Camping at 8 Months Pregnant

Jason's on spring break this week, so we spent the first few days camping at Village Creek State Park.  Last year we went to Village Creek State Park for New Years, and it was freezing!  This time, it rained the first 24 hours and then there were high winds for the rest of our time there.  So, needless to say, not the best weather either trip.  We tried to make the best of it anyways.  We had a few good meals over the campfire and went on a couple of hikes.   

 

Oh, we did figure that I'd be the only pregnant woman camping, but we did happen to run into another couple where the wife was 8 months pregnant as well.  So we're not the only crazy ones for attempting a weekend in the wild this late!

 

Anyways, here's a couple of pictures.  My baby belly is barely noticeable, huh?  Ha.  

 

32 Weeks

How far along: 32 weeks this past Tuesday.  I can practically start counting down the days instead of months or weeks.

Symptoms: Same ole, same ole.  Nothing new to report here. 

 

Weight gain: 4 pounds during the last four weeks and 17.5 pounds overall. 

 

Fetal Movement: Still rocking and rolling. 

 

Prenatal care: Everything is going well.  Passed my glucose test with flying colors, but I'm a bit anemic so I've starting taking iron supplements.  Seems to be a pretty common issue in the third trimester, so I'm not that concerned. 

 

We finished our childbirth classes last week, so we are officially experts on labor and childcare.  Ha.  Yea right.  Let's just hope we don't forget what we've learned by the time Matilda makes her appearance.

 

Nesting: We've installed the car seat and set up the Pack 'N Play in the bedroom.  I've started some deep cleaning of the house.  Blinds and baseboards are dusted.  Curtains and the inside of the windows are washed.  I still want to wash the outside of the windows and entrances to the house.  They all got plenty dusty the past season or so. 

 

Worries: Baby girl is still breech, so I'm hoping she'll flip soon so I can stop worrying about that.  Our childbirth class teacher said not to worry until about week 36 and even then there are plenty of things you can do to get the baby to turn, but it would make me feel a lot better if she's flipped by then.  I'm going to see a chiropractor next week, so hopefully that will help with both my hip/ sciatic nerve pain and flipping the baby.

 

Looking forward to: Baby showers and celebrating our little one with friends and family.  :)

2014 Houston Marathon

This morning Jason ran his second marathon.  Unlike last year when it was cold and wet, the weather was wonderful this morning.  Our friend, Zach, watched the marathon with me since Jason's mom got the flu and couldn't make it into town. 

 

Our first stop was around mile 2.5 at the corner of Washington and Heights Blvd.  Jason ran with his two running buddies, and their matching orange shirts made them much easier to spot this year.

 

 

Our second stop was mile 19.  This is the area right before a lot of runners hit "the wall."  Jason was still going strong though.  

He could even muster a smile!

 

Our last stop was the finish line.  Just on schedule, Jason made the turn to the last stretch at around 2 hours 54 minutes.

Just a bit further!

 

He did it!  He met his goal of a 2 hour 55 minute time, which is about a 6 minute 40 second per mile pace.  He was 87th place overall and definitely qualified for next year's Boston marathon.  (He had to run it in less than 3 hours and 5 minutes to qualify.)

 

 

So proud of him!

28 Weeks

Why, hello there third trimester.  Two down, one to go...

 

How far along: 28 weeks next Tuesday.  I officially entered the third trimester this past week. 

Symptoms: Still having pretty bad sciatic nerve/ hip pain.  I think it's being triggered when I go on walks.  Our childbirth classes have taught us some stretching/ massage techniques that I've been trying to do to help.  I might eventually go get a prenatal massage to help as well.

 

I've also had a harder time sleeping lately.  It seems like I'm up every hour.  I either have to go to the bathroom, wake up to change sleeping positions, or wake up due to weird dreams.  I guess I better get used to operating on lack of sleep considering we'll have a newborn to keep us up in a few months. 

 

I also have a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions.  I especially notice them more when I'm working out.  I think I might have been a bit dehydrated last week which I've heard can contribute to them.

 

Weight gain: 3.5 pounds during the last four weeks and 13.5 pounds overall. 

 

Fetal Movement: Always.  She's so big now that the movement is really noticeable from the outside.  Jason finally felt her move which was neat.  She's also getting hiccups on a daily basis.  Sometimes she gets them so much (up to 3 times a day) I was concerned and asked my midwife if it was normal.  She said it's a sign of growth and not to worry. 

 

Prenatal care: I had my 28 week appointment today and everything still looks good.  I had to do the glucose test and get a Rhogam shot.  Neither were that pleasant, but they weren't terrible either.  Hopefully I'll pass the glucose test so I won't have to do the 3 hour test.  I've heard it's pretty miserable. 

 

We started taking childbirth classes a few weeks ago with a local doula.  They've been pretty fun so far.  There's 7 couples in the class and so far we have learned about diet and exercise, how to diaper and swaddle a baby, basic female anatomy stuff and about the pregnant body, and massage techniques to help with prenatal discomforts.  This week we'll start getting into the nitty gritty about labor itself. 

 

Nesting: Lots!  Jason painted the baseboards (gotta love him!), we installed a new light fixture, bought and assembled the bed, installed book shelves below the alphabet poster and baskets above the changing table/ desk, hung additional curtains, and I crafted an "M" with Matilda's name on it.  I'll probably follow up with an additional post about all of our projects.

 

Worries: I'm starting to get more worried about labor itself.  Since the midwives want us to spend most of the early labor at home, I worry about when/ if I'll be able to tell when I'm actually going into labor, how I'll manage the pain, how I'll be able to tell what's normal and what could be a cause for concern, etc.  I'm hoping our next 4 childbirth classes will help alleviate some of these fears.  We're just trying to educate ourselves enough to know what to expect.

