The Littlest Bump
Good morning, friends! Today I am enjoying cold coffee and a pumpkin muffin, because it’s warming up again, but dang it, I can pretend fall is a thing. Seriously, someday fall will actually come and stick around for more than like three days. Until then, I’ll just sit here and do my best to pretend it’s really fallish outside. In the mean time, I am both reveling in and fighting with my new found baby bump.
That’s right, we have officially achieved baby bump status, as my in-laws very cheerfully discovered this weekend. It is still the tiniest of baby bumps, but we have progressed to the point where it is actually visible through my shirts and dresses and that has made many people very happy this week. I’ll admit, I feel a little silly when someone new notices and I have to move whatever outer layer I’ve got on so they can see it better. It’s really barely a bump at all, but it’s huge for me, and my family has been waiting for this since we told them we were pregnant.
I’ll be honest, I’ve been waiting for this since I found out I was pregnant. Of course, I knew that I wouldn’t be showing until at least 12 weeks. That’s when the uterus typically starts to emerge from the pelvis, in case you were wondering. So that’s when most women potentially begin to show. And, of course, I’ve been examining myself in the mirror and taking pictures every couple of days since the first day of week twelve to make sure I wouldn’t miss it.
Then again, any change was going to be obvious to me since I have never had a belly before, ever. I am the person that everyone rolls their eyes at when I say I have trouble gaining wait. I am the size 2 complained about in pop songs. I struggle to find clothing that’s not too big for me. So the fact that that I now actually have a belly is this whole new experience for me on many levels. It’s exciting to see actual, physical proof that we have a growing baby. Despite hearing the heartbeat twice and all the confirming pregnancy tests and all the morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms, it’s still not 100% sunk in that this is real yet. It’s also weird because I’m aware that essentially at this point I’m catching up to the average human body. But because my body has never been this shape, I’m still experiencing all the weird, “everything’s shifting what’s going on?” muscle issues that come with growing a small human in my body.
I’ll admit, I was surprised all the weird body stuff started so early. I was expecting to start experiencing back and hip issues eventually, but I figured they’d come when I actually had something to show for it. Apparently, my body is just freaking out about the whole thing and rebelling against me and our 30 year old mattress. When my in-laws got married they got a mattress, which was passed on to Logan when they got a new bed. That mattress came with Logan when he moved out and into our house when we got married. It’s an old, very used mattress, but it’s served us well until we hit the second trimester. Remember all the back issues I had over my birthday? Well, turns out apparently my back is just not friends with our mattress anymore and refuses be associated with it. I tried sleeping on a pillow for a week and it helped a little, but not enough to let me get any real sleep, only to not hurt when I woke up… as much. Last week we got a mattress topper and it’s been wonderful ever since. This is something I never thought I would need when I got pregnant, and yet, here we are.
My poor husband has to adjust to sleeping on a squishy surface now. He’s slept half his life on the old mattress and it’s weird to sleep on something softer after all that time. I thought I might also have some adjustment issues, since I, too, mainly slept on ancient mattresses growing up, but I’ve been very much enjoying our mattress topper. The body pillow and I are still learning to get along, though. A friend got it for me when I was telling her about my back issues. Her husband stumbled upon it at ALDI and was sweet enough to grab it for me. It helps and my cats are huge fans of it, but it’s just a lot of pillow to deal with. It also hogs the blankets, oddly enough. My husband has been struggling to keep some covers as every time I roll over the pillow tends to take them with it. We shall see if I can master the pillow before I have to learn how to roll over with an actual belly.
All to aching and stretching and awkwardness aside, I am super pumped to be able to see my baby growing now. My husband had this great “Oh this is happening” moment the other day while we were getting ready to go out when he noticed that my belly has a real shape to it. It’s just just belly shaped, it’s baby belly shaped. It’s still very little, but it is definitely there and will only grow from here. And I will only buy more cushions from here, I suspect. We’ve already gotten one for our pew at church and I suspect more are in our future. I will happily buy all the cushions, though, as long as Baby grows healthy and strong. Have a lovely day, my friends.
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