35 weeks and Fetus Porn

I am 35 weeks as of today. The end is definitely drawing nearer. ;-) I had an appointment with my midwife this past Tuesday and she did an ultrasound (the first one I have had since the 18 week level 2 ultrasound!) to see if the baby was head down. This little baby boy is, indeed, head down. His head was facing my left thigh. I knew all along that he must be head down because I was constantly feeling the hardest kicks in the upper right quadrant of my belly. I'm pretty sure he's been in this position for a long time. The midwife says he's unlikely to flip over now, but I still worry. I don't want to have a C-section due to a breach baby. I had a moment of panic a couple of days ago when I started feeling kicking in my lower left quadrant, but the kicking is now back to the upper right quadrant.

It was so nice to see him "live" on the ultrasound screen. At the level 2 ultrasound at 18 weeks, the sonographer was 95% sure that the baby was a boy. We are now 100% positive that the baby is a boy because his penis and scrotum were clearly obvious on the ultrasound. I brought those pictures home to my husband and we joked about the fetus porn. I should probably get rid of the pictures so as to not embarrass my son later in life, but what fun would that be!

I'm now 167.5 pounds, which gives me a total weight gain of 25 pounds. I seem to have regained appetite and my weight is increasing nicely. My father is visiting from Florida and he hadn't seen me since December. He said I looked great and I was glowing, which made me really happy. He also said that you can't even tell that I'm pregnant from behind. I'm definitely carrying a basketball up front. I can't imagine getting much bigger than I already am, but I have 5 weeks left (and maybe more if I deliver past my due date) and so it's gonna happen. I'm just getting so excited to meet this little one!

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.