32 and holding steady

I'm 32 weeks today.  Eight more to go... unless she comes early.  Of course my OB says she's not coming early and laughed at me when I asked if he thought I'd go just a little early.  Everything measured well today at my appointment.  Incidentally I measured 33 weeks instead of 32 weeks - if this keeps up she may come out a linebacker.

Shortly after my last post I heard back from some lab results and found out I was anemic.  I just laughed when they told me - that explained so much!  It's amazing how much better I feel now than I did a month ago (Iron:  it does an anemic gal good!).  Once we've addressed that and some sleeping problems I was having pregnancy is back to being a piece of cake.

It's a soupy cake that has swollen feet at night and occasional back/hip pain, but ten thousand times more easily tolerated when I'm not a zombie in the day and I'm able to rest at night.

Baby is doing great with preschool.  On the days that she doesn't collapse when she gets home out of pure exhaustion she is bubbly and talkative.  She's really into super heroes right now - especially Spider Man and The Avengers.

Speaking of super heroes -- the anemia put a major halt on projects, but as long as I monitor my energy I think I'm going to be able to jump in again.  Tonight we put a few last sprawls of paint on what will be the super hero picture.  I may glue them on later tonight after it dries.  Then all I'll lack is spray-varnishing them (and hanging them, of course).  I go back and forth thinking about making some kind of garland for their room, but for now at eight months pregnant I'm sticking with less is more.  We still have a lot of other work to do (organizing mostly).

He asked if I was having any contractions.  I reminded him that with my pregnancy with Baby I was never aware of any of them until I had the pitocin going for five hours.  I asked if he could make that happen again and he laughed.  He said we'd both be really rich if he could figure out how to make that happen.  So for now I'm just thankful for pain that I can handle and contractions that I can't feel.

I'm working on getting all of my paperwork together for FMLA.

I've not packed a bag to take to the hospital with me yet, but I do know what I think I want to pack.  (That's got to count for some kind of partial credit, right?)

Runt seems way more laid back than Baby did in utero.  Either that means she'll be chill - or it means she's saving up to make us crazy after she's born.

weary

I am so tired that I feel hungover, but I assure you that I've not had anything to drink in months.

I'm rolling into my third trimester without much poise or grace.  I can feel the chronic fatigue starting to set in, and although I know from experience that this, too, shall pass, it's really hard to focus on that when you're in a fog.

Being tired makes me cry.

When I yawn my eyes water.  This is not pregnancy-related; I've done this all my life.  I looked it up once, figuring I was just plumbed wrong.  Turns out there are little muscles in your eyes that contract when you yawn, wetting your eyes with tears.  Mine must be the most tone muscles in my body because it ends up making my eyes drip tears all day long.

Some people flex muscles and look amazing.  I flex muscles and it looks like I'm crying.  (I think this is irony, right?  I'm too tired to access that nook of my brain right now.  I think it's cosmic irony, which artsy-fartsy literary types argue isn't really irony at all.)

I've been up since about 2:30 with Baby.  I made every effort to stay in my bed until about 4am, at which point I was just mad that I couldn't sleep and moved to the living room couch to try to rest.  This wasn't one of my brighter ideas, but you can't expect genius when your exhausted brain is running on fumes.  I tossed out here for about 45 minutes before I decided to forget it and just be up for today.

I learned in my last pregnancy to just try not to look at the clock when this happens.  Looking at the clock just makes me mad because I roll over thinking that it's got to have been 30-40 minutes since I last looked at the clock, only to see that it's only been about three minutes instead.  I know this, but I looked anyway this morning.  I can't make a direct correlation that this was the only reason I'm awake, but I am well aware of its contribution.

PSA:  The most stupid, insincere thing you can say to a pregnant lady who is exhausted is that this is good practice for being tired after the baby comes.

I read an article once that said pregnant lady brains actually shrink in the third trimester.  I can't remember if it was hormone-induced or fatigue-induced, but it was verified with MRIs.  It wasn't a huge shrinkage, but it was real and it was documented.  I remember after my last pregnancy Baby was about 5-6 months old before it hit me one day that I felt normal again.

By my calculations I've got about 12 more weeks of sleeping poorly related to the pregnancy.  Then the baby will be born.  Afterwards I'll still sleep poorly, but I'll be better rested and sleep better when I do get to sleep.  Then by May-June of next year I may feel human again.

Time to wake everybody else up.  This morning it will take a conscious effort to do this task with kindness.

artsy-fartsy

 We never really had a "theme" to Baby's room, other than girl stuff hand-me-overs and hand-me-downs.  This bothered many of our friends, but not us.  We wanted to wait to see what Baby was into to give her some say in decor.

