Week 38

This past week Dre and I have been hammering away at the To Do List.  I’m pretty sure that I’ll be done by the end of this week which means that I’ll officially be trying to get this baby here.  How? You ask.  Well I’ll certainly be trying to walk as much as possible to try to get some progress going.  My doctor is supposed to check to see if I’m dilated or effaced at my appointment this Thursday so that will give me an idea of where I am.  Other things which might work are good old-fashioned sex, red raspberry leaf tea, or evening primrose oil.  They might not work, but on the other hand they might do the trick!

I’ve finished washing all the baby clothes I plan to wash for right now.  Now, I just need to clean all the toys.  I got a lot of second-hand toys, but I think that I should probably wash all the new ones too since babies put everything in their mouths.  Baby boy’s bedroom is almost done.  The only things I have left to do is buy a lamp, double curtain rod, and sheer curtains.  It’s too bright in the baby’s room during the day so I need something to cut the light, but at the same time not remove all of it.  The other thing is that Dre and I need to hang the wall decals and get some letters to spell baby’s name over the crib.  So we’re almost done!  It’s my goal to do most of this this weekend so I can finally post pictures of a completed nursery.

In other news, Dre figured out that we have mice in the house last weekend.  What on earth?  So my amazing husband took apart the storage area where they’ve been residing and cleaned and stored everything.  I didn’t have to do a single thing.  I went to an Epicure party and spent way too much money while he was doing this and then went to my Pre-natal Aquafit class.  I felt bad that I didn’t help at all, but just doing those two things made me super tired.  I get tired walking across the room lately.  Anyways, Dre set up traps and put some poison cubes out that are supposed to dehydrate the mice so we don’t have rotting mice in our walls.  He caught 5 in the first 2 or 3 days.  We seem to have caught them all though because we haven’t heard, caught, or seen any in the past 4-5 days.  Victory for us! 

I’m finally done work.  Last Wednesday at 4 PM, I officially handed it all to my replacement.  I don’t have much hope that she won’t mess some of the stuff up, but hopefully she’ll pick up stuff faster when she’s on her own than when I was training her.  It is officially not my problem anymore.

I did meet the new doctor this week and let’s just say that I’m reserving judgment until later because I wasn’t overly impressed.  I’ll update after my Thursday appointment.

I think Dre and I have finally settled on a name.  Yay!  When baby boy arrives, we’ll be announcing it.  I was going to post on here, but I do have some family members and friends who read this blog.

Here is this week’s picture!

Everyone keeps telling me that I’ve dropped and I guess they’re right because my belly looks lower than it did last week.  In every picture, I think that I can’t possibly get any bigger, but every week the belly seems to get bigger.  This is gonna be a big baby if he keeps going!

My average weight this week is 182.2 lbs which is a gain of 1.3 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 29.2 lbs. I had this sudden, dramatic weight gain around Thursday of last week and my weight shot up a couple of pounds and has stayed there.  It’s so weird when that happens.  It’s like the baby has a sudden growth spurt or something.

To fight the heartburn, acid reflux, and indigestion, I now take Zantac twice a day and drink lots and lots of Ginger Ale.  It’s the only things that seem to help.  I hope that after I have the baby I’m not dependent on Zantac to avoid indigestion and heartburn since I take it so often now.  

I still have a lot of fatigue, but I’m focusing on getting a few things done every day.  That way at the end of the week, I can see that I’ve made some progress in getting everything ready without being too overwhelmed that I don’t have to energy to do it all in a couple of days. 

I’m starting to get a lot more BHs.  Sometimes, I can almost start timing them because I get so many in an hour.  They’re mostly not painful although I’ve a few slightly more painful ones.  I’m sure that when I’m labor they’ll be much, much worse.

I’m really looking forward to having everything ready for the baby.  I’m glad I decided to stop work earlier than I had originally planned otherwise I would have a ton of stuff left to do in the next 2 weeks. 

Baby is the size of a watermelon. He weighs around 7 lbs this week. Baby weight is very subjective by now so I’m giving you the average according to my books.

Week 37

I am finally FULL-TERM!  This is so exciting!