 

I also worry about the first few days back at home and immediate postpartum period.  Jason will still be teaching, so he won't be able to take much time off to spend with me.  I worry about the recovery from labor, lack of sleep, etc. 

 

Looking forward to: As much as I worry about labor and postpartum, I look forward to it as well.  It's hard to explain, but I look forward to it because it will take the mystique out of the process and it will no longer be just this unknown scary sounding event.  Does that make sense? 

 

I especially look forward to meeting our little Matilda.  She is already so "real" to me and I feel like I'm already getting to know her, but it will be interesting to get to meet her and get to know her once she's born. 

 

Well, I'll leave you with this little pic.  After my weekly belly pic, I grabbed Jason and Radar for a nice family shot in the nursery.  Too bad Radar just wanted to run around and be crazy (like always).  Ha.

24 Weeks

A little update on how the pregnancy has been progressing...



How far along: I'll be 24 weeks on Christmas Eve.  The cool thing about 24 weeks is that most doctors consider 24 weeks the beginning of viability.  I think the chance of survival of a baby born at 24 weeks is between 40-70%, and the chances significantly increase each week thereafter.  By 27 weeks, a baby has a >90% chance of survival. 

 

Symptoms: Not feeling as spry lately.  Some intermittent lower back/ hip pain.  I've been trying to sleep on my side which should relieve some of the pain, but I still wake up on my back and stomach a lot of the time.  My midwife said not too worry too much about sleeping positions at this point, and that my body would let me know when I need to adjust.

 

Weight gain: 4 pounds during the last four weeks and 10 pounds overall. 

 

I'm still exercising regularly, but have notched down the intensity of my workouts.  No more long runs.  I mostly keep to walking and doing the elliptical.  I also do one round of the strength machines and an hour of yoga each week.  I aim for an average of 30 minutes of cardio each day plus the weekly strength training.  I think it's helped keep my weight in check, my symptoms minimal, and my mental health/ emotions balanced.

 

Fetal Movement: Still consistent.  She likes to kick me every few hours.  One day this past week she kicked me all day long!  Not sure why she was so active that day.  She is still breech, so she usually kicks me really low (below my waist line).  One morning she had flipped over for a short period and I could feel her kicking me around my belly button.  It was kinda neat because you could actually feel it from the outside.  Jason wasn't patient enough to keep his hand there long enough to feel her, but I thought it was cool.

 

Prenatal care: I had my 24 week checkup last Friday (a few days early) and the midwife said everything looked perfect (weight, tummy measurements, baby's heartbeat).  We'll be starting childbirth education classes in January with a doula the midwives recommended.  At my 28 week checkup I have to have a Rhogam shot (since I have a negative blood type) and do the glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes.  Oh joy.

 

Nesting: Umm not too much other than making the pennant banner for the nursery.  Once we get past the holidays, we'll need to kick up our preparations into high gear.  I still would like to paint the baseboards in her room before I loose all my nimbleness.  We need to order the crib soon too.

 

Worries: Not many.  I'm starting to feel the time crunch, but I'm sure we'll get everything done that we need to.

 

Looking forward to: Just watching the pregnancy progress.  I feel like I've been breaking up the pregnancy into little milestones every few weeks.  It makes the 9 months a lot less daunting.  So far milestones have been: finding out we were expecting at 5 weeks, our first prenatal appointment at 9 weeks, finishing the first trimester at 13 weeks (and hearing the baby's heartbeat at that appointment), the half way mark and anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks, and reaching viability at 24 weeks.  I still have the following milestones to look forward to: entering the third trimester at 27 weeks and reaching full term at 39 weeks. 

Nursery Pennant Banners

Last weekend I pulled out the sewing machine and made a couple pennant banners for the nursery.  (Jason corrected me from calling them "pendant banners".)  It was a fairly easy process.  Just cut out triangles, sewed them together, and linked them together using double fold bias tape. 



 



Jason didn't like the way I had hung them first, so we tried another style today.  Can't wait to get the crib in there and see how it looks!

The Beginnings of a Nursery

We'll be turning our second bedroom into Matilda's nursery.  Since we moved into this house, I figured that if we had kids, that would be the nursery, so I've always kept that in mind when buying stuff for that room.  I also didn't know if Jason would want to find out the sex of the baby, so I've tried to keep it a bit gender neutral.  It errs on the girlier side, but I think we could have added more blues to make it a little boys room.  This is basically the room as is:

I've always admired this artist's work, so as soon as we found out we were pregnant, I ordered a few prints.  They now hang on the wall opposite the bed.

I also went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some scrapbook paper to make a mobile and alphabet poster.  I cut out clouds, hot air balloons, and sail boats and strung them together using fishing line.  I covered an embroidery loop with yarn and tied the fishing line to the hoop to make it a mobile.

 

For the alphabet poster, I simply outlined some letter stencils, cut them out, and glued them to a poster board.

 

 

The only other project we've really worked on is cleaning out the closet and organizing the items my brother, sister-in-law, and mom have passed along.  I bought some baskets from The Container Store to help organize toys, pajamas, diapers, etc. since we don't plan on buying a dresser.

The only furniture we plan on adding is a crib and maybe some open shelving for toys down the line.  We'll likely use the desk as a changing table.  I still want to add some Ikea spice racks under the alphabet poster to use as book shelves.  I also might sew a flag pendant to decorate the back wall.  Anybody want to come re-paint my trim for me?  :)