Monday, while we were lying on the couch watching TV, the baby started kicking like a boxing kangaroo.  Even Joe could feel him punching through.  The baby kept this up for several hours and made me uncomfortable enough to have trouble falling asleep.  This performance was repeated Tuesday night as well, and while I was in the lab Wednesday.  I couldn't tell if the baby was so active because I had eaten about an hour earlier, or because I was typing on a really loud typewriter.  Later, about an hour after I had a snack, the baby became incredibly active again.  So, by deductive reasoning, despite lack of proper controls, I'm hypothesizing that the baby gets really kicky after I eat. 

But it's amazing how powerful those little nudges can be.  I'm quite concerned about how much worse it'll get when he's even bigger and has less room to move around in. 

I've also been having some small contractions.  I only get them rarely and they don't last for very long, but they certainly are not the most comfortable things.  It's incredibly weird, as well, since each one will roll like a wave across my uterus.  These, too, have me concerned about just how painful the last few months of this pregnancy will be. 

I finally got Dr. Cook's signature on a release for so I could start my exercise classes.  It was so ridiculous:  I gave up on waiting for them to call me back, so I just ran up to the office and all they did was stamp his signature on there.  Since the clerk certainly had no clue whether or not I am fit to take an exercise class, I found this quite interesting.  Definitely seems like it would be a liability.

But Tuesday I did get to go to the class and I enjoyed it immensely. It really felt good to get my heartrate up, and the instructor is really fun.  There were 3 other women in the class: one 24 weeker, a 26.5 weeker and a stick-thin, spandex-wearing 12 weeker.  The other 2 futher-along women rolled their eyes alot at the 12-weeker, especially when she said she was going to get an amnio (she's only 23) just to find out the sex, since she doesn't want to wait until week 20 or so.  I really amazes me that she would take that risk, since at her age the risk of miscarriage from the amnio is so much higher than the risk of any genetic disorder.  When I told her than we didn't even consider an amnio for that reason she said, "Well, I just want to find out the sex."  Somehow I don't think that will lessen the miscarriage risk....

I found out two things at this class:  I still have the good coordination necessary for aerobics, but I have totally lost any sense of balance.  The exercises are certainly not your typical boring routines, and for one part, we sit on these big exercise balls and bounce.  Sounds weird, but it was quite fun and worked out the lower body.  Unfortunately, I nearly fell off my ball several times.  I asked if anyone ever wiped out, and the instructor said doubtfully, "Well, I think one woman might have once."  Hopefully my sense of balance will develop again after a few more bouncing sessions.