32 Weeks

Today I had my 32 week appointment. Everything is ticking away just fine, I'm right on track, though I'm really starting to feel it now. My belly is starting to feel a bit heavy and I'm getting physically very exhausted. Simple movements are getting a bit difficult. And the heat is finally getting to me, making me a little nauseous now and then.

Here are the belly pics from the past two weeks. It's really starting to get out there!

31 weeks

32 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 32 Weeks - 224 days (only about 56 days left!)

Size of baby: about 4 pounds, probably a tad bit more. They say at this stage it will gain about a half a pound a week till birth.

Maternity Clothes: some of my maternity clothes are getting a tad snug and short. I'm glad that a friend lent me some great dresses to wear, I've been loving them. Otherwise, just wearing the same things over and over at this point!

Gender: still don't know! and I have no indication one way or the other either.

Movement: the baby is moving a lot. I said to the doctor "how many limbs does this baby have, it seems to hit every possible spot at the same time!" She said "well, 4.". Ha! Anyway, it seems to hit my bladder and my ribs at the same time. It's a roller for sure and likes to push either a hand or foot out regularly so I can't wait to see what it really is after it's born. It is getting hiccups once or twice a day too.

Sleep: not going great but I have a great family that lets me sleep in when I can. I've also gotten a chance to nap every day that I'm at home which makes a huge difference. I'm going to have to stop taking my unisom in 2 weeks so I'm scared of what the remaining 6 weeks of my pregnancy will be like without it.

What I miss: sleeping well, breathing well, not feeling so heavy and fat all the time. Simple movements are hard for me to do, getting onto and up from the floor is getting really hard.

Cravings: ice water. If you know me at all, you know that I don't drink very much water and I certainly do not like ice in it. But all I want to drink is ice cold water through a straw. If my ice melts, I'll go get more!

Symptoms: Heartburn has been getting me this past few weeks. I've generally not felt very good, just heavy and tired and overall exhausted. Getting ready for this baby to come visit!

Best Moment this month: Deciding that I'm going to bank my cord blood and donate my placenta. I'm in planning mode right now, so getting that decided has been great, I can just move forward with my preparations. I have also been working on my "list" of things to do and that always makes me feel a little better and a little anxious at the same time. I've got to get my final stuff done (washing baby clothes, packing a bag, stuff like that) but then also getting my carpets cleaned and generally just organizing my final few weeks before true chaos ensues.

Though I've been feeling generally crappy the past few weeks, I keep in mind that I'm lucky. I'm lucky to have a healthy pregnancy and the chances of having a very healthy baby are pretty good. I complain A LOT and I need to recognize that I really have good things to complain about - that a life is joining the world that I helped create and nurture! We have friends that are struggling and have a lot to truly complain about.

Our friend, Jesse, has battled some brain problems in the past month or so. He hasn't been out of the hospital for more than a day in about 5-6 weeks. He feels probably a billion times worse than I feel and it's not cause he's going to get a new baby out of it. He is struggling to keep his life, sanity, dignity and health back. He is one of the reasons that I decided to bank the cord blood, due to the possibility of stem cells helping brain injuries in the future. We have a friend that had their little 6 week old baby in the hospital for an emergency surgery. So scary. We have another friend battling an unknown health issue and has been bedridden for 7 weeks. So, I tell myself - shut up and get on with it - you get to have a baby at the end of this and yes, it will end in no more than 8 weeks. I can handle it so get over yourself, Meg!

I'm trying to stay positive, keep myself moving (but not too much) and realize that October is just around the corner!

Cheers~

Bonks on the head

We had a busy weekend that I did a poor job of taking pictures of. My company had it's annual party on Friday night. It was held at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. It was a neat place to be, we partied right under the massive olympic ski jumps. There were a lot of family friendly activities, zip-line, alpine slide, a petting zoo, pony rides, facepainting and a photo booth. They also just had some local food trucks show up and park there, so we could all just walk up and get what we wanted, including yummy cupcakes! Reed had a blast running around the lawn, playing on the playground, petting the animals.

Saturday, Reed had his final swim lesson. He did alright, though his attention span is getting pretty short.

Rolling around in the water before the lesson started.

He would do a sort of army crawl, kicking with his legs, walking his hands on the bottom.

In the lesson, sort of listening.

At the end, doing his best "beached whale" impression.

He of course loves the "jumping in" part the best, the floating and swimming part is just annoying to him. He did do a great job with pushing off the wall though. Next year, he'll go to the 3 year old class which is pretty legit (unlike the parent tot sing along hour we've done the past two years). The 3 year old class he'll have to actually learn to swim.

We went to a neighborhood party on Saturday night where Reed spent the whole time on the playground at the park. They had a slip and slide set up but the older kids were a bit rough on it so Reed didn't do it. He loved riding his bike down to the park and back though. It was nice to catch up with neighbors that we live near but never seem to see!

