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Week Sixteen
Published 05.06.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (15)
Your Baby:
- Is a little over four inches long and weighs a little over 2.5 ounces. The chocolate bunny that I swiped from my toddler's Easter basket weighed 3.5 ounces. But considering I shared it with my fetus, I am a good mom AND a responsible eater.
- Has fingernails and toenails, all of which will be flesh-tearing talons by the time the baby is born. For serious, pack a teensy nail file in your hospital bag if you'd rather your baby's first pictures NOT include giant face scratches.
- Is covered with fine, downy hair called lanugo. THIS will mostly fall out by birth, so rest assured you will not deliver a giant razor-taloned gorilla baby, or something.
You:
- Are leaving the more miserable symptoms behind in the dust, more or less. My gag reflex and appetite remained extremely sensitive until about week 16 last time, and the same held true this time around.
- Can feel your rock-hard uterus about three inches below your belly button (especially when you lie on your back). As your baby grows your uterus will continue to inch upwards out of your pelvis. Translation: YOU WON'T HAVE TO PEE SO DAMN MUCH.
- May be having very vivid but bizarre dreams. Some will be obviously pregnancy-related (the usual ones involve breastfeeding something other than a human baby or putting an animal or your baby in the oven or microwave to "cook" awhile longer), and others will be just plain weird or upsetting, like your childhood nightmares. They should be interpreted as nothing more than dreams stemming from nerves, hormones and your constant thoughts about the future. (In other words, you aren't really going to give birth to a turtle with a full set of human teeth.)
Okay, so the Big Thing with this week is that you MIGHT feel your baby move. The range for feeling those first delicate, pitter-pattery movements is something between week 16 and week 20. And it's different for everybody. Thin women feel it before heavier women. Women who have been pregnant before feel it before women who haven't.
Except for this thin woman who has been pregnant before and did not feel a blessed THING this week, even though I felt Noah move for the first time (clear as day!) when I was exactly 16 weeks along.
Well, let me sort-of take that back. Two weeks ago, during week 14, I swore I felt some quickening movements. It was in the right spot, over to the left a little, and felt like a few tiny soda bubbles had just popped against my insides. By the time my brain caught on to the sensation, it was long past. A couple days later, while lying quietly on the couch, I felt it again.
I spent a loooong time Googling and checking the books to see if it was AT ALL possible that I really felt what I thought I felt -- I mean, quickening is both really easy to miss and yet impossible to forget, once you've experienced it -- but came up dry. Just the same vague old language about "women who have been pregnant before feel it earlier" but no real examples of how MUCH earlier.
Whatever, I never felt it again and am still waiting for my first pregnancy-book-and-calendar sanctioned movements.
For the first-timers among us, I'm sure you've read the descriptions a million times. Little bubbles or flutters or pops or tickles. I guess these words describe it as well as it CAN be described. I used to tap the tips of my fingernails against the underside of Jason's forearm to try to give him an idea of what I was feeling (bum deal for the partner -- being able to feel the kicks from the outside is still a long way off), but it's more like an impossibly gentle and faint THUMP than a tap. Which is why, I guess, the "bubbles popping" metaphor works the best. The sensations are delicate, like a soap bubble, but there's just enough force to suggest the dramatic explosion of that little bubble.
With Noah, I found I could feel him move best while lying on my back at first, and then while sitting very quietly at my desk and focusing on my stomach. Drinking a carbonated beverage always seemed to perk him up -- I always imagined he could hear it fizzing away in my stomach and would decide to make it a rhythmic duet.
Be patient -- you'll DEFINITELY feel something in the weeks to come, depending on how active your baby is, and
Oh!
There's MY baby! I totally just felt it! And there it is again! HOLY CRAP! HI SWEET THING! Thanks for being so totally on cue there.
Oh Yeah, THIS: Uh. I completely forget what thing I was going to complain about this week now. Clogged sinuses? The misery of an unmedicated allergy season? WhatEVER. Baby just kicked! Whee!
