Week 32

I think I’m starting to have some mild panic attacks over the fact that the baby is going to be here in about 8 weeks.  On one hand, I want him to get here so I can go back to eating and feeling like a normal person, but on the other hand I really, really, really don’t want to go through labor.  Especially since every time I mention that Dre and I are leaning towards having the least amount of intervention needed, I get told that it’s going to be the worse pain of my life or they tell me a story about how they know someone who’s now paralyzed from getting an epidural.  I’m a little freaked out!

I definitely have not gone to IKEA.  I don’t have enough energy these days to go walk through that store.  I think I’ll go on one of my days off in the next 2 weeks. 

No progress on picking out baby names.  Dre really likes a name that I think is just OK and I really like all names that are more English than bilingual.  It’s a problem.  I’m going to bring my short-list of names to the cottage and Dre and I will discuss this.  I’d like to have a name to call the baby.  Everyone else on my online forum seems to have named their babies already and I’m still going around calling the baby, Baby boy or LO (loved one).

I’m still keeping up my regimen of drinking prune juice every day because I’ve developed some serious constipation issues.  I think the baby just likes sitting on my intestines which backs me up!  I have to say that the taste of prune juice is disgusting.  I’m hiding a quarter glass of it in a full glass of other juice, but I can still taste the nastiness.  I’m going to have to find a better juice to disguise the taste.  Here’s my picture this week. 

Week 30

Week 32
I thought a change of scenery would be nice!

 I meant to update last week’s post with my picture since I had forgotten to have Dre take it, but when he took it I realized that I had forgotten the memory card in my work laptop and so the picture saved to the camera itself.  The problem is that I can’t find the cord for our camera so for now my Week 31 belly picture is being held hostage by my camera.

My average weight this week is 176.6 lbs which is a gain of 1.1 lbs since last week.  This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy 23.6 lbs.  I’m quite close to getting to the 25lbs gain!  Since I’m supposed to gain between 25-35 lbs according to all the books and doctors, I’ve almost reached the lower end of the range.  I wonder how much weight I’ll gain in the next 7-9 weeks.  I’m pretty sure that I’ll end up gaining around 35-40 lbs this pregnancy.  I’m happy about that.

I love Zantac!  It’s like the miracle drug.  I take it every night and it keeps the acid reflux and heartburn in check most of the time.  Lunch tends to give me some heartburn and acid reflux, but it’s not too bad.  If I don’t take a Zantac before dinner though, I suffer the most awful burning.  It literally feels like I’m breathing the fire of a thousand suns!

I have zero energy.  It’s especially bad during the week since I expend all of my energy going to work.  By the time, I get home at night I have no energy or desire to do anything.  I’ve also noticed that I can’t do too much during the weekends either or I get so tired!  My plan for the coming 11 days of holidays is to do nothing, lots of nothing, and lots of sleeping.  This is a good spot to mention the fact that I still need to do a million thing before the baby comes which gives me panic attacks, but I can’t find the energy to start doing any of them.

A few BHs for me this week.  They were probably caused by me doing too much.  It’s hard to pace myself with all the Christmas stuff I have to do.  When baby boy moves, he’s much more noticeable since different part of my belly move at the same time, but he’s also started moving a lot less because he’s pretty much run out of space.  Of course, this freaks me out most of the time.  The ligament pain from the baby compressing it is still excruciating most of the time.  I’ve just learned to walk through it.  The belly button is still flat for now, but every day it’s inching its way to being an outie.

I’m really looking forward to my massage this Thursday and then being on vacation for the next 11 days.  Working while being pregnant is much harder than I imagined it would be and it’s taking everything I have to get through every day.  Only 4 weeks and 3 days of work left for me till I go on mat leave for a year. 

Baby is the size of a squash again.  He weighs around 4 lbs this week and it feels like it!  When the doctor measured my fundal height (height of your uterus) yesterday, I was at 34 inches.  The inches usually correspond to the number of weeks you are.  At my 30 weeks appointments, I was measuring exactly at 30 inches.  Just 2 weeks later my measurements have gone up by 4 inches.  So now baby is measuring 2 weeks ahead!  Craziness!  He’s already growing like a weed and he hasn’t even come out yet.

Christmas at our House

Here is what our house looks like this Christmas.  I managed to put most of the decorations out even though it took me a couple of weeks to get it done!

The centerpiece on our dining table.

The Christmas Tree!

Christmas Tree and our fireplace. 