I’m finally done work.  Last Wednesday at 4 PM, I officially handed it all to my replacement.  I don’t have much hope that she won’t mess some of the stuff up, but hopefully she’ll pick up stuff faster when she’s on her own than when I was training her.  It is officially not my problem anymore.

Now I just get to talk to the insurance company taking care of our Short Term Disability plan a lot.  Apparently, when you leave work even by doctor’s orders they still feel the need to call and get “more” information.  Dre mailed them my paperwork this morning and I’m hoping that that will be all they need to process my claim.  Really, the complete maximum amount of time I’ll be off work and covered by them in 5 weeks since my due date is in 3 weeks and doctors don’t let you go over your EDD by more than 2 weeks nowadays.  I just feel like they’re giving themselves a lot of work by trying to see if I could go on modified duties for work by corresponding with my supervisor and all that stuff.  Is it really worth it to get me to work an extra 2 to 3 weeks?  I kind of wish that baby boy hurries up and gets here so I don’t have to deal with all this ridiculous stuff.  I’m sure he’s like me though and he’s happy hanging around until someone forcibly evicts him from my uterus.

At my last appointment with my doctor this past week, she told me I tested negative for Group B Strep.  Yay!  It was my last appointment with her because she is also going on mat leave.  So I get to meet my new ob-gyn this Thursday.  I’m kinda nervous about that.  I hope that I like her because I don’t do well with people I don’t like.  My present doctor tends to be a little too happy, sunshiny about everything, but I can deal with that since she listens to my concerns and is open to what I have to say.  I’m really hoping that the new doctor is the same way.

I’m still having panic attacks over having an actual baby in the next 5 weeks, but I think I need to get into the mindset that we’ll be okay even if we don’t have everything done for the baby when he gets here.  We should probably pick a name for him though.  The problem is that Andre’s name I don’t like AT ALL and my name Andre is not fond of what the name means.  I have to say that when I found out the meaning of the name I wasn’t impressed either.  I think we might have to go back to the drawing board and make a list of possibilities and try to find one that we both like.  Apart from picking a name, I still need to find a diaper bags and a baby carrier, make some more frozen meals, and finish cleaning and organizing all of baby boy’s stuff.

Here is this week’s picture!

Week 36

Week 37



You can’t tell by looking at the picture, but my shirt no longer covers my baby bump.  I could feel some skin down there when Dre was taking the picture. 

My average weight this week is 180.9 lbs which is a loss 0.1 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 27.9 lbs. When the nurse weighed me this week, she couldn’t seem to believe that I might have lost some weight.  I’m really not doing anything differently, but the doctor tells me that that can happen towards the end of pregnancy.  Weird since the baby is putting on more weight than ever now.  I feel like there’s no more room in there for him so he’s going to have to come out pretty soon.

I still get bad, bad, bad heartburn.  I’m pretty sure that won’t change until baby boy gets here.  I’m also getting a lot of indigestion so I’m drinking a lot of Ginger Ale to help.

I haven’t really seen any “nesting” urge around.  I look at stuff and tell myself that I need to do something about it, but I don’t have the energy to go do it.  Everything seems to take so long to do when you’re pregnant that at the end of the day it feels like nothing got done.  Right now I’m focusing on accomplishing a little every day and hopefully everything will get done.  Thank goodness that Dre is happy to help though because the man does tons and then I feel bad that I let him do everything. 

I didn’t get as many BHs this week.  I tend to get them when I’m up and walking around though which makes all my shopping excursions interesting.  No painful contractions this week.  Doctor didn’t check me for dilation or effacement at my weekly appointment since I didn’t have any timeable contractions.  I’m ok with that because it reduces the chances of an infection being introduced to my uterus that way.  Anyways, I’ve heard all the stories of mamas walking around 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced for weeks before finally being induced because they went over their due dates.  We’ll see what this new doctor does, but I’d rather wait until I’m 40 weeks before we start doing the fun, fun cervical checks.

I’m really looking forward to being organized.  I feel like everything is always un-organized and everywhere right now.  I think that I’m going to work on a to-do list tonight so that I have a clear idea of what I need to do before the baby gets here.  The list will also help me feel more organized.

