23 Weeks and Butterflies in My Belly

Sometimes I feel like the end of this pregnancy is so far away, but other times, I'm amazed at how quickly it's all going by. Here's a belly picture update for you all. Some days I feel huge and other days I'm worried that I'm not big enough, but with all these 'butterflies in my belly', I'm reassured that things are going well and baby girl is doing fine.

I just realized today that I haven't yet talked about one of the most amazing things I've experienced so far with being pregnant- feeling the baby move! The baby books describe the feeling as 'butterflies in your belly', but I think it feels more like gas bubbles. But butterflies in the belly is a much more poetic description so we'll go with that. The feeling certainly started out that way when I first felt them at around 17 weeks, but since then, she's gotten bigger and so have her movements. Sometimes Mike and I will be sitting around and I'll gasp in surprise because she's kicked me so hard. He's even been lucky enough to feel her move from the outside a few times. Her favorite kicking spot on me is right in the bladder.

As for how I'm feeling...wonderful now that the weather is cooling down. Mike and I have started taking walks around the neighborhood after dinner. It's weird how quickly I get winded even though we're going at what seems like a snails' pace, but I'm trying to keep at it. I don't know if this is a pregnancy related symptom or not, but recently my hip joints have been hurting like crazy. If I sit for a while, getting back up and walking around at first is really painful. And when I first get out of bed in the morning. Maybe I'm just getting arthritis. Who knows?

Pregnancy during this stage is pretty good. People are starting to notice that I'm pregnant, so I guess I've passed the 'maybe she's just put on some weight' look. And I know some women feel weird about strangers touching their pregnant bellies, but I don't mind at all. I've always thought that pregnancy was such an miraculous time and now that I'm getting to experience it firsthand, I'm thrilled beyond belief!