We'll need to find baby boy a Christmas stocking next year.

 

The Christmas wreaths on either side of our front door. 

The bell one hangs inside since it would rust outside and the berry one hangs outside.

So that's what our house looks like for Christmas this year.  Next year I'll probably go a lot bigger since it will be baby boy's first Christmas. 

Week 31

I’ve officially reached the end of my rope!  This week has been filled with trying to get presents for all the nieces/nephews and parents.  I know that we kind of left it to really late, but with all the baby stuff we’ve been preoccupied with other stuff.  Also, all of the stores and online stores seem to have run out of stock of stuff you’d buy an 8 year old boy.  I normally enjoy Christmas shopping, but this year I have to say that I haven’t enjoyed it.  Hopefully, next year I’m more on the ball and things go more smoothly!

I haven’t made it to IKEA yet.  I have to confess that I’m too exhausted most of the time to even contemplate going over there.  Where did all my energy go? 

Dre and I also haven’t made any progress at picking a baby name.  None!  That’s my fault because I just ran out of steam and couldn’t keep reading books filled with names.  I think it’s something we might be tackling over the Christmas holidays.  We’re spending a week at a cottage with my family and since I can’t ski this year we’ll have plenty of quiet time to discuss this stuff.  I hope!

This week I have started drinking…PRUNE juice.  Yah!  I never thought I’d do that, but you have to do what you gotta do!  Even with me starting the poo juice, I didn’t gain any weight this week.  My average weight this week is 175.5 lbs. which is a weight loss of 0.2 lbs from last week.  That really surprised me because I haven’t started eating any better than before.  This makes my total weight gain so far 22.5 lbs.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’ve noticed that I can’t eat anymore.  I feel full after I barely eat anything.  The baby is starting to take up a lot of room and I’ve definitely noticed it with my appetite.

I’m religiously taking Zantac after Friday night.  What happened Friday night you ask.  Well, I woke up throwing up acid into my mouth.  That was lovely!  I had taken my Zantac with dinner, but I’d also had my Omega 3 Salmon Oil supplement right before bedtime.  (This is normal for me.) Apparently, there’s acid in those pills and that along with my bedtime snack combined to make me violently ill for 1 hour on Friday.  I can’t describe to you guys the taste that that pill left in my mouth as I was trying to get the acid under control.  It was so bad that I took another Zantac and some tums and then sat up in bed for 2 hours trying to keep from throwing up again.  On Saturday, I had to get up early enough because I had 2 friends coming over to do a day of Christmas baking.  Needless to say, I felt like death warmed over on Saturday morning.  Thankfully, I got my energy back since I sampled everything we baked.  

I’m feeling like crap most of the time, but I’m still telling people I feel great because I just don’t have the energy to talk to them about all my symptoms.  I think this fatigue is going to kill me.  I feel like I’ve run out of energy.  I can’t wait for this nesting thing to kick in because then I’ll at least get some of the stuff that needs to get done before the baby arrives done.

I’ve had some BHs this week.  They’re hard to catch for me because they don’t usually hurt…they just make my belly feel super hard and tight.  The baby has taken to jabbing and poling random stuff.  One website described it as gestating an angry housecat.  I think they had it right!  Sometimes, I feel like this baby has a lot more than 2 legs and arms with the way he’s poking and prodding.  Dre thinks all of this is extremely cute.   He’s cute.

Ligament pain is still around.  Back pain has joined in to make sure that the right side of my body hurts all the time.  I walk really slowly most of the time.  Belly button is flat.  I’m expecting the baby to kick the crap out of it and officially “pop” it into an outie any day now.  

I cannot wait for my massage next week.  It makes my body feel all better for a little bit.  It’s like heaven! 

I’m really looking forward to completing our last baby class tomorrow.  I like them and found them informative, but I’m kind of over them right now.  I feel like I could use the time better to do something else.  I’m also really looking forward to the Christmas holidays starting.  I need some R&R.  Some days, I wonder how I’m going to keep working until February 1^st.  One day at a time is my motto right now!

Baby is a squash again this week.  He weighs a ton…I can’t imagine how he’ll put on 3 more lbs at least before he comes out.

If this post seems a little rambly and random this week, ignore it!  I’m just stressed and tired todayJ

Week 30...75% baked!

Yup, it’s taken me forever to write this post.  I’ve had a hectic week and I feel like I’m always running around and doing something.  Now, I’m officially ¾ of the way done with my pregnancy!  How crazy is that?  On one hand, it’s gone by really fast, but on the other it’s also crawled by.  All those lovely symptoms just make it seem like I’ve been pregnant forever.

