32 weeks

Alright, offically 8 months preggo today.

And some pics from my shower. My mother in law, her mother and Gary's little sister:

My mom and sister Tina and me
My lovely friends
And remember forever ago when we ran that half marathon in OR? Well I finally got pics from that day from my sister in law. I can't remember I thought I was big!

Baby shower #1

I had my first of 2 baby showers this weekend. It was thrown by Gary's step mom and her mother. It was at a lovely little tea shop in Medina OH. I think there were about 20 people there total. The weather didn't cooperate, it ended up snowing, but it wasn't too bad out. We played a few games, the one with the pin where you can't say baby, guess how many bibs I would received and guess how many m&ms in the jar. We had some prizes from bath and body works, so the winners of those games took home a prize and then for the ones left, I just drew names so pretty much everyone got a prize. There were also cute tea bag party favors for everyone to take home. I had a really nice time, I wasn't feeling very well and being the center of attention really tired me out. It's hard making the rounds and trying to make everyone feel included. We got a lot of great stuff, mostly clothes and accessories like bibs and socks. But there were also several key registry items like the diaper bag, baby monitor, booster seat and changing pad. It was overwhelming coming home with all that stuff. I really need to buy a dresser soon as we have no where to put all the little clothes. I don't have a good idea of if I have enough newborn clothes, I need to fold them and get them into a drawer and separate everything out by months! It's clothing overload right now. Oh one unexpected treat was a little rocking horse my great aunt got for us. It is too cute and I can't wait until she is old enough to rock on it. My mom also got me this neat little digital picture frame that holds up to 4000 photos and I can keep it in my purse, she got G one too for his desk at work. And this pendant that has my baby photo on it and I can put my baby's photo on the other side. I'll try and take a pic of it as it's really neat, but hard to explain, it's like set in crystal, it's not metal. All in all it was a really good day. I have one more shower on March 15th, then we'll be able to take stock and see how much left we have to buy. It's so easy to say babies really don't need that much, but when you don't have one everything seems like a necessity. I am really trying to keep things to the minimum. We have a small house and don't have room for tons of jumpers and swings, etc. Any advice on things you can't live without and things you thought were necessary and sooo aren't; would be much appreciated.

I had a doc appt this morning. I talked to him about my heartburn and he pretty much said I can take any over the counter medicine. So that is good.

Heartburn is a Son of A Byatch

Prior to being pregnant I never had heartburn, not once in my life. I'll admit, it seemed silly to me, something that only people who wolf down their food are plagued with, people who frequented buffets. I didn't get that it was a real ailment, that might just ruin your life. Mercy, I get it now, I call uncle. Please heartburn gods leave me alone, I am sorry I laughed at the weaklings with heartburn in the past. I have had it off and on throughout my pregnancy, but I have had it pretty much non stop since I got past the stomach bug I had last week. So, since Wed I have been burping what feels like battery acid. It is way worse than it has been over the previous months. It burns and it make my eyes water and makes me want to hurt someone. I am completely on edge because of it. I have just been taking chewable things like Tums Smoothies, but I am going to stop on the way home from work and get something else, soemthing stronger b/c Tums ain't cutting it.

I guess I can't complain too much, the only issue I've really had through this pregnancy is heartburn and a heck of a lot of cellulite. Ugh, that's for another post. That's for the cottage cheese genes mom.

Love it

I don't think there is a more wonderful feeling in the world than your baby moving. I wish there was a way to bottle it and remember it forever. I know once she is out I will never be able to truly remember what it feels like. It reminds me of when you get to the top of a hill on a roller coaster, or how I imagine I would feel if I was a lava lamp. I wish there was a way for the husband to get how neat this is. My baby girl definitely had a lull in activity for awhile there, but she is making up for it tenfold. She has been staging a revolt for days now and I can feel her on both side of my stomach. I imagine she has inherited my husbands long legs and is trying to stretch out in there. I am starting to definately see shapes jutting out and can tell when she is balled up on one side of my belly. I wish hubby found it as enthralling as I do, he doesn't have the patience to keep his hand there for very long. I am 31 weeks today. I will take an updated pic. I really need to get the video camera out and try and capture some of this belly movement.

Gary finished painting the nursery last night. It is the greatest shade of purple ever, it's called Lupin if you want to see it at the store! It't not a pastel purple, it's deeper than that without being dark. I also found some great potterybarn crib bedding on craigslist and I picked it up last night and it matches perfectly and is in good shape. Score! I can't wait to put the crib and changing table together. But I think I will wait for next weekend. My sister is coming up specifically to help me get the nursery in order and we'll need things to do. Plus Gary still has to pain the closet in the nursery, so its not 100% ready to go. He keeps his clothes in this room and I think we will keep it that way and just keep baby's stuff in the dresser. So much to organize.

