34 Weeks

How far along? 34 Weeks, 6 weeks to go.

 The baby is as big as: A large cantaloupe 

 Maternity clothes? yes but something I noticed is I can still wear a majority of my pre-preggo tops. I don't know if that is a good thing or that subconsciously I have always been dressing like I was pregnant...

Stretch marks? starting to form, but so far they aren't too bad, I think my lotion regime is working, for now. 

How I am feeling:  LAWD! I am getting so very uncomfortable.  About 3pm everyday little girl has had ENOUGH of me sitting and demands that I get up, which is fine but when I stand up I need to pee, and if I sit she does her finest Muhammad Ali impression but bunching any nerve or organ she can get too. 

Best moment this week?: We got our Travel system and husband put it together and started pushing it around the house. He is getting the nervous excited but good lord is he adorable with baby stuff. 

Movement?: Yes but she is quieting down more now, I am not sure if she going through a growth spurt or what but she isn't as active as she was last week.  

Food cravings?: Chipotle, and then when I got it I almost ralphed it up but I didn't...WINNING!

Gender?:  GIRL!

Labor Signs?: There was a point this week where I was actually having what I thought were contractions. The pain was radiating in my lower back and my stomach was hard as a rock and I could barely sit from the amount of pressure in my pelvis.  I am still not convinced but my mom said that's what they were and will deny it. Baby girl needs to cook a little longer. 

Belly Button in or out?: still an innie, but when I lay on my back it is almost flush. I think I may make it out of this pregnancy without having a turkey timer belly button

What I miss: Not being HOT all the effing time. I mean before I got pregnant I was hot all the time, and now that I am pregnant I am even hotter all the time. It's a problem...

What I am looking forward to:  Baby shower next weekend! 

Weekly Wisdom: DRINK YOUR WATER!!! I am so bad at staying on top of my water consumption on the weekends and with this past weekend being a long one it was pretty bad come Wednesday at my doc appointment, I was so dehydrated my Doc almost sent me to the ER for fluids but because of the time of my appointment and my normal daily schedule being out of whack she didn't. I did have to call the office the next day and tell them how much water I consumed. 

 Milestones: I finally moved back in to my marital bedroom! I had been sleeping in the guest room because I flop around constantly trying to get comfy and it brought distress. Also the hotness issue was a problem, poor husband was freezing and actually caught a cold from me sleeping with the window open in the winter.  But after months away I am back and can say that it went really well last night. 

Child Birthing Classes: Your life after pregnancy

In kind of the same sense after you say I do, you find yourself on the other side looking at each other and then some one begs the question "Now what"? Only thing is the now what is keeping a tiny human alive and your marriage a float.

You spend 9 months prepping for this HUGE life change and now its here and will be for 18 years.

We talked about easy ways to help ease in to your new life like making a food train (I think there in an actual website for this so people don't quadruple up on the lasagnas), or scheduling blocks of time for visitors, hiring a PP doula to help around the house, or not being afraid to ask a family member to fold that last basket of laundry for you.

The biggest thing I was worried about was how we were going to manage the visitors. Do we want them to come to the hospital? to our house? in shifts?

Husband and I decided that we wanted most people to see us in the hospital if at all possible. One thing my SIL said was that her first day home with my nephew was so overwhelming that it took away from the moment. EVERYONE was in their tiny living room passing the baby around and you could tell all she wanted to do was take her bra off and take a damn nap. I can remember cooking for them, I made about 2 weeks worth of freezer meals, and her coming in the kitchen thanking me with tears in her eyes and giving me a big hug. I told her to pull up a chair and I would talk to her about the food, I just talked and she gazed off in to space but I think she was thankful for the break in conversation.

One HUGE factor I had to think about was my fur babies, I know everyone says that once I have SB they will become dogs and not my "kids" and that maybe true, but for the time being I have to make sure for my dogs sake, my sake and my child's sake, that this transition be as smooth as possible. That being said, I don't think bringing home the new baby and then adding both sides of the family converging on the house at once will be good for anyone.

Not to mention, Husband and I just had a major life change and I would like to have time for us to adjust for a few hours/a day in our home before we add a bunch of people to the mix.

We also talked about the hits your marriage can take, seeing as you are both sleep deprived and winging this whole parenting thing. One thing Tanya said was she and her husband actually had to go to therapy to learn how to fight and they would schedule it. As funny as that sounds it works for them, if its 2 am and the baby won't go down for the night and you are at your wits end, that is probably not the best time to work through something. Her point was you have to find what works and what is manageable for you and your spouse.

Another point she made was never put the baby (if you are co sleeping) in between you. Think about it, you can't be physically intimate until cleared by a medical professional. But spooning, cuddling or just plain laying next to one another can make you feel like you are still an "Us" and not SB parents, or completely nuts.

