32 Weeks!

32 weeks! 32 weeks! 32 weeks!  It's hard to stay calm every day when we are getting SO.CLOSE. to the birth of our son!!  I keep jumping ahead of myself and thinking we only have 5 or 6 weeks left, when in actuality we still have 7.5ish weeks.  I need to remind myself to stay calm and really try to enjoy these next few weeks.  Pregnancy really is a magical time and I need to enjoy it while I can.  I'm just so freakin' excited that I can't help getting anxious!!!

I've had a few not-so-great pregnancy symptoms the past few weeks but I don't even care so much because they're all overshadowed by my anticipation of our baby's birth.  But just to memorialize the symptoms for the blog, I'll tell you about them.  First up is the heartburn.  It has really escalated in the past few weeks.  I'm popping my tums every evening now, and occasionally in the afternoons if I have a lunch that doesn't sit so well.  The evening heartburn means no more lying down on the couch after dinner, relaxing.  I'm forced to watch our programs in an upright position with two pillows behind me.  My posture has never been as great as it is now!  I sort of thought I'd avoid a lot of the heartburn because baby is sitting so low in my belly, but no such luck.  I can still solve the problem with Tums though, so at least there's that.  Nothing stronger or a prescription needed at this point.

I've started having a lot more issues with sleeping over the past week as well.  I toss and turn and fight with my body pillow and the covers almost every night.  When I end up actually waking up to pee (there's only so many times I can tell myself to just go back to sleep and ignore my bladder!), it takes me forever to fall back asleep.  Mild insomnia, I suppose.  My brain is just so full!  I'll lay awake thinking about our son, the labor and delivery process, what I need to accomplish at work before I'm done (only 6 weeks, 1 day left!), and so much more.  My body has also just been more uncomfortable in general when I'm sleeping...sometimes the extra weight I've gained seems like a lot to move around at night!  I'm up to 24-25 pounds gained as of today.  I'm at a good place where I can keep right about my current weight for the next few weeks, without hampering baby's growth or anything.  Whether or not I'll actually stay here is another story. :)

Even recognizing that I feel a lot better when I eat healthier, I seem to be regressing to first-trimester eating habits and all I want is comfort food or my favorite restaurant food.  Dinners this week have consisted of spaghetti and meatballs, Arbys, pizza, and tonight we're having baked mac and cheese.  Tomorrow night might be time for some Souplantation and veggies!  Although I really want to see the movie "Labor Day," which is out tomorrow, so dinner might be movie popcorn. :)  I've been good about keeping up with the fruits though and I do have salad at least once or twice a week for lunch, so not all is lost.  And my water intake has been through the roof!  Twice this week I've hit 100+ ounces in a day so I'm staying very hydrated.  Keep drinking and peeing in there, baby boy!!

I've also been suuuuper congested recently.  I've always had sort of a post-nasal drip thing going on and I think pregnancy has only made it worse.  I'm sniffly all day long (which means reminding people all day long that I'm NOT sick and NOT contagious with something...unless I really don't understand how pregnancy works and I am contagious...) and my eyes alternate between being really dry and really watery.  It doesn't help that I sit in an office with the HVAC blasting all day.  I've managed to wear my contacts every day this week but there's been a few weeks where my eyes couldn't take it and I had to make due with my glasses.  My frames are super old and always slip down my nose, making my nerdiness factor go wayyyy up. :)

One symptom I haven't had, or haven't noticed, is any Braxton Hicks contractions.  I may very well be having them but I haven't been able to differentiate between potential contractions and just general pressure in my belly from baby squirming and sitting so low.  Our OB says it's totally normal not to have any yet and also totally normal not to know what I'm feeling, especially since it's my first pregnancy.  But I do hope I feel a little something soon.  I want to know my body is preparing diligently for the big day! 

Baby boy has still been very active and he likes to push his head (or butt? butthead?) really far out so my stomach is lopsided when I look down.  Although I'm certainly used to him moving around every day, I still feel elated every time he does something super cute, like send ripples all the way across my stomach, or does some rapid kickboxing/kickpunching.  And he still gets the hiccups, which is adorable!  Two nights ago, Aron and I just sat watching and feeling my belly as the flutters went on for a good five minutes.  We like to play little games where we tell baby to "kick on the left if you want this, or kick on the right if you want that."  Or "kick on the right if mommy is right, and kick on the left if daddy is right."  It always makes us laugh when he responds with the funnier answer.  I'm sure those of my friends who have never been pregnant are rolling their eyes at this part and thinking we're ridiculous.  But until you've sat in bed for 30 minutes just watching your child roll around and be adorable even from inside the womb, you can't judge me! :)

