16 Week Growth

My belly at 16 weeks, 1 day:

Every time I think I look like I have a bump, I see someone with a belly like mine or bigger who is for one reason or another clearly not pregnant (i.e., she has a drink in her hand).  On my walk to the gym this afternoon, I saw a male construction worker who must have been at least 38 weeks!

From my point of view, I've been able to see a difference in my belly for a while now.  Here is my view from up above tonight (yes, I still have my belly button ring...).  Notice my newest and hugest-yet milestone- when I stand up straight and move only my neck to look downwards, I can no longer see my own toes! 

In this picture, you can see the lines that develop after I bend over or slouch down while sitting- it's the only place that my skin folds on my tummy now.  Right now, the baby is still completely below my belly button (but large enough that everything that is normally down there is pushed up and out above my belly button- and large enough to sit heavily on my bladder).  As the baby grows, it will grow from my lower abdomen up and out, and so my belly will go from a little buddha belly with an inch or two of flat stomach above it, like my picture this week, into one big bump that takes up my whole front side.  

All the moms out there (future grandmas and great-grandmas!) will be happy to know that I'm feeding my belly well.  Right now, I'm eating a late dinner of homemade split pea and carrot soup (leftovers I froze after a big batch this winter- delicious!) along with some Whole Foods pre-made seaweed salad (high in calcium) and steamed cabbage dumplings from the macrobiotic food bar (macrobiotic=healthy, right?).  For dessert, I'm making a (rice)milkshake and adding brown rice protein powder and I'll have some grapes, currently my strongest craving (weird!).  Lunch today was a vegetable pot pie in a whole wheat pastry shell; my snack was blueberry flavored coconut milk yogurt with frozen wild blueberries and locally made Milk & Honey granola; and breakfast was a banana/rice milk/tahini/brown rice protein powder smoothie and some Trader Joe's honey and sesame seed covered almonds.  That's a lot of food for someone who doesn't have her appetite back yet!  I'm off to make that milkshake, then plan tomorrow's menu...