As I am working on the list for my hospital bag, I thought I’d ask you about some of the items you took to the hospital and found useful.
A random comment will win a Cranberry Red Balloon CD of children’s music (US only)
Her size: We’re a large cantaloupe this week! Getting closer and closer to a watermelon.
How far along: 35 WEEKS. Yesterday was the famous 35/35 – 35 weeks along with 35 days to go.
Total weight gain: 168 lb. (+2 lbs this week, total at 32 lbs). I guess I gotta get used to this 2 lbs a week thing. I can tell Alexis is gaining a lot, she’s getting bigger and stronger with each day. Starting from about 28 weeks, I’ve been trying to make sure my protein intake is adequate, which isn’t exactly easy for a person who doesn’t eat meat, so all I have to rely on is diary products, cheese and occasional well cooked shrimp or sardines (low in mercury and dioxins). I’ve had sort of an aversion to beans this whole pregnancy, so I can’t even eat them without grimacing. I’m pretty sure that’s where the extra weight gain is coming from, which makes me feel good because I know protein is something that is crucial for her development and her brain.
Sleep: The bathroom trips are out of control. Seriously, it feels like I get up 10 times a night (it’s really about 4-5 times). I can’t cut down on my evening water intake though, because I get so thirsty at night. Getting up 5 times a night doesn’t really bother me as much as I’d imagine it would, so I’m still pretty content with my sleep (minus the occasional nightmares)
Maternity Clothes: Just the same old stuff I’ve blogged about before
Food cravings: Anything sweet and fruit.
Food aversions: none
Symptoms I HAVE: Lots of little Lexi punches, occasional heartburn, occasional pelvic pressure. But otherwise I feel great! No stretchmarks so far either, so I have my fingers crossed (and tummy lubed up). BTW, I don’t think I ever mentioned but my skin cleared up. I had broken out pretty badly in the first trimester and it lasted throughout the 2nd trimester, but now it seems everything is settled in. I still don’t have the skin I had before pregnancy, but I attribute it to the fact that I am not using the same products, since they aren’t 100% “pregnancy approved”.
Doctor’s Appointment: Yesterday for strep B test. Now I am switched over visiting the doctor’s office once a week.
Movement: The strong punches have started. I feel she’s trying to poke out of me with her butt! She is REALLY strong. It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it’s not exactly pleasant. I do love her movements no matter how uncomfortable it gets. She seems to love my hipbone, because it gets kicked all the time. I keep meaning to videotape her moving in my belly but miss her every time.
Belly Button: Outie.
Gender: GIRL!
Best moment of the week: I love feeling good. It’s surprising to me that I’m that far along and don’t have much to complain about in terms of aches. I do have occasional pains, but they don’t seem to bother me much. So I’m enjoying this part of the pregnancy.
What I’m looking forward to:
I should be looking forward to the holidays, but this year it’s going to be low key. We are having a nice Christmas dinner at our friends’ house, which is making me feel a little better about skipping most of the festivities ( we didn’t even decorate, because then we’d have to take all the decor down right as Lexi is supposed to arrive.
Another friend of ours is hosting an amazing New Year’s party this year at his mansion that we decided not to go to :( But I swear that’s the last party we’ll have to miss (bummer :( ). We went back and forth considering going, but it’s just too close to our due date, too many people (flu season), and too much smoke. Just to give you an idea of the scale of parties he throws: there’s gonna be valet parking at his house as well as a bus he rented that will take anyone home who doesn’t want to worry about not drinking and driving. There’s also going to be a separate area of the house set up for kids/teenagers with their own food and DJ, which I thought was a neat idea.
What I miss:
BEING ABLE TO BEND WITHOUT GROANING :) HA!
What else?
, in case you’re interested. NOTE: I am not taking it during pregnancy, just in case, so I bought it for my husband. I would research about the effect of cherry extract/juice/concentrate in pregnancy before taking it.
{Note: I lost this post in yesterday’s server crash, so here we go again. Unfortunately, all your comments got deleted along with the post :( But I did appreciate every single one of them!}
As we are finishing up our work on the nursery, it’s starting to slowly dawn on us that this room will be soon occupied by a crying, cooing, pouting baby girl, our daughter!
