34 weeks!

Today, I am 34 weeks. I can't believe that I'm having this baby in 6 weeks or so. Part of me is thinking, man, 6 more weeks. That is such a looooooooooooooooong time. The other part of me is thinking, "holy crap!" Only 6 more weeks and I still have SO much to do! We really need to go to Babys R Us and exchange a lot of the newborn clothing we got as gifts. The clothes are so adorable, but most of them are only "up to 9 pounds" and I don't need 20 outfits. I am really hoping to find the same exact clothes and exchange them for 0-3 months or 3-6 months. And then I have to bring them home and wash them in Dreft. We also need to buy the rest of the stuff on our registry, which didn't get bought for the baby shower (like the mattress pad cover, changing pad cover and play mat).

I weighed 166.0 pounds today, which puts me at a total weight gain of 23.5 pounds. I don't seem to have gained weight recently and my appetite has been a bit off. I will ask the midwife about it when I see her on Tuesday. I think I'm supposed to be gaining 1 pound each week now, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

My co-workers have been asking me how long I will work. My answer is basically "until I go into labor as long as my doctor and health allow me to do so." I don't want to be sitting at home and waiting to go into labor. That will be pure torture. And I would rather have as much time as possible with the baby on the back end during maternity leave. A couple of partners have also asked me, "Are you planning to return after maternity leave?" And my answer is a definite and solid "yes." And they say, "Well, you might feel differently after you have the baby." Yes, that is true. I probably will feel differently. And I'll feel guilty that I have to go to work and not be with my child. But we also have a mortgage and expenses to pay and no matter what, I'm the one parent that will need to continue working. So whether I work at my law firm or get a different job elsewhere, I'll be working. Hopefully, I'll be able to sort through all the logistics of that during my maternity leave. Our best option at the moment is to hire a nanny.

Baby Shower!

I had an amazing weekend. My mom and sister flew in from Florida, my sister-in-law and niece flew in from Baltimore, my friend Lynn flew in from California and the rest of my local family and friends came over for a fantastic baby shower. My sister planned a really great party. We played the "guess how big my belly is" game and my husband's grandmother got the closest! And then we played 2 different MadLib games written by my brother and sister, which were absolutely hysterical. I was in tears I was laughing so hard. And my friend Lynn put together a fantastic scrap book that I can continue to use when my little guy gets here. And my mother-in-law catered the entire thing and everyone loved the food, especially the to-die-for chocolate cake. I got a lot of goodies at the shower - lots of things from my registry and some great gifts that I had never thought about. The whole event made me feel very loved and special.

As of Saturday, I'm 33 weeks pregnant and weigh 166.5 pounds, which puts me at a 24 pound weight gain. I saw the midwife this past week and when I asked her if she could guestimate how big the baby will be, she thinks he will be perfectly average, which is about 7.5 pounds. After not having seen me for a month, my mother also revised her guestimate from 6 pounds 6 ounces to a "larger baby." Mom, for some reason, thinks I look quite big, but everyone I've met (including those women at the childbirth education class) make me think that I'm not actually that large as a pregnant woman. It doesn't really matter. I'm quite happy with the amount of weight I've gained and I think I will bounce back after the birth.

Obama is President!

I'm very excited that that Barack Obama is our 44th president and that George W. Bush is outta here! I watched the inauguration ceremony and speech from a conference room at work and it was extraordinarily inspiring. Although we are being hit with tough times right now, I'm very proud to be bringing into this world a new baby boy in the same year as the first black president takes office.

The nursery is done!

My husband did an amazing job in the baby's room. He painted the ceiling, walls and baseboard and installed the chair rail. I LOVE having a handy husband. And today we set up the baby's crib along with all the bedding we bought. I absolutely adore it!

I think for the finishing touches, we will need to hang some cute wall art and get an area rug. I'm also thinking about changing the colors of the dresser drawers. Each dresser drawer comes with two panels that slide out. The panels are either wood or red (as shown), dark blue (don't match the walls) or neon green. We're thinking about painting over the green side of the panels to make some drawers white and some blue to match the wall color. But no matter what, I already love it and can't wait to have our baby in there!

32 weeks

Today is the start of week 32 and I was 166.0 pounds on the scale, giving me a cumulative weight gain of 23.5 pounds. I'm starting to feel really huge and uncomfortable, which is disheartening because I have 9 full weeks left to go! It's amazingly hard to find a comfortable position to be in and even if I do find that comfortable position, within 1 hour, it's no longer comfortable.

Two days ago, I had really bad and painful gas and I think I was also dehydrated, but all of a sudden, I didn't feel so good. And I asked my husband to help me sit up on the couch (which hurt) and I was kind of just whiny and moaning and he felt my belly and it was rock solid. He said, "you're having a contraction." And I was like, "Ohhhhhhhhh!" I didn't think Braxton-Hicks contractions hurt, but maybe they don't and my pain was from the gas (which is quite likely). Anyway, I drank a ton the next day and felt much better overall. I really need to remember to drink and drink LOTS.

