Pregnancy Progress: Week 22

Today, I am 22 weeks pregnant!! When I was in the grocery store last weekend I happened to walk by a papaya and thought to myself, “I am going to have to push something bigger than this out?????” Needless to say I had a minor freak out moment but it passed pretty quickly knowing that pain minimizing anesthesia will be available. I will most likely not be pulling a Giselle on delivery day.

Cashina will remain the size of a papaya this month….no more weekly fruit or veggies changes for the remainder of the pregnancy!! She now has the proportions of a newborn, but only about 1% body fat so she has a lot of weight still to gain before birth. Her eyes have formed but the iris isn’t colored yet and she even has hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, but they are pure white and don’t contain any pigment. Gee, I wonder what color her hair will be?

Her brain continues to develop fast and she is developing the very beginnings of conscious thought. She can distinguish between my voice and Chris’s and some scientists even believe that she can dream. During her awake time, she may start to experiment with her newfound sense of touch by stroking her face or sucking her thumb. She may even begin to feel other body parts to see how they move.

I have been feeling her move more and I’m pretty sure I felt her having a case of the hiccups last Monday night as jerking movements came every few seconds for a couple of minutes. It never fails that when I lie down in bed she gets her groove on kicking to the beat of her own drum. She is lucky that I have a longer torso so she has more room to get down :-) Tuesday night she actually startled me with a strong kick to my belly button. Why is it that Chris is downstairs whenever she pulls these tricks?

My 21 week appointment last week was routine. Cashina's heart was beating away and my placenta was wooshing. I didn't quite realize why I would feel my pulse each time I put my hand on top on my stomach to the right of my belly buttom to wait for a Cashina kick, but now I know it is due to blood pumping through the placenta in that very area. Facinating!! In other news, I am up 10lbs!! At my 16 week appointment I was up only 3lbs so that is a gain of 7lbs in about 5 weeks which is right on track. I wonder how much of it is related to my constant craving for chocolate?