39 Weeks

39 Weeks

Our little pumpkin is the size of a pumpkin. Hopefully not the size of that pumpkin though. That's just the one we bought for our front stoop. 

38 Weeks

Again, a little late on this one. I will definitely do better for the 39 week one - I am excited about that photo. 

The wind blew my dress, so this is a little inappropriate. But I also wore leggings as pants to work on Monday - so 'inappropriate' is my mantra these days. It's fitting. 

She's been moving around quite a bit. Dan suggested that she is packing her things and getting ready to leave. :) 

If she is her father's daughter, she is doing every single unnecessary task or project around the house, instead of packing, and making us late for our roadtrip. ...wait. Somehow that went away from baby girl. All I am saying is, we have no idea when she will arrive and that's the fun in it!

We still don't have a name. But we will have one when we leave the hospital (baby has to have a name to get on our health insurance). The monogram for the nursery will be ordered post name choosing.

Our glider was supposed to arrive on 9/19. If you call Pottery Barn kids, you'll here anything from 'it is already at your house', to 'you'll get a phone call about its status on 10/27.'

The dresser was never supposed to arrive on time, because apparently Buy Buy Baby has to wait for the tree to grow before building it. 

Her clothes aren't washed, but that is on today's to-do list. Hospital bag is half packed, but the car seat is in the car!

This is all her showing to us that we are no longer in control. My type-a self is getting very used to it. People around me are panicking much more than we are. We have diapers, wipes, a place for her to sleep, and some snuggly blankets. AND, most importantly, a Halloween costume. Plus - its Charlotte, NC - there are Targets everywhere. 

37 Weeks

Since I am two days shy of 38 weeks, it is about time I put this up. 

It was really sunny. And the lettuce looks awkwardly big - but it was the best I could find in the store. Plus my stomach is awkwardly big. So it is fitting.



Kelley: Can you believe there's a whole baby in there? Not just a little one - or part of one, a fully grown whole baby?
Dad: I can believe it. You are huge.
Kelley: You should google what not to say to pregnant women.
Dad: Is that in there?
Kelley: Yes. Yes it is. 

We had a wonderful visit with my parents and now they are hoping that baby girl doesn't choose to come while they are at the beach. She needs to hold off another week. I think we will be fine with that one.

36 Weeks

How far along: 36 weeks.

How big is baby: Last week she weighed in at 6 pounds even. This means she's around 6.5 lbs this week.

Weight Gain: 28 pounds.

Symptoms: By the end of the day, my work flats no longer fit. Baby hiccups have been happening around 5 times a day for awhile now - but this month they have been very strong. Still not sleeping at all, but that's just preparing me for the future. My iron is now back to a normal level - I still have to keep taking it, but that's why I have finally been feeling like a normal person. As far as we can tell, baby girl is healthy, so I really can't complain about anything.

Cravings:  Salad! It is all I want. Mmmm, salad.

Aversions:  Same ones: cloves and cocoa butter.

What I miss:  Not much because I keep thinking about how quickly this has gone by. I know I will miss being pregnant - so I can wait another few weeks for a rare steak or a pumpkin beer!

Looking forward to: Meeting our baby girl and giving her a name!

Best moment this month:  Our trip to Charleston - which I promise to post about shortly. I thought for sure it would be our final ultrasound. But we really couldn't see much because she is so big. Plus the lady was semi-rushing, so we didn't get any good pictures. We found out that she has no hair and that she was right on target at 6 pounds. So I guess she's not our little chunker anymore! We will see when she is born though! The tech also said that she was 100% a girl. That if they hand me a boy in the hospital, we can hand it right back because there's no way its our baby. 

Worst moment this month: Probably attempting to paint my toenails. Let's just say that that is the last time that is done by me. I will run and get them painted one last time around my due date. 

Overall, it has been a great month. I am slowing down a little bit due to back pain. I also have to strategically place pillows when laying on the couch. If I sit straight up she kicks me from lack of room - and I can't lay on my back because I can't breathe that way. Sleep doesn't exist - but I can't tell you how much better it feels to have the iron back up. I'll take being sleepy over the feeling that I can't physically move because my body is so exhausted. So many people told me that once I hit 30 weeks, I would start to feel awful. That scared me because I couldn't imagine it continuing to get worse. I'm here to say that every pregnancy is different - and each week I have felt better and better. So never listen to what "they" say. 