You get caught up in building this perfect room and it takes so long, because there are so many choices and never that unlimited amount of money that we’d all like to have, that you forget why exactly you’re doing it. Crazy – we’re going to have a new human being that we created. I know it’s old news to most people, since everyone had to come to this world that way, but to me it feels like noone has ever gone through it and we are the first people on the planet to have a baby.
So at this point, every major piece of furniture has been ordered and/or delivered. Most decor items have arrived and been spray painted white. The only important piece that we don’t have is the recliner, which should arrive early January. So since the room isn’t exactly put together, I figured I’d do a detail update for you. Keep in mind, most of the shelves items are only there as placeholders right now, blinds aren’t fully installed, cords will be wrapped into a baby proof cord winder and a night table will be placed next to a chair when the chair bothers to show up.
This is one of my favorite things in the room. I spent quite a bit of time looking for a perfect mobile as it can really set the mood in the room. I wanted something handmade and subtle, girly and romantic. When I found Magical Whimsy store, I knew that was it. At first, I couldn’t decide between this one in lavender and the one in the pictures below. I thought the first one would just blend into the room too much and I have a huge tendency to go too matchy-matchy, so getting a color that wasn’t lavender or yellow (two primary ones of the room) was a bit of a risk (for me). When I got the mobile, though, I instantly knew it was perfect. It’s like it was made for this room. I have to tell you, I was incredibly impressed with the quality ( I spent the next few days gushing over it). It is REALLY well made – Denise knows what she’s doing. Check out her Magical Whimsy Etsy shop here for all kind of paper creations.
I will probably have a black and white mobile that attaches to the crib (for Alexis’s development) but to be honest I doubt she’ll be spending much time in the crib when she’s awake, so I might not even need it. But this is definitely a decorative piece that the room wouldn’t be the same without. I know where I’ll be ordering all my future mobiles ( if we have another baby).
The original plan was to buy some colorful art for the walls since the rest of the room is so subtle, with walls being almost white. It would have ended up being around $350 and after some thinking (and nudging from a friend) I decided to instead see if I can find some similar pastel colors in my own photography and frame that. Eventually those will be replaced with family photos and headshots of Alexis, but for now I think it worked out pretty well.
The top shots (pictured below) were taken in spring at Universal Studios and the bottom ones on Florida and Antigua beaches.
The source of our nightmares! I had a very specific image of a dresser that I wanted. I saw a picture on one of the nursery room websites and couldn’t get it out of my mind. After searching out all the online stores, I realized that a dresser like this cannot be found and similar ones are way over a thousand dollars so the only option was to buy a used one and refinish. Then I got lucky- I got REALLY lucky. A few days after I made that decision, an oak dresser popped up on craigslist. We snatched it up for $100 along with a matching nightstand (you can see the before picture here). I figured we’d refinish it ( and by we, of course, I mean hubby) and save a ton of money in the process. Well, enter the 4 weekends that I now call “I hate my wife for making me refinish this dresser”. It turns out refinishing a piece of furniture is harder than we thought. Based on all the blogs I’ve read, it seemed like these ladies would just whip a dresser into shape with no problems. That was not our case!
So let’s just say there was a lot of complaining and bitching and freaking out ( from hubby’s side- he REALLY didn’t want to refinish the damn thing) and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t go and do it myself, because the fumes are super toxic, so finally I declared the project a failure and we hired a lady to do it for us. Long story short, while I am happy with the exterior job, we ended up having to pay $500 to get it refinished (along with a nightstand), she put too light of a paint coat on the drawers and neglected to apply a polyurethane coating, which hubby still had to do himself.
In addition to that, Andrew spilled polyurethane on the carpet in the process ( yes the carpet was covered, but in the best fashion of Murphy’s law it got spilled on the only part that was NOT covered- at least that’s the story hubby tells me). He spent the next few weekends trying to clean it up and soften it with paint thinner which stunk up the room. We then had to clean the carpet with hot water extraction to get the chemicals and the smell out. So yeah I am telling you - A DISASTER! That was one of the reasons you didn’t see any updates- there was nothing to show!
However, finally, it’s all behind us and we have two {almost} perfect pieces EXACTLY the way I had them in my head. You won’t see the nightstand this time, since it was out of the room temporarily, so I didn’t take any pictures. So that’ll be for the next update along with the chair, mirror, nightlight, lamp and a few other items.