Besides the symptoms, these days I'm really just so very...happy!  Happy seems like such a bland word but I guess there's no other way to describe it right now.  I've always been a generally content and optimistic person but I've never felt the way I feel now.  I'm borderline giddy most days.  Not to say I don't have my down or whiny moments, but I bounce back so quickly it's just a small blip in my day.  I feel like everything is going so well that it's almost bound to go downhill soon...the pregnancy has been mostly fantastic, Aron and I are in such a great place, we're surrounded by friends and family that love us, we already have wonderful pets and an amazing house...who gets all this in life?!  I feel like Charlotte in the SATC movie when she's nervous about running when she's pregnant (anyone know what I'm talking about? "I'm so happy, I'm scared."  Ringing any bells...anyone?).  Since I'll never know what the future will hold, I'm going to embrace this time and enjoy feeling this upbeat while I can...before I'm running on 2 hours of sleep a night and covered in spit up.  But I'll probably still be pretty damn happy if the way I feel now is any indication.

There's many other things to write about from the past few weeks, but for now I'll just post some pictures from our second baby shower!  Our friends Viviana and Joelle threw the shower for us and it was wonderful!  I'm so lucky that I got to do the baby shower thing twice.  More fun games, more amazing gifts (thank you thank you thank you!), and more delicious food and cake!  We truly appreciate everything our friends and family do for us.  I can't wait to have our son and introduce him to our circle of love!

Viv and Joelle came up with the cutest ideas for the shower!

Some of our beautiful guests (beautiful women...handsome men!).
Apologies to any guests we didn't capture on camera!

The happy couple!

Aron finally got some UCLA gear for the baby! (baby boy already has an SU onesie!)

My cute husband practicing being a father with our friends' daughter Abby. :)

The hostesses!!

It's been awhile...

...but I guess I'd chime in with my perspective.  Cassie's been a trooper through all of it and hasn't called on me to do a whole lot that I normally didn't do before the news broke.  Sure, I have to lift more things and scoop the litter box more frequently, but it hasn't been the roller coaster of emotions and frequent trips to the grocery store that I anticipated.  I was expecting her to be laughing one second and then break a beer bottle over my head the next when I looked at her funny for demanding I make her an anchovy-jalapeno jello mold.  Thankfully, none of that has happened.  Yet.

People often ask me if I'm ready.  My reply has been "Yes?  No...?", mostly because I haven't read enough to really know what I should be ready for.  And of the very little that I have read, I've taken away one thing: there is nothing in your life that will prepare you for having a child.  I'm not sure I'm getting it right, but it seems that parenthood as a wonderful type of hell in which you never sleep and derive an inordinate amount of joy from merely being a slave to a 10-pound poop machine.  That joy seems to fuel you through those sleepless nights and countless runs to the baby store for more baby things.  I've never subsisted on joy alone, so am I ready?  The answer is a resounding no.

I'm fairly certain I'll never be ready, but everyone who has a child seems to think that we'll figure it out as we go and that there's no need to worry.  Of course, they follow it up with, "Now if you're gonna know one thing..." and that's where I've been zoning out for whatever reason.  About the only advice that I've taken to heart is some quote (which may be famous?) by some dude (who may also be famous, but whose identity escapes me) that goes along the lines of "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."  I can do that.

On the more superficial level, I've packed on about 10-15 pounds of sympathy weight so far, but I'm going to make an effort to take that off before Parker gets here.  Once upon a time, I made a goal to weigh less than her at some point, but it's looking pretty unlikely.  I have been getting on the old stationary bike in the morning and I'm starting to realize there's a reason we sleep in a bed and not on a bike.  It's just so much cozier in bed, so... that whole exercise in the morning thing will probably come to an end soon.

Anyways, Cassie was sitting on the couch the other day while we were watching TV and she was just watching Parker do his thing.  She said, "It's so weird having something in your body just moving around and having no control over it.

And I said, "Now you know what it's like to have a penis."

Then Hank said, "Now you know what it's like to have a tail."

Then Stripes said, "Now you know what it's like to SHUT UP.  Where's my food?"  So we sat in silence for awhile.

TEN weeks left!!!

30 weeks and the countdown is on!!  This entire pregnancy, we've been counting up as the weeks go by and now I'm finding myself counting down until the due date.  For example, before, when people would ask me how far along I am, I'd answer with something like "six months."  Now when people ask I say "ten weeks left!"  It's a different mindset and a really exciting change.  Our due date feels so incredibly close now!

Ok, get ready for the rest of my rambling...this is a long entry!

