Currently...34 weeks!

...did you hear that?! That would be the sound of me cheering and (kind of) jumping up and down! Six more weeks people, SIX!! Can you believe it? I sure can't! This pregnancy has gone by 10x faster than the first one. Probably because I am a lot more busy with a 3yo, school and work. But I'm almost there...we are almost at the finish line of meeting our little baby, boy or girl? Be sure to vote over on the right side--->

Anywho...

Logan is currently...

Entertaining...his need for a bottle-again. This all happened when we started to bring out all the baby things. At first I just thought, what the heck. And now? Now he requests his milk to be in a baby bottle. For now, I am not going to worry about it. He is just exploring and learning and I don't want to interfere with his ways of dealing with our impending transition.

Holding...me. He is such a snuggle bug in the evenings after we get home from work and school. I think he is just as exhausted as I am and so we just lay around together. He loves to put his head on my belly and tell me what the baby is telling him. It's the sweetest thing in the world!

Building...responsibility. We have started to crack down on him cleaning up after himself, especially at night before he goes to bed. So far has been pretty good about it.

Smiling...all the time! But mostly when he plays with Butte. The two of them has an incredible relationship and he just cracks up with her.

I am currently...

Entertaining...the idea of a c-section. Since I know baby is breech, I have to prepare myself emotionally for something that I never wanted. I have been reading about all the details and researching how to write a birth plan specifically for a planned c-section. Our hospital will not deliver breech unless, of course, there is no stopping it.

Holding...Logan as much as possible. Cannot believe his only child status will change in just a few weeks!

Building...up the stamina to pain the nursery! We started it last weekend and decided we didn't like one of the colors. We still have time!

Smiling...at my little baby hiccups (did you gather that there is nothing in my life more present than this baby?!). We actually were able to see the hiccups on the US we had last Friday. It was awesome.

Frowning...at this terribly cold weather! We had sunshine and 70*s just a few days ago!!

34 weeks:

How big is baby: 4 pounds, 18" long

Weight gain/loss: Oy vie....40.

Stretch marks: Just a few from last time on my upper legs/hips.

Sleep: Very uncomfortable.

Diet/Cravings/Aversions: No to spicy/acidic foods...makes the heartburn insane. Craving bacon/avocado burgers.

Labor signs: contractions every so often, 1cm dilated, baby is BREECH. 

Movement: Less felt now that baby is breech. I feel lots of head movement under my right ribs.

What I'm loving: The belly. No seriously. I love being pregnant and one thing I love most is the belly. I am so proud of it and I think everyone else should be proud of their baby belly's too! Celebrate it! It might be a long time before I have a baby belly again.

Symptoms: New this week: bruising in my ribs, along with Heartburn, contractions, achy back, hips and legs, pelvic pain.

What I'm looking forward to: HOPEFULLY getting this baby to flip. I have a lot of different ideas on how that is going to happen.

Best moment of the week: Swim class! It feels so good to get into the water!

Psych!

Yesterday, after a weekend of sunshine, warmth and lovely spring weather, us Coloradoans learned that there was a "massive winter storm" heading our way and that schools will shut down, people will be stranded, so buy your milk and eggs now! Seriously, the weather folks really had no idea what said storm would bring, just that out east there was lots of wind, tornado funnels, rain, etc and that it would get cold, windy and snowy for us sometime in the middle of the night.

So we hunkered down with my parents last night to watch Michigan play, and lose (dangit!) and headed home when the snow and wind were just picking up. We thought for sure there would be 6" of snow this morning. Ummmm not the case. We got a dusting. Not even enough to make the roads bad, which is nice since I have to drive 30 min to work.

This winter storm made national headlines and I really hope it doesn't disappoint! We need the moisture so bad so we can hopefully prevent massive fires this summer. It's snowing fat flakes as I type and it was forecasted that the weather would get worse today before it got better. We shall see!

Happy Spring!