The pad on the dresser is an Organic Changing Pad
Because the drawers were so badly painted, I had to make a liner for each one of them, using foam boards cut to size and fabric wrapped around them and glued to the back. I’ll show more photos of that in the next update.
Above the changing pad I wanted to hang something light and pretty, and very subtle. Butterfly Mobile
Here we lucked out. I had three gorgeous shelves ( in light oak again) that were gathering dust in one of the closets. They were bought on a clearance sale on homedecorators.com about 4 years ago and we never put them up because they didn’t really match our decor. Oh how glad I was we had them laying around! A coat of primer and a coat of paint and the shelves turned into the perfect princess room decor.
{Some of the items on the shelves are there as placeholders only. I will have to find and buy a few baby things to go there}
But here’s what’s going to stay for the time being.
This was my first canvas purchase! I’ve always wanted to buy a canvas, but whenever I’d check the prices out, it’d be something ridiculous like $200. That’s until i found Easy Canvas Prints ( well, technically they found me)
I was offered to try out their website and canvas – Umm… YEAH!
I ordered a 16×20 photo canvas with the standard wrap (.75). I picked this photo because it almost perfectly matched the color scheme of the nursery ( the accents of yellow), plus babies love faces (especially their parents’ faces). After Lexi arrives, I’ll order a few canvas using her newborn pictures (which I cannot wait to take, btw!)
The ordering process was super easy: upload, position, pick size, order. Plus Easy Canvas Prints have promotions all the freaking time, so you can get a canvas for a really good price. I liked it so much that a week after I received this canvas, I ordered another one for our living room (using this photo). Right now they’re having a Get 20% Off + an 8?x10? Canvas Free + Free Shipping When You Spend $60 promotion that you can get by clicking on the link (the discount is automatically applied at check out).
This statue is one of the few things currently on the shelves that will actually stay there. I got it from Zulily- I think it adds some well needed color to the room. There’s also a big crown that’ll go next to it, that is currently in the process of being painted.
This frame might or might not stay, with a picture of Alexis in it. Yellow flower will probably go or get snipped a bit since our cats chewed the heck out of the fake grass
The starfish will stay and might or might not get repainted depending on what else I get for the shelves. The pink rose bouquet was something I made to be put in front of whatever picture frame we’ll hang there. I am NOT a crafty person so this and a few other things would be the extent of my craftiness. Not much to it: a few small flowers from Micheal’s, a see through rubber thin hair tie, some glitter spray and a glass jar.
CLOSET
Finally the most colorful corner of the room – the closet.
Here’s the breakdown:
1. Martha Steward Storage from HomeDecorators.com
2. Martha Steward canvas totes from Homedecorators.com
3. Bunting from Starlit Nest etsy shop
4. Cubes backing- handmade. I simply wrapped the backing in fabric and glued it together.
5. Closet door knobs: PBK
Msc items on shelves are there as placeholders.
So there you have it!
I am very happy with the direction we’re going in. I wanted something bright and light, but at the same time with lots of color. I think we’re on the right track. We still have to figure something out for bookshelves. I want a part of the bookshelf to be low enough for Alexis to grab the books on her own when she’s mobile and for book covers to be facing outwards rather than to the side, since that helps babies pick their own books and be more interested in reading.
Let me know what you think and hopefully early January you’ll get to see the room as a whole. That is if Alexis doesn’t decide to show up early.
Welcome to Week 10 of Pregnant with Style feature, a weekly low down on the cutest and little known maternity brands.
{Discover other weeks and maternity brands here}
“Jules likes seeing his pregnant wife sexy. Jim prefers the classic, refined look.
Together Jules & Jim make up a line of maternity clothing in tune with new trends, at once comfortable and urbane”
BELOW ARE THE GIVEAWAY RULES
and Mandatory Entries: {read carefully}
There are two mandatory entries, after which you will have additional entries available,
and 1 daily entry for which you can come back to enter daily.
The winning entry will be verified and the winner disqualified if the action is not found or if the mandatory items are not fullfilled.
Make sure to notate how you’re following the blog in the extra info field (entry #1). The entry won’t count if that information is missing.
Please make sure to visit Jules & Jim facebook page and post on their wall what you’d like to win (entry #2).
The giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. See the rafflecopter widget for additional terms and conditions.