New This Time Around: Last time I had the AWESOME side effect of not shedding any hair while pregnant. It was weird. My brushes and black sweaters remained hairball free. Of course, it all fell out a few months postpartum but during pregnancy my hair was awesome. Thick and full and I didn't have to do a THING to it. Ah. So nice. And no such luck this time. I am still shedding full chunks everyday and my hair is limp and hangy and blah no matter what I do.
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About this column
Zero to Forty is a week-by-week guide to the miracle of pregnancy and all the various indignities that come with it. New installments will be published on Wednesdays, with other pregnancy-related content and ramblings to be published whenever the columnist can stay awake long enough to type themzzzzzz.
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Amy Corbett Storch, aka Amalah, is a freelance writer and professional blogger from Washington, DC. She is currently knocked up with her second child, due in October. Her first child is still currently wearing diapers. Amy is currently wondering what she has gotten herself into now.
Amy also writes Alpha Mom's Advice Smackdown.
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Comments (15):
Zoot said:
Okay. This kid I'm pregnant with here? Did not finally kick me until about 21 weeks. I mean, NOTHING. I think maybe once or twice I thought MAYBE something. But nothing real until week 21. And even then it was kinda wimpy. I spent the next 8 weeks or so telling everyone, "This kid is just not as active as his brother and sister were." Because he wasn't and I wanted people to reassure me that their kid was kinda lazy in the womb as well so I would feel better.
BUT NO ONE TOLD ME THAT. Everyone got that sort concerned attitude that upset me more.
Then, at like 32 weeks? He started training for a marathon and he has NOT STOPPED. He punches me in places and ways I never knew a child could reach while residing in a woman's uterus. Did he just kick my SHINS? What the hell? He climbs my ribs and pummels my spinal column.
I have no idea what my point was. Just wanted to chime in on that whole second-time expectation thing and how it can get you EVERY TIME.
Posted on May 7, 2008 16:51
Colleen said:
Felt my second kid earlier than the first (about 15 weeks), but like Zoot, he was lazy and didn't move much until the end. Then I swore he was scratching out the insides of my uterus with his tiny baby claws. Honestly...it felt exactly like when they tried to "rough up my membranes" with the first kid. Each time he did it, I nearly clawed my way to the ceiling. Kid came out with gigantic claw-like fingernails, and when he got riled-up, his hands went straight for his face in a way I never have seen any other baby do. I'd have to fight, with a NEWBORN, to hold his arms away from his face. Crazy! He also found his hands at the illustrious age of 2 weeks...way earlier than baby #1 or any of my nephews.
It's crazy how some of their movements while in utero still occur once they're out (I'm not sure why that amazes me, but it does).
Posted on May 7, 2008 17:22
heels said:
I SWEAR that I felt my son for the first time at 14 weeks. Perhaps I just have an abnormally sensitive uterus...? I can't wait to get pregnant with our second so that I can feel that again. It was so much fun!
Posted on May 7, 2008 17:33
cnanavati said:
Just wanted to chime in and say there is NO reason any woman should go through allergy season unmedicated, especially if she's pregnant and is already dealing with the rhninits of the nose thing. My allergist green-lighted Zyrtec with his blessing, along with nasalcrom and albuterol with a pulmacort back-up on especially bad days.
Let me repeat...we are pregnant...we deserve to breathe!
Posted on May 7, 2008 19:10
Audrey said:
For the allergies: try taking about 1 tablespoon of LOCAL honey a day. I used to be a Zyrtec/Claritin girl, but I have been doing this for the past three spring/summer allergy seasons and I am amazed! I have rarely had to take allergy medication. It's something about exposing yourself to the local pollen through the honey and yes, honey is safe for pregnant - and nursing - women. Good luck!
Posted on May 8, 2008 11:12
Sar said:
I'm pregnant with my first and SWEAR I felt him moving for the first time at 15 weeks. But everyone, including my own mother and family-practitioner-I-have-birthed-hundreds-of-babies father-in-law, insisted that it was gas and I could not possibly be feeling what I knew I was. Hello? I have been on this planet for a quarter century, I did not suddenly get pregnant and forget what gas feels like, thank you. Now at 27 weeks, the baby is starting to be able to reach my ribs and damn! Not as much fun as the cute little kicks to the belly button.
