Well my weight has been all over the place these past two weeks but it seems to be settling after another jump again. My belly is also huge, so I'll forgive the scale any indiscretions against me ;)

From Friday to this Wednesday my weights were: 220.0, 219.8, 221.0, 221.2, 221.4, 219.4, and today's weight was 220.4. No particular reason for any of these, just fluctuations of food, sodium, baby pee, who knows. It can be maddening, but overall I think I can say finished this month up by about three pounds, and most of it will fall off in another few months.

Onto fun stuff! I will be doing another belly picture in two weeks, when I hit the third trimester, but I happen to have a preview of it since a dear friend of mine threw a birthday party for herself with a fabulous henna artist and I got some arm work done. She posed me very nicely for the shot and both the henna AND belly look pretty awesome, if I do say so myself :)

The glitter only lasted for a day as it was just a pretty filler, and the dark brown henna flaked off to reveal the orangey/brown stain that is still very dark, even four days later. It was a good batch of henna.

Here's a picture of me with my friend Deanna (left) and the birthday girl Elizabeth (middle), who also happens to be the owner of these photos:

Consequently, you think I'd realize after so many obnoxiously bald-looking pictures that having my hair in buns for pictures just isn't all that flattering on someone who is round like me. Another more weight related realization of these shots is that, though I have arguably gained ten pounds now (at 26.5 weeks pregnant) it really isn't in my face or anywhere else but my belly, that I can see. My face looks about the same as it did in my prepregnancy pictures, with no major bloat. And since I show ALL my weight and water retention in my chin(s) this gives me additional comfort that this weight will completely or mostly drop off post-birth. I just keep having to do MY part and watch that if I AM hungrier than my daily calories, I am eating healthier than not.

My hips are killing me, as they do by this point every pregnancy (it keeps getting a few weeks earlier, but I blame that on my body settling into pregnancy earlier each time), and so even rolling over in bed or lifting my leg to get up another stair is stabbing pelvic pain. Even if I was trying to exercise each day (which I haven't been), I honestly don't know if I could do it. At this point I can barely sit on a normal couch, it bugs my back and hips so much. So I have been confined mostly to a stability ball for a chair and standing. My plans for exercise have thus essentially been shelved. If I get an urge and feel good I may do it, but right now it's just too much to bother with.

My only concern with shelving the exercise is that I can already tell I am losing some muscle tone, and I NEED that muscle tone for an easier birth. So right now I need to seriously weigh the mental priority of going easy on myself vs. forcing myself to do SOME exercise and try to maintain tone in my legs, back, and abs. Birth is harder than a race in a lot of respects, and going into it without some training is asking for problems (as I have experienced in the past). So I can't quite decide if I should make a serious effort to overcome this pain and my laziness or keep taking it easy. I can persist in my normal household duties for the most part, needing more sleep now, but I am hesitant to exert myself any more.

I continue to mull over this and other things. In the meantime, I'm just plodding along in stasis, eating the same and watching the scale slowly move up (or rather, stay stay JUMP, stay stay JUMP). I am probably eating 2200-2400 calories most days, as I am not eating SUPER healthy (some higher fat foods and desserts) and have been hungrier. But for the most part 80% of my eating is quality and I am writing it all down. I will need to tighten back up for weight loss mode post-baby, but for now I am enjoying a higher calorie, more lax way of eating without any inexplicable gains :)