36 Weeks

(The Mr. wanted to sneak in on a photo)

Cooking Time: 36 weeks this past Friday, or officially 9 months pregnant! (I'm recapping late, because my Dr. had to reschedule our 36 week appointment for this past Monday.) Nobody ever seems to talk about the fact that pregnancy is indeed 10 months long (40 weeks divided by 4 weeks in a month equals 10 months, yo), so I've been confusing people when I say I'm 9 months pregnant and I still have 4 weeks left until my due date. The photo is from this past Thursday night at 35w6d, so I'll be recapping week 35.

Cravings: Sadly, nothing. I've basically lost my appetite this week, making life a little difficult because I still have a human growing inside me that needs nourishment, you know? Nothing really sounds good to eat at each meal, which makes me feel like a picky toddler when it comes time to figure out what's for dinner.

Baby Size: We're thinking somewhere between 5.5 - 6 lbs already, which is about ready to surpass my 5 lb 12 oz birthweight. Sounds like she'll be closer to her daddy's 7 lbs and change.

Annoyances: Swelling, swelling, swelling. I worked from home on Monday due to the sheer misery swollen feet and ankles were bringing me... I've since been sporting the oh-so-chic fashion combo of support hose, the Mr's running socks, and loosely-laced running shoes to work with my dress pants and dress/leggings ensembles. Totally against the business casual dress code here in Corporate America, but if it makes the difference between me physically being able to walk or not I'll take my chances. Walking and talking is actually quite a challange right now, which makes me feel a bit like a Biggest Loser contestant.

Daddy's Questions for the Doctor: The Mr. was able to attend my appointment, so no bizarro questions for this week!

State of the Union: My poor doctor tore her ACL last week, so we had to reschedule our typical weekly Friday morning appointment to Monday. Luckily she was able to see us on Monday, because we were able to see our little girl on our last ultrasound! She has chubby little fists, a button nose, and definitely has her mother's Reese Witherspoon-style pointy chin. We think she was doing some thumb sucking in there as well, which takes after me. I'm 75% effaced, but dilated just a fingertip. Sadly, my doctor's knee surgery will put her out of the game for a few weeks... We'll be skipping our 37 week and 38 week appointments, and picking up at 38.5 weeks. I'm sure I'll have a lot more change to record then!

Highlights: My sister-in-law threw me a baby shower on Sunday the 26th, with all my nearest and dearest in Arizona. This was my third and final shower, each one having been everything I could have ever hoped for and more. I'll be recapping the shower in a later post, but it was certainly the highlight of the week this week.

Coming in a close second would be the final baby shopping trip I took with my mother on Saturday, where we purchased our crib bedding. It's NOTHING like I had in mind, and yet is absolutely perfect for our family. Yes, I have always planned on making the little martini olive's bedding myself, but let's be real here- we have 5 weeks to go, and I still haven't found the time to do it. Sometimes you have to just accept the fact that you can't do it all- a lesson I've been slow to learn this pregnancy, but am becoming more aware by the minute I need to embrace. Photos of the nursery to come when I can get all the shower gifts put away.

Other Thoughts: Still the same "holy cow, this is about to happen" mindset, though feeling so much bigger and slower is starting to make the days fly by less slowly.

xoxo,

Lulu

35 Weeks Today

I had every intention of fastidiously recording each week of my pregnancy.

Really, I did.

But week 6 hit me like a full-speed freight train and trapped in a prison of nauseous misery 24/7. I didn't break out of the misery until sometime between week 16 and week 17, so the last thing I wanted to do was take a picture of myself all raggedy and in a coma of anti-nausea meds, and record just how crappy I felt week after week.

My 'wild' 29th birthday weekend- full horizontal position, snuggie, and cold compress with ginger drink, water, and apple cinnamon tea at the ready. The glamour of it all. (6 weeks, 2 days pregnant).

You can bet your bottom dollar that weeks 7-17 looked basically the same, except they brought forth a lovely pregnancy-induced rash around my nose and mouth that no makeup seemed to hide and no medicine seemed to cure. Weekly blog fodder? Notsomuch.

I considered it a win of epic proportions just to take a shower each day (which I did sitting on the floor of the tub, thankyouverymuch), so blogging (or grocery shopping, or trying to leave the house looking like a functional adult) was just not high on the priority list.