Posted on May 8, 2008 12:31
Jessica (aka Rose) said:
Just a quick aside about the cutting of the nails while at the hospital.
I was about to whip out my trusty file and clippers because my baby was born with unbelievably long nails and all the nurses jumped down my throat.
There are way too many germs and too much bacteria floating around hospitals to risk any unnecessary cuts on your baby. They told me to keep my baby's face protected with socks as mittens and wait to clip until I got home.
Posted on May 8, 2008 14:25
Stephanie said:
I am 16 weeks right now with my second (first child is also 2 and I live in the DC area as well). I swear I've been feeling kicking and moving for maybe 2-3 weeks now. My daughter was so active and kicky that at the 20 week sonogram the doctor actually called out "Wow! Look at her go!". Maybe my husband's and my genes combine perfectly to produce champion kickboxers.
Can I tell you how much fun it is to be at the stage of people looking at you and wondering "have you been getting fat, or are you pregnant?"
Posted on May 8, 2008 14:50
Sara said:
So I heard an old wives tale that a baby is born EXACLTY 5 months to the day that you feel them move.. How do you feel about that?? any truth to that????? Just wondering if anyone can match up their days with it..
Posted on May 8, 2008 15:54
Deborah Svoboda said:
omg...what great timing! I got the warm fuzzies from "Holy crap! Hi Sweet thing!". So now my clothes are fuzzy and I need to go to Ann Taylor. Yeah, that's it.
Congratulations on the fizzing tummy =) Are you starting to feel any better?
Posted on May 8, 2008 19:43
Amy Corbett Storch said:
Jessica - yes, I can definitely understand the no clippers (I was always too scared to use them)...although I brought a file specifically for baby's nails and there was no risk of scratching with that dull thing. (That, and few things pissed Noah off more than newborn mittens.)
Either way, though, I honestly found that biting the nails off myself worked best. Heh. Gross, but I swear it works and is totally easiest.
Posted on May 9, 2008 11:20
psumommy said:
I felt my first 3 kick at 14 weeks (I KNOW that's insane, but there was no doubt) so with this one, when I didn't feel a darn thing until 19 weeks or so, well, I was a little worried. Although I think my midwives thought it was funny because 14 weeks? Really? That's a little weird. Just wait until I hit my due date and I haven't gone into labor and I freak...because ALL 3 of my previous children went ON their due dates. ON.
A big huge congrats on that perfect little bit of timing! See, your baby was just waiting for that 'just right' moment.
Oh, and because this isn't long enough already (what do you mean, I should get out and talk to other adults every once in a while?) I'm having the same hair-thing you are. And this is something totally different this time around. My hair grew like CRAZY with the first 3- absolutely no shedding, it was fabulous! But now I swear I'm going to be bald, because the normal shedding got much, much worse. Yay.
Posted on May 14, 2008 11:16
Michelle said:
I can't remember exactly, but I believe I felt my first move around 15 weeks, really moving by the 18th and 20th week. I am pregnant with my second and certain that I began feeling those "pops" at 10 weeks. I don't recall feeling that with my first, but probably because I didn't know what I was feeling. At 16 weeks, this one is starting to roll around a lot and feels differently than I remember from my first.
Posted on June 16, 2008 20:08
aminah said:
I'm 16 weeks+1 and this week I started noticing my uterus popping out on the right side. I had woken up and there was this lump sticking out and I was like, "huh"? I found it is indeed the uterus and now it pops out all the time, always on the right side only. AND when I'm laying or even sitting down like right now and it's popped out, I can feel the baby kicking or elbowing or flipping....from the outside! I'm very thin so that may be the reason, but yeah, I can feel it from the outside down there. I'm really hyper now, I have to tell everyone!
Posted on June 26, 2008 11:57
Veronica said:
I started to feel the baby move a little before I hit 13 weeks and thought I was imagining it. Then I had a scan and got to see and feel the baby kick simutaneously.
It probably helps that I am quite thin (and have lost more weight than I want to think about, needless to say I want my BUM BACK!) and that this is pregnancy #2.
Posted on July 19, 2008 08:50