I am mostly feeling better. I think I will do my excercise DVD tonight b/c I need to go to target too and don't want to be away from the house all night. Have to spend some time with my boys.

Monday blahs

Sooo I think I am on the mend. Knock on wood. So far today no real stomach trauma. Just feeling weak and tired from lack of eating and dehydration. My little girl must have read my worry and has been a kicking ninja the last few days. It’s been great. There was definitely a lull in activity there for awhile.

Gary started on the nursery this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. He painted all the woodwork and the ceiling. So, next step is the walls. We picked out a really nice purple color. This color does not go with our bedding from Target at all. So it is going back. So, I am back in my never ending circle of hatred of crib bedding. I found something I think will work on craigslist though, it’s from pottery barn and really cute. Just not sure the purples will match. I think I am going to take a leap of faith and buy it, the worse case scenario is I have to turn around and sell it myself on craigslist. Since it’s potterybarn, I don’t think it’ll be too hard. I was a little skeeved to buy used bedding, but we’re just talking the bumper, skirt and quit here, not sheets. The quilt is just for decoration. I’m cheap, what can I say.

This weekend I have my first shower. I am so excited. I can’t wait to have them both so that I can figure what is left that we need to buy. My next one is March 15. After that I can get all nesty and finalize the nursery. Can’t wait!

Stomach bug

Oh boy did I get sick this week, get ready for a TMI post. I woke up yesterday at about 3 am and realized my stomach was bothering me. I got up to get ready for work at 7 and realized I didn't feel well, but really thought I just needed to go to the bathroom and it would pass. I carpool on Thursdays and I contemplated calling the lady I carpool with and telling her I'd drive solo in case I had to leave. But stupidly I did not and I went to work. BY the time I got there I felt totally funky I didn't know if I was going to puke or crap my pants. Long story short, I had to call Gary to come get me at work and take me home. I was laid up in bed all day just feeling miserable. I kept thinking I was going to have to puke, but only did once. I only ate a cup of soup though, so there wasn't much to work with I guess. The worse was that my bones were aching soooo badly. It felt like someone was trying to crack my knees and my back in half. I had a throbbing headache too. Tylenol helped a bit. Towards the end of the night I got the most horrible gas pains I have ever had in my life and was just sitting in bed bawling. Gary wasn't quite sure what to do to help me! I think it must have been so bad b/c I have the baby stuffed in there too, so the pressure was just too much. Every time I moved around it was like I was going to burst in half. I was able to get in a hot shower and rub my belly and work some of the pressure out :) I literally thought I was going to die, how am I going to handle labor!!!! I was up all night going to the bathroom, but feel much better today. Just horribly dehydrated and tired of course. I stayed home from work today to. I hate to take sick days right now b/c I really need to save them, but I figure if I am contagious, it's not very nice of me to go to work. I am just glad the worst of it seemed to be a 24 hour bug, but I haven't been that sick in a loonnngg time, hope the baby didn't mind too much.

30 weeks

30 weeks today. For some reason that number really scares me. It’s not that I’ve been ignoring my pregnancy, but it just doesn’t seem very real some days. I’m sure when you are horribly sick it seems a lot more real, but I have been very lucky. Just tired and gassy J It’s normal to get all paranoid now and be convinced something is wrong right? I just keep thinking the baby isn’t moving much anymore. A few weeks ago I was getting crazy movements and could see my belly moving, but now I get maybe once or twice a day of some strong kicks. How do I know if she is moving enough? I asked the doctor, but he wasn’t a ton of help. The heartbeat was good on Monday, so we’re probably fine, but I just miss the baby going crazy at night while I lay in bed.

29 weeks

My belly shot for week 29 is totally sloppy b/c my undies are all hanging out and bunched up in my maternity pant panel, so here's one covered at least. I know I don't look like I have gained all that much, but I am already up like 33 lbs, ugh. Egads, eek. Also a shot of our newly painted guest room. I love how the color turned out, although it's a little more greenish than this picture shows off. How oh how do you get a true picture of paint?

29 weeks

29 weeks. Eek. That makes me very nervous b/c that means next week is 30. Seeing a 3 in the front makes things all too real. This baby is coming out people and it’s coming out soon. I am of course excited to meet her, but mostly a nervous wreck! Too much to do around the house and too much to worry about work wise (the whole coming back to work, staying home dilemma) and then there's the whole going through labor thing.