Fast forward to now, 35 weeks pregnant on the button and seeing the end clearly in view. I thought it'd be fun to track the last 6(ish?) weeks of pregnancy on here, now that I feel (somewhat) like a normal human being again, so I could look back and remember how the final stretch panned out. I'll be more or less borrowing my pregnant blogger friend-turned-supermama Kate's weekly update format, since she did such a fine job recording her pregnancy for posterity. So, without further ado, let's get to updating!

Cooking Time: 35 weeks today (photo is from last night at 34w6d), so I'll be recapping week 34

Cravings: Last week was Cheetos, this week it's Frosted Mini-Wheats all the way. And trying to OD on OJ for the cold I've been trying to avoid, which is weird for me since I'm not a juice fan.

Baby Size: The Dr. is estimating the little lady at about 5.5 lbs and 17 inches long... My birthweight was 5 lbs 12 oz, and I was 2 weeks late at that, so it sounds like she's going to far surpass where I clocked in.

Annoyances: Bring on the swelling. I finally had to take my wedding rings off on Tuesday (sad!) due to an increasing case of puffy fingers. My feet feel like 2 lead bricks by the end of the day, and my legs feel like I just finished a long run. This is only going to get worse over the coming weeks, so I pray this doesn't affect my ability to go to work.

Daddy's Questions for the Doctor: I've taken up the practice of asking my husband if he has any questions for the doctor (he doesn't usually attend my check-ups), more for sheer entertainment purposes than to actually assuage any of his worries. Entertainment because he likes to use this Q&A forum as an excuse to call out the things he doesn't think I should be doing, and use the it as a way of tattling on me to my lovely OB which I find absolutely hilarious.

Questions The Mr. told me to ask the doctor this week:

"Should you be eating more salad every night with dinner?"

(which comes in response to the nightly argument we've had the last week over me not wanting salad with my dinner entree. Since, you know, I'M FULL OF BABY and all, which makes 3-course meals kind of unappealing for a squished stomach)

And the other gem...

"You've been rolling over and sleeping on your back sometimes at night, which I read is dangerous. Should I be somehow wedging you into place on your side, or tying you down or something?"

(TYING ME DOWN IN PLACE. For real.)

State of the Union: Today was my first examination to determine what's going on in baby land, that whole "turn your head and cough" situation pregnant ladies face towards the end of the journey. Pleasant. I'll be calling this the State of the Union from now on, because call me old fashioned but I really just don't want to plaster words like "cervical" all over the ol' blog here. However- I do want to keep record of this if/when we go round 2 on the baby front, and posting it on my blog will probably be the only place I won't lose the information. So if you're not into these kinds of details, feel free to skip ahead.

Dr. W says I'm 1/3 of the way thinned out, with no dilation, and have shifted towards a more anterior position. This baby's been super head down since the get-go, so both the Dr. and I were a bit surprised to find out that Little Miss Martini's head is sitting on top of the front of my pelvic bone, instead of being down in my pelvis like we presumed she was. I'm hoping she'll shift her little noggin back and down into position soon, but I also know that means I'll have to use the ladies room about 1,000 times more than usual which I'm not looking super forward to. The bathroom is on the other side of the office, so the thought of making that trip more often with these 2 lead feet is not the slightest bit appealing.

Highlights: She's been wiggling up a storm the last few weeks, which is equal parts adorable and uncomfortable. She loves to stick her feet in my ribs, which feels like I'm being violently tickled from the inside. She's also been doing these crazy rolls from side to side in the evenings, which makes my stomach undulate like the surface of a waterbed. It looks highly creepy, but is pretty miraculous at the same time. I just keep thinking "There's a HUMAN in there, yo!" My mom also flew in yesterday to attend my AZ baby shower this weekend, so I'm excited to have her help around the house while the Mr. studies.

Other Thoughts: The last 2 friends to be due before me have had their babies (Carla welcomed Asher Mills and Kate welcomed sweet LJH, so I'm literally the last man standing at this point. The next one to have a baby. All I keep thinking is "It's about to get realllll up in here, realllll quick....."

xoxo,

Lulu

Anybody Still Out There?

Just checking in on this ol' blog of mine...

T-minus 7 weeks and counting until the little martini olive makes HER grand appearance... The last 5 months have been a wild ride, indeed.

I suppose I can't really tell people I'm a blogger if I haven't blogged in the last 5 months... I really miss blogging, so hoping I can renew my 'blogger' status here in the near future. Changes are obviously on the horizon, and I'm hoping I can get back into the swing of things to capture the memories.

Hope to be back soon...

xoxo,

Lulu