Pregnancy: 21st week

Week 21
March 6 - 12

I think I have now entered that phase of pregnancy where the bladder shrinks to the size of a marble. And very inconvenient to me, it seems to shrink even more while I'm sleeping. The past 3 nights, I have been up no less than 5 times each night in order to empty my bladder. The sad part is, I don't drink much of anything before going to bed. Just a couple of mouthfuls when I take my vitamins. It's super annoying. Especially when people are starting to tell me to stock up on my sleep now, because I won't be getting any once the baby's here. Please. The only thing I can do now that I can't in the future, is sleep as late as I want. If I have a bad night, I can sleep until 11 if I wanted to in order to catch up, though the sleep isn't as good as it is when it's dark out (yes, I have blackout curtains. But my body knows that it's not dark out. So it's not the same restful sleep I should be getting). But more often than not, I'm finding myself waking up fully at 7:30, so sleeping in isn't working out so well.

And weirdly enough, after the 4:30-ish bathroom trips, my brain wakes up a bit and is thinking random things. One night it was thinking of middle names to pair with one of the first names I'm considering. Usually there's a song going in the background, too. I try not to encourage this, because in all reality, all I want to do is fall back asleep as quickly as possible. So sometimes I tell myself to shut up and that usually works.

On to other things, about halfway through the week, I had the very uncomfortable feeling one gets when they eat far too much at Thanksgiving. You know the feeling... that you have so much in your stomach that you fear it's going to literally explode, it hurts a bit, and there is no position that is comfortable. I didn't eat that much, so I don't think it's due to overeating. I wonder if my tummy's getting ready to pop?

*A day later*
Yep. I popped! Maybe a move into maternity clothes isn't as far away as I'd thought.

The baby's a lot more active now, too. It even let DH feel some kicks. Usually as soon as he puts a hand on my belly, the baby stops kicking. So I'm glad he got to feel some love. The baby's still in the same position though... heads up, and it still likes to kick the same places. I don't think I've felt any movement on the left side at all... it's all on the right side.