Sunday afternoon we went to our friend's birthday party at their house and they have a pool. Reed loved "swimming" (jumping in) until he bumped his head on the wall. He got a little knot but is alright. The next time he went in, he just wore his lifejacket and floated around with a friend and LOVED it. Maybe that's what we do from now on.

Reed had a rough weekend as far as injuries. On Thursday, he ran into the side of our metal table and put a pretty good dent in his forehead that bled a bit. Then he ran into the garage door on Friday as it was going up (he ducked but then stood up too soon) - got a line across the top of his nose. Then bumped his head on the pool. I guess this is normal now for us - though a bit stressful. I make sure to bring bandaids everywhere I go with him cause we usually end up with a skinned knee or a bonk on the head before the day is over.

Sorry I don't have more pictures of the activities of the weekend, but tomorrow is 32 weeks pregnancy update - stay tuned!

Reed on his bike

Reed has gotten quite good at his bike, loves it in fact. He is getting pretty fast and comfortable keeping his feet up.

Things people say

As a pregnant woman, one gets to hear a variety of interesting, funny, ironic or downright offensive things that people think is appropriate to say. Now, also as a pregnant woman, you get to feel fairly "whale-like" at some point. This may or may not be actually true but when you are the one, it will always feel big no matter how far along you are. In fact, there are many times throughout pregnancy that you say "how can it possibly get any bigger?!?". And somehow it usually does.

So as I go along in my life of a pregnant woman, growing a human being inside of me (I mean come on, it's a hard task!), I get to encounter people that say the most mouth dropping things. I was chatting with a friend just last week about how in my first pregnancy people would ask me if I "was sure there is only one in there". I mean, really, can you think of anything more offensive to a girl who already feels massive (as is SURE there is only one in there)?

Well, I came across one such person today and it reminded me that I wanted to mention the amazing things people think are ok to say to a pregnant woman. This morning, as I was leaving my doctor appointment, I was standing at the counter waiting to make another appointment. There was a woman kiddy-corner from me at the counter checking in to her appointment. She saw my belly and said "oh girl, when is your due date?" and before I had a chance to answer, she said "last week?". I smiled nicely and said "no, actually it's at the end of October". The look on her face was priceless and instead of trying to recover with a nice comment like "well, you look amazing", out of her mouth was "oh man, are you having twins?" "No, ma'am, I'm sure there is only one in there". I couldn't even continue a conversation with her! I mean, really she should have run for the hills, flushed her face red and profusely apologized for being so rude (as a man would if he assumed a woman was pregnant but really wasn't). Nope, she was perfectly ok with her path of destruction and abuse towards me, enough to continue the chat with "is it a boy or girl?" "don't know, we don't find out". "Oh, when I had MY son 28 years ago, we didn't even get to hear the heartbeat let alone know what the gender is". I took this to mean - why don't you find out if you have the opportunity? Anyway, I was kinda done "chatting" with her at this point and made my appointment and left. Might I note that I ripped my pants getting in the car as I was leaving, not adding to the "I feel amazing/glowing/beautiful pregnant" attitude.

Once I got to work and stapled my pants back together, I chatted with my friend (who I previously talked to about people and their offensive comments) about this woman and we luckily got a good laugh out of it (instead of a cry). I decided I needed a blog post about what people say to pregnant women that shouldn't be said.

• You are HUGE! (this is a no-brainer, no woman wants to hear it, no matter if she is pregnant or not)
  
• When is the due date? Oh really, you should have it a week later so it can have the same birthday as me! (um, I just met you, why would I care if my baby shares a birthday with you)
• What names do you have picked out? You should consider *insert person talking's name*. (I do you respond with - your name is stupid/don't like it/everyone has it/no thanks?)
• When are you due? October! WOW that is a LONG time from now. (yes, I'm aware, thank you) or 10 MORE weeks! Yikes!
  
• It seems like you've been pregnant for-EVER! (again, thank you, it feels like it too)
• Are you sure there is only one?

That's all I can think of for now, but please leave a comment if you've received anything good during your pregnancy, I'd love to hear it!

30 Weeks

Good morning,

Well, today marks 30 weeks of this pregnancy. I am happy to be here. The comfortable days are getting less frequent and the uncomfortable days are increasing. I felt extremely tired and heavy this morning actually. I'm trying to stay active and continue eating well to minimize my weight gain and both of those tasks are getting more difficult. I know I still have up to 10 more weeks of pregnancy so I'm trying to not get too "end focused" at this point and enjoy this moment (as there won't be another pregnancy!).

My doctor appointments have increased to every two weeks so I'm stepping up my pregnancy updates to coincide with that schedule. I actually don't see my doc for another two days but I thought I'd update anyway.

