Week 32 update

Week 32 update

• The belly is and feels very big now
• I feel more discomfort - especially as the day progresses
• the pressure is increasing and I pee all the time! - nice visual I know ;)
• I am still exercising - I swim everyday during the week about 2000 - 3000 yards per workout. It takes me a long time now and I don't do flip turns anymore. In fact the flip turns stopped overnight - one day I was doing them comfortably, the next day after the first few I knew that was the end of those! The swimsuit that fit me finally caved. The stretching and pool rot overstretched it beyond being see through! I considered buying another, instead I now put on a two piece training suit underneath it! I hope those two things combined will do us for the next few weeks.
• In addition to swimming, I am still walking the dogs, we went snowshoeing too and I spin once or twice a week! Its getting harder because I am tired more, but I know when to stop.
• Baby girl is very active - I guess this week is the week when the amniotic fluid is at its peak and I feel the movements more because there is less cushioning and room for baby girl to move. Sometimes if she presses out and I press back, she will wait till I move the hand and then press back in the same spot as if to say 'hey its cramped in here, I'll press out if I want to' Ah stubborn already ;)
• Baby Girl appear to love music but I already told you that in a previous post :)
• According to 'What to Expect when you are Expecting' - our baby girl is the size of a Honeydew melon, is around 19 inches long and weighs a possible 4.5 lbs.

Here we are - growing each day :)

The longest two weeks

The past two weeks have been so weird. Its almost like time stopped for a brief moment in time. It all started when we left Indiana for our trip back to the UP! We had an awful trip (drive - not the visit) down there and we were hoping for some weather that was going to be nicer to us on the way back, but as I mentioned in a previous post, we were hit with nasty weather from Iron Mountain onwards - which is still 2 - 3 hours away. The closer we got to home, the worse it became. Anyway, by the time we got home,  it was late and we were hungry so we grabbed take out and headed home. Our plan was to eat and hit the sack - we both had 8am starts the next day. Anyway, just before heading to bed, my phone started ringing and I look down at the number and I am thinking 'noooooo' this is not going to be a good call!. My bestie who I am sharing this whole experience was at the hospital - her water broken :( - Sad face because she was 28 weeks and 6 days. yup, not great news. We talked for a while and she was getting transferred to a different hospital. She never complains though - she is so incredibly great and appreciative of everything............. and all I wanted to do was go an visit her, but I am probably a good 20 hour drive from where she lives! UGH! Every time I got up to use the bathroom that night (which was frequent, I checked my phone and just kept thinking - no news is good news. The goal was to keep the baby in for at least 48 hours! I have to admit, I wasn't sure if that was going to happen - but again, she never once complained and it sounded like she was keeping her spirits high. We usually talk several times a week, either on the phone, e-mail or text...... but over the next 48 hours I think I called her every hour and tried talking about things that would take her mind of what was happening. Amazingly the baby decided to stay put, she is and will remain in hospital until she delivers now, which if he doesn't come earlier will be at 34 weeks. He will still be teeny tiny, but at least he is inside and growing right now :). Her baby shower was supposed to be last weekend, and it was all I could think about and her too. I sent her a package full of goodies, but it wasn't the same........... I wish I could have gone to see her - but flying at this stage is not recommended, so we made do with talking and now plan when we can see each other after these babies arrive. I was sad from Thursday onwards last week because that was when Jesse and I were supposed to leave to go to visit them.

In addition to that, my beloved grandparents both had a rough two weeks. My dear granda is in a nursing home and him and my nanna have been living apart now since last summer :( - Sad! My nanna was heartbroken when this happened, but it was for the best. Then over Christmas my nanna was sick with what we thought was a cold. We still don't really know what it was, but she has been in hospital for about six weeks now. She has had several tests including a bone marrow one, and finally the results came back as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma :( - Another sad face. I found this out on Friday last week. Friday turned out to be a sad sad day, I was supposed to be with Liz and I found out sad news about my nanna. UGH! Jesse tried to make me feel better my entertaining my distracting ideas of house projects (which I know he doesn't really like to do) and taking me out to dinner, but it was a rough day! She was supposed to start chemo on Monday, but she took a turn for the worse and is not able to start it unless she gets better!. So positive thoughts are being sent her way, hoping she can start her treatment. During all this time, my poor granda had a fall in his nursing home, but he is back there recovering well. I think he is doing ok - you just have to talk to him about way back in the past because his memory isn't great anymore!