Technically, this could be my last monthly post - but if family history is on our side - I'll be back again at 40 weeks.

35 Weeks

Had to get one in my Falcons jersey for the first win of the season. Looks pretty ridiculous, but it still fits. 

We are getting to crunch time now, between the hospital tour, lots of baby laundry, and needing to eventually figure out the car seat. Getting excited!!

Just for fun, this time last year: (my mom took this when I wasn't looking).

34 Weeks

Still feeling great! Still wanting lots of veggies. We walked 9 miles one day last week while we were in Charleston. 

I am trying to stay active. We need to be more consistent about going for walks. I keep telling Dan he needs to walk me after work each day.

During the day, if it weren't for not being able to scoot my chair close to my desk anymore or accidently hitting my stomach with a meeting room door, I would completely forget I am pregnant. Nighttime is a different story - but I think the 'sleeping well' ship has sailed for the foreseeable future. 

I am sure all of this means she is no where near arrival - which is fine by me. I want her to cook much longer.

33 Weeks

I have been craving salads. I have been eating them for lunch and dinner everyday. And I will say, I feel awesome. I am still not sleeping much, so I'm definitely more tired during the day than I was in the second trimester. But I can honestly say for the past week or so, I have felt less pregnant than I have the entire time. 

I heard that you become a different kind of tired in the third trimester. One where you feel large and hot and everything takes more effort. My doctor said this usually hits around 30 weeks - and I did have a full week around 30/31 where I thought it was all downhill from there. 

With morning sickness until 20 weeks and anemia following immediately - I never got that second trimester 'relief.' I actually feel 100% like myself for the first time during this pregnancy. And I am loving it!

Whether its the salads or not, or something incredibly short lived - I am going to enjoy it while I can. 

32 Weeks

Obviously the spaghetti squash is photoshopped in this picture. When Dan and I took all of the vegetable pictures, for weeks we couldn't find a spaghetti squash. But hopefully we at least get an A for effort.

How far along: 32 weeks.

How big is baby: An average baby weighs around 4 pounds and is 17 inches long at this point.

Weight Gain: 22 pounds.

Symptoms: Leg cramps at night, swollen ankles if I sit all day at work, and I now get winded just putting on pants. Textbook.

Cravings:  M&Ms mostly. The regular kind. I have always been a peanut butter M&M girl, but these milk chocolates are just doing it for me. Still eating an apple every day. YUM!

Aversions:  Cocoa butter. I forgot about this one. I never really liked the smell, but since I have been pregnant, I hate it! My mom mentioned it, and I almost threw up. Dan used some of my lotion that has cocoa butter in it (apparently men don’t own lotion) and I couldn’t sleep. An admin at work wears it, and I now hate her.

What I miss:  Sleep. That’s it.

Looking forward to: Our anniversary trip to Charleston. I see lots of eating in my future.

Best moment this month:  My baby shower in Atlanta! Also, knocking stuff off the to-do list when my mom was here.

Worst moment this month: Closing the fridge door on the baby girl. Parent of the year already. I keep forgetting that I'm bigger. Each time I walk by a mirror, I am surprised to see a belly. I guess I have 8 more weeks to get used to it. 

31 Weeks

K: "At 32 weeks, I'll feel like I've 'made it.' 32 weeks sounds really pregnant."

D: "I hate to break it to you. But you are really pregnant."

30 Weeks

29 Weeks

This is a little late. I had such a wonderful weekend at the shower, and have since been filling my evenings with thank you notes. Major growth spurt this week. The dress was much less snug 6 days earlier when I bought it. 

28 Weeks

We are now in the third and final trimester!

How far along: 28 weeks

How big is baby: My weekly email said, “Your baby is 16 inches and 2.5 pounds. Go grab a random chihuahua off the street to get an idea of what you are dealing with.” (I don’t get the normal baby center emails..). Chihuahua baby. I like that. Much more squirmy than a cauliflower. Accurate depiction.

Weight Gain: 17 pounds. Woof. Thanks to the 5 pound gain the week I was in Destin. How is that possible? At least chihuahua baby can finally start claiming some of these pounds. 

Symptoms: 

·         I’ve been feeling the low iron. But that should be corrected shortly.

