So I have noticed that when women are pregnant, belly growth is not gradual but rather comes in spurts. Last Saturday, Axel and I went out with our friend Daria (another ISU student who is in Luxembourg for her internship) for the day. We walked around the city and ended up at the chocolate museum. The day started off fine but as it progressed, so did my aches and waddle. It had gotten to the point where Axel looked at the belly and was shocked to see that he noticed a difference from the morning. I normally walk without a waddle, but for some reason, that day, there was no stopping the new swaying of the hips. I noticed the belly too, not only because of the largeness but also because it was starting to hurt to carry around. My back was dealing with it poorly so I sat when I could.
The next day I could barely stand up. And the belly was still huge. So Sunday was a write-off for everything but laying around.
However, on Monday morning, I was fine again. And the belly was bigger but not as big as Sunday. And my back wasn't sore, nor was my belly. I spoke to my friend Tara who knows two other women who are pregnant (due the same time as me coincidentally) and she was amused to hear me say this because she heard the same thing from her friends just recently. So I think what is happening to the body is that it tries to keep things the same (in science terms, it tries to maintain homeostasis) and does it until it reaches a critical point where it can't anymore, and then bam, growth spurt. This is the 3rd time I've experienced this and every time I am wiped out physically and spend 2-3 days just exhausted and sore. It's amazing what our bodies are able to deal with.
Little Pickles has definitely had a growth spurt. Axel felt it kick for the first time on May 25th, which freaked him out a bit, and now I can see my belly move whenever it kicks. I am really conscious of where he/she is chillin' out too and I can tell when it is ready to move. The latest trick Pickles has is to kick hard in the middle of the night to wake me up and force me to pee. So he/she is definitely learning how to get my attention.
I've been experimenting with music and sounds to see what Pickles responds to. We initially narrowed it down to music with a deep bass (with its first favourite being from the Bach Cello Suites (No. 4 in E flat major, BWV 1010: Prelude) but now I think Pickles is really into all things string as long as there is bass in the song. It doesn't respond to any of the pop divas (Cher, Madonna, Britney) or the sounds of ukelele (sorry Jack Johnson) but it loves jazz, classical and heavy metal (sorry neighbours). And cuban music...not brazilian or spanish...it is definitely cuban. Oh, and it likes one Shakira song (Anne, this might be your belly dancing gene coming out). How I have been running this experiment is that when Pickles responds to a song, I put it in a list of songs it kicks to. Then I mix it in with songs it doesn't kick to. And then I see when it kicks. Pickles is very consistent as to what it likes and doesn't. Or what it likes to kick to and what it doesn't! Still trying to decide if it likes to kick when it likes or dislikes something!!
Another reason for Pickles kicking is when I'm hungry and when I'm eating. As soon as I get hungry, it kicks. And when I'm eating, it kicks. But as soon as I'm done, the kicking's over.
So my next set of experiments are to see if I play music it kicks to just after I eat to see what takes kicking precedence - music or food!
Friday, June 12, 2009
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2 comments:
Have you come up with names besides Pickles?
Unfortunately for pickles, the only names we can both agree is really funny and that we would consider are Pickles and Cartman (from South park). I think once we stop assuming that we have to make the name funny and decide that Pickles shouldn't have to change its name when it is ready, then we'll start looking at real names. We are also considering staying in the condiment sector (moutarde for example).
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