34 Weeks!

We are at 42 days to go (tentatively)!  Wow!  This week's highlights....

Size of baby: according to our ultrasound on Friday, about 4 pounds, plus or minus 1
Movement: lots.... sometimes a bit painful
Food cravings: I really wanted ice cream this week
What I miss: not peeing all the time .... feeling attractive.... my skin looks worse than when I was in high school
Sleep: not.  getting.  better.
Symptoms: the same - so tired, but no sleep, a belly I feel like I need to carry with my arms, and some heartburn/reflux.... and oh yeah.... peeing.  ALL. THE. TIME.
Best moment this week: Friday's ultrasound and doctor's appointment - a relief!
What I am looking forward to: this won't be changing from here on out - everything.  Getting our baby here and being a family.... hearing the doctor say, "it's a ____!".... and seeing the look on Chris's face when he gets to hold him/her for the first time...... right before we got married, I asked Chris what was one thing he was looking forward to about being married, and he said, without hesitation, "having my own family."  I will never forget that, and am so happy that I get to be the one to give him that.

I can't believe I'm 34 weeks pregnant.  Its really crunch time!  This week was pretty uneventful leading up to Friday's appointments.  I was a little nervous going to the ultrasound.  At my last appointment 3 weeks ago, when the OB measured my belly, she said that I was a little small, so she would order a growth scan to make sure everything was fine.  She said she wasn't worried about it, but we would take a look to check.  I managed not to worry too much, just made sure to keep up my fluid and protein intake.  A lot of factors can influence your belly measurement other than a problem with the baby.  As it turns out, I am just a small-bellied pregnant girl.  All of the measurements indicated that Baby is right where s/he needs to be, and my fluid level was great. (So IN YOUR FACE to the guy who told me last weekend, that I looked like I was about to pop!).  Apparently my belly is only about the size of someone around 27 weeks, but with the baby looking perfectly healthy, I am more than fine with that!  I'm just now getting to that uncomfortable stage, and I can only imagine what it would feel like if I added 7 more centimeters to this belly.  We were told that our baby weighs around 4 pounds, but that could be off a pound in either direction, but either way, our doctor said that everything is great, so much so that she is letting me wait 2 weeks for my next appointment instead of coming in next week already.  Although, after the next appointment, we will begin weekly appointments until D-Day.  She also said that she would not let me go more than a week past due before we talk induction, which means that we will for sure have a baby before Easter - crazy! .... though, I am hoping this baby decides to come on his or her own and that I don't need to be induced.

When we were having the ultrasound, the tech tried to get some face shots in 4D of the baby.... we told him that more than likely, the kid wouldn't cooperate, and guess what - we were VERY right.  We could see a hand and that was about it.  What made me laugh though (and feel super good, not gonna lie!) was when the tech called me skinny.  He said that I am the perfect pregnant body type for 3D and 4D views - great fluid, skinny, baby in perfect position - hey, I feel bigger and bigger every day, and that was a great comment to get.  And side note - at least for now, baby is head down, not breech.  But, as our OB said, we'll worry more with that when I'm 37 weeks.

So that was Friday.  It was kind of a nasty day, but it was great to see how much better the car handled with good, NOT bald tires.  We did a little grocery shopping and came home.  Then Saturday night, we went out with some friends from Chris's work to a pub we went to last summer when a night out was planned in honor or our upcoming wedding.  Most of the group is pretty nice, but some are just flat out strange, including the guy who is the ONLY person I have ever heard Chris make a negative comment toward (and by negative comment, I mean he probably only said that he finds him obnoxious.  Chris never says mean things.).  Chris likes everyone! .... Except this guy, so there's definitely something wrong with him.  He asked me if the baby was kicking, saying, "has it started kicking yet?  I wanna feel it."  He didn't actually try to feel anything, but all I could think was - try, just try and see what happens.  All the while, Chris is laughing at the thought of this guy trying to feel our baby, knowing full well I would have knocked the guy out.  Ahhhh.... some people.  After dinner, everyone else headed out for more drinking, and we of course came home.... and crashed.