We now have a crib AND a crib mattress in the baby’s room.  Craziness!  It almost looks like a baby room nowJ  This weekend or next week, I’m braving the crazy crowds at the new IKEA in town to go get the dresser and a bookshelf for the baby’s room.  Then I’ll have everything I need for that room except for a lamp, curtains, a hamper, and a wall decal.  I might just get this room done by the time baby boy decides to appear!

I saw my doctor on Monday which is partially why this post wasn’t posted on Monday and she told me I’m having a really good pregnancy.  Yay!  I wouldn’t want to see what a bad one looks like!  I know I’m lucky, but sometimes as I’m trying to rock myself out of our bed at night so I can go pee I don’t feel so lucky.  I need to keep in mind that baby boy is very healthy, measuring right on track, and that I’ve had no major issues.

Week 29

Week 30

I should just stop writing about the ::GASP:: crazy amount of weight I’ve gained in a week because every time I do the next week I gain even more!  We’ll blame this one on the baby being hungry all the time and me being constipated a lot lately.  My average weight this week is 175.7 lbs.  Yes, you heard me right that would be a whopping 2.4 lbs gain in ONE WEEK!  This makes my total weight gain so far 22.7 lbs.  And I wanted to stay under 30 lbs gained this pregnancy….bahahahahaha!  With Christmas coming and all the yummy stuff I’m baking for the holidays I have a feeling that my weight is going to go up, up, up.  Join me in 3 months when I’m trying to work off all those cinnamon rolls and shortbread cookies off my ass…until then…where are those cinnamon rolls?

I’m still taking Zantac on most nights since dinner seems to be what sets off the acid reflux/heartburn combo.  It works really well when I remember to take it before I eat dinner. 

BTW, every single person who sees me asks me, “How are you feeling/How are you doing?” every single time they see me.  This is fine when it’s my friends or Dre, but I’m dangerously close to telling my coworkers to take a hike.  I know they’re just excited/happy/curious about the baby, but I’m getting a little tired of coming up with an answer every time.  No one tells you about this when you decide to have a baby!

I think I’ve had 1-2 BHs this week.  It’s hard to tell because the baby is so active now that a lot of the time it’s hard to tell his random poking and jabbing from an actual BH.  The ligament pain is still very bad.  I can’t lift my right leg and walking hurts.  I’ve gotten very slow when walking because the faster I walk to more it hurts.  The stretch mark count is still at one.  I plan on keeping it that way.  Belly button watch is still reporting that it’s basically flat.  It could become an outie at any moment…it just needs a good kick from the baby.

I still don’t have any sciatic pain.  My back pain has flared up, but I had a massage last Sunday and that took care of it.  The clinic accidently booked me for a 1-hr massage instead of a 30 min one, but I didn’t care since it made my back so much better!  She also massaged my hips and upper bum and told me my hips were super tights and locked.  Wow, that hurt, but it feels great now!  I love my massages!

I’m really looking forward to Christmas baking this weekend with two of my really good friends.  We each cook 2-3 recipes and then exchange goodies.  So good!  Last year, we decided to do this instead of buying Christmas presents for each other and it was an awesome idea so we’re doing it again this year. 

Baby is now the size of a squash…again!  He’s pretty much stopped growing in length, but he now weighs about 3 lbs. 

Shopping Frenzy

Dre and I went to visit my aunt and uncle for the weekend partly because I hadn’t seen them in a while and partly to shop for baby stuff.

We had amazing food while we were there and I ate way too much. 

On Saturday, Dre and I ventured out by ourselves to visit all the baby/maternity stores we could think of.  Dre planned the route out…it was really cute.

We stopped at the Carter’s baby clothes outlet first.  My aunt had given us a coupon they had that was for 20% off your order and when we went everything in the store was 50% off!  We got $200 worth of baby clothes for $60!  Score!  We quickly glanced at the Osh K Osh and Gymboree outlets, but they mainly focus on outfits for kids and I personally don’t think that babies wear that many clothes in the first 6 months.  

Then we headed for Best Buy to check out their video cameras.  They had a few good ones, but Dre and I decided to wait until after Christmas sales and see if we still want to get one then.  I think that filming with our iPhones will work as well.  Up next we stopped at Old Navy.  Yes, we have Old Navy here in Canada, but all the stores that have maternity lines in the states don’t have them in Canada.  So for $50, I got leggings, 2 sweaters, and 3 undershirts.  That would have cost me $200 over here at our maternity store. 

