34 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

 

How Far Along: 34 weeks

*Despite my hugeness I'm still measuring right on schedule according to my doctor's appt. yesterday*

 

Size of baby: According to babycenter.com the baby is about the size of a cantaloupe (this feels about right)

 

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies (this is comforting!)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +28 pounds approximately. I suspect Thanksgiving next week will definitely push me over the 30 pound gain mark.

Maternity Clothes: Yep and I'm already sick of the few outfits that I keep having to rotate but I refuse to buy more clothes to just wear for a month.

Gender: BOY!

 

Movement: He's still quite the mover and shaker and his movements are getting stronger by the day. You can just see my belly dancing around which is neat.

What I miss: My cute winter clothes and boots that no longer fit. I'm so sick of wearing the same few outfits over and over. Also being able to roll over easily in bed, it's a huge production to get comfortable every night.

Sleep: Still not great but I'm getting use to the lack of sleep.

Symptoms: Same as always. The braxton hicks seem to be increasing in frequency and the swelling is getting worse. I had to retire my wedding bands this past weekend :(

Cravings: Anything liquid, I'm ALWAYS thirsty.

Best Moment this week: Washing all the baby blankets and a lot of the clothes-Nesting has kicked in full force. Also, the changes/additions we've done to the nursery. It's so close to being done and I LOVE it! Can't wait to share pictures.

What I am looking forward to: my maternity leave! Work has been so busy lately that I can't wait to take my 6 weeks and just focus on my little guy. It will be the longest I've gone without work and/or school since I was 15. Not that taking care of a newborn is a vacation by any means but it will be a nice break.  

**Starting in 3 weeks I will be having my weekly appointments and they will be checking my cervix each time to see if I'm dilating. I'm not looking forward to the actual checks since I hear they can hurt but I am curious to see if/how much I'm dilating.**

Reality

Currently my commute each day to and from work is about an hour long, on a good day I can make it in 45 minutes but that's rare. Last Thursday night there were two accidents and it took me 1 1/2 hours to get home. Needless to say I was not in a good mood.

While sitting my car, realizing I wouldn't get home until close to 6:30 (I get off work at 5pm) I started to think about how it will be after the baby comes. Because we can't afford for either of us to quit our jobs the baby will be in daycare once my maternity leave ends.  Since Kristian has to be at work by 7am the plan is for me to drop the baby off in the mornings around 7:30am and then Kristian will pick him up in the afternoons. His schedule is flexible and he's usually done by 4pm at the latest so this way the baby won't have to be in daycare from 6am-6pm and will get to have a few hours alone with daddy every day until I get home around 6.

What I realized while sitting in traffic is that with me not getting home until 6pm or later everyday I'm not going to have much time with my kid during the weeknights. Once I get home we'll be busy making/eating dinner and then it will be time to give him a bath and start getting him ready for bed etc.. From what I've read most babies go to bed around 7:30-8pm. So basically I'll have 1 1/2-2 hours each night with my kid and that's about it (I'm not going to count the middle of the night feedings/diaper changes since I'll only be half conscious).

I know this is pretty standard for most working mothers so I'm in no way a special case but the realization of it just kinda sucks. It makes me sad to think that I won't get much quality time with my little guy during the week but unfortunately there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. We can't afford for me to be a stay at home mom, my job won't let me telecommute everyday and seeing how great the job market is I don't think I'll have much luck finding another job that pays me the same (or more) that is closer to home. Sigh.

So do any of you working mothers out there have any advice or tips for how to have as much time as possible with my little one once I head back to work?

O.M.G.!!!!

This morning the official movie trailer for the Hunger Games was revealed on GMA and it's AWESOME! I admit to doubting some of the casting choices in the beginning but I'm fully on board right now. The trailer gave me goose bumps and I CANNOT wait to see this movie in March. Better line up a babysitter now because mama's going opening night. Check it out below and if you haven't read The Hunger Games drop what you're doing and go read it!

Hunger Games trailer

33 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 33 weeks

Size of baby: According to babycenter.com the baby is about the size of a pineapple

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds 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.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +26-27 pounds approximately. I seem to be gaining about a pound a week which is what I should be doing.

Maternity Clothes: mostly maternity and even some of those shirts are getting tight, but that could be because I seem to shrink everything I wash.

Gender: BOY!

Movement: Lots of movement and it's getting stronger everyday. He seems to be doing more rolling than kicking though some of his movements are so strong they catch me off guard.

What I miss: Being able to just move around easily like I use to. Even the smallest things like getting dressed in the morning or getting off the couch is a struggle nowadays.