We spent a bit of today putting together our baby swing, attaching the wheels to the stroller, and washing baby items.  Here's a picture of the swing all finished, with our baby giraffe strapped in:

I strapped the stuffed giraffe in because I was confused at first how a couple of straps worked.... plus it looks super cute in there.  And here is Ms. Drama Queen Neglect herself after we got done doing this:

That's one of "her" spots - a corner on the back wall of our living room.  As the baby stuff piles up, the more depressed she acts sometimes.  We try to make sure we give her extra attention, but we can tell that she knows things are changing.  She refused to eat one evening when we had brought home a handful of baby items.  It took Chris sitting down with her, some coaxing, and more sitting as she ate to get her to eat.  That's how I know he'll be a great dad - he cares enough about the dog to practically hand feed her.  And he's slowly gotten her to play more.  Its so funny and cute to watch the two of them.  Bailie was definitely more mine when we first got her..... she is 100% Chris's girl now.  But its sweet.  We also moved our pack-n-play to the bedroom so that Bailie can get used to it being in there.  Its extra strange to think that we'll actually be using it very soon.

That's about it for now.  As if they weren't before, things are REALLY coming quickly now.  After tomorrow, we will be able to use the words "next month" when referring to our future baby.  Wow.

33 Week Bump.....

33 weeks, 5 days

33 Weeks!

We are officially under 50 days to go!  Wow!  This week's highlights....

Size of baby: my pregnancy book says that the average length is around 16 inches long (head to toe measurement) and average weight is about 3.7 pounds.
Movement: baby is constantly rolling all around..... I'm convinced the baby's been transverse a lot because so many times I can feel s/he on both sides at the same time
Food cravings: no cravings to report.... eating very much in general is getting pretty uncomfortable
What I miss: walking and breathing like a normal person
Sleep: still sucks
Symptoms: so tired, but no sleep, a belly I feel like I need to carry with my arms, and some heartburn/reflux.... and oh yeah.... peeing.  ALL. THE. TIME.
Best moment this week: Valentine's Day.... Chris's face was really sweet looking at his football buddy onesie.  I love seeing him get excited about our baby
What I am looking forward to: this won't be changing from here on out - everything.  Getting our baby here and being a family.... hearing the doctor say, "it's a ____!".... and seeing the look on Chris's face when he gets to hold him/her for the first time......

Another fairly uneventful week for us, which is fine because all of that will be changing VERY soon!  We had a low-key Valentine's evening consisting of one of Chris's now-favorite meals (homemade chicken strips) and of course, his favorite dessert, chocolate peanut butter pie.  On Wednesday, Bailie's old foster mom, Nadine, came to visit.  She is such a sweet lady, and I love having her over.  Bailie was so excited to see her.

On Thursday night, we took Bailie over to Carole's, our go-to pet sitter, so that we could leave on Friday to spend the night in Watertown to take of some errands.  The weather finally allowed us to get down to Syracuse so we could pick up our baby swing from Babies R Us.  Then Saturday we took our car over to the Kia dealership for its 60K miles check.  Everything was mostly fine, but we learned exactly why we've been sliding all over the road this winter - apparently, when your tires are "very nearly bald" as it was put to us, you get no traction!  It was pretty terrifying to hear that our tires were in such a horrendous condition, but at the same time, it explained all of our spin-outs.  As soon as we heard this, Chris called a car care center that we've used before (that would also be cheaper than the dealership prices) to see if they had the tires he wanted and if we could get in the same day.  THANK GOD this place was able to get us in, and we now have MUCH safer tires.  It scared me so much to think of us driving around on those tires, but at the same time, it made me SO very grateful to God that He has TRULY been watching over us and keeping us safe.  There is no other explanation.  So even though it was a much more expensive day than anticipated, it was a HUGE blessing.

The rest of the day was spent doing a little baby shopping.  I feel so lost right now when it comes to how many of various items we need.  I wish there was some special way of calculating just how many onesies, sleepers, blankets, etc that we need.  Plus, it makes it even harder because we know the kid's not going to wear things for very long in the beginning months anyway, so we find ourselves being kind of cheap when it comes to a lot of these items.

I got 2 comments yesterday that I have not yet received.  When we were getting our new tires, the guy there was like, "wow you look like you're about to pop!  When are you due?  Oh, April?  Yeah, I don't think you're going to make it that far."  I wanted to say, actually, my doctor says I'm considered small for this stage of pregnancy, so thanks for that reminder, and also do you think I want to "not make it" to April?  ...... but, this was the guy making our car safer, so I really didn't care.  He could have said whatever he wanted.  It actually made me laugh because I know for a fact that I'm not big for 33 weeks, and the majority of first time babies come, on average, at 41 weeks and 3 days.

