34 weeks

Today I am 34 weeks pregnant. Yayz!



The belly is huge. (It's much easier to tell when it's not covered up, but I have tried to remain modest for the sake of this blog.) Many people have now started gasping when I tell them that I have six weeks until my due date. They don't see how I can get much bigger. I think I can, and I will. This should be interesting.

Other things that are huge: everything from the waist down. It's a disaster, truly. Cellulite city.

My back and rib pain was much better this week. While I still have a hard time lying on my right side, overall I'm feeling pretty good. (Thank you for your sympathetic comments, by the way.) Apparently the body has magical powers and a remarkable ability to heal itself.

I had my 34 week appointment yesterday. I literally gasped when I stepped on the scale and I saw I had gained five pounds in two weeks. It wasn't so much of a surprise as it was a realization that I really have been eating a lot. I can't help it, though - I am pretty much hungry all the time. It's kind of amazing since I have spent all of my life not really eating that much.

My blood pressure was a little elevated, too. It is normally super low, though, so even with the increase, it was normal. (And who knows, the increase may have been caused by my agitation about my weight gain.)

And I'm swelling. I talked about this last week, but it's gotten worse since then. I can really tell by looking at my ankles and feet. I may have Mickey Mouse feet by the time I'm full term. And actually, the fact that I'm retaining water might account for the weight gain. Whatever the case, I have stopped wearing my rings and my watch.

I asked my doctor to consult his crystal ball and tell me when he thinks I should tell my mom to fly out for Charlie's birth. He said we'd know more after my 36 week appointment when I get an internal exam to see if I'm dilated at all. Then he said, "Your vagina is my crystal ball. I may know more after giving you the exam, but chances are things will still be fuzzy. No pun intended."

Roy and I were cracking up, needless to say.

Anyway, I don't know why I was so shocked to hear I would have a cervix check; I will be four weeks from my due date at my next appointment, after all. I just can't believe I'm at the point where I can tell people, "I'm 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced!" or whatever. This is all so surreal. I'm going to be popping out this kid soon, in eight weeks or less! Wow.

With that realization comes another huge one: I have so much to do before he gets here! I need a personal assistant to help me get everything ready. I feel this huge desire to have everything as organized as possible, and with how tired I am after work every evening, not much is getting done. However, my doctor has signed me out of work starting May 1, so I will hopefully have a few weeks to rest and get some things done.

I am really ready to be off work. I have been sleeping horribly lately, because I have to pee about three times a night and then it takes forever to get comfortable after that, which means that Roy isn't getting a lot of sleep, either. I have been really unproductive both at work and at home lately, so it's high time I got as much rest as possible before I enter the most sleep-deprived time of my life.

33 weeks

I am pathetically late in posting this, but whatever - as of Friday, I am 33 weeks pregnant.



This picture was taken after a long day of taking the CBEST and strolling through Ikea, which later turned into hobbling through Ikea. We bought our crib, though - totally worth the hobbling.

Charlie is now the size of a honeydew melon. He's getting really big. And boy, have I noticed the difference.



The shit kind of hit the fan last week. I was in remarkably good shape over last weekend, but with our shower and celebrating Roy's birthday, I really think I overdid it. I'd been dealing with discomfort and some sleepless nights for weeks, but I really didn't expect what happened last Wednesday.

I am fairly sure Charlie was breech and then turned within the last couple of weeks, because I recently started feeling a lot of movement in the area of my ribs. When I say movement, I don't mean kicks or punches, but more like a wall of pressure that I could feel building up. As a result, my ribs (especially on my right side, since Charlie favors that side) were extremely sore. While it wasn't fun, it was manageable.

Very early Wednesday morning (around 2 AM), I woke up in complete, utter, no-doubt-about-it pain in my back. I could barely move, and every time I did move, it hurt so badly that I ended up crying. Roy and I were both up for the majority of the night while he took charge of both icing and applying heat to my back and then giving me a bath and a back rub. We were both able to eventually go back to sleep (me in the bed, him on the floor - what a rock star he is), and the next morning I called both my OB and chiropractor. I left messages for both, and then Roy and I decided to basically show up at the chiro's office and take them by storm. I was able to be seen right away, which is wonderful considering...

My ribs are sprained and bruised, and I have muscle spasms going on all throughout my back. And oh my god, I had never known pain like that. Having scoliosis, I have dealt with back pain for most of my life, but nothing could have prepared me for the level of pain I experienced. Remember how I talked about back pain three weeks ago? Yeah, well. That was nothing.

The good news is I am doing so much better than I was. I worked half a day on Wednesday, came home, climbed into bed, and didn't really get out until Thursday morning. The difference in me was amazing. While I still had (and have) a lot of back and rib pain, my range of motion has returned to normal and things are much more bearable. I will be seeing my chiropractor once a week from here until the end of my pregnancy so that this (hopefully) doesn't happen again.

