What's Going on in There? Oh- I popped! February 12, 2010

Prior to feeling my little baby kick, I had been having this sensation for the past couple of weeks that felt almost like rolling. Everything I'd read and heard up to this point is that I would feel "flutters" or that it felt like you had "butterflies" in your stomach. I even read that experienced mothers (those who had been pregnant before) could differentiate between a growling stomach and the baby moving, which I guess feels similar to some. Well, I tell you- I didn't feel any of that! My baby never "fluttered." It was never anything subtle, fluttery, or bubbly. It felt like someone was rolling around in there, really, really, really slowly. Especially when my pants were too tight (back when I could still zip/button them), it felt as though he was rolling extremely slowly right up against my jeans. Here's how I was describing it to people:
Make a ball with one fist and lay your other hand out flat. Then, put your fist into the palm of your flattened hand, and very slowly rotate it. That's exactly what it felt like! It was funny for me because everyone kept telling me, "It's way too early for you to feel anything; it most likely wasn't the baby." I always smiled and nodded, but inside was thinking, "And since when do you feel what's going on in my belly and KNOW what's happening and what's not?!" I knew it was my little baby. You just couldn't see him yet!

Husband and I took a trip down to visit Olivia and on our to-do list was to get me a Bella-Band. It was becoming critical that I get something to help hold my pants up because buttoning them had become an impossibility, and zipping them simply wasn't holding them at my waist. So, I was constantly having to re-adjust, and make sure that when I sat down, I didn't have a plumbers crack. I'd been feeling a bit bloated and stretched out the few days prior, so I was really excited to be getting a Bella-Band. It was the first thing I found when we went into the store, and it was so easy to get! You just read the back and it tells you, by your non-pregnant body pants size, what size you'd need. It even had little diagrams of women's body types so you could pick yours.

We got back to the hotel and I immediately put it on. I looked in the mirror noticing that something was just a smidge different. At roughly 17 weeks and 2 days, I was feeling pudgy. My belly didn't really have any shape, but it most certainly looked bigger and chunkier.

You could tell that there was something going on in there. Funny enough, at about this time, I saw a coworker in the kitchen at work and said hello. We got on the subject of kids somehow, and I mentioned something about my baby and he asked, "Wait, you're pregnant?" I said, "Yes, you can't tell?" And he responded, in typical guy-without-taste fashion, "Well, I noticed you were looking different, but I figured you were just gaining weight; you know, newly married and all."

Wow. Great job! Well, at about 18 weeks and 4 days, it has become unmistakable. I finally popped! One wouldn't look at me now and say, "Wow, you're getting fat!" No one actually said that, but he may has well have, right?

 Here we see a picture of my fantastic new bella-band. Since it's white, I can wear it with everything in my closet. If it sticks out, it is just a little line of white that, I feel anyway, gives some character to my outfit.

 Pop! Goes the belly!

And here, you see that the bella-band doesn't come out from the bottom of this shirt at all. But, notice that my pants are comfortably being held up without my assistance. Thanks to my pregnant friend, Jessie, for sending me the website to find out about this AMAZING product! <3