·         I have this cool symptom where it feels like the top half of my stomach is, not just sunburned, but … on fire. Apparently she can sit on a nerve that controls the feelings in the skin (and skin only) of the top half of your stomach. Who knew? It was all the time for a few weeks, but now it’s much more sporadic.

·         When I sit for a while – which is all the time: work, commuting to work, the couch – she moves to this position where feet, or a head, or something is under my right rib cage. It causes rib pain and this feeling like I can’t breathe very well. If she’s super comfy, she can stay. But, if there are a number of equally comfy positions, she should choose another one. Apparently this is likely to just keep getting worse.

·         Not sleeping as well. I flip from my right to my left a million times per night. This flip is now becoming more effort with the weight of her and “all her luggage,” as Dan puts it. I like to consider sleeping a workout these days. Exercise? Check.

·         All signs that she is growing big and strong! As long as she is healthy, bring on the symptoms!

Cravings:  Apples. Mmm. The fuji apples in Harris Teeter right now are so sweet and about the size of a softball. Cut up, the slices don’t all fit in a sandwich baggie. It’s my favorite part of the day.

Aversions:   I no longer want chocolate milk. I wouldn’t say it is an aversion, since I never liked it, but it was obviously something she liked for about a week – and then things went back to normal.

What I miss:  Nothing. Sure, I’ve got my list of things that I can’t wait to have post baby, but that’s only 2.5 months away! We are so incredibly lucky to be having a child (unfortunately, it is something that not everyone gets to experience), so you won’t find me complaining. Trying to just enjoy being pregnant – even though I also can’t wait for her to get here!

Looking forward to: My baby shower in Atlanta this weekend! Getting a bigger dent made the on nursery. And deciding on a name. Internet – will you name our child?

Best moment this month:  So many! Being on vacation for an entire week. Not having to suck in my stomach at the beach. Receiving the first present in the mail for our little chihuahua. Starting on the nursery. Passing my glucose test. Dan having mono and wanting to go to bed with me super early (this is my list, not his).

Worst moment this month: I’m choosing two this month. 1) Getting stuck between the grocery cart and the candy wall in the checkout line. I was in the checkout line and tried to move from the back of the cart around to the front to unload the items easier. I thought I was smaller than I was. And turns out, you can’t just ‘suck in’ baby. 2) Getting out of the pool in the deep end. I went by the wall, thinking I would be super cool and pull myself I up like I have done a million times. First, 17 pounds makes me heavier than I remember. Second, the belly gets in the way. I looked like an idiot and it took me a solid minute to wiggle my way up. I also did it right next to the ladder. In super crowded Destin. Once I started, though, I was committed. There was no turning back.

27 Weeks

Did you hear that Kate Middleton had her baby today? A boy! Whew! I was worried that if our baby came early, she might outshine the royal baby. Thank goodness that is no longer a concern. Media coverage: feel free to proceed.

These are always about half a week late. But, really, I’m going for consistency here.

I passed my glucose test! For those who don’t know – you drink this awful drink (where you get to pick a flavor, and your doctor tells you ‘whatever you do, only get the orange’ and then you go to the guy and he says ‘we only have fruit punch left!’ But you knew this would happen because fruit punch is your least favorite drink in the entire world, and it’s a Tuesday). Then you wait an hour and start shaking, and they take your blood. Then if you fail – which many people do – you have wait a week to do the big test, that is much more accurate, requiring 4 blood draws and 3 hours of shaking. But if you pass, you immediately head to the cheesecake factory. It’s all routine, really.

At the same appointment, they do a routine CBC and mine came back as “indeed, anemic.” I am not sure why the adjective “indeed” was thrown in there, but on the anemia scale, I guess I am not close to “borderline.” I was immediately called in a prescription for iron. Not shocking, honestly, I have had low iron levels in the past, and it is pretty common with pregnancy.

I felt like I got all my energy back at 20 weeks, and then at 24 weeks hit a wall and told Dan ‘either I have mono, or low iron, this can’t be normal.’ I know that energy levels go down in the third trimester, especially as you get bigger, but I couldn’t believe that I only got about 4 weeks of feeling human. We hadn’t even started on the nursery yet! I am glad that is solved and in the next week or so I should start feeling much better.

You’ll get the full run down in the 28 week post. Right now, there’s ice cream in the freezer that hasn’t been eaten.