One major thing is how my role is going to change, I mean husbands is going to change too but because my body will actually respond to being away from the baby or if the baby needs something it can be harder for the woman to pull out of the mommy mode and be in wife mode. It's all about patience and finding the balance between being a spouse and a parent. It's going to be a learning process.

The point of this class is this is going to be hard on you as a couple so don't fight one another and just grab hold of each other and  fall down the rabbit hole.

Child Birthing Class: Complications

This class is optional because some people don't want to plant the negative seed in their had that something bad could happen.

We didn't attend because we figured we are already at the hospital and if something happens or needs to happen it will and fast.

Some of the complications I am worried about are of course the need for a C-section.

I told husband I already feel like some what of a failure for not having a home birth, that will be nothing compared to not being able to do what my body was built to do.

I talked about it before, trying to run scenarios in my head, what can I say it makes this type A planner feel more relaxed.

Anyway, whenever I try to run the gambit of things that could cause me to have a c-section I just feel defeated. I am not of the mind set yet of "Do whatever you want to get the baby out." I know it will come but right now I am not there yet, I am not ready to give up the notion of delivering naturally.

I am trying, daily, to quell this feeling of dread because fact of the matter is as long as myself and baby are healthy in the end does it really matter how we got to that point?

This is a mantra I repeat to myself on a fairly regular basis, it goes something like this:

"Healthy and happy that is the biggest goal"

"You are NOT a failure if the "PLAN"changes"

"You are not in charge here, SB is" 

"Go with the flow" 

I say this one a lot, and after my baby shower I am going to wall paper my house in these little sayings as a constant reminder that complication or no complication this isn't a time to be scared but it is a time for positive thinking.

Child Birthing classes: Birth

Major point I took from this class:

Birth is only something you can experience, there isn't a manual written, well people have tried to write one but there will always be the people that say their experience was nothing like that.

You can read and read and read until you have gone cross eyed and you probably won't be any closer to knowing what birth will be like for you.

I guess I clumped labor and birth together as one of the same, I kind of still do. You have to experience one to have the other in some way and really isn't labor the crescendo to birth?

I didn't know that the pushing you are doing, is rocking the baby out, not "pushing" the baby out. That is why it can take hours.... never knew that.

We talked about different positions and I guess I didn't know there were so many. Does that sound naive of me? Gave me some ideas of what to try, I may even take a copy of the page of positions to the hospital with me for reference.

This class was very straight and to the point because everyone has to do the same thing to get the baby out... PUSH! Tanya did go in to the different way the baby can come out but unfortunately I will be in the hospital so if she is coming any other way than head first it will be a c section for me. Thankfully, she is already head down, here's hoping she stays that way.


I plan on starting Ina May's guide to child birth this weekend because everyone says this book is amazing and then just letting nature take its course.

30 Things: most embarrassing

I am going to skip around the ole 30 things list because home girl needs some inspiration on some of these subjects.

So today I bring you...

 Describe your most embarrassing moment.

I have a plethora of embarrassing moments, so choosing one was hard.

This story always sticks out in my mind though, Enjoy!

Ok, bicycles and myself don't get along, I was scarred of them when I was younger and would be ashamed to say that I was a late bloomer when it came to taking off the training wheels but because of how many falls I have had I think maybe it was STILL a little premature.

Anyway, I was a sophomore in high school and my Dad and Step mom were still trying to force family fun on us. It wasn't too fun for me anymore because my older brother didn't come with us and so I always felt like the odd man out on these trips. This year was the year that I they decided, against my protests because of the above stated hatred, to take us to Mackinac island. This is an island in the U.P. in Michigan where no cars have ever gone before, everything is horse drawn or.... bicycle drawn.

We go and honestly it isn't that bad, there is a bunch of history and I enjoy going to the old forts and such then my dad suggests we go on a bike ride around the island. I protest but was shot down and hopped on a bike against my will and started on the trip around which was about 2 miles. The ride around was awesome, so much so that I actually reconsidered my standing war with the bicycle. Then it happened. My Dad wanting to prolong this ride exclaims "Let's bike up the island." He wasn't kidding, he legit wanted to bike up it. No one protested but myself and so here I was biking up a damn island. Anybody that knows anything can imagine that biking up an incline is a hell of a lot harder than around a flat plane. We get to the top after 2 more hours of biking and we stop and a rest stop to pee and get some water. While I am in the restroom, my dad decides he doesn't like his bike anymore and switches with mine. Well the issue with his bike is the seat won't stay latched in the right position, it continually creeps up on me and I am not stopping every 15-20 minutes to shove the bike seat back down so I can reach the pedals. We finally reach the top and I am at my wits end, I take a look around, take in the grandeur and wait by the bikes, this is me telling my family in a non verbal way that I am ready to go.

