Oh Crap...It's February.

(February, as in we have 27 days until baby is supposed to arrive.) Okay. I wrote a big long post last night and long story short, it got erased before I could post it. I'm annoyed, and therefore may end up cutting this short even though I can remember the gist of pretty much everything. Be prepared, there was a lot of whining even in the original post.


Alright, I take it back: I don't remember everything. Basically, I don't feel like a pregnancy unicorn anymore. Haven't heard the term? On the Birth Month Board that I kind of participate on, a pregnancy unicorn is basically a lady that has no real negative pregnancy symptoms or complications, like morning sickness or gestational diabetes. Until recently, I felt like pregnancy really wasn't so bad since I hadn't had any morning sickness to speak of and I generally felt good most of the time. But third trimester has definitely started hitting harder.

My belly is becoming quite the inconvenience, though I still haven't run it into a person yet. The main problem is sleeping...or trying to. It's hard to get comfortable, and I really just want to be able to sleep on my stomach again, even though I didn't do it that much before. I wake up pretty much every hour or two because I need to roll over to get comfortable, and it takes a couple attempts to get all the way turned over. Sometimes I feel a little bad that I wake up OB at least a couple times, but then I remember that he doesn't have to deal with any of the discomforts so I'm not concerned.

36wks, 4 to go (theoretically)

Another sleeping problem is painful hips. Now, I don't entirely mind the hip pain because it's mostly the ache of my hips widening. Some of you ladies might not understand why I'm ok with this, but wider hips = wider pelvis = bigger opening for baby to fit through =  less pain (hopefully) during labor and delivery. I have actually gotten a few stretch marks on my hips, so I think that confirms my theory that I have indeed widened. In fact, last week or the week before when I was walking Marty a little further than usual, I almost didn't make it back without stopping. My hips just ached so bad and when we got back I had to just lean over on the table and rest. It actually helps a little if OB or I press in on them, but it's too tiring for not enough pay off. And if I sit at my desk for too long, my right hip usually ends up aching...which makes sense since little guy pretty much exclusively hangs out on my right side. Maybe that means he's moved down into position?

Lets see, other complaints...oh yeah, my hands and feet have started to swell a little, occasionally. My shoes still fit fine and my ring is only a little tight, but it's enough for me to notice. Also, I've never really had any body image issues, but I'm pretty sure I've started to gain squish outside of the baby bump (face, love handles) and I'm kind of disappointed in myself. I know, I know: you gain weight during pregnancy and I shouldn't complain about a couple little pounds, but I was doing so well. Originally my doctor said the normal weight gain was 25-35lbs during pregnancy, for a woman of healthy weight. Well, I've gained about 35lbs and I still have four weeks to go. Now, at my last appointment my PA made me feel better by saying average is 30-35lbs and that she wasn't at all concerned about me, but I'm still a little bummed with myself. But, this is me letting that go and chalking it up to not having morning sickness in the beginning.

Also, I really miss working out. Not like hitting the gym, but playing Ultimate and skiing, and running or biking whenever I feel like it. I probably could have kept running longer if I had been more consistent in the beginning, but that whole broken collarbone thing kind of screwed that up. Really, one of the biggest reasons I hope I don't need a C-section (don't worry, no reason to think I do but it's still something I think about), besides obviously that babies are meant to come out naturally and such, is that I want my recovery time to be as short as possible so I can get back to playing sports. I realize I won't have the time or energy I had before, but I still want to be able to play whenever I feel up for it. Luckily, my awesome friends got together and got us a running stroller, so I'll have some good motivation and no excuse for not jogging, at least slowly, with little man.

On a completely unrelated note, only 7 more days of work! Don't get me wrong, it's a good job and my co-workers are great, but I'm seriously looking forward to spending lots of time with our handsome little genius. Also, hopefully in the weeks before he arrives I'll be able to get the animals ready for the big change, and get all our ducks in a row.

I feel like there is something else I originally wrote about that is now escaping me, but I so don't care...sorry. One thing: I was dreading going to bed last night because I'd been so uncomfortable the nights before, but I actually slept ok and whatever was bugging my stomach from the weekend cleared itself up. So, I'll leave you with this weird picture of my belly button; and yes, it's completely flat :)

So weird looking!

