Belly photos and a bit of love for The Parent's Journal

Here I am with my 30 weeks pregnant belly. It's still at a size which is fun, rather than too big... but I can see how it's going to get too big before it's over. I'm really enjoying the attention and enthusiasm from friends, family and strangers. The belly touching by strangers still hasn't manifested for the most part.

I have a feeling that I send a kind of standoffish vibe which only the most effusively affectionate are likely to overcome and decide they should touch me anyway. I don't intentionally cultivate this, it's just the way I roll. (Did I really say that? Funny thing is I just imagined my daughter reading this as a twelve year old, cringing at the old fashioned idioms I use(d). Sorry dear!)

I've been listening to some quality content on the iPod these days. I'll talk about hypnobabies another day - today is the day I want to give some love to The Parent's Journal. It's a radio show on NPR which on my affiliate is on at a crazy time on Saturday mornings... so I like to load their podcast onto my iPod and listen to it in the afternoons when I'm walking home from work. 

Each week, the host, Bobbi Conner, interviews a series of parents, pediatric or obstetric health practitioners and others with interest and expertise in child rearing. Her interviewees largely seem to have written books and I suspect the show is sort of a stop on the book tour for many. However, I really like what a lot of them have to say. 

Many seem to have a fairly relaxed view of parenting - often somewhat in line with Lenore Skenazy is trying to convey with her Free Range Kids movement. I listen to it all, topics ranging from raising resilient toddlers, to childbirth options, to being a good parent during divorce. Like a lot of other things, I take it all in, and spit out the stuff I think is hokum, such as the folks who say that eating peanuts during pregnancy will cause a peanut allergy in the child. 

The show covers a wide range of topics and I find each segment usually has something that might be worth filing away for the future.  Sometimes when Conner is interviewing someone over the phone, I find the audio frustrating to listen to on my headphones. Her voice ends up being a bit too loud and the interviewee's voice a bit too soft. But that's really my only complaint. It's a great source of ideas and things to think about. 

Of course, when it comes to applying these suggestions to reality, we'll see how it goes... 

Weird Pregnancy Symptoms/Side Effects

I expected things to happen when I got pregnant: weight gain, stretch marks, etc. But so far my body has done a bunch of things that I wasn't expecting, and hasn't (so far) done several things that I was expecting.

Was expecting:

• Hair loss: I'd read somewhere that while pregnant, your hair mostly stops falling out and then after the baby comes, it all kind of falls out at once. I'd read this freaks out some new moms. Well, much to the dismay of my inhouse plumber (DH), this has not come to pass. I wash my hair twice a week and continue to lose pretty much the same amount of hair into the hair trap now as I did last year.
  
• Stretch marks: So far, nada. Maybe I'll be one of the lucky ones?
• Morning sickness: I was expecting to be losing my breakfast pretty much every day. It's been more like a couple times a month. Thank you PTB!

Wasn't expecting:

• Morning sickness: I was expecting to be losing my breakfast pretty much every day for the first trimester. I'm almost at the end of the second trimester and I still forget not to brush my tongue in the morning, and quickly lose my breakfast. DH is getting used to this - he was alarmed at first.
• Darker hair in weird places: Well, they're not weird places, if you're a guy! I usually don't shave my legs in the winter but I started very early again this spring just because the leg hair was getting crazy dark and nasty looking. Then there's the weirdly long facial peach fuzz I'm growing. I haven't done anything about it yet, since it's thankfully very light, but I'm hoping it stays that way...
• Darker moles: I've always been covered in moles, and they've always been all shades of beige through dark brown. Now they're all very dark. Hoping not very optimistically that they'll go back to normal after the baby comes.
• Intestinal distress: About which I've already written more than probably most wanted to read. Things have improved, thanks to the new prenatal vitamins and some daily prune juice (blech!).
• Sinus congestion: I've been stuffed up since January. It's April. Feh. I'm not sure the neti pot has really helped or not. I keep using it as I've heard it has lots of health benefits, but I'm not convinced.
  
• Belly touching: This is a so far, but so far, people touching my belly hasn't bothered me. I was expecting to be very sensitive and cranky about it, but so far, it's been kinda fun.
• Metallic taste in mouth: another thing that, well, first, I wasn't expecting, but additionally, in the books, they say this is most common in the first trimester. My metallic taste appeared at the end of the first trimester... and continues. I've started chewing gum.
• Heartburn from hell: sometimes it's a challenge to only eat the recommended daily four calcium antacid tablets. There are days where I think I could eat the whole bottle. It's often related to over-eating, which is easy to do when I can only eat tiny little servings of food. But sometimes I get heartburn when I'm hungry, which just doesn't seem fair.
  

From what I've read, all the stuff I'm experiencing so far are within normal parameters, just not what I was expecting.

The wasn't expecting list probably says more about my ignorance about pregnancy than anything weird about my pregnancy experience.

In other news, this past week I visited my dentist, midwife and chiropractor. All reported that things look good - my dentist especially commented on how well I've been taking care of my teeth. I've been flossing a lot more than normal for me, aiming for once a day. They say the inflamation that can come from poor dental hygiene is related to miscarriage and pre-term births. I'm not sure who says that, but I know I read it, and I think my dentist told me that last time I saw him, when I mentioned we were trying to conceive.

Anyone have any good pregnancy side effects to share?

Photo credit: Roberto Muñoz. I picked this photo because it's lovely but also because we are suddenly talking about going back to Barbados for a vacation next month. Wouldn't that be excellent?