34 Weeks: And It's All Starting to Come Together

34 weeks down, 6 left to go.

I didn't even try to pretend I could tell what happened during what week during my fake updates the last few weeks, so this will have to serve as one big catch-up update from where I was.

First and foremost - I'm pretty huge now and still getting bigger!  As I was posting these pictures even in just the last 3 weeks I can't believe it!  ANNND, by some sort of miracle, my belly button is still inside - though it's crazy stretched and hurts and does NOT look like it wants to play this game for another 6 weeks!  I'm not 100% convinced I'll make it to the end without it popping, but only time will tell.

I've been into appointments every 2 weeks for a bit now and was able to meet one of the midwives I hadn't met yet at my last appointment.  My next one is Monday April 19th and I'll finally be meeting the last one of the group that I hadn't met yet, which is good.  At the last appointment the midwife confirmed that she's in a head-down position which I'm psyched about.  I could tell mostly what position she was in, but couldn't tell her head from her bum and so it was a relief to know that it's her bum that's been in my ribs all this time, particularly since she's been favoring this position for ages now.

I've also been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions now.  They don't hurt really, they're just not my favorite thing.  I'd describe them like having someone take a super wide rubberband and tightening it across your belly or something.  Or maybe your belly IS the rubberband that someone is pulling on both sides of.  Either way - not pleasant but not the end of the world either.  I also have a lot of pressure way down low on my bladder now when I'm on my feet.  Sometimes with every step I take it's like someone's pushing on my bladder and it's full - even RIGHT AFTER I've peed.  That drives me crazy!  And my pelvis is way loosened up so that when I sit for a little while and then try to stand, it takes a minute for me to get all the parts going where they need to and have it and my legs actually support me properly. 

I'm also only sleeping for about 1.5-2 hour stretches at night because at this point I have to lay on my side, but the pressure of all of me on one hip starts to become uncomfortable after that amount of time.  So even though I'm "only" getting up to pee once or twice a night, I still wake up and have to flip over constantly.  And let me tell you, flipping over in bed is soooo not what it used to be.  I'm like a beached whale now, so it's a huge to-do when I need to move at all to flip or get out of bed.  Poor Jeff.  Lol.  Then there's the issue of heartburn/reflux.  Most nights I spend some time with that keeping me awake.  I'm still on the Protonix for GERD but will have to stop taking it for breastfeeding.  They want me to switch to Zantac, which is what I took BEFORE they started  prescribing proton pump inhibitor class meds to me and it wasn't working enough.  They've increased the OTC dosage available though so I'll give it a go.  But none of the PPI class meds were cleared for breastfeeding so I'm not sure what I'll do if the Zantac doesn't cut it.  Burn out my esophagus I guess.  Lol.  So yeah - DESPITE being on prescription heartburn/reflux meds, I'm still getting crazy heartburn/reflux at night and even during the day.  Wonderful!  I've gone through more tums than I've taken in the last 4 years combined!!

We also just had our last Bradley birth class this past Monday.  I can't believe that it's been 12 weeks already!  It seemed sooo long when we started, like it would last forever, and still I mean, that's 3 months, ya know?  That's a good chunk of time!  But it really kinda flew past.  It was bittersweet to have it end, but I'm pretty sure my pelvis wouldn't have taken another week of 2 hours on the floor.  It'd been getting progressively harder to sit like that the last couple classes but this last one was the worst and when I got up at the end I felt like I had to pop all my lower bits back into place.  Yeah, no fun.

Sunday the 11th was our last baby shower for Jeff's side of the family (and other Eastern MA-ers), so now we're all done with the showers as well.  It was at The Village Green in Danvers and they did a nice job.  We had a huge room which seemed strange at first but Nell's daughter, Lily, was there along with a little girl, Paige, from Jeff's people and they were able to take the other half of the room as their 'play room' and run around which was great for them.  It was a very nice shower and we got some nice things, but I have to say I'm glad the showers are done with because they are EXHAUSTING!  I don't have any pictures yet, but am hoping that someone can provide some for us.

My mom also came up for the weekend so she could attend the shower as well and so she finally got to see the nursery and all our baby stuff put together (and the massive avalanche of clothes that we've been given!).  We did some shopping too and she got me a few 'warmer weather' maternity clothes which I'd been hesitant to spend money on not knowing how long postpartum I'll be wearing my mat stuff, but it'll definitely be good to have an option or two for a while, just in case.  :-)  And she took us out to dinner which is always fantastic.  Moms are awesome.  :-)

Last week we received the disk with all the pictures from our maternity photo shoot.  I'll put up my favorite here.  We got some really good ones and some not so good ones, but she gave us every picture she took so that's definitely to be expected I would think!!  Overall I'm very very glad that I got them done.  It's such a special thing to experience as your body goes through these insanely huge changes, and while I can't imagine forgetting I know that having these pictures will certainly help in that area.  Plus it'll be fun to have our baby girl on the outside and say "this is what you looked like while you were inside of mommy and this is what MOMMY looked like when you were inside her!"  haha..

