Pre-Vacation Almost 20 Week Update

Now I am at almost 20 weeks of pregnancy, so halfway through. I think I am growing bigger by the day. I taught one of my students the adjective "round" with reference to my belly, and I don't think that she will forget that word soon. Now each time I see her, she tells me that I am more round. I don't mind, though. I love my growing belly!

The baby is getting stronger, and when she moves around I can feel her much more easily. She jabs a little (with hands and feet, I'm sure, though I can't tell which is which), and I think she also rolls sometimes. It's hard to describe the feeling. If you're familiar with cats, you know that sometimes when you pet them on their back, their back muscles will kind of contract involuntarily, like a wave after your hand passes over. That's what it feels like on the inside of my ab muscles. It's a little uncomfortable, but knowing that the source is so wonderful helps a lot.

Otherwise, I am still feeling fine. I am very hungry - it's hard for me to believe that I only need an extra 400-500 calories a day for the baby, because I am like an eating machine. I trust my body, though, and have been following the "give the belly what it wants" philosophy of pregnancy dieting. My weight is going up between a half kilo and a kilo a week, which I think is on the high side of normal. I'm continuing to jog and swim four days a week, which is great. I am still tired in the evenings, and I have a weird continual itch on the sole of my right foot, which I've read can happen during pregnancy. Seriously weird, though, and very hard to scratch satisfactorily.

This week we've been preparing for a five-day trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday. Wouldn't you know that right in time for our trip a rainy weather pattern has arrived, settled in, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. They are now predicting rain for every single day of our vacation. But at least the chances for precipitation are relatively low most days (20-30%), so I hope we'll avoid the worst of it. Anyway, we are flying to Osaka tomorrow morning, and then we'll spend five nights in Kyoto, in a Japanese Inn called Rikiya. I hope I'll have lots of interesting and exciting things to report next week! Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!