Sleep: Not good, getting up a lot to pee, it's rather annoying.

Symptoms: It would be easier to list the symptoms I don't have! At this point I have a bit of everything- backaches, lots of braxton hicks contractions, minor heartburn, slight swelling in the feet, and just general discomfort almost 24/7.

Cravings: Chocolate milk and cherry coke (though not together) and basically anything sweet.

Best Moment this week: Going shopping with my mom last weekend for baby stuff. I have a slight addiction to baby clothes that is not healthy for my bank account.

What I am looking forward to: Having no set plans this weekend, hopefully I can get a lot of "nesting" done. Also, looking forward to Thanksgiving in two weeks and having a 4 day weekend, I need it badly.

 

**Don't forget to put your guesses into our baby pool

Baby Pool

With less than 2 months to go until this child makes his grand entrance into the world I thought it would be fun to setup a little baby pool and let everyone guess on when they think baby boy will make an appearance along with the rest of his stats. I actually saw this on Kirstens blog and thought it would be a really fun thing to do. You just go to our personal site and enter in your guesses. The winner will get....bragging rights! Who knows maybe I'll come up with a prize if someone really does guess dead on.

**If I end up with a scheduled C-section, we'll throw out the birthdate part of it and just keep the rest of the categories.

32 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 32 weeks

Size of baby: According to babycenter.com the baby is about the size of a large jicama

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds 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, he'll gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival outside the womb. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +25 pounds approximately. I'm thinking my goal of not gaining more than 30 pounds is out the window considering I still have about 8 weeks left and the holidays thrown in there.

Maternity Clothes: mostly maternity but still can squeeze into some jeans and larger regular shirts. My shoes are starting to get a bit tight though.

Gender: BOY!

Movement: All day everyday. The other night Kristian was pushing on my tummy where the baby usually kicks and 30 seconds later he would kick. Kristian would push again and a few seconds later he would kick again, it was like they were playing a little back and forth poking game with each other. It was cute.

What I miss: Not feeling uncomfortable 24/7 and wearing heels

Sleep: Good nights and bad nights. Last night was great, Tuesday night was miserable.

Symptoms: Same old same old; backaches, braxton hicks, some slight swelling at the end of the day and just recently minor heartburn. Good times.

 

Cravings: Still more interested in drinking than eating. I'm always thirsty but not particularly hungry most of the time.

Best Moment this week: Getting my maternity photos done last weekend. I love them! As of my doctor's appointment yesterday I'm back to measuring on schedule rather than two weeks ahead so that's good news.

What I am looking forward to: Finishing up the nursery, my goal is to have it done by the beginning of Dec. unfortunately I need Kristian's help with a few things and he is not in the nesting mode like I am so he's taking his sweet time with things.

Maternity Shots (taken at 32 weeks)

This past Sunday my friend Laura, who happens to be my sorority big sister, came over to take some maternity photos for us. Laura recently moved to Northern VA with her husband and two little boys which is awesome because I haven't seen her in years and now she lives right by where I work. It's always nice to have friends (and especially those with little kids) in the area.

Laura recently started a photography business and after seeing a lot of her photos posted on Facebook, including some great maternity shots of her pregnant sister I asked her if she would be so kind as to come shoot some of me. She very happily agreed and I'm so glad she did because the pictures I've seen so far are awesome!

She came over and took a bunch of photos of me in the still-a-work-in-progress nursery, some in the front of our house and a lot in the woods and down by the water behind our house. I can't wait to get a few of these framed and put in the nursery.

I think this is one of the more flattering shots of me. I think it's funny how my belly is veering to the left a bit. I guess he was moving around at the time.

While we were taking pictures in the nursery, Halpert kept coming in to watch and at one point he jumped in the glider and was posed so perfectly so we couldn't resist getting a few pictures with my furbaby. Based on his facial expression I think that he's thinking "Are you sure I won't be the baby anymore mom?"

I love this shot because it reminds me of one of our wedding photos where the photographer caught us kissing through the trees in a very similar pose. 

This will probably go in the nursery.

This is another favorite that I want to put in the nursery.

We were joking that this is the closest that I get to camping.

Love this shot as well. That's our front door behind me and a rose from our garden.

This is another favorite! And you get a sneak peek at the crib and bedding in the nursery. The little bear in the crib was Kristian's as a child.



These are just some of the photos she posted on Facebook. Check out her Facebook page if you want to see some of her other work, or if you live in Northern VA and needs a photographer.