Catch-up Time

Soooo.....sorry it's been 5 weeks. I only meant to take off the two weeks around Christmas, but then I lost my momentum/motivation. As you can imagine, a lot has happened though it hasn't been too crazy. Christmas was really good, having both our families in but not having all 10 of them stay with us (thank you parents!). My mom, grandma, and sister all got to feel baby boy kick, which made me really happy since they're not going to be back before he arrives. I wasn't completely uncomfortable so touring around Albuquerque/Santa Fe with them wasn't work, and though we didn't have any snow the weather was pretty nice.

Then just after New Years we went to Chicago for a wedding, which was fun but I'm glad I wasn't any more pregnant. Got to see our old coach and some friends from school, which was really nice, and the wedding was great. However, I wish I could have enjoyed it a little more. The food was so good, and luckily all safe for me to eat (though the filet mignon may have been a little extra rare), but they also had an open bar and I would have at least liked to try the mini appletinis and chocolate martinis floating around. But I did get some dancing in; I had to sit out a couple of songs every couple of songs, but the band was really good and the singer was making fun of me for using my belly as a shelf...but in a nice way. Anyway, that was also the weekend of crazy winter storm stuff in Chicago; luckily we flew out of Milwaukee so we got out basically on time, but we were definitely in the minority. Flying wasn't too bad, there were lots of cute AND quiet babies on the planes, and my feet only swelled a little. It was kind of uncomfortable sitting that long in that space, but since I had OB with me this time I could lean on him.

So we made it home safely, but apparently all the travelling was kind of taxing on my body. A few times in the last month or two I'll get these "episodes", only in the mornings and usually while I'm sitting still at my desk, where I'll really feel my heart start cruising, around 120 bpm. Never any other symptoms like light-headedness or shortness of breath or anything, just the heart racing, for about 5 minutes. Well a couple days after we got back from Chicago I was about to go to work and it happened again, so I sat down for a minute because I didn't really want to drive in case in turned in to something more...and it last for another 15 minutes, when I called the doctor. I guess it was actually a nurse, but they wanted to make sure it wasn't anything so they sent me off to the hospital to get checked out. My MIL was still here, waiting for my BIL to get back from Chicago, so she was able to take me and I didn't have to worry about driving. Long story short, little man was perfectly fine, apparently I was having some small contractions (but I didn't feel them and they weren't actually doing anything so don't worry!), and my heart rate had come back down (mostly) by the time we got there. I got to meet another of the doctors that could end up delivering baby, and he told me I need to drink crap-tons of water and completely cut out caffeine (wasn't drinking much, just about 1 pop/week), which isn't bad since I don't really drink coffee and I can/have now cut out pop. Of course, now that I'm huge AND drinking a lot more water, I have to pee all the time. Oh well, it's what people expect.

So of course we had planned on taking our tour of the maternity ward the weekend AFTER I went to the hospital, which we still did, but that would have helped a little. The tour was great, I think there was only one or two ladies that were due before me from the looks of it, and the guide was the lady who taught our class so she was asking me how I was doing. Everything we saw and heard made me feel even more comfortable with our choice in hospitals, and I'm feeling very good about having all of our birth-related desires being respected. They're very pro breastfeeding and have trained nurses on staff if you need help getting started; they do their best to let you and baby bond first, then do the necessary tests; and they really want to help you be mobile during early labor, meaning not hooking you up to tons of things unless medically necessary. Anyway, I'm obviously still a little nervous about pushing out a baby, and the aftermath, but I feel pretty good about being in good hands.

We also had our baby shower last weekend, which was a ton of fun. My mother- and sister-in-law and super-awesome-friend did an awesome job setting up everything and planning stuff. It was a nice size so I got to talk with everyone and not feel stressed about missing somebody that I appreciate for being there. We got some adorable baby clothes, and other very useful baby things that I of course played with the next day, and everyone decorated onesies and bibs and they turned out so well!

The cake was super yummy, and came with baby's first Christmas ornament, with lines on the bottom of the shoes to write birthday, weight and length.

Overall, a fun evening and I'm so thankful for our great friends, and now we're pretty much set for little guy! I still need to wash everything, especially the things that our kitties have shed all over, but I'm feeling pretty prepared. We have 37 days until he's due, and only 16 days until he's "term" (holy crap, I hadn't done that math before just now and he better not come that early!). Which means, only 3 weeks left of work! Although lately I've been hearing that the average date of arrival for first time moms is 9 days late...so hopefully he's a little more punctual.

So that's all for now, here's Tuesday's picture at 34 weeks: holy cow! I'm large and getting more and more uncomfortable, but I didn't/don't have morning sickness so I am totally not complaining.