The Weekend

This has been a nice, busy weekend. Saturday Logan went to the rodeo with his grandparents so B and I had a few hours to ourselves. We attempted to paint the nursery but a) ran out of one of the colors and b) didn't like the 2nd color once it was on the wall. So we stopped with 3/4 of one wall painted. Then I spent over an hour picking up the house while B went to pick up Logan. I so over-did it and I knew I would be hurting today. We had our dearest friends come and stay with us. We had not seen them in almost 3 months since they moved into the mountains over an hour away. It was so nice to just relax, catch up and enjoy spending time together. Our boys had a blast playing together and I failed in taking one photo of their entire trip, but I guess that goes to show how must more focused I was on just enjoying ourselves. I even had a tiny glass of wine AND stayed up until midnight. Crazy, I'm telling you!

Today we hung out most of the day just letting the boys play. The weather is being weird. It was beautiful this morning and now it's getting windy and chilly and we're supposed to get snow tonight through Tuesday. I've been pushing through the pains. This new breech position is very uncomfortable. I can now recognize baby movements a lot better but man are they more painful!

And here are some photos from last weekend.

Lemon pancakes sans the poppy seeds via Pinterest. DELISH!

Best view ever!!

3rd Tri Ups and Downs

I need other mamas to tell me I am not the only one who feels like she is calling and/or going in to see her provider every week (before weekly visits) for one thing or another. Seriously, I have something going on every.single.week. It's frustrating and I often wonder if I'm just making a big deal out of nothing. The thing is, you can't be too careful in pregnancy. Thankfully, I have a very supportive MW team and they are all so sweet and welcoming every time I need them, even if that ends up being once a week!

So this week's troubles started yesterday morning (or earlier, since I was sleeping). I had barely felt baby move. I noticed right away since baby is usually really active once I wake up, roll over, eat...pretty much a predictable wake/sleep cycle. I noted yesterday morning that there was no movement, but just thought something was off with baby that day. Then I felt some light movements but not nearly as often as I had before and not nearly as strong. I had been feeling strong kicks and rolls for weeks and since it slowed down, I started to worry. So last night I finally told B what was going on. I did a kick count for 45min and got 8 little movements. I, however, had to drink a large glass of juice to get baby moving. It was enough for me to be satisfied.

Then this morning I woke up with a little bit of movement, then then felt nothing for the rest of the morning. Almost 6 hours later and not a thing so I started to panic, of course, and called my MW. I had been working so I just walked across the street to the clinic. They hooked me up for an NST and after 25 min, juice, and some side laying, we failed. Baby had moved more, but it was not enough to pass. I knew that meant I was going to have a biophysical profile ultrasound. This measures specific movements and such for gestational age that are expected and you are graded on a 0-8 scale, 0 being...I don't know. Really bad? And 8 being perfect. She didn't give me a number but we passed. I suspect it was an 8 since baby was moving around, practicing breathing and hiccuping. So why was I not feeling any of this?! Turns out baby is now breech. I think we are incomplete breech with one leg curled in and one leg straightened out. At 33 weeks we have plenty of time for baby to turn. I am not too worried about that right now. I am so so thankful that everything is okay.

Now, what will next week bring?! ;)
Happy Weekend!!!

Currently...

So this post is separate from my weekly bump post. Whatevs. I'm late to the party anyway! lol

Logan is...

Drinking ... almond milk. We go through half a gallon in two days.

Driving ... us a little crazy! Kid can argue. Kid can throw a fit. Kid makes us crazy sometimes! ;)

Missing ... new clothes. He told me yesterday he needed new clothes. How does he know he needs new clothes?! He does need new shoes, I admit.

Obsessing ... over the dogs being in his room at night. It's his favorite thing about bed time.

I am...

Drinking ... fruity tea at night with B. He makes it for us then we watch The Walking Dead. Our version of date night, ever night!

