Maternity clothes and belly shots

My pregnancy clothing from last time around aren't fitting me and I was resisting buying new ones since its for such a short period of time why not just wear skirts, tights, and make do?

Yeah, that's not working out. For one, my son likes to yank my skirts down. We've had a few almost mortifying moments at the mall and during storytime. He did not succeed. But, almost.

So I finally bought some. They're loose at the moment, the pants anyways, but I'm thinking I'll expand into them? I'm only 15 weeks along but I am currently the size I was at six months with W. Here's a belly shot. My first ever with any pregnancy:

It's a bit helpful to take a photo as in my head I feel like I look like a tug-boat but the picture doesn't show me quite like I've swallowed a hippo yet. I guess I'm comparing the state of the belly now versus last time and its just gargantuan. Am I the only one who loves a pregnant belly? I don't know if I would have loved it no matter what, or if its because I feel so lucky to be here, but I lost 23 pounds before I got pregnant but its with this belly jutting out and the fat slowly reaccumulating that I feel the most beautiful and happiest to stop and just gape at myself in the mirror.

In actual beautiful news, I told my son, there is a baby in my belly. He walked up, pressed a hand to my stomach, and said "hi baby!" and kissed it. He's a boy of very few words but I'll be damned if he doesn't know the right ones to say and just how to say them.

The state of the womb

I went to the doctor's on Monday and Sprogblogger was indeed correct, I was not drinking enough water and was dehydrated which was the source of my weird cramping and then, today, the nurse called to say that I now have a UTI.

Fabulous.

I really hate taking antibiotics during pregnancy and now this will be my second round. I'm amazed how healthy I manage to stay when I am not harboring a fetus in my uterus but put one in and bam it's one antibiotic-needing thing after another. I bought a Camelbak from Target yesterday and my goal is to fill it up twice to get my days quota of water met. I can't let this slide.

I am expanding to an insane degree even though I've only gained seven pounds. Jeans no longer fit, but maternity jeans slip right off, probably because they were for a bigger me when I was pregnant with W. I guess this means I'll have to put down money for some maternity clothes even though I wasn't planning on it this time. Was hoping to get away with just wearing tights and skirts, but I'm already looking six months pregnant so the odds that things will fit me normally are now slim.

These are good problems to have.

Because of the freak outs of the week before what with the cramping I decided to invest in a three month subscription to the doppler. It should arrive today. Hoping that it will give me the reassurance I need on days that I'm feeling a touch insecure. I can feel something inside when its early morning or late at night, small movements, flutterings, but its not the reassuring wam bam punches that come later so until then its probably best to have a means to reassure that things are still going in the right direction inside.

This time around my doctor hasn't done the weekly ultrasounds and I have to go to the high-risk doctor, she said she won't start that for me until week 20-25. Which is good since it would be hard with W to trekk so often to the MFM where the wait time is usually 90-120 minutes, but its also something I'm not used to. Knock on wood that all will go smoothly, if UTI and BV are the only challenges of this pregnancy I will count myself among the luckiest.

Funny bodily feelings. Sigh.

Things had been going pretty quiet here for a while which is always a great thing when it comes to pregnancy but this weekend we were in Amelia Island for our ten year anniversary and things got a bit interesting in the way I'd rather they didn't.

First, the weird. From time to time I've been getting pokes on my top right stomach area, just above the ribs. It's the same kind of pokes I would feel when my son was inside of me and jabbing me. But, he was 30 weeks at the time and my little one is only 14 weeks so I am fully aware this is not little one, but what on earth is it? It's a sharp poke that can jolt me, has happened three or four times now.

Second, the odd but not completely panic inducing. I'm getting shooting pain in my vagina right up to my cervix. It hurts. I get worried my cervix is doing things it shouldn't be doing but so far all is well. knock on wood.

And then, the Very Not Fun. Namely, cramping. I've been cramping. Lower stomach cramps. Shooting cramps when I walk sometimes. It began on Thursday. I called my OB who told me to keep my feet up that night and to drink a ton of water and if it persisted in the AM to head to the hospital. Luckily the next day it went away and was gone for the rest of the trip until today in a pit-stop at Savannah and again the cramps. It's not earth-shattering cramps but its cramps and they hurt.

I will be going to the doctor's on Monday as soon as I can make an appointment. Really wishing I had my trusty doppler at the moment to assure me all is well. Hopefully it is. Just been a strange few days. Any experience on any of this? Much appreciated.