33 Weeks - We have a Pineapple!

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

33 weeks, and still battling the sinus crud. This makes, what? 6 weeks now? Yeah, way too long! I started Zyrtec this morning, so maybe that and the (hopefully!) rain this weekend will fix it once and for all.

Work gave me a shower today, and it was so nice!! We got a ton of pretty things, a ton of Target gift cards, and a ton of stuff that Cadence is going to love. I can’t wait to get home and go through it all! I think the biggest hits (at least with the guests) were the Boon Grass Drying Rack and the Boon Frog Pod for the bathtub. They were both things that I LOVED, but wouldn’t have bought for myself. I’m so glad that I got them!

Here are a few pictures from today, and I’ll post more when I get them.

32 Weeks - We have a Large Jicama!

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Well, I’m still here, still pregnant, and getting more miserable by the day. The sinus crud won’t go away, Amelia is all out in front so it’s making my back, neck and hips hurt, and I’m not sleeping. I also can’t eat anything, because EVERYTHING gives me heartburn, and because of where she’s sitting, I constantly feel like I’m going to throw up if I eat anything. I just keep telling myself “8 more weeks. Just 8 more weeks!”

I have a doctor’s appointment today, and then at 34 weeks I’ll get another ultrasound. Hopefully the visit will be uneventful and over quickly! And I had a prenatal massage on Tuesday, and highly recommend it to everyone who is pregnant! Best. Feeling. Ever!

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Things I’m thankful for:

1) That she’s still in. Being miserable is better than a preemie.

2) Sleep

3) Tylenol PM

4) Cadence being such a big helper around the house

5) Prenatal massages

31 Weeks - We have 4 Naval Oranges!

This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

9 weeks to go. That’s what I keep telling myself. And as eager as I am to meet her, I hope she stays in pretty close to that. If she comes on her due date, I don’t have to go back to work until the first of the year, plus it gives me more time to get things finished here before that happens. I know there’s a possiblity she could be here by the end of October (Cadence was 2.5 weeks early!), but I’m hoping she stays put for awhile.

We also officially have a name! We have decided to call her Amelia Claire, and I’m very very happy with it. It took us a lot longer to pick a name this time around, but I’m glad with the choice. Cadence told me she doesn’t like it, but I know she’ll come around.

I’m still having headaches, and have come to the conclusion that it’s something wrong with my back and neck. I discovered while in TX that different positions made it better or worse, and started wondering if I had thrown something out. I have a prenatal massage scheduled for next Tuesday, but Mike has promised to give me a ton of back and neck massages between now and then. I’ve also been taking hot baths, walking around more, and trying to stretch throughout the day. I’m not sure if it’s any one thing that’s helped it, but this morning I woke up and felt almost normal. I threw up  in the shower (just like every other morning), but washing my hair wasn’t excruciating and I just realized that I took Tylenol at 7 and it’s now 1:30 and I haven’t taken any more yet. Maybe I’m on the mend.

The trip to TX was great, and I now have so much stuff! I’m starting to feel at least slightly prepared, and my house looks like a Carter’s outlet exploded in it (thank you, Kahla!!) Millie will definitely be the best dressed little girl around, and Cadence has had fun helping me sort through everything. I’m excited for her to get here and us to be able to use all the great stuff we came home with! The only “problem” we’ve had is that I discovered that both car seats won’t fit side by side in my car. Cadence is still in a 5-point harness seat, and I won’t turn it into a booster seat just to make them both fit. For now, at least, we’ll leave Cadence behind the passenger seat and put Millie behind me. I hardly ever have other people with me, so I don’t think it will be that big of a deal. If Cadence starts complaining about the 5-point harness (I don’t think she realizes yet that there is actually another option in my car), then I’ll change it, but for now we’re going to leave it like it is.

I have a busy few weeks coming up, but know that it will make this pregnancy fly by even faster than it is now. Over the next two weeks I have a massage, my 32 week appointment, homecoming at Mike’s high school (Caroline is a homecoming maid!), and then a shower at the church. I’m so excited!!

