Baby makes three...

Wow - I can't believe it's already Week 22. We are now just 4 months away from the due date - one small season. The smallest ever baby to survive was born at just under 22 weeks - those are her feet there. (Not that it's optimal of course - babies born that early are at high risk for brain damage and other issues.)

This week has been pretty eventful baby-wise. First, I attended a "Healthy Pregnancy" class, which was included as part of my prenatal classes. I missed the first one, and I wasn't sure how much use it would really be since I've ready about 18 books about pregnancy, so I feel pretty educated. However, I did learn a few good things

(1) I'm allowed to eat sushi! In B.C. apparently the Health Code requires they freeze it before serving it in restaurants, which means that the risk of listeriosis whatever icky thing you get from sushi is so small as to be negligible, so long as the restaurant is "reputable." So yay for that, especially since, er, I already ate some. Only once mind you. But I might need some seconds - though I will be picky; there are quite a few sushi restaurants around that I wouldn't consider reputable...

(2) Exercise - I learned that exercise is not only good for moi, but it is really good for the placenta, as it tones it, just like it does for the heart. Cardio exercise increases oxygen reserves in the placenta, which makes labour easier on the baby. So that was a good motivator as I had taken the week off from doing much of anything; I'm sort of between exercises right now - running isn't quite as enjoyable as my feet hurt when I run, but I haven't gotten around to looking into a pool now that I'm no longer a UBC student. Still I was able to run a 5K this weekend, which was great. An eight-year old did beat me, but still.

(3) Back labour - I learned that sitting reclined can cause back labour because the baby gets into a position with its skull facing your spine. Not so much of a concern now when there's still lots of room in there (a good thing, since I am currently lying on the sofa) but as I get later in my pregnancy I will be more conscious of it, since they become accustomed to certain positions.

Anyway, that's it for the pregnancy class... we also did some babysitting and attended a one-year old's birthday party, which was quite a lot of fun. I changed a diaper, which I hadn't done in quite a while, and was pleased to find it wasn't any more difficult than I remembered. And Julian and I looked at cribs and found one that we really liked, though we have yet to make any major purchases like that.

I'm still having lots of fatigue - I slept 15 hours the other day; and my emotions are definitely very close to the surface - I'm feeling rather thin-skinned, but am able to recognise that it is purely hormonal.

I'm still waiting for the elusive honeymoon stage, but I'm sure it's coming, right?