After about 15 minutes of them oooing and ahhhhing they make their way back to the bikes. I ask my dad to switch me back bikes because the seat was too high for me. My dad said no.... and then preceded to try to "fix" my bike seat. Now, please let me remind you that we are on top of an effing mountain and my dad has no tools on his person, and let me also state my dad is not MacGyver, he can't fix a bike seat with leaves and a stick. We decide to go back to the hotel and honestly the trip down is a cake walk, you barely have to pedal because the incline is so steep. Everyone mounts their noble stead and I notice that my seat, in the 20 minutes of not being on it and then my dad tinkering with it has risen exponentially and I can barely reach the pedals. I can see what is about to happen....

I am trying to find my footing wither it be on a pedal or solid ground but the seat is just too high, no one in my family is their to help me for they have all started down the hill. I swerve off the trail, hit a tree and then just fall over.

This wouldn't have been terribly embarrassing right?

Well remember when I said everything was horse drawn or by bicycle?

What the horse drawn tour actually looks like 

Well they give horse drawn carriage tours, but not your ordinary 2-4 person carriage. No, this thing looks like the effing titanic is being pulled by 12 Budweiser Clydesdales. There is such a tour about 20 feet behind me on the trail, and it wouldn't be a tour with out a tour guide with a microphone and a sound system.

As I lay there amongst what I was hoping wasn't poison ivy, I hear.....




"And you will see to your-
OH MY GOODNESS ARE YOU OK MA'AM?!?!?!?!"

The tour guide yelled so loudly in to the microphone that birds abandoned their nests and took to the skies like in the movies when a gun shot goes off.

I picked myself up gave a little wave, with tears streaming down my face, not because my bleeding and dirt covered knee hurt but because I was DYING of embarrassment.

I got the seat down myself and flew down the hill.

I passed my family in a blur, got back to the hotel, threw my bike to the curb and sat out front of our door waiting for them to catch up.

Over dramatic? Probably, but as I saw it this was a small island and half of the damn population was on that tour and I would be forever the girl that failed at getting on her bike in an extremely epic proportion.

When I look back at it, when my family looks back at it we get a good laugh. It is a joke in my family that my dad doesn't know when to quit when it comes to family fun and always pushes the activity one step to far and this kind of incident happens.

33 Weeks

Annnnnnd we're caught up!

How far along? 33 Weeks, 7 weeks to go.

 The baby is as big as: A pineapple...again? 

 Maternity clothes? Yeppers

Stretch marks? still only the one

How I am feeling:  Tired and achy. Grocery shopping is now my biggest foe, it can knock me down for the rest of the day if I don't plan it right. 

Best moment this week?: Went on our hospital walk through and for husband it all became to real again. He told me walking back to the car that he can't believe that in 7 short weeks we would be walking out of there a family of three. 

Movement?: Yes, she is still really good about not keeping me up at night which I thank her for. One day this week I could have sworn she was in the pike position and her butt was sticking straight up. All I know is there was a HUGE bump on the right hand side of my stomach and I figured it was her bottom.

Food cravings?: nothing really this week. 

Gender?:  GIRL!

Labor Signs?: Nothing this week, not even BH contractions 

Belly Button in or out?: still an innie 

What I miss: not having to pee every time I stand up. I have come to the conclusion that a good percentage of the pregnant population does the pregnancy waddle as to not pee their pants. At least I do. 

What I am looking forward to:  finishing the house in prep for my baby shower. 

Weekly Wisdom: Don't be afraid to ask for help when getting up from the sitting or laying position. You may think it is silly now but when you have to rock and grunt your way off the sofa and still barely make it, it is time to throw in the towel my friend. 

 Milestones: We have started our 2 week visits and got our birth plan approved by our doc. More on that later...

32 Weeks

My picture for this week didn't turn out so here is a pic of a honeydew... ENJOY!

How far along? 32 Weeks, 8 to go.

 The baby is as big as: A honeydew

 Maternity clothes? Yeppers

Stretch marks? still only the one

How I am feeling:  Fatigue has set back in, and now whenever I stand up I feel like I need to pee. 

Best moment this week?: Found out little girl is already in the head down position! that is why I feel like I need to pee all the time. 

Movement?: Yes indeed, she is now pretty active most of the day. I guess I can count myself lucky because she doesn't really keep me up at night, she only starts to kick if I have to get up and go to the bathroom which is becoming a multiple night occurrence. 

Food cravings?: Watermelon and milk shakes 

Gender?:  GIRL!

Labor Signs?:  I did have a bad bout of braxton hicks contractions this week. I actually had to stand up and shake my hips at my desk. I also put on some fanny shaking music to take my mind off of it and it worked. 

Belly Button in or out?: still an innie 

What I miss: a good nights sleep, but I guess in a twisted way it is a good thing I am parting with it now. 

What I am looking forward to:  new furniture this weekend and some much needed deep cleaning. 

Weekly Wisdom: You're family is going to push buttons you didn't even know you had. Vent to a neutral party to get it out of your system because you're going to be crazy person angry, you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but you do need to vent. 

 Milestones: we finished our child birthing classes and the floors. Hooray for marking things off the list!