And me, the blimp, at 31 weeks! I'm beginning to feel like she has her own gravitational pull!

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Things I’m thankful for:
1) A name!!
2) I’m starting to feel slightly better
3) Seeing family (that I already miss!)
4) All the awesome baby stuff
5) Baby kicks and turns

Big Sister Class

Last Saturday, the hospital I'll be delivering at had a class for siblings-to-be. It was free, and Cadence was SO excited to get to go. They let them watch a video, practice putting diapers on baby dolls, took them on a tour of Labor & Delivery, the nursery and the recovery rooms, and gave them a ton of goodies. She came out with a shirt, a bracelet, a certificate and a coloring book and colors. She loved getting to see the hospital (and commented that the statue of St. Dominic in the lobby was God), and even though I thought it was impossible, I'm pretty sure she's even more excited now than she was before!

With her certificate


her and some of the other "Big Sisters"




Investigating the L&D room


Checking out the view from the recovery rooms

Seeing a 4lb baby in the nursery. I'm glad she was able to see her, because I think it brought home the conversations we've been having on why our baby doesn't need to be here yet, and needs to stay in my tummy awhile longer. She was sweet, but SO tiny!

With her new shirt (that's she's worn to bed almost every night)


Her "Big Sister" bracelet

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Things I'm thankful for:
1) Cadence's excitement
2) Hugs and kisses to my belly
3) Conversations that she's already having with the baby
4) The big helper that she is

30 Weeks - We have a Cabbage!

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

Wow, what a week the last one has been. I’m still dealing with the sinus crud, and last week was pretty much hell on earth. I had been getting severe sinus headaches - to the point of making me nauseous - and by last Thursday spent more time puking in my garbage can in my office than actually working. I went in to the doctor on Friday to see if they could fix me, and discovered that my blood pressure was elevated (141/82.) He took me off of all the sinus medicine, put me on a blood pressure medicine and then gave me oxycodone to take every 4 hours for the headaches. I still have the sinus crud, and have been treating it with fluids, warm showers and a humidifier at night, but that’s about all I can do at the moment. The headaches are S-L-O-W-L-Y getting better (even though I’m still throwing up in the shower every morning from the sinus drainage), but I’m going to talk to them at my appointment today about maybe a decadron shot or something. I figure that has to be better than oxycodone every 4 hours!

And on a funny note, I’ve been taking just one of the pills, even though the bottle says I can have two. On Tuesday, I decided to take two since the headaches were coming back before the 4 hours. Well, that was a BAD move! I was high as a kite for over 2 hours! I went to lunch with my friend Rhonda, and she laughed at me the entire time. I couldn’t complete sentences, couldn’t complete a coherent thought, kept wanting to fall asleep, and was just out of it. I’ve decided that I’ll deal with the headaches, because 2 of them is WAY too much for me to take!

We leave tomorrow for TX, and I can’t wait! I’m so excited about seeing my family over there, and just as excited about getting actual baby stuff to bring home! It’s hard to believe that it’s getting so close. I also might be having a shower here at work soon, but I have no idea when. It started as one for me, then turned into one for me and one other person, and now that girl has been put on bedrest. She’s due early October, and has already been told she won’t make it that far. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the shower yet, but maybe I’ll know something soon.

And yesterday, Cadence finally REALLY got to feel the baby move. It was amazing to watch the look on her face when she realized that was her, and she was so excited. At one point, she was laying on the couch beside me, and put her head on my stomach. She had just complained about not being about to feel the baby, when the baby decided to kick her - right in the cheek. The look on Cadence’s face was priceless!

I have my latest check up today, and after this I start going every two weeks. I can’t believe it’s getting so close! And here’s some video I finally got of my belly moving. She starts this about 5am, and doesn’t stop until sometime around midnight.

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Things I’m thankful for:
1) Heavy drugs
2) Family and free baby stuff
3) Cadence getting to feel her kick
4) 30 (mostly) uneventful weeks
5) A healthy, growing, active baby