I had a checkup this morning at 15 weeks of pregnancy, and got to see Halloween Riley. His bones are developing very well, and structurally, he looks like a little (perfect) skeleton. There’s a big heart beating away in the middle of his ribcage. The head (skeleton skull) is clearly defined now, as with the neck bones, vertebrae, hips, etc. He was lying face-down again, his favorite position, and when I’d laugh or tighten my stomach, he’d do a little dance, nod his head up and down, bring his hands in and pump it a little like he’s housing. (Remember “housing” to stuff like C+C Music Factory, my 90s friends?) The doctor noted that he’s an active li’l thing and asked if I’ve been feeling his movements yet. Turns out that the minor uterine spasms and twitches and “gas bubbles” I’d been feeling for weeks now WAS the kid moving about. And people say I can’t feel movement until 18 weeks.
The doctor also checked the length of my cervix. Since I’ve had a big chunk of cervix taken out in the LEEP some years ago, they want to make sure I don’t have an incompetent cervix that will droop and start opening with the pressure of a fetus. I was warned that LEEPs come with a small risk of future premature labor/miscarriage. Since I started this baby project, various doctors have checked and been comfortable with the length of my cervix (which I guess was luckily long to begin with), and today, my OB measured it at 4cm, “totally normal,” he said. Whew.

The human body is an amazing thing (when you’re in tune with it). I still haven’t thrown up, and I’ve been listening to my body. I give it the basic substance of what it’s asking for, and avoid the thing it says it doesn’t want, without questioning, but I later discover that I’d been doing the right things. For example, my sprouts aversion early on confused Mr. W, because it’d been one of my favorite things to eat — I just read last nite that I should be avoiding sprouts, ESPECIALLY alfalfa sprouts, during pregnancy. (It didn’t say why.) And for the past month or so, I’d been wanting lemonade, tomato-based sauces, etc. I’ve been drinking some lemonade (natural when I can get it) and I made spaghetti (not out of a jar) over the weekend. Yesterday, in my reading, I also found that I need to eat lycopene (found in tomatos) and 10 teaspoons of tomato sauce a week oughta do it. AND, turned out, the cravings for sour has to do with my pH balance being more alkaline than normal during pregnancy, so my body was trying to balance back, and apparently tried to warn me to be more acidic (which I’d been careful about because I’d had a stomach ulcer in the past), but I didn’t do it enough because I ended up with a common woman infection last week thanks to the pH in the infected area not being acidic enough, as I later learned.

I still get insomnia here and there, but based on the checkup this morning, the doctor says I’m right on track and doing well. He’s placed my target weight gain at 20 lbs for the entire pregnancy. I think I’m finally up a pound or two, but still not really showing. Mr. W’s besties came by over the weekend to help him with his computer upgrade, and the woman bestie greeted me with a hug, then looked down and said disappointedly that she couldn’t even tell I was preggers. “I wanted to take pictures of your belly,” she said. Doctor said this morning I should start showing at 20 weeks. That’s 5 weeks away. To me, it’s worth celebrating cuz I get to procrastinate another 5 weeks before having to shop for maternity clothes.