First here are the belly pics:

29 weeks

30 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 30 Weeks - 210 days

Size of baby: we all know it's going to be big, my weekly tracker says 2.75 pounds but we know that baby was over that 2 weeks ago. I'd guess about 3.25-3.5 pounds? Compared to a cabbage but I'm going a little bigger than that too.

Maternity Clothes: I have to say, I really like Liz Lange from Target. All of the clothes are nice looking and fit me well. I usually am wearing a Liz Lange or Lilac. These are by far my favorite maternity clothes. I'm trying to stay nice looking but I look forward to a t-shirt and stretchy PJ pants when I get home. Some maternity stuff is even getting too small already!

Gender: guess what? we still don't know! I'm getting more and more guesses for a girl but there are still some boy guesses out there. I'm getting less concerned about the gender and more excited to meet this little person!

Movement: still moves quite a bit but I can tell it's getting tight in there. I can feel movements on both the bottom and the top of my belly at the same time now. It's also kinda doing more rolling movements rather than sharp kicks or punches. They are easy to see from the outside now. Also, this baby (as did Reed) gets hiccups at least once a day now.

Sleep: still super difficult, feeling tired. I've been trying to take naps when I can which really helps.

What I miss: my ab muscles. I can't sit straight up, I have to roll to the side to get out of bed or get up from a couch or chair (or use armrests).

Cravings: ice cream lately. This is NOT a pregnancy thing - I simply love ice cream all the time. But as a pregnant lady, I want even more of it!

Symptoms: well, let's see, I have a HUGE belly. My biggest struggles these days are the inconvenience of having a big belly, not sleeping well and can't stand up for long periods of time. I still get a little heartburn now and then but it's mostly manageable without Tums.

Best Moment this month: getting to 30 weeks! Really, I'm still trying to enjoy this time. I am not planning on having any more kiddos so I'm trying to really enjoy this last experience in pregnancy. I'm trying to enjoy all of the movements the baby makes, the feeling of excitement of it's arrival, the connection I feel to growing a baby in my belly, all of the good and bad of pregnancy. I'm trying to enjoy what it feels like and looks like to be pregnant. I'm also trying to enjoy my time with Reed, spend as much time as I can with him, help him learn to transition to being a big brother and preparing for our lives to change again.

Cheers~

Summer Weekend

We've had a fairly uneventful past week, just chugging along with life. We did get a nice visit from my cousin Mike and his wife Kara and their two kids Mary Rose and Kyle. They were on a long road trip and we got to be a stop along the way home. It was nice to hang out with them for the evening this weekend and Reed and Kyle had a great time playing together. We broke out the slip and slide and they kids had a blast on it. It was funny to watch the interactions between Kyle and Reed, talking to each other in 2 1/2 year old speak. They had several "here you go", "thank you", "your welcome" exchanges that were too funny. They played trains in the morning very nicely. The hug goodbye was about the sweetest thing we ever saw. Too bad I didn't have a picture of it.

Here are all three kids.

Here is Reed on the way to church on Sunday morning. Cool guy.

After church we visited some friends that live part time in the valley. They don't have grandkids yet so they claimed they didn't have any toys for Reed to play with. Well, he found some anyway! This is an art piece of a motorcycle and he started playing with it, eventually sitting on it. Luckily, Carol didn't mind him sitting on it, he thought it was a blast.
And Jeff and Carol have lots of dirt bikes, Reed needed to sit on each one, play with all the buttons and insisted that Jeff sit with him.

That's about it for now - cheers~

In Need Of...

A mental health day. I would like it to be filled with a massage, a pedicure, a nap and a nice dinner with great friends. I'm tired, overwhelmed, heavy and bored. I need a day to look forward to. A day that is about making me feel better (both physically and mentally). I don't want to think about doing laundry, or paying bills, or grocery shopping, or cleaning, or going to work, or catching up on things I ought to do but don't have energy for.

An ice cream bar. This one I pretty much always need but need more so now that I'm fully 7 months pregnant and hot all the time. I made it my reward for walking at lunch and making it to 3pm at work. It's the small things.

A shopping spree. Nothing big, nothing expensive. I just want a "new thing". Clothes don't really light my fire right now as regular people clothes won't fit and I can't even try them on to imagine what they might look like without a belly, it doesn't work that way. I would love something new to be excited about.

A good night's sleep. Even with a sleep aid, I wake up a good 2 or so times a night to use the bathroom. The trip usually also includes turning off some fans and getting more covers. I have a hard time going back to sleep and get very restless due to my lack of sleep position options.

