17-Week Update (Feelin' Groovy), Nursery Planning, & Flicky Spasms

I am incredibly grateful for the second-trimester respite. While I still get tired even faster than I normally do, I have much more energy now; I'm able to juggle more things, which is good because there's a lot to do before the baby comes. In fact I decided to take a break from classes while I'm in my second trimester so I will have time to get things done while I'm feeling good and not yet the size of a walrus. But I do plan to take one more class before my due date, just to knock out another 3 credits.

The future nursery is still full of random stuff - it looks more like a storage room right now than a bedroom (because that's basically how we've used it for the past 3 years). The nursery is also VERY small, so I'm planning to try to be creative in how I furnish and organize it in order to maximize the space we do have. For instance, I'm putting a lot of thought into how to organize the small closet so that fewer things need to be stored out in the room itself. I have the feeling I'll be glad to shut the closet door and hide a lot of things like clothes, laundry baskets, etc. - for me, the more I can hide away, the better. Too much stuff/clutter stresses me out. (I know, I'd better get used to it with a baby coming, as babies tend to require a bunch of stuff.) I'll be posting more specific ideas for the nursery soon.

According to BabyZone.com, this is what the Peanut looks like right now (he/she is about 5.5" long):

I can totally understand why the baby would start playing with the umbilical cord; it must get pretty boring in there. And claustrophobic. In fact, I'm surprised I wasn't born mid-panic-attack as I fought to get out of what surely was a claustrophobic living environment; I'm sure my "plump" size didn't help matters - I was over 9 lbs so there couldn't have been much room to spare in there. As cool as it is to see these kinds of progress photos and drawings, my first thought when I see them is, "Oh man, it's getting bigger. And bigger. And at some point it's going to have to come out of my body." Seriously, you guys, it's terrifying.

I recently began feeling Peanut moving around in there, which is a very cool experience. I've read all sorts of descriptions of how it feels when you first feel the baby move, and it's clear that it's very difficult to describe, and also it seems that the feeling is different for different people. For me it feels sort of like a tiny muscle spasm in my abdomen, or like I'm being flicked from inside my belly. Other people describe it as popcorn popping, bubbles, or butterflies in the stomach, but I think for me the best description is a tiny muscle spasm. If that kid really is flicking me from the inside, I fear I may have an ornery, Dennis the Menace type on my hands. Time will tell.