So my super speedy pregnancy suddenly experienced a very long slow two weeks! No fun!

On the plus side - we have 8 weeks to go - and I will get Jesse to take a pic update tonight! I feel like my ever swelling belly has dropped even lower and it does feel very big to me!

Two of the Kindest People I Know

Its not pregnancy related - not everything will be. These are two of the best people I know - my amazing Nanna and Granda.

They are both having a tough time right now with different types of illness - of which I won't go into - but I wanted to post these few photos mainly for people at home to see :) - I have more, but they were taking a while to load. So for now these will do. I don't think I have ever seen two people love each other or their family more. I hope I can be just like them in many years to come. Look at how they hold each other - all their pictures are like this! Perfect Love!

A love like no other

Week 31 Picture

We didn't take a Week 30 bump update - it ended up being an odd kind of a week and just so incredibly busy catching up with everything after our trip down to Indiana to visit with Jesse's family.

So this picture is Week 31 - she is getting bigger (or something is) ;)

Some other things I have noticed................ I think she likes swimming and me showering afterwards. I usually let the water from the shower hit directly on my stomach and the showers at the pool are pretty strong, so I tend to feel lots of movement after this. Again, we are assuming that lots of movement means she likes it ;)

She likes music - and many will laugh at this but...................... I was listening to the song 'Call Me Maybe' - well actually I was watching the video the military posted of them copying the Miami Dolphins Cheer team................ and I was getting some movement. Then I decided to play it at home and see what happened and it was the same thing ;) - Fun!! Jesse then decided she needed some classical music and the movements were still there, just a little different, like she was being soothed! Lets hope that music works, when we need it to.

Anyway - here is the Week 31 picture................ only a possible 9 more of these to go!

Check out the Outie ;)

Happy Birthday to André and Callum

Its my little (not so little) brothers birthday today and my little sisters birthday on the 17th. I am giving them a combined Happy Birthday post................. :).

When my mum first got pregnant with André, it was super exciting, it had been along time coming and I could not wait for her to get here. André is an IVF baby and she is one of the first born in the world (how cool is that!!). Then our family was doubly blessed after André because along came Natasha and Callum. I was eleven when André arrived and I actually left for university at 19, so I wasn't really around for a whole lot of their childhood, but we are all super close and I love them very much. They are all really close in age and they were best friends growing up. I remember Callum always wanting in on what the girls were doing, and for the best part they were really good about including each other. Did they/Do we fight.................. oh yeah - like no other! BUT and this is a big BUT............... we might fight, however, if anyone from outside the four of us tries to join in that fight.......... you can bet your bottom dollar that we will forget we were ever fighting and defend each other to the tee! Jesse unfortunately learned that the hard way, but it all worked out for the best and now he knows to just ignore us if we bicker when we see each other ;)!

I love my brother and sisters more than anything (and although this is a birthday post for André and Callum - I love you too Natasha - you will get your birthday post in April - maybe even a niece if she comes early!).
               

They both might want to kill me for this - but look at how cute they were when they young

Happy Birthday Callum

This picture has Andre (at the back), Natasha (as a cat) and my Callum (superman)

Andre and I at Oliver Winery in Bloomington, Indiana when she came to stay (Summer 2008)

Happy Birthday to Callum Luke (February 15th) and Andre Nicole (February 17th) - I love you so much and I am honored to be your big sister ;).