After that, I was starving so we stopped at this little pizza joint which had the best pizza EVER!  It was thin crusted pizza which I don’t usually like, but it was amazing.  Then we headed over to this consignment store my uncle had mentioned.  I’ve had bad luck with consignment stores.  I find them crowded and they make me claustrophobic.  This one was gold though!  We got 10 sleepers and 10 onesies for $30.  Some of the PJs still had the original tags on it.

After that, we went to Baby R Us.  I hate the Baby R Us in Burlington, VT!  It’s worse than the one over here!  This Toys R Us apparently decided that baby stuff didn’t sell and used 80% of the store for toys and the 20% that had baby stuff was crammed full.  We couldn’t find everything we were looking for, but we still saved money compared to how much stuff costs in our BRU.  They didn’t really have any good sales either.  Dre had also decided that he wasn’t waiting on IKEA to stock our crib anymore so he wanted to get one while we were down there since they’re cheaper in the US.  We needed one that was in stock though.  So BRU had a total of 6 cribs jammed together and setup (ours has at least 12 setup).  After seeing that, we paid for our stuff using about 10 gift cards (the cashier LOVED me) and decided to keep going.  

We made a brief stop at Walmart.  We found out that Walmart sells the Bumbo for $20 cheaper than BRU, but there was no way in hell that I was going back into that BRU to get a refund so we just kept the one we’d gotten.  I found a larger winter coat that didn’t make me look like a homeless person there for $20. Didn’t find anything else here.

Our last stop was at this baby boutique we’d visited the last time we were in Vermont.  They have great stuff, but it’s a little expensive since it’s geared towards the higher end stuff.  I started looking at their cribs and was getting discouraged because all they had were Pali cribs (which are actually really good cribs, but too expensive for me) that would take 12 weeks to order.  Then I found our crib!  The floor model was white, but it said it came in dark brown too so Dre goes and asks the sales lady if they have it in stock and they actually did in the dark color!  How perfect is that?

So we found everything we needed, we spent a small fortune this weekend, and getting through customs with all the stuff was a breeze which is not what I’d expected.  

On the way back home, we stopped at a BRU to get the crib bedding set we like.  It was on special in the Canadian stores this weekend only.  At the same time, we picked up almost everything else we needed and returned the 4 items I got in double at my shower.  

After all of that, I don’t think Dre ever wants to see a BRU again!  I might have to bring my SIL with me when I go visit a few of the specialty boutiques we have in town to get the last few knick knacks that I haven’t found anywhere else.

Our trip was a definite success!

Week 29

The weeks seem to be blending together now.  I’m really glad that they’re going by, but I seem to be focusing a lot more on the fact that I still have 11 weeks left and OMG I am uncomfortable most of the time!

When baby boy flipped to a head down position last Monday, he landed head down in my right hip and pressing on the ligament that goes under the uterus.  SO MUCH PAIN!  Dre likes to tell me unhelpful stuff like, “Move slowly.”  Doesn’t really matter how slow or fast I move since any movement aggravates the ligament and causes me pain.   Thankfully, this weekend baby boy decided that my hip sucked and has shifted over slightly.  It’s amazing to be able to move without pain!  He does flip flop back and forth between digging into my hip and being in a better position.  I’m really hoping that he doesn’t decide he likes my hip too much because I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to walk if he keeps getting bigger and heavier and pressing on that particular spot.

This weekend we went to visit some of my relatives in Vermont which meant we were just in time to participate in some of the awesome Black Friday deals.  I’ll write about all the awesome stuff Dre and I found while we were over there later on.  I just want to mention that we did end up buying a crib.  We got it from a Baby Boutique store so we paid a little more than if we’d bought it from Amazon.com or Baby R Us, but we wanted a particular style of crib for a reasonable price and we needed it to be in stock since we were only in the States for the weekend.  On this side of the border, cribs are consistently at least $200 over the US prices.  Overall, we ended up paying a lot less for that crib than if we’d bought it over here. 

Let’s talk about my weight.  I guess that baby boy is really concentrating on putting on weight because mine has been climbing very steadily in the last few weeks.  I’ve also had a lot of problems with the slow down of my digestive system which means that I tend to be constipated a lot.  I guess I’ll have to start eating prunes or something to keep things regular.