UPDATE: You can now log into the Rafflecopter through Facebook or just by using your name/email.
If you have a blog, there’re 2 entries each worth 10 points ( post our button on your blog’s sidebar and blog about the giveaway)
{If you’re not sure how to use to enter, feel free to watch this video tutorial or email me at contact {at} prebabyblog {dot} com
Otherwise, make sure to read everything carefully. Click the DO IT link first, then I’VE DONE IT once the action is completed}
Disclosure: I received this item from Jules&Jim in exchange for my honest opinion.
I find it funny sometimes how TV shows and movies misrepresent certain things to help fit them into the storyline or their timeline. Sometimes, though, I feel like those things have the potential of harming/hurting the less educated/knowledgable viewers or younger audience.
You all heard about the fuss over Glee and the adoption storyline they were going to run. From what I remember, they were going to have Quinn give her baby up for adoption and then later change her mind and take the baby back or something along those lines. The adoption activists got a wind of it and rightfully made it a big deal asking the studio to change their storyline. Whatever the real story was there, it is not right to give people an impression that couldn’t be further from the truth ( like that you can give your baby up for adoption and then months/years later change your mind and take it back). Because while most people tend to research their options, others ( especially young and inexperienced) can be too overwhelmed by the prospect of what they are about to do and simply rely on misconceptions they’ve picked up on TV.
So the other day I was watching last season’s episode of Parenthood where Julia and her hubby were trying to conceive and there was a conversation between her and Sarah about “how long it has taken them to conceive and that surely there was a problem with one of them, since it has been a WHOLE 4 months and nothing”.
I mean, seriously? A WHOLE 4 MONTHS????
Any book or doctor will tell you that it takes an average healthy couple 4-6 months to conceive, with some taking 1 year BEFORE there’s a need to worry about infertility. Anyone who doesn’t know that going into TTC is either not ready to have a baby, because obviously they didn’t prepare properly, OR is most likely going to be in a world of hurt if it takes them a few months longer than expected.
Now, I know you might say that it took us 1 month to conceive, so I have no right to say anything(which would be rude, btw), BUT we did spend a whole year preparing for that first month of TTC (reading books, changing eating habits, exercising, not smoking, not drinking, doing tests, taking care of health problems, doing dental work, taking prenatals etc), doing more than most people do while TTCing, so who knows how long it would have taken us to conceive, had we started the second the decision was made? And aside from that, I was going into it fully expecting it to take 4-6 months or more.
So while the show’s screw up was a minor one, I think it’s slightly unfair to those who have been trying for a few months or longer and creates misconceptions for those who aren’t having kids yet.
The other thing that made me chuckle on the show is how Julia was holding off her horny husband for 48 hours so that he’s “save up his sperm” until the day of ovulation. There are multiple studies which show that waiting to have sex to increase sperm count actually lowers your chances of conception in a man with normal sperm counts, because that means you have less sex ( for men with low sperm counts it has shown to work if you time it right). And then finally, waiting until she ovulates? Really? If you have sex ON the day of ovulation, your chances of conception are actually much lower (5% i think- don’t quote me on that one), than having sex a day or two PRIOR to ovulation (12-15% chance of conception, again I’m just remembering from the top of my head). So it’s all about depositing “the goods” in a timely and continuous manner until you hear “The eagle has landed!”
I just find it funny, because I remember before we decided to have a baby, I was one of those people who thought that it’s better to wait a few days before having sex because he’ll have more swimmers. I bet I got it from some TV show :) haha
{This is a guest post from The Pregnancy Zone}
It used to be that women were urged to take care, and refrain from a great many activities when pregnant; however we now know that it is possible for women to live full and active lives all throughout pregnancy. In fact we now know that the more active a woman is during pregnancy, the better it is for her and her unborn child.
However what we also do know is that pregnancy is recognized as a period of compromised immunity and that women need to take certain precautions to avoid getting sick during this time for the sake of their own health as well as their baby’s proper growth.
It is prudent to take the following common Pregnancy Precautions –
Author Bio:
This is a guest post by ThePregnancyZone.com. The blog offers complete week by week Pregnancy information and topics relating to Preparing for the Pregnancy, Pregnancy Stages, Labor & Delivery, Pregnancy Issues, Health Issues, Parental care etc.
