23 Weeks

Only 17 weeks to go!

Needless to say, I'm starting to show!

This week has been an exciting and hard week. The exciting part is that I have started to feel Jessica more and more! At first, I thought maybe my stomach was having these wierd pregnancy spasms. After a few times I realized that was true except the spasms not only had a different name, but now had a gender attached! Those spasms were/are Jessica. :) Last night, for date night, Jer and I drove up to Salt Lake City to see a dear friend of mine perform with her female barbershop group (a chapter of the international Sweet Adeline's called the Mountain Jubilee Chorus...they were really, really good!). Anyways, about halfway through the performance, Jessica started moving and moving and moving! One time I felt her and thought she was trying to punch or kick right out of my stomach! It was really hard! I wondered if Jer would be able to feel her. So, last night as we were laying in bed, I had Jer put his hands on my tummy and asked if he could feel her (she was still moving). He said I was making my stomach do that. Today I asked him again if he really had felt that. He said yes so I told him that he was really feeling his daughter move! It was incredibly cool! All day today I've been waiting to feel her. So far this week I'll feel her a little bit during the day but she really gets going from around 7pm or 8pm until about 10 or 11pm. *sigh* I hope this isn't an indication that she will be a nightbug and not let us get to bed early...

This week has also been hard. My ankles have started swelling pretty badly again and now my fingers and hands have begun swelling. Usually I wake up in the middle of the night with one or both of my hands completely numb. I have to massage them or shake them around in order to get some circulation back into them. It's really wierd. My doctor said that sometimes when women retain water during pregnancy in their wrists, hands, and fingers, it simulates carpel tunnel. So, I might have to buy some type of brace for my wrists and hands to wear to bed each night. Crazy - I had never heard of that before! Today Jer made some comment about how I started my 2nd trimester "late" (the energy, feeling great, loving being pregnant time) and it looks like I might end it "early" (since this week's been so hard and we technically have 1 more week of our 2nd trimester). I've said it before and I'll say it again...this child had better be dang cute! :) J/K - I know she will!!!!