So This Is What They Were Talking About

Well, I guess I've entered that phase that everyone warned me about. Everyone said in the final weeks I'll be begging to have this baby out of me because I'll be so miserable. So far I'm not "miserable" and I still don't want "Thumper" to come early but I get why some people would.

1. I'm starting to swell in the afternoons in my feet and sometimes hands so my drive home (20-30 minutes) is really painful because I can't put my feet up to drive. Some therapy kids are better than others - I love to be able to move around rather than sit in little chairs at the table.

2. My arms and hands go numb in the middle of the night. Not too bad but it's noticeable.

3. Back pain. Oh, lord, this is the worst. I use a heating pad at work in between kids, I take baths nightly and then I've started icing it as well. I'm wishing someone could roll a tennis ball around the sore spot in my mid-back. I'm rubbing up against doors like a bear at work when I can't be by my heating pad for counter-pressure. Again, moving around helps. Sitting in chairs is not fun. Thank heaven I have a job that I get to move all over in!

4. My gums started bleeding last night when I was brushing my teeth. I looked it up, I guess it can be normal for the whole pregnancy but this was the first time I noticed it.

5. No sleep. This is not new. My hip pain is getting worse though so I think I sleep even less than I did a few weeks ago. I'm pretty tired, but I'm not as tired as I feel I should be for as little sleep as I've been getting. I feel bad but I take 1/2 a Tylenol PM for pain and hopefully more sleep. It helped a little bit of both but I'll only take it once or twice a week.

6. I can't sleep on my back! This is the one thing I really miss and I really think it would help with the hip pain; however, sitting in a recliner is only helpful for so long because I start to feel a lot of pelvic pressure. Basically, there's no winning the positioning department so I just try to make do and try to disturb Bruce as little as possible.

7. Midnight bathroom runs. Ok, it's really more like 2:30am runs. I haven't had to wake up to go all pregnancy but in the last couple of weeks I've had to. I could go back to sleep but I'll just wake up by 4:30 so may as well go the first time I wake up. Not complaining, just putting it on the list.

8. Holy Charlie Horse! I'm doing everything I can possibly think of to not have this happen again. I got a "Happy 38 Weeks Charlie Horse" so bad  I couldn't speak. Poor Bruce, I just found out last night that his first thought was that I was in labor so now he wants me to write down what he's supposed to do. What a sweet heart. He asked if he could rub my leg, once he knew what was wrong, but I was in so much pain I couldn't even let him.

I think that's it. Bruce thought I looked miserable last night so he thought I was ready to have this baby out. Sorry, Charlie. Thumper can stay put and bake away. I'll manage the pain for so many reasons. I don't want to have this baby while Des is gone - that's a big reason. I don't want her to come before I've started my part-time schedule or I'll be forced to come back to work full time even if I'm not ready for that. Timing for how long I can be out of work is better if she waits until her due date as well. We don't have a car seat yet. Her room still needs some more readying. I need to stock up on things at the store. I like to accrue more vacation time. I want to thoroughly clean the house. I would love to make new planters. Ok, I'm getting silly now but, seriously, I want to get as prepared as possible for her arrival and I just don't feel like I am. I will start helping her out next weekend so that maybe she'll come on time ~ but the 18th sounds best for everyone :) You think you can do that, baby girl?

Ok, so I'm not in a bad mood about this at all so people were wrong. I'm anticipating her but not so eager I want her out asap. I love this time and I'm cherishing every ache and pain because the up side is I get to be around her 24/7. I love every wiggle, kick, shudder, hiccup and roll. I will gladly deal with this pain knowing that she's healthy and growing. Although.....we do have a couple more weeks. Maybe I'll start singing a different toon by her due date ;)

3rd Trimester Baby BUMP Photos

I just laugh at myself when I think about how "huge" I was in my 1st and 2nd trimesters! I couldn't imagine that this belly could get any bigger - but it did.


Here are my photos from my 3rd trimester. I'm taking them weekly now ~ which at this point could mean I'm done taking photos or I may have a few more to go. It's all up in the air right now. So these go from 28 weeks until my current 37 week photo. 

 28 weeks - I thought this was as big as I would get!

 32 Weeks - noticeably bigger to me!

 35 Weeks in the Baby's Room

36 Weeks -  This is the week when people started telling me "You must be getting close"

37 weeks - I cannot believe this belly!

I love my baby belly because my baby's in there buuuuut, it does get hard picking things up, wearing clothes and moving around with toddlers after I've eaten. I wouldn't trade this baby bump for anything, though. She's perfect and seems content in there. I feel so priviledged to get to carry this precious little life for Bruce and myself. I hope she appreciates it one day.