Check out the left side of my belly- Alexis keeps resting her feet there- it looks funky and uneven.
Her size: We’re a honeydew this week! Never thought that’d happen :)
How far along: 34 WEEKS
Total weight gain: 166 lb. (+2 lbs this week, total at 30 lbs). This week I feel like I’ve exploded (or maybe it’s Alexis). She feels so much heavier just comparing to the last week and I look so much more pregnant (and not only in my belly). I know to other people it’s not as apparent, but I’ve never had such big arms and legs and even my face is totally rounding out. Gotta stop eating sweets :)
Sleep: With Alexis being really heavy now, sleep is starting to become uncomfortable. I have to wake up numerous times a night to just change positions or go to the bathroom and my body is starting to hurt after a fidgety night of sleep. But all in all, while I have good days and bad days, it’s still pretty bearable.
Maternity Clothes: I’ve reached the point where I don’t care much what I wear as long as it’s loose and/or comfortable with a few exceptions.
Food cravings: Get me off the sweet treat train!!! Please? I’ve gone into a cycle of wanting cookies, cakes, chocolate, ice cream and I need to turn that train around heading to fruitville instead.
Food aversions: none
Symptoms I HAVE: This week Alexis must have gained quite a bit of weight and possibly moved lower into my pelvis, because it feels like my belly is going to fall to the ground and certain days it feels like she’s sitting right on my pelvic bone. It’s quite an uncomfortable feeling, I gotta tell you. Some days she doesn’t press so much, so it’s hit or miss with how comfortable or sucky I feel
Aside from that, almost no symptoms- feeling decent.
Doctor’s Appointment: Next Thursday + strep B test
Movement: Oh the shapes my stomach takes nowadays! She loves to stick out her butt, kick me with her legs, tickle me with her hands and sometimes bump her head on my butthole :) lol
Belly Button: Outie.
Gender: GIRL!
Best moment of the week: I guess that would be the hospital tour! It was nice to see the very place where we’ll bring Alexis into this world ( that is if I don’t wait too long and give birth in a car lol). Hearing other babies cry made me soooo happy- it’s what Alexis is going to sound like when we first hear her- such an amazing feeling. I wasn’t too thrilled about the labor and delivery rooms- they seemed small and depressing. The postpartum rooms were much better and we’re definitely bringing an air mattress so that Andrew could rest better. I looked into another hospital in the area that has better rooms, but my OB doesn’t have privileges there so he wouldn’t be able to deliver our baby, which is out of the question. I guess, when I’m in labor, it won’t really matter how big or small the room is, as long as I am left alone to practice my relaxation and can move around if I want to.
What I’m looking forward to:
My mom coming to US on Jan 11th. That’ll be so much fun!
What I miss:
Back to sushi this week. It’s getting harder and harder to be ok with not eating things I want to eat. I miss being able to put whatever I want into my body without any concern of harm to my unborn baby.
What else?
and Body Buff
from Mama Mio and I’m loving it. It’s the first time during pregnancy when I got to exfoliate myself and moisturize my whole body (because most products contain ingredients I’d rather not use during pregnancy), and it just felt amazing to have smooth skin again. Highly recommend both the products.
Finally getting around to posting the photos taken at the beach the other day.
Life is still busy. You think “Oh as soon as I am done with this big project, I’ll have more time for other things”. And then magically another project gets thrown in your lap and you’re still scrambling.
Aside from that, I am loving life right now. Alexis, head down and in the proper position, constantly jabbing me with her feet in my side is one the best parts of my day :) I just think it’s so cute. I am feeling better than ever, aside from minor fatigue and heartburn, looking forward to January and my mom coming. Our Xmas cards have arrived and I’ll probably spend the whole day addressing and signing them. And going on a hospital tour this evening, which is something I’ve been looking forward to. I hope I don’t get freaked out in the process.
So these photos are from a beach trip a week or two ago. I felt like I needed me some wind in my hair and ocean smell in my clothes. So we took off. Hubby came with us and sat on his laptop working while we spent a few hours taking pictures and chasing a pre-toddler :)
Christine pretty much spent the entire time running after Emma, who is a curious fun little girl. And I spent my entire time devouring delicious fries ( that place has amazing fries and the only place I ever get to have them), snapping pictures and thinking about how in just a year, it’ll be me running non-stop as Alexis tries to explore the world.
