A little bit of info

So much to say, but I guess what is of interest for me right now is that I am knocked up, almost 20 weeks preggo.. Interesting, fun, weird.. I got an alien creature living inside and it is increasingly taking control of my body..

when I first got pregnant I went into a kind of rant about all the 'Do nots' that were imposed on me.. Our North American culture is so risk-adverse, judgmental, and puritanical. I love looking at English pregnancy websites b/c they are so much more relaxed, and treat pregnancy as a normal thing. I am avoiding discussions about what to eat/do as much as possible b/c I get such a huge variety of no-nos- cheese, deli meat, booze, rare meat, no biking, no swimming, etc. My midwife said that while this was not a good time to introduce new foods, I should be fine to continue my previous diet (90% of French women are immune to listeria b/c they eat so much raw milk cheese). I kind of think I must be immune too, b/c I have eaten so many 'non-traditional' foods (lived in Asia for 5 years). Anyhow, I find my doctor friends, nurse practitioner and midwife all to be so much more relaxed about food/alcohol during pregnancy (all this under the banner of 'Moderation in all things'), compared to the well (overly?) educated, incredibly risk-adverse pregnant women who go on on-line discussions about the 'right way to be pregnant.

Faced with unclear evidence as to how much alcohol is safe, North Americans say 'none'. While the British recommend no more than one unit of alcohol a day. Hmm.. Which is more fun? My mother and all her friends, and most of my friends' mothers drank while they were pregnant- not excessively, but in moderation, so by the dire approach taken by the doomsayers, most of my generation has FAE -maybe it's the 'new normal'. I feel I have to qualify this by saying that I barely drink at all - one or two glasses of wine a week- but some people i know will forgo tiramisu just to avoid the teensiest bit of booze.

Now (4 1/2 months) I actually feel pregnant, getting weird little flutters- my partner actually felt them this weekend as he was singing "ooh baby baby" to the baby- not perhaps a traditional lullaby but catchy nonetheless. For two days last week I felt as if I had eaten an entire turkey (of course I had just indulged in my usual healthy not excessive diet) and then by the end of those 2 days I looked like I had eaten a turkey. I hadn't expected 'popping out' to be so uncomfortable.