Happy Valentines Day

There's a whole lot of love everywhere today - it may have turned into a Hallmark day - but I have always loved Valentines day!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE

Baby Shower - Indiana

Last Thursday Jesse and I set of for our trip down to Indiana to visit with his family (last time before baby girl arrives). We planned our schedules so we could leave town on Thursday around 1pm to start the trip. We live 650 miles from Jesse's family, so it is always quite the epic trip. Why not fly? Well - this time of year the weather is very unpredictable (we live in an area that gets quite ALOT of snow), so flying sometimes doesn't work. Luckily we did not take the risk of flying because the weather turned out to be terrible and Chicago closed down its airport (which is the only airport our little tiny one flys into).

Anyway, we set of thinking we would drive to Chicago, stop at Ikea and then maybe finish the drive to Indiana. Instead we were hit with terrible weather that forced us to abandon original trip plans :( -
What actually happened was we drove in terrible weather on Thursday - we made it to Chicago about 3 hours after we should have, exhausted with fighting with the car to actually stay on the road. We got a hotel and then went to ikea the next day.. BUT, that meant we didn't get to see his family for as long as planned on that Friday. On Saturday we drove to Indianapolis for the baby shower, then on Sunday we drove the 12 hours back home (in horrendous weather ) AGAIN. Oh and with all that - we had a slight car malfunction, which Jesse had to get fixed when we got to Indianapolis (ugh).


The plus side of this trip - his cousins had a really nice baby shower for us, it was very relaxed. We spent time with Jesse's family, reconnect with old friends and see some of our friends that were able to come up to Indianapolis from Bloomington. It was really lovely to hang out and catch up with people - eat good food - and amazing Chocolate cake made by Heather and Lauren. Baby girl got some lovely gifts and I can't wait for our nursery to be finished so we can put it all together :)

Here are a couple of pics - when I get more, I will update this post :)

Cake made by Heather and Lauren. It was fresh cream on the outside and heavenly chocolate on the inside (so glad my chocolate aversion disappeared :)

Winnie the Pooh Diaper Cakes

The Name Game

We keep getting asked - 'Do you have a name'. Its one of the hot questions of the month. We actually don't, I thought we did. Before we got pregnant we had decided on a few names that we loved if we had a boy or a girl. But when we got pregnant, I wasn't as in LOVE with those names anymore. I still like them though ;). A couple are still top contenders, but there are others that we are contemplating now. What are those contenders - we aren't telling, I dont know why, but this is just something that Jesse and I are keeping to ourselves for now, and everyone will find out what her name is when she arrives (I guess that goes for us too, because we really don't have a name yet).

I think when it comes to the name, I am just going to have to decide when I see her. I know that I LOVE all the names that my parents decided for me and my siblings. I have never heard any of us ever complain about their name and I think we all like eachothers, they are all unique to us in some way. I think I am ideally looking for something like that. If it happens to be a family name, then its not because we sat down and looked at all the family names and thought - yep thats the name we should choose, its just because we like the name. I know some families, try to keep names in the family or include their name into their childrens name somehow, we have somewhat discussed that, and I think we came to the conclusion, that if it happens, it happens, but we aren't going to force it. We also still have to discuss the last name.............. I never thought I would do it - but I think we are going to have children with insanely long names, because I want my children to have a first and middle name, but I have not changed my last name for one reason or another, so as of right now - she is having both last names. Unless we choose a unique last name and we both change our last name to that! ;). Also, when it comes to the name, I like the idea of us creating our own family traditions at this point. We are already starting out a little different by bringing together our two nationalities. There have been lots of changes recently and I like the idea of new beginnings = new traditions.

Until then, she gets called all sorts of things........... over Christmas Jesse insisted on calling her 'little Gertie' ............... yup he liked the idea of Gertrude for her name. I guess I have our friend Robert Handler to thank for that!!!! I vetoed it  ;)

Third Trimester

The third trimester technically begins at week 28, but its taken me a while to get this post up.
According to 'What to expect when you are expecting' there are some typical symptoms that go hand in hand with the first trimester.

