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Bibbit [userpic]

Pregnancy Column #4

November 15th, 2009 (06:30 pm)

Here is my fourth column for the Chinese pregnancy magazine I write for.

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Body Changes

I have to confess, I'm terrified of stretch marks.

I've been able to take many of the other pregnancy changes in stride, but this one has me worried.
While some of my friends have defiantly posted pictures of their stretch marked bellies, showing off the hard-earned growth, I'm not quite so brave. I hate thinking about what my abdomen will look like after the baby is born and I longingly sigh over my still unmarked skin, wondering if I will ever see it again after the next few months. It feels a bit vain to worry about it when there is so much else going on, but I can't help it!

According to scientists, stretch marks are often hereditary, which doesn't bode well for me. My mother had stretch marks, she sadly informed me, which means that I also will likely get them. When I asked about how bad they were, she told me, "I never wore a bikini again after having you."

Having reached the point where my belly is expanding to recognizable pregnancy proportions, I've already encountered some of the bodily changes that go along with growing a baby from microscopic size to baby-size in just nine months.

In the first few months, most of the changes were internal, but the body has a way of signaling what is going on inside there. I've gradually encountered more and more instances of heartburn, and the time I spend in the bathroom each day has noticeably increased. I've discovered that the old idea that pregnant women are always running to the bathroom definitely was based in fact.

My appetite has swung from feeling nauseous at the thought of most foods to developing cravings whenever someone mentions any kind of dish.

Justin notices the changes in me now, too, especially since his work often takes him out of town so sometimes a week goes by without him seeing me. After one such trip, he returned to announce, startled, "Wow! Your belly is getting really big!" I've warned him that during pregnancy is the only time he gets to say things like that without getting in big trouble.

Sometimes the bodily changes are funny. There is a slightly uneven lump in my belly now where the baby likes to lean. And my friends get a lot of humor value out of the discovery that I'm not quite used to my growing shape yet. More than once, I've tried to maneuver through a space that is too small for me, only to realize that no, I can't actually fit between those two chairs anymore because there is a belly in the way now!

It's not all bad, though. While there are many things to complain about, there are also some good sides to all of the changes pregnancy does to a woman's body. My breasts have expanded to a size I'd always wished they would be. I'm definitely not complaining about that, even though it makes it much harder to find bras that fit! My hair is thicker and my fingernails have become so hard and strong that broken nails have become a distant memory. Everyone says that my skin looks rosier, too, which is probably a result of all the extra blood circulating through my system. I recently learned that during pregnancy, the mother's blood increases by 50% in volume.

Of course, the baby's body is hard at work, too. The fetus is growing incredibly fast now as it puts on fat and stretches out to its full length. Sometimes I think the growth must be so fast that the baby has a hard time staying comfortable in there. At the latest ultrasound, things in there looked really cramped for the baby, like there isn't much room to swim around anymore. Maybe that's why I feel so many kicks, punches and squirming around now.

One of the cutest things I've felt comes from the development of the baby's lungs, which have begun to suck in amniotic fluid and push it back out. This apparently helps the lungs and diaphragm strengthen and prepare for breathing after birth. Amusingly, sometimes this difficult lung work gives the baby hiccups, which I learned, to my surprise, can actually be felt by the mom. Sitting on the couch one day last week, I had to giggle at my little one's hiccups bouncing my stomach around in a little rhythmic pattern. It's things like this that make me reconsider all of the problematic changes that pregnancy brings on.

So, overall, despite some mixed feelings about my rapidly changing figure, I'm finding myself pretty proud of my now visibly pregnant body. I'm trying to view it as a visible display of all the important work going on in there.

But I'm still a little bit terrified of stretch marks.

Bibbit [userpic]

More Snow! And Lightning!

November 10th, 2009 (12:27 am)

After last week's early season snow, it's back again.

And in a "Mother Nature Gets Pissed at the Beijing Govt for Messing With Her" kinda moment, we also have thunder and lightning. In the middle of the snowstorm. Which is really, really weird.

Apparently it is supposed to snow for the next three days.(My weather widget told me so.)