28 Weeks

What an extremely emotional day yesterday! Yesterday I began my 28th week of this pregnancy. There were ALOT of other things that happened yesterday too! I'll spare you some details (as they will mostly just bore you) but I'll walk you through the rest of it briefly. First, I dropped Reed off at daycare and his provider mentioned that her mother had some complications with a surgery from last week. Turned out by the end of the day that her mother got worse and she had to jet out of town immediately to take care of it. Keep her in your prayers! Then I headed to my appointment. I didn't plan accordingly to take the 1 hour glucose test. When they got me back to the exam area, I figured that I didn't want to wait around for the one hour to pass (after you drink this terrible drink) so thought I would do it the next day when I was able to drink it at home and then go by to get my blood drown an hour later. I was anxious to get to work Tuesday cause my new boss was starting and didn't want to be too late as a first impression.

At my appointment my doctor walked me through a few things that I need to start doing (or not doing) at this point in my pregnancy. She mentioned to sleep on my left side, limit lifting to under 25 pounds, and that at my next appointment I would get my last ultrasound and to schedule that before I see her. I mentioned a little issue I had on Sunday morning and she felt like it warranted an ultrasound immediately. She measured my belly (30cm) and took the heartrate (138). Then she went to talk to the ultrasound tech to see when I could get in. Now, I'm starting to panic! I didn't think the issue was that serious but I have to say I got a little nervous anyway! Then I'm trying to communicate with work people to let them know I'll be later and trying to get a hold of Fogg to see if he could come to an ultrasound! I decided to take the glucose stuff then cause I figured I'd be there at least another hour to get my blood drawn. So I drank the stuff then and immediately the ultrasound tech came and got me! Fogg didn't get a chance to even start leaving let alone make it to the hospital in time. I was bummed he wasn't able to be there to see our baby. Anyway, everything turned out to be just fine, everything with the baby was perfect and there are no problems at all! The ultrasound tech said the baby is measuring about 3 pounds (which is about 2 weeks ahead of schedule!). We've got a fatty on our hands! Here are a couple of pictures.

This one is a little hard to figure out, the face is looking straight at you. You can see the right eye, nose and mouth really well.

So then I waited another 40 minutes to get my glucose blood draw. Then it was off to work! I met the new boss who seemed understanding of my crazy morning. After work, I got home to find Fogg frustrated about another hiccup in our latest project. We are replacing the floor in front of our deck door and we've run into all kinds of problems that don't seem to make sense! He tried to get ahead but for some reason a measurement wasn't adding up. We cleaned up what we had to and jetted off to a friends house for dinner. They are so great and we are lucky to have such great and understanding friends. They were able to talk with us about some important stuff and we appreciate all of their advice and guidance. It's so nice to have people like that in our life!

Anyway, so here are belly pics from the past 4 weeks though I missed out on taking week 26 because we were on vacation. I think 28 has really popped out!

25 weeks

27 weeks

28 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 28 Weeks

Size of baby: the ultrasound said that the baby was about 2 pounds 13 ounces (about 2 weeks big)

Maternity Clothes: I'm embracing my maternity clothes and have moved into using one of Fogg's shirts for sleeping cause mine won't fit anymore!

Gender: still a surprise! Getting all kinds of guesses though!

Movement: yep, shouldn't have a problem with those kick counts!

Sleep: some good nights, some bad nights.

What I miss: sleeping on my stomach or back. I can only sleep on my left or right side and that gets old about halfway through the night. I'm trying to be creative but there are only so many positions one can get into.

Cravings: still need my coffee but I'm good these days with the rest of stuff. Nothing in particular is pulling at me.

Symptoms: this is a good point in pregnancy. I haven't thrown up in quite some time, not too uncomfortable yet, haven't gained much weight other than a belly. I feel pretty good. Heartburn is increasing slightly but other than that just your run of the mill days of exhaustion. Some days are hard cause I feel so tired and my body feels like I got run over by a truck and some days are just fine.

Best Moment this month: Realizing how great my life is. I've had a few moments that I'm with Reed and the baby is moving and I feel so lucky. I'm enjoying this part though I'm anxious to meet the new baby. I'm embracing this point in my pregnancy and really enjoying my time giving 100% to Reed. He still seems accepting of a new baby in his life. I got him a big brother book that he has been reading almost every night. He will still talk and rub my belly. He insisted on wearing his "big brother" shirt yesterday. I asked him the other day if he knew who was coming to stay with us for a while and he said "baby!" very enthusiastically. I hope his excitement continues. I'm also reading a book on how to transition from one child to two and I feel affirmed in some choices I've made already and glad that I've still got time to change a few other things long before the baby comes.

My appointments are stepping up to every 2 weeks now. I'm aiming to have a baby between October 11 and October 25th at this point (due to the current measurements). I was really hoping that my baby would be a little smaller this time (due to me not gaining as much weight as I did with Reed so far) but it seems that dream has been shattered! I'm glad that my pregnancy is going well so far and this baby seems healthy as could be.

That's the update for now~