26 Weeks

I am going to scare you with a full on bikini bump shot at 26 weeks. Not hiding the girth under clothes this time. If anyone feels like photoshopping on a spray tan ... some toned arms and legs .. maybe the full Kardashian photoshop treatment, I will replace this photo with your beautiful rendition. Until then, this is what you get:

I love Destin. I could stay there forever. 

25 Weeks

24 Weeks

How far along: 24 weeks
How big is baby: a foot long (maybe a Subway sub would have been more appropriate than the squash?) - and 1.5 pounds.
Weight Gain: 12 pounds. I'm not going to lie to yall. I gained 4 pounds in the one week after my 20 week post. Baby growth spurt? Insatiable love of ice cream and cheesecake? We may never know...
Symptoms: 

• This is the first full month of no nausea and having all of my energy back. It has been wonderful. Unfortunately, I have started getting much more tired these past few days. Hoping it is a growth spurt and not an early version of the third trimester fatigue. We have too much to do for me to be tired! 
• I am noticing the weight of the belly when rolling over in bed (which I do about 48930282 times a night). Maybe it counts as an ab workout?
• Still not warm, yet. I was so cold at work today that my finger nails were blue. My whole life I have been promised 'just wait until you are pregnant, you wont be cold then.' I still think it'll happen - just not yet. 

Cravings: I really thought this section would be much more interesting. There hasn't been anything that I have just needed. We even ran out of ice cream. Dan was ready. "Want me to run to the store?" "Nah, I'll be fine." "You sure?? I'm ready." I did buy chocolate milk the other day, something that I have never liked. Even when I was little, chocolate milk never appealed to me. And today, I don't drink milk. I'll eat it in cereal, coffee, etc. but never drink it plain. For some reason, it looked pretty good - has calcium - and a good sub for a bowl of ice cream, so I bought it. We can blame this one on the baby girl. She must get her chocolate milk affinity from her dad. 
Aversions:  Not a thing! We met Kylie and Justin for lunch the other day and Kylie told me to pick a place that I was craving. I told her that I was craving everything: "Doesn't matter what it is, if you are eating it, I want it!" 
What I miss: On Dan's birthday he grilled himself the perfect medium rare steak. I got to eat a mushroom. Bummer. 
Looking Forward to: Mostly our vacation to Destin! Then picking a name, and getting started on the nursery. Our crib came in - but it hasn't made it out of the box yet. 
Best moment this month: In no particular order: being able to say that I am 6 months pregnant, finding Tony Horton's 10 minute abs and realizing I can do 90% of the moves. (No sub for ab ripper, but it is still taught by my main man, and will work in the mean time). AND hearing Dan say "my daughter" when talking to a friend of his.
Worst moment this month: Going to Waffle House and downing almost an entire All Star Special. I tried to get Dan to split one with me. He wanted his own. I told him all I wanted was a waffle. One thing lead to another. It was definitely a low point. ...Still no clue why I am gaining weight.

23 Weeks

This belly is getting large. And I still have so much growing left to do!

I didn't realize how uncomfortable bending over would get. I guess if you think about it, if I bend over too far, I'm squishing her - she can't like that too much! But while cleaning over the weekend, I had to do a little more squatting and less bending. The sad thing is, it has only just begun. 17 weeks to go!

Looking back 10 weeks

Have we only done this for 10 weeks? I'm already tired of so many pictures of myself here. 

Anyway, to compare ... 12 weeks on the left, 22 on the right. 

22 Weeks

Someone at work (who did not know that I was pregnant) patted their belly and said "look at you!" I just couldn't help myself, he set himself up for it. Giving him a serious look, I said "are you calling me fat?!" 

The look of absolute horror and embarrassment on his face was priceless. Plus, we were in a large group of people - all who burst out laughing. He jokes around with me a lot, so it was my turn to get him back.

This is going to be fun.

21 Weeks

I swear I have doubled in size since this picture was taken four days ago. My mom is sitting next to me: "Yup. Well .. maybe not double." Baby girl must be growing. Although, if you saw my Facebook status yesterday, you know I can't blame it all on the baby .. it could also be my lunch. 

Facebook status: "When your lunch is so heavy, it sets off the seat belt light in the passenger seat of your car."

Probably shouldn't have put that on Facebook - now the secret is out, and I can't just blame her. :)

Had two people at work stop me this week that didn't know I was pregnant, but noticed the bump. I have never been brave enough to say something like that - haha - brave people! It's reassuring that they don't just think I stopped working out.