Weeks 30/31

Week 30
·  Size of baby:  He is about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds more than he should (like a head of cabbage).

Weight gain: Thanksgiving!! Hovering at around and under 130  
·  Symptoms experienced: Burping. Burping. Burping. Little Man gets the hiccups a lot and loves to move and turn.

·  How I feel: jealous of my new niece and sister and law. New babies make me insanely jealous for my own. Otherwise I just can’t wrap my head around 10 more weeks! And nervous. We discussed showers with my MIL and I'm scared to let the cat out of the bag. And to be the center of attention. Kind of nervous about it being so close to his due date but not too worried.
·  What I've been craving: Thanksgiving food. And pecan pie. Which I did NOT eat.

·  What I miss: my first baby. Especially being around a new one. I want.
·  Best moment: Thanksgiving with the inlaw family. I love them. And winning scrabble. And taking a nap with Hannah. And seeing Hubby with a baby.
·  Items purchased: We ordered the shutter/cover-up for the AC unit on our wall :)

Week 31
·  Size of baby:  He measures over 16 inches long. He weighs probably about 4 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges).

Weight gain: 130 on the dot at my appt.  
·  Symptoms experienced: I may have caused an infection on my foot from scratching the tar out of it. Whoops. And a sore arm from the Tdap vaccine.

·  How I feel: Huge. Scared after L&D, but excited because I believe this one will be coming home.
·  What I've been craving: Peppermint milkshakes from chick fil a. I can eat chick fil a at every meal.
·  What I miss: sleeping through the night is what I miss this week. I love being huge, but A is just inconvenient sometimes.
·  Best moment: Watching A roll around on the inside and listening to his daddy talk to him or ask him what he’s doing. And seeing my numbers trend with GD be more than acceptable. I don’t think I will need any interventions with his delivery if I can keep this up for another (at most!) 9 weeks.
·  Items purchased: Hubby got his Tdap too. And we ordered the carpet for A’s room and the ceiling fan is being installed as I type!  And yesterday I got a pretty semi formal long dress for a holiday event that with a little sew/tweaking will be perfect.

How Hard Can It Be?

Yesterday was our 31 weeks appt (yay!) and our labor and delivery tour and meet and greet. The appointment I was excited about because now we are going every 2 weeks and at every appt we get to see Baby A on the ultrasound. He’s growing right on track, we saw his chubby chin and lips practice swallowing on the ultrasound and he is adorable. Only a mom thinks a grainy black and white xray view of their child can be adorable… but there ya go. He is. He is very active, as my Dr mentions every appt we see her. Yes I know this. I'm the one feeling him play trampoline on my bladder or hide and seek with his butt and my ribs. I’ll take it though. All of it. Dr doesn’t seem worried he’s measuring a little big, she said that’s normal with both hubs and I being tall. I got the whooping cough vaccine while I was there.. yay needles! Immediately after poke I felt the only common side effect.. sore arm. Still feeling it today. I also had her look at a skin irritation I have on my foot. Ok fine. An infected part of my foot from over scratching an itch. The “I told you so” on my hubby’s face was why I specifically didn’t look at him when I pointed it out to my dr and she put me on a 10 day 4 times a day course of antibiotics. Yes I know I shouldn’t scratch it.  Yes I know better. But really. It ITCHED. Boo. After the appt we left for the branch of the hospital where we are delivering. We got there and checked in… along with 107 other couples (!!!) for the tour and meet and greet. It was pregnancy overload. Never have I felt so insignificant in my life. EVERYONE was huge! No longer was I the center of attention like I am used to “oh how cute/you’re pregnant/what are you having/when are you due?” instead it was 10 deep lines for the bathroom every 30 minutes. We learned where to go and check in and where to park and what happens if it is after hours etc. We then waddled all our behinds to the actual labor and delivery floor (this hospital has a L&D and a birthing center) and got to see the rooms (ooooo aaahhh) and then up to the other floor to see the postpartum rooms and the birthing center. The BC isn’t an option for me with GD and lack of pain meds, but its pretty neat with hydrotubs and four poster beds. While walking around and sitting in the rooms I started having a mild anxiety attack about the fact that a) last time I was in a L&D my child stayed when I left, and b) I will be back for real in 2 months and then back to a). I started getting hot and nervous and had to distract myself (“oh look. Real wood. 2 windows in this room. That is not a good maternity shirt.”) After that surprisingly hard experience we went to meet some of the team and hear about delivering at our hospital. They had a fun and delicious spread of fruit and cheese etc to eat while the panel talked. My love of fruit plus my serves put my number directly on the acceptable highest number and that didn’t help my now sinking by the minute mood. It also meant I couldn’t eat more of the crispy wanton-like bread I wanted and fixated on while I was listening to the speakers. So after I was all funned out and we went home and hubby cuddled me for an hour to cheer me up. I love that man.