1. It may feel as if there's no way my belly can get any bigger - (actually my belly doesn't really feel that big right now.......... I mean there can be days of discomfort, but for the best part it feels ok). 
2. By week 31 of pregnancy (we are almost there) we are told that baby can now get signals from all five senses, perceiving light and dark, tasting what I am eating (this I try really hard to be aware of), and listening to the sound of my voice (hmmmm - I should keep it down then ;). 
3. Growth may be up to an inch in week 33 alone (eek - I am guessing space will start to feel cramped then). I guess this leads to some serious kicks and pokes for me.  So far those kicks and pokes have been cute! I am wondering when that will stop.......... she seems to be most active after I eat or workout, but we haven't seen any major movement yet - just felt it!
4. By week 34 I guess she starts her downward journey and will start to go head down (we hope)
5. By week 36 I might be feeling super fed up at this point and that goes for baby girl too, given that she is hopefully gaining weight too.
6. By week 38 they say I only have 2 weeks to go (so lets hope ;), and she starts to lose that hairy coat and vernix.
7. By week 39 I might find myself waddling - I am curious how I am going to waddle my way up and down the hill to class and back (yup - I will still be teaching at this point). Although my good friend Louise has told me that I am not allowed to waddle!.
8. By week 40 we are told to just go with it! ;)

Other things

• I haven't had any Braxton Hicks contractions yet. 
• I have noticed that my calf's want to cramp up through the night (I wake up trying to stretch them). This is weird for me because I have never really had cramps before, even with all the exercise I have done.
• I haven't noticed anything else out of the ordinary yet, but I will be sure to keep you all informed
• I am back to peeing constantly!

Week 28 and 29 pictures

I am trying to be better about updating the much anticipated belly updates.

This week I am combining week 28 and week 29.

Can you believe we are already at 29 weeks........... not long to go now!

Here are some pictures of the past 2 weeks. All photos are taken by Jesse - I think he did a pretty good job ;)

28 weeks

28 weeks

Blue and his little sister!

29 weeks - you can see the almost outie (belly button) in this picture

29 weeks and This one is my Favorite :)

I drank the Coolaide

I drank the cool aide a week ago and FAILED the test! UGH!. For those of you that are wondering what the cool aide is - its a 50 gram glucose beverage to test for gestational diabetes.

There are many different ways in which this test is administered, for me, the doctors gave me the bottle and said 'when you are not sick anymore, drink this, then go the the lab within an hour and have your blood drawn'. That was it - no other instructions, nothing about food etc etc etc. I did ask if there was anything special I needed to do and the response was 'no'.

So when I was feeling better, I drank the cool aide! I got up that morning, had my usually breakfast, went for my swim, ate a banana after swimming, drank the cool aide and went to get my blood drawn! I did what I normally do..................... I FAILED the test!. This led to hours of research and wondering if I had gestational diabetes, what I could do different, what would happen from here on out etc etc. They had me do the 3 hour test 3 days later. This test was a little different, I was told not to eat or drink ANYTHING (not even water) after 6pm the night before I was going to do the test.................. what a pain - plus knowing I couldn't eat or drink made me want to eat and I was super thirsty. Anyway, I got up the next day and went to the lab when it opened at 7am to start the test. It started with a Urine sample and blood draw, then I drank the cool aide again (which the nurses were saying, its so awful - but I actually liked it ;). Then I had to do a blood draw and urine sample after 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hour and 3 hours. I was at the lab all morning................ I had my blood drawn 5 times (good job I don't mind it and have good veins). The results came in the next day and I passed - I do not have Gestational Diabetes and I can keep doing what I have been doing with respect to eating etc etc (I honestly don't know what I would have done differently anyway). I don't know what happened with the first test, maybe I did it wrong, maybe not! Who knows!

Childbirth Class

We have been going to childbirth class throughout the month on January (there were 4 classes total). I was a little disappointed because I felt that it was too early - but the other options were May (erm - too late) or much later in the year. I guess this is one of the disadvantages of living in a small town - the resources can be limiting. I keep getting asked from other friends, if I am going to such and such a class............. and my response is always - nope - nothing like that where I live. I mean come on - our closest Target is over 100 miles away (I think I have told you that before).

Anyway back to childbirth class - let me give you a quick week by week summary.

