint little twitch or nudge, like the edge of a thumb sliding gently against the wall of my abdomen. With Maddi I wasn’t entirely convinced it wasn’t gas until it turned into sharp, bona fide karate kicks, but it hasn’t been so very long since I’ve had a baby in my uterus and I still remember vividly what it feels like. Luckily, I haven’t yet started dreaming of being beaten about the ribs by thugs with baseball bats, but give the baby another 20 weeks and I’m sure I’ll be begging for mercy.
At this point in my last pregnancy, I was wearing a fair bit of maternity and my belly was rather round and protrusive. But this time around, starting nearly 15 pounds lighter and with abs of steel, I have yet to outgrow my prepregnancy jeans and the only time I look even slightly pregnant is when I’m wearing a baggy top or I’ve eaten a sizable meal. There are days when I think I’m finally showing, only to discover the next day that it was water retention and I’m back to just looking like I’ve been eating a few too many Cheet-ohs.
However, while I’m still waiting to break out the maternity pants (maternity shirts are already out since I can’t very well wear my old, form-fitting ones without a washboard stomach!), I at least have my little bean in there, twitching about and reminding me that while I’m still small and have very few symptoms, I’m still pregnant!
And without further ado, here are the week 13 belly pics! I promise I didn’t take any drugs or kill Sharon Tate beforehand; it was just a very, very long day on top of a very long weekend, and you can read all about it in Maddi’s blog if you want more information.