Baby is the size of a watermelon. He weighs around 6.5 lbs this week. I can officially say that I’ll be squeezing a watermelon out of my hoo-haa in a few weeks!  Eep!

Week 36

I know it’s taken me a really, really long time to update this.  I guess that in the middle of all the crazy stuff I had to get done so I’d be ready to leave work for a year that this blog post got lost.  Since I’m already a week late, I’ll just do a short update for Week 36.
Dre and I organized and sorted most of the baby stuff this weekend.  Now, I have a better idea of what I can start to wash.  My mom thinks I should wash every single piece of baby clothing that I have, but I think it’s a bad idea since I don’t know if I’ll even use some of it.  For now, I’m washing everything I got second-hand and a few of the smaller outfits as well as all the sheets and blankets.  I’ll re-evaluate how much we need after a week of baby being here.  I figure it will give my mom something to do if I give her a big basket full of baby stuff to wash.  She loves doing that type of thing!

Here is this week’s picture!

Week 35

Week 36

My average weight this week is 181.0 lbs which is a gain of 1.1 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 28.0 lbs. I can’t believe I’m still under the 30 lbs. gain. 

Heartburn and indigestion are a constant pain.  I take Zantac regularly otherwise I can’t breathe at night with the heartburn burning in my throat and the acid trying to come back up. 

I’ve gotten a lot of BHs in the last week including some painful contractions.  Nothing really that I can time though.  They seem to get worse every time I get stressed out or walk around too much. 

I’m really looking forward to finishing work and hanging out with some friends this weekend.  I’m going to an Epicure party that one of my friends is throwing.  I LOVE Epicure spices so I’m really excited about this.  I’m even thinking of having my own Epicure party this summer so I can stock on some more spices and get awesome discounts.

Baby is the size of a cantaloupe again. He weighs around 6 lbs this week. From now on, the weight is more of an average since babies are usually born anywhere from 5 to 10 lbs in the next few weeks.

Week 35

Turns out that training someone to take over your job is stressful, exhausting, and really annoying.  I'm pretty sure that she'll either do a great job and make me look like an idiot when I go back since she has more qualifications than I do or she'll do a really crappy job and I'll have to fix all the problems when I go back. 

I'm going on sick leave starting next Thursday.  This is 1.5 weeks earlier than I had originally planned to start my maternity leave.  When I saw my doctor last week, she wanted to pull me out of work immediately, but that almost gave me a panic attack so I told her not yet.  I've since decided that I will leave earlier because I'm exhausted and in pain most of the time and sitting at work makes it worse.

While I was at the doctor's, she decided to do Group B Strep swab test.  Ugh!  So not fun to have a long q-tip shoved up there. 

In other news, I've reached 35 weeks which is wow!  I can't believe that my due date is 4.5 weeks away and that really baby boy could be here at any time.  Cue panic attack when I think about the baby's room which is not organized yet, the lack of name, and the frozen dinners that I haven't made yet.  Deep breaths!  Maybe if I ignore it all it will magically get done!  Yeah, I'm probably dreaming!

Picture time!

Week 34

Week 35

That shirt is barely covering my bump now.  I might have to use a different one soon!

My average weight this week is 179.9 lbs which is a gain of 1.2 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 26.9 lbs.  I can't believe I'm still putting on a lb or so a week.  The baby is now so big that he takes all of my stomach space so I'm eating about 60% of what I was eating a month ago.  So it's not the food putting weight on me and I really haven't changed any of my physical activity habits so it must be the baby.  If he keeps growing this way, he'll be quite the big baby when he's born.

Heartburn, acid reflux, and indigestion are my constant friends now.  I get them all every day.  I'm so over it.  I'm ready to get my digestive system back.  I can't wait to be able to go to a restaurant and eat whatever I want and not have to be afraid that 30 minutes later I feel so stuffed I want to die or feel the "burn" of heartburn.

No energy here.  I'm still waiting for this mythical "nesting" thing that everyone keeps telling me about. 