So that's all for now - maybe I'll add a few more maternity shots in the next post - which I'm vowing to get on schedule with for these last few weeks!!

23 weeks - More Big Purchases and Birthing Classes!

Movement is picking up!  I feel bouts of movement several times each day now - most commonly during/after eating.  I'm soooo happy to finally feel her - it's just such a comfort to feel her in there doing well and have that reminder.  To not have to just assume things are fine just because nothing bad has happened, etc.

According to the books, she now weighs about a pound, which for some reason seems monumental to me.  We're no longer talking about fractions of ounces anymore, but measuring in actual baby weight measurements!

We have also been working on our registries some more, and finally have a fair amount of stuff on there.  We may still add something here and there, but we've made the bulk of our decisions and between Amazon and BRU are pretty much covered.  Soooo glad that's over.  It's very hard to think of all the things and then to pick between the gazillion options out there and what's the best/safest one to choose?  How do you know?  What's just a gimmick and what's for real?  It's crazy out there.

Some of the biggest news is that we purchased our crib and ordered our dresser!!  The crib was almost a disaster to try to get home - it didn't fit in the back of my full sized SUV!  I couldn't believe it!  It takes a pretty big box to not fit inside the back but there was no way it was going in.  So they got us some rope and we did a bang-up job tying a ton of knots to secure it to my roof-rack. I canNOT wait to put them together.  I'm in love with them.  So pretty.  The crib will become a toddler bed, day bed, and full sized head and footboard as well.  They truly are gorgeous!  We got an awesome deal too - between the two pieces we saved $200 with a $100-off coupon plus a 10% off coupon that worked on your entire purchase when you add to your registry in-store. 

Now THERE'S a story - adding to our registry.  Doesn't seem like something that would imply a story,  right?  Yeah.  So we spend like an hour and a half

walking around with the little registry gun and wound up adding about 54 items.  We go to turn in our gun and the registry they print out and hand us?  ISN'T OURS!!!  They programed the wrong registry into our gun so we'd just spent all this time adding things to someone else's registry!  The "good" news was that this other girl's due date was in 2009 so it wouldn't affect hers, but we wound up having to sit at the registry desk, checking off each item we thought we added to the registry so that someone could manually add it to ours.  The confusion came when she found someone with the same name living in MA.  I apparently set up the registry under Nikki and not Nicole.  And the fact that this chick's due date was last year didn't register I guess.  So yeah.  Craziness.  And definitely NOT something that happens when you register for stuff online!!  lol.

Other things going on with me are that after my last midwife appointment we decided that I would get an upper abdominal ultrasound to screen for gallbladder problems.  I've been having this awful ache way high in my right ribs, right under my boob, that seems to start after eating.  I have it every day, usually multiple times a day, and have since just before Christmas so definitely been a while at this point.  The thing with the appointment is that it's supposed to be an 8 hour fast beforehand which obviously makes for some cranky pregnant ladies if the appt is not in the morning.  I was supposed to have it scheduled on the 28th at 2 in the afternoon but because of a scheduling snafu it is now scheduled for Feb 4th instead and now it'll be at 7:30 in the morning which of course is much better in terms of fasting.  I'm fairly convinced at this point it's NOT a gallbladder issue as the pain does not fluctuate in intensity or frequency based of the fat content of what I'm eating.  I can get it after a bowl of chicken soup or salad the same as I do after a burger and fries.  Nothing is different about it.  My hypothesis is that my stomach has squashed up into a bad spot and presses in on my ribs when it expands with food and that is causing the pressure/pain.

Also!  We started our birthing classes!  I randomly happened to contact a local Bradley class instructor to find out when her next session was going to start on Friday the 15th, and come to find out it was supposed to start that Monday the 18th!  There was some snow on the 18th and so the first class was postponed until this past Monday the 25th.  It's at the instructor's house in Newburyport and there are 3 other couples in this session.  I'm the second earliest due date in the class!  That's something.  The first class was good - I'm actually the only one giving birth in a hospital setting though!  Two couples are using the free-standing birth center in Stratham, NH that I was going to look into if I didn't like Anna Jacques at our tour, and the other couple is having a homebirth.  It's costing us $350 and classes will be once a week for two hours and last 12 weeks.  I've heard so many good things about how Bradley classes really help a couple have a natural birth and so I'm hoping it really works out for us as well.