Week 1 - still sick........ we drive to it and the whole time Jesse is saying, if you are coughing and spluttering they might ask us to leave - so I am thinking - what?, but there isn't another one - I have to make it through this - I stock up on cough drops and drink water every 5 seconds the whole 3 hours we were there. I managed to suppress the coughing until the very end. When we arrived, we were greeted by a super bubbly instructor, who is also a Douala AND a lactation consultant. We introduced ourselves to the other 2 couples (small class) and then she just dove right into it - telling us stories (mainly about her), which were very entertaining. I will mention here that she claims to have had 3 very easy birthing experiences and she wanted to let us know that there is a spectrum, and she is all the way to one end, most people are in the middle, and then there is the 'dreaded' other end! She talked and talked and then we watched videos of women giving birth! ............. Was I traumatized - no... don't be silly - its not like I don't know how a baby (a) gets in there or (b) comes out of there! I am pretty realistic when it come to this, plus I had just taken pics of a birth not that long ago - and I really didn't mind that whole experience either! We got a few more bits and pieces of info and away we went!

Week 2 - this was by far my favorite week - so the week before, she told us we would be learning relaxation techniques to use during childbirth....... and for us to bring pillows! When we got to class, there were all sorts of fun toys to play with - big exercise balls, massage things etc etc. She said this part of the class would last an hour and the men were going to learn some techniques to help us through the pain! (hope Jesse was paying attention here). Anyway, we laid down (we - as in women) and then she started to teach us techniques of massage, and pressure points etc etc and it was pretty wonderful. I mean come on - who doesn't want to be massaged for an hour! I think I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes and after the hour was up I was feeling pretty relaxed. I am wondering though - how many of these techniques are really going to work or get used when it comes to the 'day'. After that she talked some more about different experiences and it was relatively low key!

Week 3 - new instructor - she was a super fast talker so the class didn't last as long - but this was a cool week. We toured the birthing clinic - were told what to do upon arrival - which I know I have already forgotten, and watched her bathe a newborn. The newborn was pretty cute, super alert - but man - the second she took him our of that swaddle and got him naked, he produced lungs that any endurance athlete would be proud of! He was cute, even when crying, but I really wanted her to hurry up and swaddle him back up so he would stop. I mean hadn't his day been traumatic enough, he's just pushed/been pushed out of this warm tight space, into this cold open space and now here we all are staring down/cooing at him while he gets his second bathe of the day! Poor little guy. Of course he's going to let us know hes not at all happy!

Week 4 - breastfeeding........... we learned why its good, why we should do it, that its OK if it doesn't work out. Key when it comes to feeding is the less stress for mom and baby, the happier baby and mom will be! I am all for that....... and that's the philosophy I am following. We watched baby/child CPR. I have taken this class a thousand times, yet each time I always find myself second guessing! you would think it would be second nature now. Finally, we discussed car seats, types of car seats, installation of car seats and listened to some horror stories about not using the car seat correctly etc etc. Yup - we will probably have someone check that it is all set up and ready to go.

So that was our childbirth class, in a nutshell. I really like it, looked forward to going to it....... and highly recommend it to anyone that is pregnant (especially with baby number 1). I didn't think is was really necessary, but after week 1, I soon realized there is so much more to giving birth than you can ever imagine!.

The further along I get in this pregnancy, the more frequently this question pops up: Am I having a natural labor or an epidural?

I have no idea ................. seriously though - I honestly don't feel like anyone that is pregnant can answer this. I have said all along that I am and will remain open to anything. We learned in that class that if you go into the birthing experience with a plan that is not flexible then you will end up feeling inadequate and frustrated when things don't go as you hope them to go. I feel like there is ALOT of stigma behind pain medication during child birth, truth is if a woman has been in labor for 30+ hours and needs it, then let her have it without the judgement. I know, I know women have been giving birth for hundreds of years without anything to ease their pain.......... my response - many people died during those times and medication and technology have since evolved!' So I guess to answer the question, my birth plan is to get through it the best way I can and deliver a healthy baby................. if that ends up with or without pain meds remains to be seen :)