As the second trimester draws to a close, it’s hard to believe it’s been nearly six months and that my little boy is nearly two pounds and would most likely survive if born today. Already on my BabyCenter birth board, five or six babies have been delivered and most are doing well (now, I’ll grant you that since I’m due at the very end of the month and most of the babies were due near the beginning of the month, this is not to say that our little guy should make his grand appearance anytime soon!).
Unlike Maddi, who seemed to be moving furniture, practicing Tae-Bo and holding barn dances on a daily basis in my poor, battered uterus, our wee man is apparently comfortably ensconced in a well-tended, miniature bachelor pad where he passes his days perusing books, writing letters to chums, and sipping Earl Grey, a crocheted throw draped over his lap and his feet on a mothbitten ottoman, luxuriating in the comfort of a small fire. Occasionally, he may yawn and stretch, but for the most part, he sits contemplatively, perhaps penning his (very short) memoirs between sips of tea.
Yes, this scenario is ridiculous, but it’s much easier to imagine what a baby is doing when … well, when the baby is doing something. It’s harder to conjure up fetal activity scenarios when your baby lets you know he’s still there a scant two or three times a day. I mean, I suppose he could just as easily be sitting there on a mildewy couch tossing back beers while watching The Amazing Race, or glued to an office chair, snarfing Doritos while putting up bad poetry and writing annoying bulletins on MySpace, but I think I like my genteel English bachelor fetus a bit better.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the little guy is pretty quiet. I’m pretty sure he’s flipped to vertex, because I can feel his head on my cervix sometimes and when I do feel that occasional kick, it’s toward my ribs. I think I even felt his little bottom today when he did the unheard-of and actually sat in something other than his usual position. While many of the uncomfortable pregnancy complaints of last time have passed me by with this baby (i.e. morning sickness, back spasms and physical assault by a fetus), there are still a few things that remind me I’m pregnant. As the second trimester wears on, my energy is waning. Going up a flight of stairs leaves me short of breath, and I can nap any old time I please (which only ever happens when I’m pregnant or during the first two weeks of a colicky, unsleeping baby’s life). And since he is head-down, there is the familiar feeling that the baby is going to fall right out at any minute, along with the attendant aching pelvic bones.
I can’t believe it will be only three months and some change before the baby is lying in a bassinet instead of my abdomen. We’ve bought a few cute blue things and picked out his crib bedding, but there is much that remains to be done. He will temporarily share a change table and Diaper Champ with Maddi, who should be ready to potty train when he’s still pretty small, but we need to find a bassinet or crib since his big sister is nowhere near trustworthy enough to allow free roam of any room — even the most heavily babyproofed one. We also need to find a double stroller (see above regarding Maddi’s readiness to leave Child Containment Units of any sort), his own soft toys and pacifiers, and a Bumbo in a color other than purple. And of course there is the matter of bracing ourselves for the arrival of a newborn in a house already occupied by a demanding toddler.
But for the most part, we’re pretty calm about it. We’ve got three months, after all, to tie up all the loose ends and even if we don’t get everything in order before the due date, the worst that will happen is that he’ll wear pink sleepers and sleep in the Pack ‘N’ Play for a few weeks. Of course, we’d really prefer that he didn’t, but if it happens, he’s still going to be clothed and fed and have a place to rest his head.
And here they are, at long last: The 26-week belly shots!