BHs are always around now.  I get them a lot.  I've gotten a few painful contractions, but it's mostly when I'm at work or walking around a store.  So basically I should just sit on my couch and not move.  During my doctor's appointment last week, she sent me to L&D to get monitored since I'd mentioned that baby boy hadn't moved much in the last 4 days.  As soon as I got hooked up to the monitors, baby boy started kicking the crap out of those monitors.  No problems there!  When the nurse checked me, she told me that I was contracting.  I can't feel most of them though.  Crazy! 

 

I’m really looking forward to this weekend.  I get to attend one of my friend's baby shower.  She's due 4 days after me on Valentine's Day so we might end up in the hospital at the same time!  I got these adorable toy leashes made by my friend Bibmababy.  Adorable!  I'm keeping one and giving the other one away to my friend for her baby shower, but now I can't make up my mind because they're so cute! 

 

 

Anyways, I can't wait to go to the shower.  After it, we have a Pre-Natal Aquafitness class which is awesome.  Floating around is really, really awesome when you're carrying around an extra 25 lbs.  It 's going to be a great weekend!

 

Baby is the size of a cantaloupe or a honeydew melon. He weighs around 5 lbs this week.  Baby is getting big!

 

Week 34

This week baby boy's lungs are mature.  It's another milestone!

When Dre and I got back from the cottage, we went shopping for the rest of the baby furniture at IKEA.  We have a brand new IKEA in town and it's huge.  I wanted to look at everything, but since Dre hates IKEA he kept trying to get me to look faster.  We found the dresser and bookcase for the baby's room.  We also found the curtains and a lamp for the room.  I'm not sure that the lamp will work, but I'm going to give it a few days before I decide for sure.  I'll post picture of the room once Dre and I have time to organize all the baby stuff.  For now, it's kind of all stacked together...it makes the room look like it got hit by a hurricane.

On New Year's Eve, we had dinner with my SIL so we could give them their Christmas gifts since we didn't see them on Christmas.  The nephews seemed happy enough with their gifts which was a huge relief since we had a really hard time getting those gifts.  After that, we went to our friends' house for the countdown celebration to a New Year.  It's a good thing we decided to go too because every single other person that was supposed to be there cancelled at the last minute.  That would have been a real bummer for the hosts.  We had a great time even though it was just the 4 of us.  We watched the ball drop in Time Square in New York on TV and toasted with champagne (sparkling juice for me) the arrival of 2012. 

Today was my first day back at work and since I'm now training my replacement it looks like I'll have too much to do to keep up with this blog.  Yes, I usually do blog in my free time at work so now I'll have to try to write more often from home.  I'm a big procrastinator so I really have to motivate myself to do it.

While I was at work, Dre installed the car seat in the car.  Wheeee!  It's exciting and terrifying at the same time.  It seems like we're getting that much closer, but at the same time it's still far away.  We're getting the installation checked by some volunteers for our local association for S.E.A.T.S for kids on Saturday which is why we installed the car seat now.  The next date they had was Feb. 5th and I thought that was cutting it really close since my due date in Feb. 10th!

Here’s my picture this week. I'm getting huge!

Week 33

Week 34

My average weight this week is 178.7 lbs which is a gain of 0.7 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 25.7 lbs.  It seems that I have a week of big weight gain followed by a week of little gain.  For the past 10 weeks or so that pattern seems to hold true.  It's certainly interesting.  I'm happy though that I haven't had any huge, crazy weight gains and that it's been a steady weight gain for the most part.  

Today, I discovered that talking a lot gives me heartburn.  You don't believe me?  Well, since I'm training someone at work that involves spending a lot more time talking than I normally would and I got heartburn both this morning and afternoon in the middle of my "teaching".  Lovely!  Tonight I feel great though so I guess I'm getting a reprieve.

 

My energy is still on the fritz, but I think that it's just my body's way to get me to rest a lot before the baby gets here.  So for now, Dre is still doing most of the cooking. 

I've gotten some BHs here and there.  They're definitely not regular, but I am getting them a lot more often.  I'm not too concerned though because my doctor doesn't seem concerned about them at all.

The ligament pain from the baby compressing it was getting much better. Surprise!  First day back at work and it's come back with a vengeance.  I need to figure out what is causing it because I started having it in the bus on the way to work and then it just got worse as the day progressed which is what used to happen before my holidays.  I think I might just have to wait it out until I go on mat leave.