We got home at a fairly reasonable time last night, around 10:15.  Carole kept Bailie for an extra night for us for free because she wasn't going to be home when we thought we'd be back, which worked out so perfectly since we ended up needing to do the extra car stuff.  We were both able to sleep in pretty late (without Bailie waking either of us at her usual times).

In general, I'm still feeling pretty good.  I'm still very tired, yet unable to sleep, but I'm sure that's pretty normal.  My appetite's been pretty insatiable during the last few days, which makes me think Baby's been going through a growth spurt.  I've definitely learned that I have to watch how much I eat in one sitting though because if I get full, it's really uncomfortable.  And if I have to walk around after being full (like going to Babies R Us after dinner on Friday), its extra uncomfortable.  But overall, pregnancy's still being pretty good to me.  I made it to the gym 4 times this week.  I didn't go Wednesday because I was just horribly tired, the kind of tired that you can't fight through, at least when pregnant anyway.  The other days were decent.  It doesn't take much anymore to cause a spike in my heartrate when exercising, so I have found that I have to slow down even more.  It takes right at 45 minutes for me to do 3 miles on the elliptical.  I always make my goal 2 miles, knowing that if I make it there, I can generally do the third one.  It is such a far cry from what I was doing pre-pregnancy, but I'm grateful to be able to do anything right now.  I have to remind myself that there are plenty of women with various issues that prevent them from doing even what I am right now, so I have nothing to complain about.  I would much prefer being limited to my current activity level than limited to nothing at all.  Fortunately, I haven't noticed any more BH contractions while working out.

Tomorrow is President's Day, which is awesome because it means Chris will be home with us.  Then Friday we have our next appointment at 1 to see our baby, and then we go for our regular doctor's appointment right after.  I will post a bump picture sometime later this week.  Until then...

32 Week Bump and Happy Valentine's Day to Us!

It's crazy that this is our one and only Valentine's together as a married couple, just us.....

this bump picture makes me laugh because I think my belly looks lumpy from the ruching on my shirt

Chris's present to me, so sweet

my present to Chris - it's green and says "Daddy's Football Buddy"

Following tradition as set from last year, we will be having Chris's favorite dessert - a peanut butter mousse.  Its the simplest thing to make, but oh so delicious!

Happy Valentine's Day!

32 Weeks!

OH MY GOSH, I'm 32 weeks!!! ......... Here's the highlights:

Size of baby: my pregnancy book still says that the average length is 15 inches long (head to toe measurement) and average weight is about 3 pounds.  Still feels like the heaviest 3 pounds of my life.
Movement: baby is constantly rolling all around..... this morning it felt like a ball in my belly just rolling from side to side
Food cravings: no cravings to report 
What I miss: other than feeling skinny, not having to pee a zillion times
Sleep: one word: awful.  I had 2 good nights of sleep in the last couple of weeks, but that's it.  I guess its just my body prepping me for a lifetime of no sleep.
Symptoms: no sleep, a belly I feel like I need to carry with my arms, and some heartburn/reflux
Best moment this week: Chris seeing my belly jump... he has seen little spasms here and there, but one night this week, he saw a big jump and the look on his face was hilarious!  It was very alien to him I think, but so funny.
What I am looking forward to: this won't be changing from here on out - everything.  Getting our baby here and being a family.... hearing the doctor say, "it's a ____!".... and seeing the look on Chris's face when he gets to hold him/her for the first time...... and for this week, our one and only Valentines as a married couple, just the two of us

Not a lot going on this week.  I can't believe I am 32 weeks pregnant.  This time last year, Chris was working a few weekends, it was cold but not too snowy, and I was still running like a crazy person.  Its funny to compare now to only a year ago.

It was a good week, though I witnessed a really rude pregnancy/baby comment.  On Tuesday, I went to an events planning meeting with a bunch of ladies from the Embassy.  I was talking to a friend of mine here who is also pregnant, about 3 weeks behind me.  A lady I hadn't seen since I was 13 weeks started talking to us, and was making guesses as to what each of us are having.  Then she added, directed at my friend, "...and a BIG baby for you!"  I'm sure she said this with the logic that if you're a bigger person, that automatically equals a bigger baby.  This girl has not even gained 10 pounds, whereas I have gained, let's just say, more than 10 pounds.  I was in shock for her, but she handled it really well.  I felt awful for her though because I know she's had some complications, had to be on bedrest for a while, and has to be extra careful in general, more so than say, someone like me, who has had a very low-risk pregnancy.   Then I felt really angry for her because it does NOT matter what your intention was with a comment like that, you do NOT say something like that to a pregnant woman!

