Third Trimester--Ready or Not...

By Dr. Yasmine Kalkstein

It's here! The homestretch....it's so hard to believe--time has moved so fast. Adam and I are in no rush as we have plenty to do before December (ahem...dissertations), but from what I hear, by the end of month 8, I'll be ready to get this little one out of my body. I have kind of been dreading the third trimester in some ways...I guess I keep saying things like "i'm getting more pregnant" and I know I am soon going to be VERY pregnant. People seem to enjoy sharing stories with me like "I couldn't sleep" " i went to the bathroom every hour" " i couldn't move" "you can't tie your own shoes" "you can't focus on anything" "i wanted to sleep all the time" etc. I'm sure now people will share with me labor stories instead--can't wait to hear those!! :) Speaking of sharing stories, I have discovered that the guys in my life who are fathers seem to also enjoy sharing baby stories that revolve around two themes: 1) crap and 2) sleep (or rather lack thereof). This of course excludes our fathers, which leads me to conclude that Adam and I must have simply been exceptional babies. Fortunately the women generally get all "awww-y" when they think of their babies. Hmm, a psych experiment about memory for babies in the making!

Things are going really well. I have gained just over 10 pounds and still look smaller than average for how far along I am but I FEEL pregnant. I am just more tired and something usually ails after walking a mile. The new symptom I've had to deal with is a new level of forgetfulness/absentmindedness--I was bad enough before...but now...oh man. I'm hoping that maybe I will finally learn to stop and THINK before I leave somewhere without my keys/groceries/etc. But, we'll see. Absentmindedness is a Konheim trait (i.e. "it's not my fault!")

The little baby seems to be doing quite well as far as I can tell at least. He's definitely an active one and last night was the first night the activity kept me up. He seems to prefer the left side of my body and last night, he didn't seem too happy that I was trying to sleep on my left side. Or maybe he's so happy he's dancing in there. Whatever it is--last night I said "fine, you win, and rolled to my right side" and thought--so much for preventing vericose veins my sleeping on my left side :) (no, i still don't know the sex--i'm just choosing a pronoun).

Adam and I held a newborn the other day and the reality of our situation kind of sunk in...namely that we are...well...clueless :) For example, Adam has declared our baby will be toilet trained by 6 months. Given my aversion to crap, I think this is a great plan.
Oh, and the good news is my belly button is still an inney! (although sadly, lost all suction...)

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