I will say this, though - it feels like my ribs are broken. I have definitely crossed over into the realm of being pretty damn uncomfortable, as it hurts to do anything, from laugh to turn to the side to lay in bed. My acid reflux is also out of control, and Charlie still stretches out into my ribcage on a very regular basis. As a result, if I'm not at work, I'm usually in bed. I am really tired at the end (okay, and at the beginning) of every work day, even though I just sit on my ass all day.

I am also becoming a bit swollen in my hands, wrists, ankles, and feet. The stupid admin who sits across the hall from me has taken great joy in telling me about this. I also get a lot of "You look so tired" comments from random people, but I also still get a lot of "You look great" comments, which helps.

And naturally I can't wait until I'm 36 weeks so I can go out on maternity leave. The countdown is so on. I am in great need of a lot of rest, considering there are only 40 something more days (give or take a few) until I never sleep again. Plus it'll be nice to get nice and swollen at home and not have to hear about it every second of the day.

Things I Love This Week

This video is all I can think of that I love this week (aside from the normal stuff like husband, family, friends, etc). Sorry, it's been a rough one so far. But this made me smile.

Showered with Love

Yesterday Roy and I attended our personal baby shower at Melinda's house. Melinda, Angelina, and Kim were awesome hosts, and I had a really great time. Kim was the photographer for the day, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

I loved the blue and brown theme!





Of course, the heart on tummy pose was a must do.





We got lots of gifts. People were very generous. We are extremely thankful.



Games included Baby Bingo...



...some unnamed game where whoever drank water from a bottle the fastest won (and of course, I was not the winner, but don't I look awesome drinking from a bottle?)...









...and another game that used candy bars to describe certain baby-related things, like "when Leslie's milk comes in." Whoever guessed the candy bar correctly (in this case, "Mounds") won the candy bar.

Then it was cake time!





And present time!



A few words about the gifts we received: Wow. Our little Charlie is already well loved and well provided for. I was so happy that we received pretty much all of our big ticket items that we really needed. Additionally, we got a ton of cute clothes and a bunch of other stuff that will definitely come in handy.

This experience has really solidified for me that most people (or our people, at least) don't seem to like ordering things online. Our Amazon registry was left largely untouched in favor of our registry at Babies R Us. Me, I absolutely love shopping online, so it's always interesting to find out what other people's shopping habits are like.

And Babies R Us really sucks at updating registry information. We got several repeats because of a glitch in their system or something. It's not that big of a deal, but it was a little annoying to come home from the shower and see that our registry was showing that only four things had been purchased from it.

Here are two pictures I really like, even though the first one showcases my five chins:



And this one, of the fam:



Me and my homies:



Thanks so much to Melinda, Kim, and Angelina for throwing us an awesome shower. We so appreciate it. You guys are awesome.

32 weeks

I'm 32 weeks pregnant today.



1) One of our showers is tomorrow! I am so excited. Three of my homies have worked together to give us this shower, and we are so grateful. I'll have pics and a recap later on.

2) We are also having an ultrasound done tomorrow. We have a voucher for a free one because the last recreational ultrasound we had didn't reveal the sex of the baby. (Obviously, a lot of time has passed since then.) Tomorrow, based on how the ultrasound goes, we will decide whether we will have a 3D/4D one done. I'm a little concerned that Charlie might be a little too squished to get a good view. We'll see what happens.

3) I saw my OB yesterday, and everything's looking great. Total weight gain is 18 pounds, Charlie's heartbeat is in the 140s (which is normal), and my blood pressure is good.

4) It looks like I'll be able to go out on maternity leave in about four weeks, which is awesome, because....

5) I have developed a whole new set of aches and pains. Some days are better than others. But let's just say that my ribcage is absolutely killing me these days. And my upper inner thighs feel like I've been doing the splits all day, every day. My back is doing much better, thanks to the brace. I am still holding my own, although it is getting harder and harder to get comfortable at night.

6) I'm pretty positive that I felt Charlie hiccuping twice this week. Very cool.

7) And speaking of baby movement, he got really crazy with the movement last weekend. I'm not sure what he was doing in there, but I think it might have something to do with playing football or moving furniture around. I'm feeling a lot of movement higher up now, which makes me think that he's head down.

I have more things to report, particularly some awesome baby gifts I've received of late, but I think I'll wait and give those a post of their own.

The cutest husband ever turns 30!

Roy is 30 years old today! And his cuteness is still undeniable.





See what I mean?

There's a lot of celebrating to be done. I've been terrible at recapping the events of my life lately, but I'll try for a post that chronicles all the celebrating. And the countdown is on to my own 30th birthday, which is two months and five days away.

Happy birthday to the cutest husband ever! I just love him.

Double You Tee Eff

So today marks the beginning of April, and wow, so much will be going on this coming month!

Let me just first say that I am due to give birth to a baby NEXT month. And while it's very possible that we may end up with a June baby as opposed to a May baby, his arrival is imminent. Let the pants-shitting begin.

Now that's out of the way, here's what's scheduled to go down in April:

1) Roy's 30th birthday!
2) Two baby showers!
3) Taking the CBEST!
4) Doing maternity pictures (hopefully)!
5) Going to (and doing some photographing of) Jessica's wedding!
6) Tackling an insanely long to-do list!

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.