Week 17

Your Baby:

• Is about five inches long from head to rump, which is the EXACT height of the jar of salsa I am currently quadruple dipping into. Bowls are for suckers.
• Has begun to develop the all-important adipose tissue — more affectionately known as baby fat.
• Is hard at working transforming its skeleton from soft cartilage into solid bone. Get this baby a part on Heroes.

You:

• Possibly feel immensely huge and very pregnant, but your bump probably isn’t as noticeable as you think it is. People may hesitate to comment or miss it completely, like the woman last night who came up and handed me an alcoholic cocktail and seemed genuinely shocked when I politely refused it, despite the fact that I feel like my belly eclipses my shoes at this point.
• “Normal” weight gain at this point can be anything between five and 13 pounds, although y’all know how I feel about the word “normal.” One book I read this week advised any woman who has gained more than 13 pounds to see a nutritionist and “be more careful”, while my doctor COMPLIMENTED me last Wednesday on not managing to gain a single blessed pound yet. I want to stab the world in the eyeballs with a fork right now, a little bit.

Ah, the double-edged sword of baby movement. On the one hand, it’s been a downright fabulous week, what with the regular sensations and acrobatics I’m feeling in my uterus. There really is nothing like it in the world — both wonderful and WEIRD because my lands, there’s a teeny little moving person living inside your body. Biology! Whatever will it think of next.

On the other hand, I’ve just replaced one neurosis with another. Whereas before I would worry that without regular every-other-day-or-so heartbeat checks, my child would simply cease to exist and I would never know. You might think that I would chill out a little once I could feel the baby move, but now I just work myself into a state if I can go an hour without feeling a kick or tickle. It’s all a very efficient system, I think.

We made our first baby purchases this weekend — I waffle wildly between feeling extremely well-prepared thanks to everything we held on to from Noah’s babyhood and feeling OH MY GOD WE STILL NEED SO MUCH DARN CRAP. We don’t, really, and neither do you, but without a baby shower or registry to look forward to I figured it was high time we got to the store for some onesies and burp rags already.

If this is your first pregnancy, it’s probably a little early to start your registry, although it certainly can’t hurt to think about what store you’ll use (TIP! choose one that offers online registry management and ordering, but also has an actual local store for easier exchanges and hands-on inspections of the bazillion-and-one options) and to start getting advice from friends and online about product recommendations and reviews. Don’t worry, I will have SO MUCH TO SAY about registries and baby gear in the coming weeks, as registry assvice remains my biggest weakness.

(I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut at baby stores whenever I see a pregnant woman contemplating something either useless or totally fabulous, and I’m always vaguely disappointed that no one just comes up and asks me to help them register. Don’t I look knowledgeable and experienced? Don’t you want my knowledge and experience? Wait, where are you going? Oh hi, store security, I was just…oh, okay. I understand. You’ve warned me about this before. I’m leaving.)

Oh Yeah, THIS: My couch sure is comfy. I just wish I could get up off of it without all the ungraceful grunting.

New This Time Around: Why am I still dry-heaving after meals? Why does the mere sight of any type of meat make me gaggingly ill? Why am I still a slave to an ever-changing menu of One Acceptable Food of Mystery while All Else Remains Vile and Inedible?

Last time I lost 10 pounds in the first trimester but quickly gained it back in the early weeks of the second once my appetite returned to normal. I didn’t lose any weight this time, but man, there is just no sign of ANYTHING returning to “normal” anytime soon, digestively speaking. I see cans of Ensure in my future, I just know it.

Related post: Pregnancy and COVID-19: What We Know (& a Few Things We Don’t)

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Here’s a complete online version of our Ultimate Baby Registry Checklist and here’s the downloadable & printable version of our Baby Registry Checklist in case you’re going to the store or want to save it for later or share it.

If you’re considering an online baby registry, we recommend our affiliate Amazon’s Baby Registry, which offers free 90-day returns on baby store purchases. You can even add items from other websites onto to your baby registry.