Hope you enjoyed a little coastal moodiness and I will see you for my 34th week update on Thursday.
This week is full of appointments with pediatricians, hospital classes, errands and other craziness.
Oh and now that the Pregnancy Goodies giveaway is over ( and yes I do have the winners, I just have to check their entries), you should see another Pregnancy With Style post for a Christmas/New Year dress and a giveaway.
{Don’t forget to post the Photo Share Tuesday button, if you’re linking up}
I keep seeing all these gift guides online and I thought I’d make my own DREAM gift guide! Some of these gifts are quite unrealistic, unless you are really well off, but don’t we all wish we could spend unlimited amount of money on our loved ones? So dream here with me and maybe you’ll get some useful ideas, too.
A diamond necklace ( or bracelet or earrings) like this one from 77diamonds.com
It’s small, subtle and sophisticated.
I love this camera. It’s what a pro photographer would use as a point-and-shoot. It records full 1080p HD video, has an ultra wide angle lens (24mm) and a great low light performance. And it’s currently 35% off on Amazon
Montblanc Meisterstuck Classic Ballpoint Pen
and/or a matching Montblanc Wallet
I bought this pen and this wallet for my husband’s birthday. He’s obsessed with Montblanc.The pen is awesome, but the wallet is my true love. I own one as well ( a female version) and this wallet lasts YEARS and still looks great ( unless you’re me, who doesn’t care how much an item costs and throws it into her purse along with everything else there and get it all scratched up, just like her expensive sunglasses- I really gotta do something about that horrible habit of mine)
My next lens, for sure. I’d pick this particular lens over a similar Canon, because it’s cheaper and most importantly MUCH MUCH lighter. The Canon version is like shooting with a brick. This is great for landscape, as well as portraiture, has a constant aperture of 2.8 which means you’ll have plenty of light to shoot in gloomy or indoor conditions.
Cranberry Red Baloon CD, a children’s album with soft songs that are perfect for rainy days or going to sleep.
Singing on the album – Art Garfunkel, Bruce Johnston from the Beach Boys, John
Cowsill from The Cowsills and Vicki Peterson from The Bangles!!
Buy it here
Photoshop Lightroom 3 – License
It’s my go-to editing program. If you or your friend has an .edu account, you can get this at 1/3 of the retail price.
What is better than a
Little Black Dress
Graco Prenatal Listener – 2J00
A super cool device that lets you spy on your unborn baby, listen to its kicks, hicupps, sounds, movements, etc
A Portable speaker with awesome sound: Altec Speaker
My mom LOVES receiving Blurb books with photos of our time together. These are my favorite photo books, quality-wise and feature-wise.
Tea Collection Flowery Fun 5-Piece Set
Yeah I can’t get enough of their fun styles.
By far, the best pre-conception book out there! It was and is my pre-conception BIBLE! Get it for ANYONE who’s thinking about TTC or are in the process of TTC!
Laser pointers are SO LAST SEASON!
One word: Yummy Make up Set, Celebutante
Rugged mixed with stylish- a total YES!
I think I am starting to get that chubby look most pregnant women get in their last month or two :)
By the way, if you were ever curious about what I look like without make up vs. with make up on, you can compare today’s photos {correction: I do have blush on} to last week’s bump photos. I’m sure I’ll do a side by side headshot comparison once I am no longer pregnant, just for fun, because I think the difference is significant. I am a big believer in make up for girls. (P.S. Most of my bump updates are done without make up, since it’s usually first thing in the morning or on days where I don’t have to go anywhere)
Her size: “This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17-inch mark. She’s rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. ”
How far along: 33 WEEKS
Total weight gain: 164 lb. I am at 28 lb total weight gain right now. Not sure how much I gained this week in particular, because last week the scale was screwing up and this week we have a new scale that is showing all new (higher) numbers. I’m starting to get into the poundage that makes me NOT want to disclose my weight (hahaha), but I am trying to ignore the nagging feeling of ” 160s? WHAT? I can’t tell anyone I weigh in the 160s” .
I am pregnant and I am supposed to gain weight! I was never afraid of gaining weight during pregnancy and I better not start getting squirmy about it now!