Buying ... a new car seat soon...

Driving ... no where important lately. I swore off driving more than 30 min away from home/hospital until baby comes. That means no trips to Denver. *sigh* I guess people will have to come see me then! ;)

Missing ... Glee. I have like, 5 episodes to catch up on!

Obsessing ... over who will be crowned Christian Gray! Come on, Ian Somerhalder!! AMIRIGHT?!

Poll Time!

Whelp...we are a solid 7 weeks out from the due date! I figure it's time for everyone to start guessing if baby is a boy or girl....so check out the poll in the upper right corner of the blog.

And here's a little update:

33 weeks.

How big is baby: Pushing 4 pounds and stretching out to 17"!

Weight gain/loss: 33 pounds

Stretch marks: Just a few from last time on my upper legs/hips.

Sleep: Getting a little better...I've been extra tired this week, but I did manage to watch a few episodes of The Walking Dead with B last night.

Diet/Cravings/Aversions: No to spicy/acidic foods...makes the heartburn insane. Craving bacon/avocado burgers.

Labor signs: contractions every so often, 1cm dilated, baby at -2 station.

Movement: Tons. Lots of rolling and head butting.

What I'm loving: The sweet snuggles Logan gives me at the end of the day.

Symptoms: Heartburn, contractions, achy back, hips and legs, pelvic pain.

What I'm looking forward to: Starting a prenatal swim class on Monday. Three days a week until I deliver!

Best moment of the week: My mom joining me at my midwife apt on Monday. She got to feel lots of baby movement and hear a super strong heart beat!

(bump photo to come...)

Physical Therapy in Pregnancy

Last week, I started going to physical therapy. I've had two sessions so far and while it is not working miracles, it is helping and relieving some pains! After weeks of horrible pelvic pain that had me bedridden about once a week after a rough day at work, I had to figure something else out. I received a referral from my midwife, made an appointment and waited. I had honestly not considered PT while pregnant as a way to relieve this pain. I've done some chiropractic care but my insurance doesn't cover it and I cannot pay out of pocket that often. After I learned that my insurance does cover PT, I was willing to try anything.

Last Monday was my first appointment. I went right after work, right after a rough, busy day of walking, sitting and standing. The muscles and ligaments in my pelvis and hips were nearly killing me. I was near tears. I checked in, filled out paper work and was soon introduced to my PT. At first, I felt like we would not click. But I quickly realized that feeling of not clicking was more of the pain coming through my emotions. As soon as she started to work on me, I was able to relax a bit and realized we actually have a lot in common and that we do, in fact, click. This "clicking" with a provider is really important to me. I cannot waste money and time with someone whom I do not feel a connection to.

I went into the appointment without any expectations. I had no idea what to expect and was just hoping I would not be doing all kinds of crazy stretching and such that would further enhance my pains. Thankfully, I have been more than surprised and happy with my sessions. Both times I have walked in, changed my clothes, and had a 30 minute massage on my hips, pelvis, inner thighs, butt and low back. Both times I have been able to just relax and let them do all the work. Who knew PT would be so nice! After the massage, we do a few gentle stretches and then we're done. Like I said, this does not make the pain go away, but it does help. I feel more sore after today's session than last time, but I think that is because she was doing some serious deep tissue massage.

I have four more sessions, once a week. As I was receiving the massage, my PT was telling me how providers for pregnant women are not very familiar with PT for related aches and pains. I certainly had no idea the first time I was pregnant. I am so thankful that I have learned about this natural, gental way to help relieve pain. I am so thankful my midwife was so encouraging of me to try this out. If you or someone you know is struggling with the normal, or more severe (like myself), pregnancy aches and pains, be sure to check out PT in your area. You want to find a female PT who is well-versed in women's health, specifically pregnant women. They also provide postpartum care to help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles that labor and delivery can take such a toll on.

I found these links helpful:

American Pregnancy Association

YouTube Video