(Very) Random Baby Musings

First thing's first. I guess I should mention to those who don't know, we plan on naming the baby Mia Rylee. I'm 99.9% sure. Why can't I just make a full commitment?! Anywho... yay for that getting checked off the list.

So, Mia met her first friend this week. My friend, Jen, had her daughter, Mckinlee, on Tuesday night (I predicted her birth within 5 minutes! Winner!!!). I went to meet them at the hospital on Wednesday after work and got to hold her tiny 7 lb 12 oz baby girl who came 6 days early! While I was holding her, what did baby Mia do? She kicked her! Repeatedly! Mckinlee didn't seem to mind and, in Mia's defense, it was her sheduled active time. What do you do when your baby's kicking others and she hasn't even left the womb?

I had been afraid to visit Mckinlee because in the Childbirth class I overheard a woman saying how her friends had gone into labor shortly after holding infants while they were close to their due date. As we all know, I'm not in a rush to get this baby out so I was really nervous.

Anywho, I was sitting in my office feeling the baby kick away while talking with my co-worker and I heard her joints POP! Gross! I've read about others hearing this but didn't think I would actually hear it also. Surprise, Mia's joints are already poppin' in there.

Wednesday night Mia was moving like crazy. She was making me concerned because I was feeling all sorts of things I haven't felt before and I was starting to freak out - please don't be dropping! I guess she just felt that looking towards my right side was getting boring because she ended up having her booty on my left side so it felt like she was backing out of me. She also seemed to have been sideways at some point looking up because she had the hiccups pretty bad but I felt them in very weird areas instead of at my left side as usual. She was also getting all up under my ribs - usually I feel her feet under my right ribs and somehow she had contorted herself so that she could put multiple body parts under both sides of my ribs at the same time. Not painful, but uncomfortable for sure. I don't know what "dropping" feels like and I know it doesn't happen for everyone, but I'm pretty sure she hasn't done so because my ribs tell me that she's still up there.

This Friday morning she has completely changed which side she is looking on. Now her little toes are on my left side and her back is on my right. Why after all these weeks did she decide she needed to look out the other side? I'm debating on whether to call the midwife or not. Now that she's settled she seems to be calmer (remember, she almost hasn't stopped moving since Sunday night!). 

So cute, because she's been so active at night that I've been getting even less sleep than usual, Bruce suggested that we buy her headphones so that I can play lullabies to hopefully calm her down so that we can ALL sleep better. What a nice daddy.

Not cute, I had a nightmare that I forgot to feed the baby and she wasn't crying about it or anything. I woke up at 3am unable to go back to sleep because I was so upset by this. Bruce assured me that it wouldn't happen, that it wouldn't be possible, but I still couldn't sleep after that.

I started timing my contractions because for some reason I started getting a lot of them. Just as I suspected, they were just more Braxton Hicks. I get so many I was thinking of calling the midwife to ask if there was such a thing as too many 'practice contractions.' I also realized that I haven't really internalized all the things I learned in my childbirth class because one of the first things I noticed (ok, not really first, maybe 4th or 5th), was that I tensed up and tended to hold my breath. The exact opposite of what I'm supposed to be doing. Hello! They're practice contractions for a reason, maybe I should actually start practicing the techniques I learned or I'll end up yelling for pain reliever during the actual labor!!!

This week I also learned from my dear co-workers that I need to have plans for just in case for lots of different scenarios. They informed me that labor & contractions don't necessarily begin at the most convenient times or places (so maybe not an evening or weekend or day off of work). Now I had thought about a plan if labor was fast at home (call 911 then call closest relative) and fast at work (go to Good Sam hospital) and who to call if Bruce is out of town (closest relative). I guess my non-plan of driving myself to the hospital 30 minutes away was not acceptable to my co-workers so now I have volunteers to bring me to my actual hospital should I need that. Great. Now I'm thinking, what if I'm shopping? What if I'm on a walk? What if I'm stuck on the side of a road with a broke-down car? Maybe I should research how to deliver my own baby if they think it's a good idea to have multiple plans! What if I didn't realize I was in labor until it was too late and Bruce has to deliver the baby? Ok, I think I'll go back to being blissfully ignorant.

Comparison photo! Look what's changed in just 10 weeks!!!!! Whoa baby!

How Big is Baby Ticker

I forgot I had posted this at the end of last year. Just about a month away we should expect to have this little one all baked and ready to make her appearance!