We're starting to do more and more each day to prepare for baby boy's arrival.  We got the crib built awhile ago (see photos below of Aron building it!), but we still need a mattress.  Not high priority since baby Lum won't be in there for a few months but certainly on our to-do list.  We built a dresser for the nursery and filled it up with all the clothes we have so far.  Between my very dear friends Michaela and Amanda, we pretty much have baby's entire first-year wardrobe complete thanks to their cute hand me down outfits.  We also received several great gifts at the shower we had in Spokane to fill in the gaps.  We were so spoiled by our friends and family!  Besides the dresser we bought, we haven't had to buy anything for baby ourselves yet.  Our friends are hosting another shower for us in San Diego next weekend, and after that we'll plan to do some serious baby shopping and gather the rest of the items we need.  I haven't even bought any baby clothes of my own choosing yet!!  We've been pretty budget-conscious lately with all the changes in our lives, but I have a feeling I'll go crazy anyways in the few weeks before baby gets here.  Also on my shopping list: I want to buy a rocking chair or glider of some sort and get some cozy rugs for the nursery.

 

Hanky was very curious about this new furniture!

Kitty bunk beds! Rory is up in the crib and Stripes is hanging out below. :) Pretty sure this will be happening allll the time now.

Here are some pics from the baby shower we had in Spokane!  My sister, aunt, and mom all hosted and it was a huge success and really fun!  I had such a wonderful time with the guests, which included some family that I hadn't seen in years.  Thank you to everyone who came out and made the day so special!!  We truly were spoiled with gifts and love and support.  Baby boy is going to grow up so loved!  I can't wait to do it all again this weekend with our San Diego friends.  We really are lucky to be surrounded by people who are willing to listen to us blabber on about the pregnancy and our plans without getting so fed up they punch us in the face. :)

Me, my cousin RaChelle and her baby boy Rekker, my Grandma Marilyn and my sister Randi

Me and sissie!

The handsome hubby!! The boys hung out downstairs so the gals could be girlie and ooh and ahh over cute baby things. :)

One of the tables - everything was so beautiful!!

Me and Grandma

Me and my beautiful mama!! I look more and more like her every day, which is an awesome thing!!

Friends! Emily, me, Susan

Me and my Grandma Janna

An exciting event in our lives last week was that we found out I don't have gestational diabetes!  On January 3rd I went and took the two-hour glucose test and we found out the results last Monday.  I was actually pretty nervous but I passed the test with flying colors.  I actually tested on the low end of the "normal" range for all markers!  I've been joking that thanks to my sweet tooth, my body has had years of training in metabolizing sugar.  Ok ok, I know it doesn't quite work like that.  I'm just very fortunate to be healthy!  And now I can continue eating sweets for the next 10 weeks!  On Friday night I had my first real craving of the pregnancy.  As in "find this for me NOW or I will DIE" type of craving.  And of course, it was for sugar.  Raspberry sorbet in particular.  I made Aron go to the store and buy me some and I ate half the carton in one sitting.  In my defense...it was one of those baby cartons.  And it was sooooo good and just what I needed.  It was the first time I've made Aron go buy me something!  He's gotten off pretty easy this pregnancy. :)

Another exciting event in our lives this week is that I just gave my notice at work that I won't be returning after the baby is born.  That's right folks, I get to be a stay at home mom!!!  More of a work from home mom, since I'll still actively be doing my Mary Kay business.  Hopefully I'll actually be working it even more now that I won't have the bothersome 10 hours at my day job to get in the way every day. :)  I'm thrilled that I get the opportunity to stay at home and raise our baby.  Major thanks to my sugar daddy for making it happen!!  We're gonna have to give up a few fun luxuries, like my expensive seeing-movies-at-the-movie-theater habit, but it will totally be worth it to be home everyday, not missing a moment of my son's life.  That didn't sound like a smothering stay at home mom comment at all, right?!  But really, I can't wait to spend my days with baby boy, watching him grow up and become the super genius his father has predicted he'll be.

Every day my belly seems to stretch a teensy bit bigger.  Below is a photo from last week when we went to the beach, during week 29.  A summer dress at the beginning of January!  All f omy maternity dresses are in use right now as its EIGHTY-FIVE degrees here!  It'll be in the 80's all week, unbelievable!  I'm a little disappointed that my belly button hasn't "popped" yet despite my growing tummy.  But maybe I just had a very deep innie all my life.  It has definitely gotten super shallow, which is bizarre.  And no stretch marks yet, thank goodness!  Lisa sent me cocoa butter lotion which I've been using diligently every night!  My skin has been very itchy all over, which I've read is pretty common.  This next part might be TMI for family members (or my more prude friends!) so avert your eyes for a few sentences. :)  Another changing-body update - last week I started leaking colostrum, but only from my right side so far.  I first noticed when I was wearing a pajama shirt and I was very surprised!  I had to double-check online that it was about the right time that that would start happening.  It happened two or three days in a row but I haven't noticed since.  But I could just be unobservant.  It's all another sign that baby is very very close to showing his face to the world!!

Squinty-eyed in the sun. 29 weeks!

Time to wrap this entry up with a few more photos!  Here are fun ones from our time in Seattle and San Diego.  I wish I would have gotten some with the friends we saw, but it didn't cross my mind at the time.

