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! :)