Catching BB - 34 week movement

I sat down to do some crafting and BB started to have a little party in my tummy so I thought I'd video so you can see the flowers dance. :)

Just because I can - here's a picture of me in BB's room this morning (35 weeks today). Look at that big baby belly!

Side note: As I'm posting this BB has the hiccups. I love her hiccups (most of the time).

Side side note: you should probably not youtube natural births 5 weeks before you're due. The videos in the childbirth class, though painful looking, seem manageable. Some of the videos on youtube are terrifying. TERRIFYING.

34 Week Growth Scan

So we went in for a growth scan yesterday because at our 20 week ultrasound they were concerned about the baby being a bit too small. They were thinking that perhaps she would have a growth spurt and that's why she seemed a bit small but that it was just about the timing. Just to be safe, they scheduled a scan to see if she was growing well enough. I got a scolding on my eating and changed my diet to primarily have proteins (good bye tons of garden salads, hello eggs, cheese and protein bars). She did seem to have spurts after that so I wasn't too concerned. 

Over the last 3 weeks I started eating like a cow. Crazy hungry all the time. Big meals that I would finish and turn around and have another. I was afraid to step on the scale! So at the appointment we had the ultrasound first. She did lots of measuring and not a ton of profile shots (which is what we were interested in). Oh, and it was reconfirmed (for the 8th time) - we ARE having a girl. We saw her vagina, nice and clear, looking like a coffee bean. 

Ok, anyway...the u/s tech said "looks like baby's been eating well" which sent a red flag to me, being as I have been concerned since day one about having a big baby (family history and all). So I start asking about "guesstimating" weight. She then launches into the numbers - baby's head is perfectly perfect in the 50th percentile (50th being the most average of average size) which is great because it was small at the 20 week. Her limbs (arms and legs, daddy) are long within normal limits. But it's her belly. Her belly is in the 90th percentile!!!!! This means it's about 40% bigger than it should be as compared to her head! Almost twice as big as expected!!!

When we saw the midwife I got weighed but refused to look at my weight (remember, "Mooo Mel" has been eating up a storm - Blizzards and cheesecake for dinner) - then I heard "Only gained a pound." What?! How could that be?! Midwife laughed and said, I guess it all went to baby. On the bright side, they are happy that baby's growing well. Everything seems normal and functioning well so they don't know why her belly is so big. They think perhaps it was another uneven growth spurt and that she'll even out by the time she makes her grand entrance. Perhaps. But, just in case, the BABY is on a DIET (not me, I'm not gaining too much weight, just her!). I have to cut out/drastically reduce my carb intake. Of course I just bought 4 bags of jelly beans and there's a cheesecake in the fridge. Bye bye pasta, white bread, sweets and chips. Also, I should start exercising in the morning more because for some reason that helps more than if I did it at night. 

The midwife basically said we'll have a baby "humpty dumpty" at this rate ~ those were her words!  Her poundage is ok at approximately 6 lbs 8 oz - give or take a pound (please, take a pound). So, dashed are my hopes of a 7 1/2 lb baby. I'm doing this au natural with a biggin'.  At this stage, she should be about 5 lbs and up to 19 inches.

On the way home Bruce rubbed my belly and it dawned on me - the baby looks just like I do right now! That's apparently what Bruce was thinking when he reached for my own Buddha belly to rub baby's Buddha belly! 

I can laugh about this but they did mention there's a concern that if it she doesn't even out then her shoulders may not fit. You can infer here. If not, I'll help you ...if her shoulders don't fit I may have to have a C-section. Even if I tried to push her out for 24 hours! There are so many reasons I don't want this to happen. Thus, I have to change my diet once again. 

Phew, talk about getting ready for parenthood! First trimester I had to change the way I eat just to keep food down and decrease nausea. Second trimester I had to change the way I eat because she wasn't craving enough protein which is needed for brain development. Now 3rd trimester I'm changing again! She wants ice cream! Instead, she's going to get a high protein, low carb diet. At least she likes salads. If only I could get her to stop craving treats for dinner. 6 more weeks to get her photo-ready! 

Does This Robe Make Me Look Big?

This has been a running joke between me and Bruce. I told him I was going to stop wearing bathrobes because they make me look "fat." I said this very early on but I have been freezing this pregnancy and it's so easy to throw over clothes so I do keep wearing them. However, when I catch my reflection in the window or mirror it shocks me! At 33 weeks Bruce was kind enough to take a photo to show - the robe really DOES make me look big! Right?