22 weeks

Nursery decoration excitement! The one and only piece of advice the OB gave me was that I really needed to get my physically intensive baby shopping done prior to 24 or 25 weeks. He said, "you are going to slow waaay down, and you won't be able to help it". We took this advice seriously. So, last weekend, we went to IKEA! YAY! Crib? Check! Rocker? Check! Shelf/Changing area? Check! Funky kid linens? Check! Meatballs? Check! It was really fun.

I am so glad I did this now because the doc was correct...I'm slowing down. I'm not fatigued per se, although I have been known of late to fall asleep without warning in the early evenings. It's just that my body feels heavy and un-agile and my legs hurt from the excess weight. I'm awaiting the arrival of some compression hose to try to combat the leg swelling. The wedding rings are off for the long haul. I'm slooow. When we're holding hands Gregg has to drag me behind him like a stubborn puppy on a leash, except that I'm not stubborn. Just large. 33 pounds in 22 weeks is a little more that I expected at this time, but all for the best.

I actually went to a doctor's appointment this week which seemed sort of perfunctory, but yielded some ultrasound jelly for my home doppler, so was worth it. The doc didn't laugh at my joke though, so I got some extra jelly on the sly. He said, "how are you feeling?", and I said, "I feel like I've been stuffed into a snow suit, and the snow suit is me". If he had laughed, he would have 3 more packets of jelly in that exam room, so really, it's his own fault. Gregg, my love, laughed his head off. He laughs at my jokes, and that's why he's nice.

The boys seem to have pretty predictable sleep/wake cycles and the kicking is stronger all of the time. Gregg can feel it and is delighted. Such a sweetie. The kicking is so hard that my shirt jiggles.

Our office was taken over by generation X on Jan. 1, a change that has been incredible. It was previously run by a man who must have been the very last born of 'the greatest generation', a workaholic who thought chaos was unavoidable in pediatric primary care and also thought that overworking meant better working. There were actually no office policies. Frightening. Our work week shortened from 50+ hours to 40. We got raises. There are policies and procedures and staff meetings! Less interoffice chaos! Less stress! Patients have noticed how much calmer the office is. We're seeing more patients and have longer office hours and weekend hours even though we're working fewer total hours! Working smarter, not harder, you know? This will definitely help me stay at work longer. My goal is to work until May 1 and have these babies between May 27 and June 2. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.