20 Weeks

Dear Baby,
Halfway mark! At least, let's hope so. I have a feeling you will stick around inside long after April 5 has come and gone.

You are kicking up a STORM and much to your daddy's delight, your favorite place to kick me is in the bladder. This causes my body to send me these rapid fire signals of "HURRY UP AND GO TO THE BATHROOM" to "Oh false alarm" to "WOW I REALLY NEED TO GO" to "haha sucker". He is proud of your trolling skills while in utero.

I flew you out to DC for yet another conference trip and in three weeks, we'll be flying out to LA. I decided that even though it is safe to fly until ~35 weeks, I am stopping after Christmas. It is so not worth it. See bladder comments above. Plus the jet lag. Plus the water retention. Plus the random bout of food poisoning that had me throwing up for 2 hours.

I am becoming more aware of your growing awareness. You can probably hear things now, taste the things I eat, sense light, respond to touches--or will develop those skills soon. I remember reading in grad school about fetal sensitivity to moods or hormones that accompany those moods. I want you to sense, even in the womb, that the world is a safe and secure place, that there is beauty everywhere. This means that I am stopping more frequently to calm myself down from work stress and meditating deeply at night which is good for all of us.

Love,
Mama