I am pampering myself today by getting my a full foil highlight and haircut. I really need it! I haven't gotten any highlights since getting pregnant and it's just time to do it. I want to look pretty for my baby shower next weekend. ;-) And I'm pretty sure that highlighting (versus dying) is safe because the chemicals don't touch my roots. But either way, I'm in my 3rd trimester now and I don't think it could be too harmful. I still haven't taken ANY drugs during this pregnancy other than the progesterone shots for the first 10 weeks, my prenatal vitamin and a fish oil pill. I haven't even taken Tylenol! So I'm justifying my highlights in this fashion.

Hiccups and Pooping

It appears that the baby is hiccuping more and more these days. I have gone from thinking it is the cutest thing ever to begging a higher power to make it stop. Yesterday, the baby had the hiccups FOUR different times. It's like those annoying twitches in your eye muscle that I get sometimes.

I have also been pooping a ridiculous amount. Instead of my one, very regular morning bowel movement, I have been going at least 3, and usually 4 times per day now for the last week. My bum is starting to get quite sore. Dr. Google had no explanation for me on this symptom. My only thought is that the increasing weight of the baby is putting additional pressure on my intestines/colon.

2 more months...2 more months.

Childbirth Education Class

I made it to 31 weeks and as of yesterday, I was still 163.5 pounds, with a cumulative weight gain of 21 pounds. Everything still seems to be on track and I am happy to report that my bloating has gone away. I realized yesterday that I haven't felt bloated in a while and I think the bloating might have disappeared a couple of weeks ago. My heart burn has not returned and I don't have any lower back pain. So doing good!

My husband and I spent most of the weekend at a childbirth education class at Harvard Vanguard's Wellesley location. It was extremely informative and I'm very glad I went (despite the hassle of getting to the class this morning on particularly snowy roads). We learned a lot about the labor and delivery process. I can now say that I'll know when I'm in active labor (and whether it is back labor because the baby is in a face up position with the back of his head pressing on my back). We learned breathing techniques and the various positions a laboring mother can be in to help with the pain. I no longer feel like this is a scary process and not one I can get through. My body is designed to do this and while there will be pain, I will get through it.

For right now, my plan is the following. I would like to go for as long as possible without pain medication. If I feel like I can't handle it, I would like my husband to reassure me that I can and offer me additional emotional support. If that fails, then I will take a shot of an analgesic, which will help take the "edge" off the contractions. But I am now adamant that I don't want an epidural and I *really* don't want a C-section. So that's the current plan. I'll try to be flexible, because I don't know what I'll decide when I'm severe pain, but I'd love to be able to stick to this.

In other news, I've been having Braxton-Hicks contractions. One woke me up last night and gave me a little bit of discomfort. I had another one at the childbirth class. When it happens, my entire belly gets really hard all over. It's a little weird, but now I know it is happening.

My husband is finishing the painting in the baby's room now (while I get some work done). Once he is done painting, I'll be very excited to move the dresser into the room so that it is no longer sitting in our living room. ;-)

Baby Room

Here are the colors that we picked out for the walls in the baby's room. My husband did a fantastic job painting and installing the chair rail! UPS should be delivering our bedding today - I can't wait to see it in person!

30 weeks!

Today, I started my 30th week of pregnancy. I can't believe that I am 75% (and possibly more) of the way there! Dr. Google told me that 100% of babies born after 29 weeks are viable and so while I don't expect anything bad to happen, it is reassuring to read that statistic. And since I am keeping track of my weight, I am up to 163.5 pounds, which puts me at a 21 pound weight gain. I've started eating salad again and it doesn't appear to be making me super bloated and so that's a good thing. The heart burn that I had early last week also seems to have gone away. I think I was working too hard and too late and eating too fast because once I slowed down and relaxed a bit, it went away.

The baby still seems to be sleeping through the night (unlike me). I feel him kicking during the day and all the way up to 11 pm or midnight, but then when I wake up in the middle of the night to switch positions, I don't feel him. I'm still pretty sure that he isn't waking me up and that I'm only waking up because I need to change positions (because my arms get numb when I lay on my side). It will be interesting to see how this baby sleeps once he is born.

Today we went to Jordans to pick up the baby's dresser. Our neighbor was nice enough to lend us his pickup truck so that we didn't have to spend $110 on delivery. Once my husband finishes installing the chair rail in the baby's room (and then fixing up the paint that got screwed up), I can't wait to see the dresser in the room. And on Monday, UPS should be delivering the baby's crib bedding, which is really exciting! It's all coming together quite nicely. I'm getting super excited and while I'm still nervous for labor/delivery, the childbirth education classes that we're going to next weekend should help with that.