A quick update on thanksgiving. We ended up being able to go up and see hubbys parents. Our sister in law had her daughter Wednesday morning and so when we got there I got to cuddle a brand new baby. She is beautiful and snuggly. They didn’t find out she was a she until she was born and now they have THREE daughters! We got up there Thursday morning after leaving at 7am for the 4 hour drive. One McDonalds pit stop later and half the English muffin part of my mcmuffin in the trash later we were ready to go and I had good numbers. We hit almost zero traffic on the drive which was amazing. And we arrived at 1130 at his parents’ house. Seeing everyone was really heartening. I love my in law family. They are amazing and uplifting people. Even if they are Vegan. Don’t worry. We still had turkey. Us, plus hubs sister are NOT vegan so we had our own turkey. Dinner that night was delicious and I had my Dr’s permission to skip checking and eat what I wanted. So I did. I ate until I could barely breathe and literally had to rest after so I could function. But I was happy and stuffed. I did check 1.5 hours after eating for no reason other than mental browbeating.. and 160 was better than I thought. His family is big on games of the card and board variety which I was born to play. And so we spent a lot of the weekend playing. I won quite a few if I might add :) We also went on a walk around his parents neighborhood to see the alpacas, the live turkeys (they were apparently NOT dinner), and the mini ponies. All at different houses. Love his town. Black Friday most of the fam went to Home Depot and took the two oldest girls, 1.5 and 3. So I stayed behind and hung out with the baby and the baby’s mom. Hubby was really nervous with the new baby and had no idea how to hold her, so of course we kept handing her to him for practice. He did love holding her though. He spent quite a bit of time playing with our other nieces too.. house, and pretty pretty princess. It was precious. General relaxing and playing and baby holding filled the remainder of our weekend and all too soon we headed back to our house and reality. We did agree on a shower date for my shower, January 12. Two weeks before D Day.

Maybe I’ll update tomorrow for 30/31 stats

Week 29 And My General Bad Mood

Week 29
·  Size of baby:  Fat and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel (like a butternut squash).

Weight gain: I’ve been stress eating so I think I’ll be over my one pound a week gain.  
·  Symptoms experienced: Shortness of breath and unable to slouch without feeling compressed and uncomfortable.

·  How I feel: Anxious that there is still so much to do and I can’t plan anything. I almost regret not doing a shower until two weeks before the due date (almost… almost regret). Kind of off topically pissed off about thanksgiving plans. I am not feeling thankful at the moment.
·  What I've been craving: Theses awesome maple coated pecans and dried fruit from costco. And iced coffee.
·  What I miss: My mom. And sleeping comfortably. And I keep waking up on my back so comfortable and then I wonder why I’m so happy and realize “crap! I need to roll back to my I-now-hate-sleep position!”
·  Best moment: Finally getting my custom ordered and sized boots in the mail. This is my first pair of boots EVER that fit! I had to order them from England because I have small calves and America as a general rule doesn’t have small anything. Plus lotsof people telling me my bump is cute. Cute I like. Manatee I feel.
·  Items purchased: Nothing bought.. but we went comparison shopping for carpet for A’s room and looking at shutters to hide the hack job AC unit our landlord put in.   

Other updating… mostly bad mood ranting. 

Thanksgiving. Looks like there is an 80 percent change hubby and I are SOL for plans this year. We HAD planned on going to his parents house like we have the past couple years and staying with them. But now his brother and SIL live with the in-laws and she’s due any day. She’s not in active labor but shes close. And because she’s having a home birth if she’s in labor she doesn’t want company. And because she lives with our thanksgiving plan… we can’t go. IF she goes from prelabor to actually active labor. The midwife has stripped her membranes and it’s been about 5 days of her not progressing from contractions. So I hate hate hate hate hate not being able to plan. Hate. I like my ducks in a row. Not ‘tentatively we’ll see.” I mean. Yea it sucks she’s in pseudo labor. But we are in limbo until she is. So we could get called Wednesday night with “don’t come up” and be completely screwed over with what we can do for thanksgiving. We can’t buy a turkey and then go up.. or not buy one and need one. Plus defrosting and all the other side dishes we’d have to get last minute with the holiday shoppers and closed-on-T-day- stores. Did I mention I hate leaving things until the last minute and flying by the seat of my pants? AND we find out my other SIL gets to go no matter what and the SIL who’s having the baby is having her parents and siblings come when she goes into labor. So it’s just us that can’t go. Eff. 

Insurance. I hate them too. There isn’t much I don’t hate right now. I had to call today to argue with them over my GD supplies and their MANDATORY mail order 90 day service. I don’t NEED 90 days and getting them through the insurance is three times more expensive than what I am getting now. And is more inconvenient and takes longer. So I had a full on non-mini breakdown on the phone with the person ‘helping’ me. I can’t take anymore change right now or changed plans. I give up on today.

Week 28

Week 28
·  Size of baby: According to online he weighs 2.25 pounds.. but according to the ultrasound on Monday he weighs 3.1 pounds.. fatty!!!! (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels· 

Weight gain: 126 at my last doctor appointment. So 4 lb from the first day of pregnancy and 12 from the beginning of the GD diet.    
·  Symptoms experienced: Charlie horses, shortness of breath, and increased need to pee… also goes with that is sneeze peeing. Its really great. Really. Great.

·  How I feel: Sad my time with my mom is coming to an end. She goes home on Wednesday :(  with the pregnancy… I can’t wait till it’s over! He is huge and uncomfortable!
·  What I've been craving: Churros. Someone mentioned them and ever since I have had them stuck in my head. That and pecan pie. Drool.
·  What I miss: Not being stared at. And being anonymous. Now strangers talk to me and I don’t like it. And to be vain… no longer being seen as attractive to guys. Now I am just a pregnant lady and not a woman. No more admiring looks from anyone but hubby. See. Vain.
·  Best moment: Him kicking Daddy in the back when I was the jetpack in bed the other night. And getting to see him twice on ultrasound during the week. Also having it confirmed I have a VERY active baby. The first appointment he was head up feet down, the next morning he was head down feet up. So I have no idea how he is now. He doesn’t stay in one place. A friend asked what she was feeling when she put her hand on my belly and I couldn’t tell her because chubasaurus moves too much!
·  Items purchased: Mimi bought him tinted windows for our CR-V so he won’t bake in the baby seat in the back. I love Mimi.