I’m really looking forward to going to celebrate my SIL's birthday this Thursday.  My nephews (5 & 8) are going to decorate the birthday cake which should be really adorable.  My youngest nephew especially likes doing things like this.  He helped his mom decorate the room for my shower by making special decorations for the baby.  So cute!  Need to get picture of it so I can show you guys!

 

Baby is the size of a cantaloupe. He weighs around 4.75 lbs this week.  I'm pretty sure that he's trying to escape whenever I walk around now so I can definitely feel the extra weight on my cervix nowadays.

Tomorrow, I'm going for a doctor's appointment.  This is my second to last appointment before I switch OBs when my doctor goes on her mat leave (remember...she's due 7 days after me).  I hope I like this new doctor as I don't think I'll have much choice once I meet her since I'll be 3 weeks from my delivery date at that point.

Week 33

I know, I know!  I'm really late with posting this update.  I was planning on posting from the cottage since I'd have lots of time.  Problem is that at the cottage my phone's 3G network worked more like dial-up for smartphones.  Other times, it didn't work at all!  So no posting for me!

Dre and I had a great Christmas with my family at the cottage.  We got to meet my brother's girlfriend's 2 daughters.  They're a riot.  They really livened up the place and I'm really glad we got to meet them.  I think that when my sister is back in the country for our next family Christmas in 2 years with my niece that they'll all have a blast together. 

I cooked the Christmas dinner this year and I have to say that it was a success.  This is only the 2nd time that I've actually cooked a complete turkey.  I usually cook the Butterball Turkeys that have no bones...so much easier to cook.  So the turkey was done an hour early and I was freaking out, but my younger brother suggested I keep the bird in the oven with the heat turned off.  I was concerned that it would dry out the turkey, but little bro was right since the turkey turned out AMAZING!  I was so happy!  Dre helped me with the whole dinner of course; he's had to become pretty handy with cooking since I've gotten pregnant. 

It's back to work for me tomorrow, but I really needed those 11 days off.  A lot of my pregnancy symptoms got a lot better since I've been off.  Because of that, I'm thinking that I'm allergic to my work!  Only 4-5 more weeks of work...the countdown has begun.

Here’s my picture this week.   I'm getting huge!

Week 32

Week 33

My average weight this week is 178.0 lbs which is a gain of 1.4 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 25.0 lbs.  Frankly, I'm surprised I haven't gained more since I've been eating a crazy amount of sweets and desserts for the past 2-3 weeks.  Gotta love the holidays!

I still love Zantac, but baby boy is definitely compressing all of my stomach, intestines, and some of my lungs.  When I eat now, I have a hard time eating and breathing at the same time.  I would never have thought that that would happen.  Zantac still works overall, but it's not working as well as it was.  I'm guessing that pretty soon nothing will stop the heartburn and acid reflux.

 

I still have very little energy most of the time.  This fabled nesting that everyone keeps talking about hasn't appeared yet.  So I'm letting Dre install the car seat tomorrow all by himself because I can't see myself sitting outside in the cold trying to figure it out.

BHs are getting more frequent and intense.  I've even had a few that felt like real contractions and not just BHs, but it's really hard to tell.  Mostly, I just get period like cramping every now and then.  I figure that as long as they don't get more intense or regular then I'm fine.  I think Dre is worried though because his favorite question lately is if my cramps are regular.  Cute husband is getting worried.  I don't know what he'll do when I tell him that it's time to go to the hospital in a few weeks.   Baby boy is a lot less active most days.  It's not very reassuring for me, but I understand that it's because he's running out of room to stretch out. 

The ligament pain from the baby compressing is much, much better. I think that sitting at my desk and getting in and out of cars in aggravating that particular symptom because it's basically disappeared for the most part in the past 11 days.  The belly button is flatish to almost being an outie.  It's so weird to be able to see the bottom of your belly button like that.  No other stretch marks for me so far. 

I’m really looking forward to getting everything ready for the baby.  It seems that baby boy will be here so soon now!

Baby is the size of a squash. He weighs around 4.5 lbs this week and it feels like it!  This is one heavy baby.

Tomorrow, I'll do my 34 week update...stay tuned!