Week 22: Swelling Is The Word Of The Week

It’s pregnancy week 22, and here’s what’s going on…

MIND

Take advantage of your last spurts of energy and rapidly declining ability to move without waddling and stopping to pee every three feet — and go on a date night. Once you have to start paying a sitter by the hour, those date nights don’t look nearly as good! Your mind and your relationship will thank you.

BODY

Swelling is the word of the week, and you’re going to have lots of it, from your face down to your cankles. It’s normal, as long as it isn’t incredibly sudden. Just watch your rings — you might need to wear them on a chain around your neck if your fingers are getting too big. And make sure your feet stay comfortable. Swelling, combined with relaxed ligaments, can cause your feet to increase by a shoe size or more! The good and bad news is that the swelling will subside but your feet may become permanently bigger — which at least means that you can justify some shoe shopping.

You’ve reached 22 weeks, which is the beginning of the sixth month. Halle-freaking-lujah! The sixth month, for some, offers a blissful last hurrah of the feel-good second trimester before the bloated, achy, can’t-see-you-vagina-anymore third-trimester sets in. For others, the sixth-month ushers in fun new symptoms like backaches and uncontrollable gas.

Luckily your partner is required to keep loving you anyway (or at least be really good at pretending until you’re back to your old self which — newsflash — will probably be never). But, at least you’ll stop crop-dusting everywhere you walk after the baby comes!

BABY

Your baby’s sense of touch is developing and all those brain neurons are firing. That means as your little one feels around, they are learning all about you (well, the inside of you, anyway) and are probably touching their own face to satisfy their curiosity. You might notice a pattern in all that movement, too, as you get to know your baby’s habits and they develop cycles of high activity and sleepiness. Your sweetie weighs about a pound at this point, and if you’re like most 6-month pregnant women, your reaction to that will be, “WTF IS ALL THE REST OF THIS WEIGHT I’VE GAINED FOR, THEN???”

NEST

Get in on those hand-me-downs! Everyone wants to get rid of their baby stuff. With any luck, the timing will be right, and you’ll have a few friends looking to ditch their newborn onesies and swings and Rock ‘N Plays and unused diapers just when your little one needs them. Call dibs now before they head to the donation bin.