I think I've been pretty good about letting things roll off my back, but I'm not going to lie, it really hurts when someone says something to you other than, you look wonderful!  Some of my comments have included: you're looking pretty porky (yes, porky.  I could have cried.), I think you're bigger than I was at that many weeks, wow that's going to make you gain at least 10 pounds (as I'm about to eat my dinner), and quite a handful of my own "you're baby's going to be huge" comments.  The huge baby comments really hurt my feelings because I know that the people who have said them did so because they know that I'm no small-appetite girl.  Guess what, people, that does not make it okay to say.  My doctor says my weight gain is perfect (no matter how much I don't like it), and that everything I've done in this pregnancy as far as diet and exercise is great.  Comments like these make me really, really self-conscious to eat in front of anyone other than Chris, and I haven't felt like that since the days of purposely starving myself when I was in undergrad.  So thanks for that.

So, all of that to say, I think most people know what is not okay to say to a pregnant woman, but to be on the safe side, even if you don't mean it, just tell them they look awesome!  The other day on my way to the gym, I stopped in to see a woman at the Embassy, who always make me feel so good because she tells me I look wonderful even when I feel like I look awful.  Not only was I in gym clothes, but my face these days is so washed out with makeup, and my skin is broken out in a way I've never experienced (I was always one of the lucky ones in high school who rarely had a pimple).  She told me I was glowing and looked wonderful, and all I could think when I looked in the mirror was, I look like garbage!  But she is very sweet to say that.

Okay, off my soapbox.  That comment this week to my friend just really aggravated me, and made me think of all the snarky things I'd like to say back to people who say things like that.

On Friday night, we went out for Mexican food for an early Valentine's dinner.  We had never been to this restaurant, and while the food was good, it was weird.  I got a veggie burrito, and when I see "grilled vegetables" in a burrito, I think of peppers, onions, etc.... you know, normal burrito ingredients.... My burrito had broccoli and green beans in it!  It tasted surprisingly good, but I just thought that was bizarre.  Maybe its just a Canadian thing.

I spent a portion of yesterday baking some heart cookie pops for the Embassy bake sale tomorrow, and then Chris and I got out to shop for some new dining room furniture, something we'd like to have before our baby comes.  It was nice just to get out of the house.  Today I'll be decorating cookies, and we'll probably just be lounging around.  Not sure what Chris will do without football, haha.  Other than not sleeping, I've been feeling good, and don't have any real complaints.  Although, I noticed something funny last night.  I was getting dressed after a shower, and after I got my t-shirt on, I noticed that a little section of belly now goes uncovered.  I'll probably be stealing some of Chris's shirts soon......

31 Week Bump....

....and in other noteworthy news, we are officially under 60 days to go, and today marks exactly 2 months until our due date!!!!

31 Weeks!

Here's the highlights:

Size of baby: my pregnancy books says that the average length is 15 inches long and average weight is about 3 pounds.  Feels like the heaviest 3 pounds of my life.
Movement: since Thursday, this baby has NOT.  STOPPED.  MOVING..... which is fine with me, even when it hurts a little!
Food cravings: still have a smaller appetite
What I miss: this is probably going to stay the same - hard workouts.  And I am likely about to start missing the gym even more.  This past week, I kept getting an intense tightness in my belly when I would workout (not painful, just tight).  I honestly couldn't tell if it was just the baby changing positions, or my bulging belly making me a bit more uncomfortable, but when I described the feelings to my OB, she confirmed what I thought it might be but was hoping against - Braxton Hicks contractions.  If I go to workout, and start feeling them, I have been instructed to stop.  While they are mostly harmless, and just "practice" contractions, they're not something you're allowed to work out through.  That order sucks, but oh well.  So I'm hoping my uterus gives me a break this week and lets me have a few workouts.  I guess I'll settle for walks on the treadmill, if I can even at least have those.
Sleep: not too bad up until around 5am, then I have to get up and switch to the couch.
Symptoms: just the sleep issues, and a few BH contractions
Best moment this week: probably when my OB was trying to find the baby's heartbeat and s/he kept rolling away from her.  She would catch him/her, and then he/she would roll to one side of my belly.  It was really funny to watch and feel!
What I am looking forward to: this won't be changing from here on out - everything.  Getting our baby here and being a family.... hearing the doctor say, "it's a ____!".... and seeing the look on Chris's face when he gets to hold him/her for the first time.