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Bibbit [userpic]

Snow pictures...

November 3rd, 2009 (02:33 pm)

Apparently, the snow was government-sponsored. The newspaper said they set off weather-altering rockets to make it snow.
So here are a few pictures of the big Nov 1st Beijing snow, sponsored by the CCP:







More at my flickr account.


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Bibbit [userpic]

Snow!

November 1st, 2009 (02:13 pm)

Woke up this morning and...

We have snow!

(And last night I was telling our friend Anson that my weather widget had told me there was a possibility of snow today and he told me "no way! Your weather thing is wrong!" I felt vindicated this morning to wake up to fluffy snowflakes out the window!)

There is a fairly nice blanket of snow on the ground now and it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Everything is quite pretty :)

Pictures to come...

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Bibbit [userpic]

Knocks on Doors and an Unasked-for Tomato...

October 28th, 2009 (03:11 am)

Yesterday, there was a knock at my apartment door. I opened it and there was someone from the downstairs apartment management office. He held out a piece of paper and somewhere between his bad English and my bad Chinese he managed to convey to me that I need to bring this paper to the post office and they will give me money.

Um...ok...

After a lot of confusion, I figured out that it is my paycheck for my first pregnancy column I did (I recognized the Chinese character for "pregnant" on the paper and that gave it away). I have no idea why the management office guy had it and why I need to get it cashed at the post office. But apparently, that's how it works here.

Then, today, at work, the office girls gave me a tomato.
I carried it around in my purse all day because, um, I'm not gonna just eat a random tomato like it's an apple or something.

Sometimes living in China is just weird.

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Bibbit [userpic]

I left my feet in Hong Kong...

October 20th, 2009 (11:14 am)

So, I had to do a visa run this weekend- the annual "I have to leave the country and get the stupid stamp in my passport before the govt will renew my visa for another year" trip. My visa actually runs out next month, but I figured it was better to go now at 28-29 weeks pregnant than at, say, 32-33 weeks...
(I couldn't do it much earlier because of the National Holiday- travel is difficult and expensive during that time here- like traveling over Christmas in the US)

Anyway, I spent two days flying to Shanghai, then Hong Kong (which is considered out of the country, at least in that they stamp you coming back in, so it counts)then back to Shanghai and back to Beijing, which is, as far as I've found, the cheapest visa run route possible. It also might just be the most boring. Most of my time was spent in layovers waiting for the next flight.

I did, however get to have Popeyes chicken in the Hong Kong airport, the only Popeyes on this side of the world that I know of. So it's kinda like I had a pregnancy craving for Popeyes and flew to HK to satisfy it. At least, that makes for a better story than "visa run."

Meanwhile, while I was in transit, someone stole my feet and replaced them with funny-looking balloon feet. I'm spending the morning propping up my swollen footsies to make the swelling go down a bit. Have attained moderate success. Not anticipating a full return of my ankles until January, however.

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Bibbit [userpic]

Another Photo...

October 11th, 2009 (03:45 pm)

Here's another photo I submitted at JPG. Again, feel free to click on it and go vote for it if you like it.




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Bibbit [userpic]

More Baby Blathering...

October 11th, 2009 (12:05 pm)

Just in case you don't get enough of my babbling about baby and pregnancy related stuff here, I'm now an official blogger for a baby website- BabyTuition.com.

You can check out my blog at Bridget's Pregnancy Blog at BabyTuition.com if you're interested.

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Bibbit [userpic]

Slightly weirded out by my child creature in there...

October 8th, 2009 (11:27 pm)

Ok, so the whole feeling the baby moving thing is kinda cool. And fetal hiccups- freaking hilarious...

...but this part where I can see moving lumps under my skin is a bit weird...

It's also utterly fascinating in a slightly creepy way...

I keep wanting to say in a super-creepy voice "It's mooovvviinnngg!"

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Bibbit [userpic]

Photo Madness

October 8th, 2009 (08:05 pm)

Just posted this photo up on JPG. IF you like it, you can click on the pic and go vote for it there and make me happy :)




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