The baby seems to have found a way to sit on both my bladder and colon. Fun, fun. So I find myself in the bathroom about 20 times a day. I should just start wearing a diaper myself. She has also stopped moving as much. But then again I have been making a conscious effort to cut back on my sugar intake, so I imagine that might be related! Eeek. Bad monica.

By the end of this week we should have our guest room done. We just need one more coat of paint in the closet, then the furniture can be moved in. I love the paint color we used, I hope I can take some pictures that actually capture it accurately. I tried to take some when G was painting, but they didn’t come out well. After that it’s time to start on the nursery. I can’t wait. I have so much I want to do but can’t b/c the nursery is a mess. For instance, I want to wash and organize all the baby clothes I have so far. I want to set up the crib. I want to put together my changing table and fill the little baskets that go under it with stuff! I want to put together a kit for bath time and an area to deal with diapers as I am probably going to do cloth diapers. Yes cloth diapers. If you want to read some great info on them check out http://babyrabies.com/. She has me convinced and I am going to order a starter/trial kit and give it a try. Why not. I just need to have a little prep area on the changing table. She recommends keeping a spray bottle of clear on the table and some dust for the diaper pail, etc. If I can pull it off it’ll save us a couple hundred a month! I mean once you purchase the diapers up front, the only cost is the washing of them, so water and detergent. I still plan to use disposable when we are out and about. Gary is not in to it at all, so I am just going to tell him to use the disposable if he wants, but I am going to give it the college try. I may find it’s too much work, but I really think I can pull it off with a little prep work. If I can do that and breastfeed I should be able to stay home from work. Maybe….who knows. I may find after 6 weeks of crying baby that I want to go back.

I watched a good video series called Laugh and Learn. One was about birth/delivery, one was about breastfeeding and one was about newborn care. I learned a lot of things. I'm sure it's all just opinions, but at least from what I watched, the lady said you shouldn't use soap on newborns, not to start using soap until you are actually giving them baths. Just use a little baby shampoo on their head and use water to wash the rest (aside from their butts obviously, but you clean those a million times a day). The video also recommended you give you baby a sponge bath from the neck up while still swaddled and to use cotton balls to clean their eyes, ears and noses. I learned a lot from the breastfeeding video, like that babies are born with pug noses so they don't suffocate on the boob. I must admit the whole breast feeding thing still really grosses me out. I can't help it, I'm immature. But I definitely want to do it. I hope it doesn't hurt too bad. I am going to prepare myself a little breast kit to have on hand for when we get back from the hospital with nippy cream, hot and cold compresses, etc. Organizing things is something I really enjoy doing, I can't wait to put together my boob kit, baby bathing kit, cloth diaper kit, etc. I'm going to have little stations all over the house! Oooh that means I get to buy some more baskets. I also really need to go and buy myself some decent pajamas and lounge wear, that's on the to do list for sure. I need sweats that I can wear to the store w/o feeling like an idiot. You would laugh so hard if you saw the ratty sleep pants I sleep in every night. I have one pair where I tore the leg on one and cut it so I would quit stepping on it, so it's about 3 inches shorter than the other leg :) I feel too bad to wear them around the house all day and none of my yoga/workout pants really fit well right now.

As you can see my mind is all over the place. But at least I have made it to 3:18 today without peeing my pants yet.

Bootcamp bad or not? Opinions please.

So I went to bootcamp class yesterday and boy was it a hell of a workout, but I'm not really sure if I should be doing it or not in my third tri? It started off with just a ton of fast paced activites like squats and lunges and jumping jacks of various types. She did a lot of jacks that involved jumping up and clapping under your knees, etc. I just modified and did normal jumping jacks. When I felt like what they were doing was too tough, I just went back to squatting or jumping jacks. But should I be doing jumping jacks? I figure running moves the baby a lot, some jacks shouldn't hurt right? Then from there we did some weights, which was fine, then a circuit that involved about 30 steps set up in rows, we had to do things like hop over them or shuffle sideways over them. So, again hopping up and down, but not very high at all. We also skipped on the track, ran on the track and did side shuffles on the track. My heart rate was definately high the whole time, but I took a few more breaks than everyone else and drank a lot of water. Today I am sore as hell! Which feels good honestly, it's been awhile since I had a hard workout. But I don't want to be stupid, I know if I ask my doc, they will just tell me to take it easy. I'm thinking I will probably not do the class again until baby is here and switch to the weight lifting class that is afterwards, as it shouldn't be so jarring....thoughts?

Also if my due date is a Wed, is that Wed supposed to be 40 weeks on the nose? Meaning shouldn't my weeks change on Wed, I've been changing them on Friday. Picky I know, but I like to be exact when someone asks me how far along I am :)