Week 28

Week 29

My average weight this week is 173.3 lbs. which is a 1.3 lb gain over the last week.  My total weight gain so far is 20.3 lbs.  That’s pretty reasonable so I’m happy.  I didn’t have Saturday’s weight in there and next week won’t have Sunday’s weight in there since my aunt does not have a scale at her house.  Overall, it really won’t change anything.

I’ve started taking my Zantac a little more regularly to combat against the heartburn and acid reflux that 90% of food seems to give me.  This weekend I noticed that I really can’t eat as much as I used to.  It seems like I fill up so fast now.  On Friday night shortly after I’d gone to sleep I woke up throwing up in my mouth.  This was not the little acid coming back up which is annoying.  This was so much acid coming back up that I was afraid to get back into bed after I got up to rinse my mouth.  By that time, Dre had woken up and he insisted I take a Zantac.  I also took a Tums.  I couldn’t lie down in bed though.  Every time I lied back I could feel the acid coming back up and being really close to throwing up.  I had to go back to sleep sitting up propped by 3 pillows. I had been sleeping on 2 pillows when this happened.  That was so much fun that on Saturday I took my 2 prescribed Zantac to make sure that it didn’t happen again the next night.

I’ve only had one BH this week.  Like I mentioned above the ligament pain is pretty bad, but right now baby boy is not resting on it so I’m good.  No other stretch marks to report.  My belly button is almost completely flat though!  I’ve thought that I would have an outie by Week 20 since the beginning because my belly button started getting so much shallower so early, but for now it’s still an innie.

Sciatic pain and leg pain have vanished for now. 

I’m really looking forward to setting up the crib and arranging the baby room.  We’re still missing the dresser which we’ll get around Dec. 7^th, but apart from that we have almost everything else we need.  The only thing I still need to order is the wall decal for the baby’s room and to do that Dre and I have to figure out the name since most of the decals have the baby’s name on them.  Also, I’m decorating the house for the holidays next weekend which is huge deal for me since I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas!

Baby is the size of a squash!  Yay!  He’s getting so big!

Hospital Bag, Baby Classes, and Hospital Tours...Oh My!

Dre still wants to pack a hospital bag and keeps reminding me of this.

However my hospital bag is still not packed because I like to procrastinate.  I’ll probably be yelling the list to Dre as I go into labor instead of packing it early and having it in the car.  I’m sure he’ll love that!  I just can’t seem to find the energy to think of what needs to be in that bag and then actually pack it.

Dre has also decided to start obsessing about what happens if I go into labor while I’m at work.  It’s cute because I’ve been worried about that, but I didn’t know that he’d even thought about the possibility since I’ve never mentioned it to him.  He hasn’t seemed too worried about the labor part up until now.  When I asked him what he would do if there was a snowstorm when I go into labor, his answer was to gleefully rub his hands together and say “4 wheel drive.  Oh yeah!”  Men are so weird sometimes.

By the way, I have no idea what I’ll do if I go into labor at work since I take the bus to work and most of the people who drive into work are not people I want around me when I’m in pain.  I’ll figure it out eventually.

We had the 1^st of 4 baby classes last night.  While it gave tons of useful information, the teacher (a registered nurse, lactation consultant, and doula) was the most boring person ever.  She read the slides and played videos without really getting our input about different things.  They went over a lot of the labor stuff and showed us this video of the baby’s head descending into the cervix and dilating the cervix about 8 or 9 times.  We also got to see several videos of women having the babies.  It was a little scaring.  I know what happens during labor, but I guess I don’t really want to see it in that much detail so I don’t freak myself out too much.  I’d rather get the tools I need to successfully handle pain and breastfeed.

We’ll have to see if these classes get more interesting in the coming weeks.  It’s disappointing because the 1^st series of 3 classes had such an awesome nurse as a teacher.   Another disappointing thing is that they don’t actually let your tour the hospital’s (the course is in the hospital) labor and delivery floor.  That is just so weird!  Instead we have to attend an Information Night where they’ll show up pictures of the rooms and all that.  Ughhhhh!  I deal better with things when they aren’t unknown and not having seen where I’ll end up really won’t help my anxiety and stress levels.  Apparently the all-knowing hospital staff can’t figure out that pregnant women (especially first time moms) might have a lot of anxiety and stress.  

I’m off to get reimbursed for my yoga classes that I’m missing because of the baby classes also being on Tuesdays.  Wish me luck!