Sleep: Good solid sleep with 4-5 trips to the bathroom throughout the night. Nowadays, whenever I get up to pee, I try to imagine that soon I’ll have to get up just as often, but instead of flopping back into bed and falling asleep, I’d have to change a diaper, feed and possibly cuddle with my baby girl to get her to go back to sleep.
Maternity Clothes: Dresses and yoga pants mostly.
Food cravings: Right this moment I am craving Alden’s All Natural Vanilla Ice cream with caramel on top. Speaking of Alden’s ice cream, it is THE BEST tasting ice cream out there. We get it at Whole Foods and it’s just the perfect blend of cream and sugar (not too sweet) and of course all natural.
Food aversions: none
Symptoms I HAVE: Still feeling really good. There are days when I am really really tired and I figure that that’s when Alexis is growing the most. It’s starting to get hard to go up and down stairs and we have a huge staircase (picture on the left) with bedrooms upstairs and living areas downstairs, so if I want anything done, I have to go up and down multiple times an hour. It’s also starting to get difficult to pick things up off the floor. I usually ask my husband to do it for me and you’d be amazed HOW MANY THINGS we have that end up on the floor and need to be picked up! Ugh!
Otherwise, I still don’t have consistent back pain ( only occasional if I sleep in a wrong position), or leg cramps, or any other pains. Heartburn is still there but definitely more manageable, so is light indigestion. Speaking of heartburn, I think I might have discovered a “new cure” for it, at least for me. You know the Metromint water that’s sold at Whole Foods? Well, I am a big fan and the other day I picked it up from the store and drank from it in the middle of pretty bad heartburn, the coolness instantly soothed my throat and my heartburn disappeared! I was shocked.. Then I remembered reading somewhere that peppermint is good for nausea and/or heartburn. So now that I am finishing my last bottle of Metromint, I’m trying to figure out how to make my own. All it has is water, mint and cocoa essence. If I make my own pitcher it’ll kill two birds with one stone: heartburn and will help me drink more water! Now does anyone know if I can buy mint and cocoa essence in a liquid form?
Doctor’s Appointment: Yesterday was my doctor’s appointment. Everything looked good: blood pressure is great, heartbeat is great, measuring a few weeks behind like before, but since the ultrasound showed everything is fine, that’s not really a concern, and probably simply due to my long waist. And the biggest news for us was that Alexis is NOW HEAD DOWN AND ENGAGED! Wow! First of all, I had no idea babies could get engaged this early on, but I guess they do.
Doc said not to get my hopes up though, cuz she still has lots of room to move and flip, but it still makes me happy that she’s in the perfect position. He showed me where her butt and her feet were, which now makes total sense. I keep getting kicked in my right side while she juts out her butt on the left side when she stretches. She’s on my left with her head in my pelvis and her legs on the right, facing sideways and slightly towards my back, kind of like in the picture. According to spinningbabies.com, LOA (left occupit anterior) is the easiest position for the start of labor. So I hope she stays that way until she’s ready to come out.
Movement: She’s still pretty active, especially with her butt. I’d be sitting minding my own business and then all of sudden my stomach would move sideways- it’d be her stretching her legs and pushing her butt out. Kind of fun actually. And for those who are wondering, no it doesn’t hurt, but it’s not exactly comfortable. We also pat her on the butt quite often, which she really likes. If she’s awake and we’re talking to her and touching her, and then suddenly stop, she instantly pushes her butt out as in “Where did you go? Pet me!”
Belly Button: Outie.
Gender: GIRL!
Best moment of the week: Finding out Alexis is head down now. I wasn’t TOO concerned about her being transverse ( I figured if she doesn’t turn and I have to do a c-section, it’s not the worst thing in the world as long as she is safe) but I can’t say it wasn’t on my mind A LOT. So this was a really good piece of news for us.
What I’m looking forward to:
This weekend. If we both concentrate, we can get a lot done on the nursery this weekend. I hope to do a big nursery update afterwards which is WAY overdue.
Also, I booked tickets for my mom to visit from Russia. She’ll be flying here Jan 11th and staying till May 23rd. She’s never stayed more than a month, because of her work, but now that she’s retired I am looking forward to having her here helping us for 4 months. YAY!
What I miss:
I guess not much at this moment! I always have pangs of jealousy when we pass the smoked salmon isle at Whole Foods, but otherwise I just want to feel like an old me.