 Diva remembering what snow is like! We put her up next to the mini snowman that Aron made :)

 The decorating committee!

 Just because. My wicked feet!

 Diva in her Christmas dress. I so wish Hanky could have been in Moscow with us too!

 Christmas morning 2013!

The family gathers. My parents cooked an amazing meal!!

Christmas 2013. 

 The soon-to-be grandparents! Love you guys!

Test post

Just seeing if I can post from my phon e, so that when the day comes, I can post things to keep you guys updated with how much cassie hates me for doing this to her.

THIRD TRIMESTER!!!

I was going to title this blog "28 weeks" but then I remembered it was a movie where Sandra Bullock's character goes to rehab...not exactly the images I want to conjure with this entry.  But we are at 28 weeks and officially in the third trimester!!  Happy New Year to us!!

So much has happened in the past 4 weeks since I last wrote!  It's too bad we haven't been better about updating this blog because someday I'll probably (most likely) forget all of the cool little daily things that have happened while being pregnant.  And who knows if this will be our one and only baby so I may never get the chance to relive them again!  First New Year's Resolution: update baby blog on a weekly basis!  There's only 12 more weeks...how hard could it be? ;-) ;-)

Time for baby and body updates!  In the past week, baby and I have had a few growing pains.  My stomach has been extra crampy and a lot of the time I feel stretched to the brink and about ready to pop.  SO HARD to believe I still have 3 more months of growing!  I hardly need to eat any food before I feel bloated, so I've had to switch over to mini meals to try to appease my never-ending hunger.  Which mainly means my diet now consists of snack food because I hate leftovers. :)  I've actually gotten sick more in the past month than I did in the whole second trimester.  I think certain foods or food combinations aren't sitting so well with my growing baby.

I've currently gained 17 pounds, which is in the recommended range for week 28.  Aron set up my treadmill so I can fit more exercise in during the last trimester.  And by fit more in...I mean, start exercising for the first time this pregnancy.  Ha!  I have been doing some walking...like around work, the mall, and our backyard. :)  A friend loaned me some prenatal yoga DVDs as well so hopefully I'll be toned and limber by the time baby boy gets here!  I do want to stretch A LOT because the last thing I need while giving birth is a leg cramp. :)

Baby has been SUPER kicky and mobile over this past week and he's gotten the hiccups twice!  Or what I think are the hiccups.  It's regular, rhythmic movements that last for a few minutes.  Both times it's been while lying in bed getting ready to sleep so Aron's been able to feel them with me.  So neat!!  I always like feeling the random movements but feeling something so regular was a new experience.  The first time was the night of Christmas Day...Merry Christmas milestone!  Last night Aron and I were pushing baby around in my belly and watching him roll/move from side to side.  In one of my baby books it was telling us how to identify certain body parts by how they feel or how they "bounce back" when you push down on my belly.  He was so responsive and it was fun laughing over whether or not we felt a foot or just the tiny baby head.  He's still only just over 2 pounds so it's hard to tell at this point.

These days I feel like I'm both more focused and detail-oriented on everything and extremely spacy.  I have moments of motivation to get stuff done and then at other times I can sit around for hours just watching TV.  I don't think the "nesting" feeling has quite set in yet.  And I've become worse about things like drinking enough water and taking my prenatal vitamins.  It's like my brain thinks "hey, third trimester! you're in the clear!"  But I'm determined to get back on track.  This Friday is my glucose screening test.  I hope everything goes ok!  If I don't pass the two-hour test, I'll go back for the 3 (or is it 4?) hour test.  I'm really hoping I don't get the bad news that I have gestational diabetes.  There haven't been any red flags from my first blood test or urine samples, but that doesn't mean I'm passing this one.  It takes a lot of people by surprise.  Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for her!), a friend had gestational diabetes so if I do end up with it at least I'll be able to get some good tips.  And it's only 12 more weeks!

Ok...time for some preggo pictures!  I'll post just a few from the Christmas parties we went to a few weeks ago, because I want to do a separate entry for all the fun we had in the NW over the holidays, complete with photos from our first baby shower and Christmas with my family.

Here's me at 24 weeks before my work Christmas party.  Thanks, Michaela, for the dress!  And there's Aron and I at the party.  My husband (baby daddy!) is so handsome!!!

Here's one at 25 weeks.  Most of the time I hate that Aron takes random candid shots but sometimes he gets some great ones!  Assuming I have time to look up and smile. :)

Here's another at 25 weeks, right after Aron's work Christmas dinner.  Yes, I wore the same jewelry to both parties.  Perks of not seeing that same people!  And equally awesome, that necklace was on sale for A DOLLAR at Charlotte Russe!  I love a sweet sale.

That's all for this New Years entry!  Time for me to get out of my PJs and make an attempt at being productive today.  I hope everyone's 2014 gets off to a great start!!!