This week was okay.  On Wednesday we got our share of the blizzard-like weather that so much of the country got, though really we were very fortunate and were not hit as badly as a lot of the Northeast.  Things didn't seem too bad on Tuesday.  The forecast called for the nastiness to roll in around 3am Wednesday morning here.  At 3:07am, I had woken up and looked outside.  Nothing.  At 5, when Chris's alarm went off, nothing.  By 6, SNOW!  And a LOT of it in such a short amount of time.  We had already discussed that if it was looking pretty bad before it was time for him to leave, he would stay home.  I really didn't want him driving when we were going to be getting so much snow and ice, and really I don't think he cared to chance it either, given what we've already been through this winter, so it was a snow day for all of us.  By Thursday, things were better, and by Friday, MUCH better.  It was bad, but could have been SO much worse.

On Friday we went to my rescheduled doctor's appointment, where I found out that I didn't gain any weight since my last appointment.  I told the nurse I didn't want to know what the number was before she weighed me, that I only want them to tell me from now on if it becomes a concern.  After she weighed me, she said, well you didn't gain anything anyway!  Both she and my OB said it was fine, which made me happy, but probably means I'll be in for a bigger number next time.  My weight gain has seemed to come in spurts, so I'm sure I'll be unhappy with the number next time, but for now, I'm good.  They also confirmed that I passed the glucose test just fine (which I figured, given that their office has a no-news-is-good-news policy, and its been a few weeks since I did the test), and my anemia bloodwork came back in the normal range of being anemic (meaning that, I'm "a little bit anemic", but given that I'm pregnant, that's normal), so I was told to keep doing what I'm doing as far as diet.  Our next appointment is in 3 weeks (usually you go every 2 weeks right now, but the doctor said she was fine with 3 for the next given our drive, and I haven't had complications), and we also will have an ultrasound that day to check position to see if this little guy or girl is still hanging out in the breech position.  The doctor said she won't be super concerned with it until around 37 weeks, so we'll see.

Overall, I've still been feeling pretty good.  I'm just tired a lot.  Yesterday I took Bailie for a walk, and halfway through, I was feeling exhausted.  Even though my energy is really draining, I'm disappointed to know that most of my planned workouts may not go the way I want, but I figured that would come at some point.  At any rate, I am very thankful to be in a position right now where I can stop and rest any time I need to right now (though its too bad I can't bank this for later!).  Also on the bright side, I LOVE how much Baby has been moving like CRAZY.  I keep reading that around this time period, movement slows down, and maybe that's right around the corner for me, but for now, this kid is definitely practicing for a career in martial arts.  S/He especially likes to hang out on my right side.  If I had to guess, I would say that baby's head is under the right side of my ribs, with feet pointing to the left.  Several times throughout the day, I can watch my belly dip from side to side, like waves.  Its pretty amazing and funny.

We really can't believe that we are down to 9 weeks to go (if our baby were to come as scheduled for now).  Sometimes I feel really good about where we're at in terms of prep, but sometimes, like the other day, it starts to get really overwhelming.  I made a list of everything we still need to do or buy, and it surprisingly didn't look as bad as I expected.  We've been very fortunate to have a few baby items given to us so very generously from friends and family, but we still have progress to make.  Our last "big-ticket" item that we still have to get is our swing, but that will have to wait until we can get down to Syracuse at the very least.  Today I'm going to inventory our clothing items and try to decide what we still "need" in that area, except that I don't really have a concept of how many onesies, blankets, etc that babies need for any given time frame!  Oh well, I suppose that everything about having your first baby is a learning experience.

I think that's about it for this past week.  I'll have a picture in a couple of days to post probably.  So far, our weather doesn't look too bad, and our high today is 36.... we never knew we could be so happy to see temps in the 30s!  We don't really have anything going on this week that I can think of.... so, that's all for now! :)

30 Week Bump....

I'm pretty late with this, but here's the 30-week belly (technically 30 weeks and 5 days, but whatever)....