my pregnancy journey 23 weeks

Posted in: JOURNALING | PROJECTS | FOR PHOTOGS | MATERNITY

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SELF-PORTRAIT HOW-TO: In honor of Valentine's Day I decided to add a little extra love to this week's selfie. I used my son's red window crayon and drew a nice big heart on my stomach, then put on some festive clothes. For lighting I used the door off to the left of the photo and placed a silver reflector on the right side of the photo to reflect light back onto the darkest part of my body. The faint highlight on my back is a result of this reflection and was otherwise black. I focused the camera on an object on the floor where I would be sitting. I set my telephoto lens to auto-focus and when it was ready, switched it back to manual to lock in my focal point. For this shot I was zoomed all the way in to get a nice blur in the background. I sat on the floor with my hip and butt behind me. This gave the illusion that the camera was higher than it actually was, which was about 6 feet off the ground. I kept my posture nice and tall to prevent any skin creases or unwanted shadows. in Photoshop I simply darkened the edges of the photo to being more emphasis to the middle of the scene. My ISO was set to 300, aperture f/4.5, with a shutter speed of 1/80.

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WEEK 23  MONTH 6 | FEBRUARY 14TH - FEBRUARY 20TH 
B A B Y   [ L A R G E ! ]   M A N G O

This week our baby girl is the size of a large mango, That's pretty big considering she started at the size of a tiny poppyseed! It's exciting to see my tummy grow because i know she's causing that growth. I'm also excited to meet her, but i'm not in a hurry. I love being pregnant! I love feeling her move and knowing that no matter where I go she's always there. Plus, she needs to stay in there and bake for quite awhile longer. Not only will she need to wait until at least 37 weeks so that we can have a waterbirth, but the longer she's in there the better developed she will be.

Friday, February 14th - today is Valentine's Day so I hope this little baby can feel the love! Mike, Landon, and me and Baby hung out at home watching the winter olympics with some chow mein and pizza. It was a perfect Valentine's Day, and not just because we finished it all off with some DQ blizzards.

Sunday, February 16th - didn't sleep well last night. My hips hurt a little so I"ll have to make sure I keep my mini pillow between my knees. I had some weird dreams since I was in and out so much, but i don't remember any of them!!

Monday, February 17th - i tried to get Landon to feel her move today but he wasn't having it. We were vegging in my bed at night, him watching old Spiderman cartoons on Youtube and me watching the Olympics. She was dancing around like crazy so i thought it might be a good time to try letting Landon feel something. But was much too distracted with his newly discovered cartoons to put his hand on my stomach. The right time will come. I researched the Hypnobabies home study course to make sure it was definitely something i wanted to spend $150 on. I have no doubt that if I put the time in it can really benefit me. I just have to dedicate an hour of my day. I hope to have that ordered very soon, before 28 weeks rolls around.

Tuesday, February 18th - i am a little tired today. Sleep didn't come easily last night. My hips were feeling ok. This time my feet were the problem. I often suffer from restless leg syndrome when i'm pregnant, but sometimes during this pregnancy I've felt a slight tingling and itchiness on my heels that keeps me awake. Last night they acted up worse than other nights so i found myself trying to scratch them on and off all night. Not to mention I kept having very odd dreams since I wasn't ever really in a deep sleep. I also had to get up a few times to help Landon go to the bathroom. He even rolled out of bed once. I couldn't see him in the monitor and had awoken from a bump sound. There he was on the floor with his blankets, looking half asleep but ok. A few hours later, at about 6:10, Landon decided it was time to wake up. He had turned on the hallway light and opened our door. Even though my alarm was scheduled to go off in 20 minutes, I convinced him it was still night time since the sun hadn't come up yet. I ended up getting up early. Hopefully he slept in after I left for work!

Wednesday, February 19th - last night i had my first official pregnancy dream, meaning I actually acknowledged i was pregnant and the dream revolved around the pregnancy. The dream skipped around a lot so its hard to recollect, but i remember my mom and dad appearing here and there, and Mike and Landon too. I was close to popping, even though i felt as though i was not any further along than i am in real life. The midwives and I were arranging the birth to be done at home, which was actually my old house on Gershwin, which is where many of my pregnancy dreams took place during my pregnancy with Landon.. I was a little concerned that we were assuming the waterbirth would done at the house, but eventually the story transitioned back to having the birth at the hospital birthing center like I originally planned. I remember packing a few duffel bags with necessities. I can recall feeling confused as to why we were getting ready since I did not feel any signs of labor. I also remember feeling this overall fear of the approaching birth, despite having survived a successful natural birth with Landon. I think there's always a fear of the unknown. I know it can hurt and I know I can handle it, but it wasn't easy, and i don't know how THIS birth will play out. I can only hope and pray that it goes well and that i remember it as being a beautiful miracle.

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