belly buddies

One of my best friends, Katie, is also pregnant and due 9 days before me. We are crossing fingers that we manage to overlap at the hospital. I am 100% for that plan, as it would ideally mean tater arrives early or on time. Wishful thinking, I'm sure. But I really hope I don't reach the point where I consider eating White Castle out of desperation to get things moving (can a vegetarian eat anything at White Castle? I have no idea, but I'm guessing it's unlikely.).

Thankfully, both of our docs are okay with nail salons, so we met up for cheap mani/pedis this afternoon. A full hour to discuss our expanding stomachs and increasingly uncomfortable pants, maternity leave plans, etc. Most interesting point of comparison from the discussion: Katie uses babycenter.com for her fruit size estimates, and I use what to expect. WTE says tater will be the size of an orange by the end of this week. Last week Katie was told that her her stomach resident was the size of a beefsteak tomato. How do you choose beefsteak tomato over orange, babycenter.com? Plain tomato, fine. Beefsteak? Random.

Also, how is there something that is nearly the size of an orange swimming around in my stomach that I cannot feel? It would be a piece of cake for relatively small aliens to take over the human race.

I also learned that Katie is not itchy all the time. I am suffering through that symptom alone. Little red bumps on my thumbs and wrists that itch something crazy when I wake up in the morning. Folks say this is normal. If it gets any worse, I'm calling the doc to find out how to wage a full-blown attack on these bumps. I think this may be one of those symptoms that people just say is normal to take the easy way out. Anyone? Anyone?

At least the mani will reduce my scratching impulse. It will also increase my use of Neosporin, as I inevitably suffer from horrible hangnails every time I get a manicure. But Neosporin appears to be on the "okay" meds list. Phew.