We've decided to put Runt and Baby in a bedroom together.  It'll take a little moving around, but we are hopeful that it will work out.  We've also decided it's time  to consult Baby for ideas for a theme... and we've all agreed on female super heroes.

The Hater is a comic book nerd and couldn't be happier.  I'm excited that it's empowering.  Baby is picking up on our excitement but really doesn't get it yet.

The problem is that official super hero wall art is out of our budget range, so we're having to be creative.  I'm super excited with what we've come up with so far:

Baby painted these by herself.  I still lack sealing them - and I've not decided if I want to go over the letters with glow-in-the-dark paint or not.  The part of me who lived with a theater major for several years in college keeps whispering, "Less is more!", but it's met with the part of me who thinks glow in the dark paint would make it awesome.

I have one more canvas, but haven't thought of what I want it to say.  Plus I have a big piece of foam core that I plan on using to actually incorporate the super heroes.

This is pre-nesting.  My parents will bring the crib and baby sundries in September.  And I'm not in the mood to start washing Baby's things in the baby detergent for Runt yet.  So here we are.

Another exciting weekend at home.  There is no paint on the kitchen table, qualifying this as a great success.  On the other hand we do have a little bit of glitter everywhere...

oh so hot

"Oh so" is Baby's new phrase that she's learned to tag onto phrases to give more emphasis.  For example, "If the baby comes out a boy I'll be oh so sad." or "I like these grapes oh so much.  They are my best."

I'm 25 weeks pregnant this week.  Incidentally it's the first week I've really felt big and pregnant.  Kneeling down to pick something up just isn't as easy as it used to be (or, rather, getting up isn't easy).  Rolling over in bed is taking some effort.  Although I'm already on heartburn medicine I can tell you I'm not having heartburn now, but I can tell it's coming.  And when I cross the street I can't change gears to a jog to get out of the way of traffic - that bouncing just doesn't work right now.  And I'm oh so having a terrible time tolerating the heat.

The problem with being pregnant in the summer is that you can only take off so many clothes.

Saw my doctor a couple of weeks ago.  He told me my weight gain was "perfect".  I made him say that twice because nobody has ever told me that in my life.

I'm still walking a couple of miles every afternoon, and at this point I'm still able to keep my regular pace and pass the slow people.  But this week I can tell that I won't be doing that for much longer.  It's taking more work to keep that pace.  And stairs?  I still take them if I'm only going one flight away from where I am, but (like crossing the street) I'm no longer able to just bounce up them; today took work to get up the stairs. When I got to my destination the girls in the front of the office just laughed at me for being winded.

Today I went to security and officially got the pregnancy parking pass to park in the closer spots to the ER (so I don't have to cross the busy street on foot).  They didn't want nearly as much paperwork as I thought they would.  It'll still be a hike from where I park to where I work, but now most of it will be inside instead of in the heat.  (And I'll get to take a flight of stairs up to my office in the mornings!)

The veggies on the back porch are officially scorched.  The week of 104+ highs just fried the tomatoes and lemon balm.  The basil acts like it's going to come back and the rosemary looks fine.  The other plants in the yard are looking okay for now, but we'll see what the rest of July and August do to them.

The Hater and I recently celebrated our 9th anniversary.  In some ways it's hard to believe that it's been nine years - but at the same time in some ways I think, "Really?  That's all?"  He's a fantastic Daddy to Baby and will be the same for Runt.  There are some things I would change if I could go back in time (those were not the flowers I wanted to carry for my wedding, for example), but I'd still marry him all over again if I had the chance.

Name update:  Runt still doesn't have an official name.  We're not in a panic about this because we still think we have plenty of time.  I do have a list of potential names and we've pared it down much shorter than it was to begin with, but that's as far as we've gotten.  Of course we've not even discussed names in a week or so.  Baby still thinks Runt's name should be, "Chewman," although I just asked her again and she said, "Mmmm-mmmmm".

She's oh so creative.

astronomy lessons

(In the middle of supper tonight, completely out of the blue)

Baby:  Mommy, Bluto isn't a planet.
Me:  No, Pluto isn't a planet.
Baby:  Yeah, it's too small.  That means it's too little.  And we don't know anybody who lives there.
Me:  Can you tell me about the other planets?
Baby:  Jupiner is big.  We don't live there.
Me:  No, we don't live on Jupiter.  What's the name of the planet where we live?
Baby:  Uhm, I don't know.
Me:  Sure you do.  Tell me about it.
Baby:  It's green and blue and we live on the green part.  It's Earf!  Not Maws; we don't live on Maws.

I can only imagine this is one of many random conversations to come where at the end I just look at her and wonder where that came from.

SPOILER ALERT

It's a GIRL!

We couldn't be more excited.

Baby was, at best, blase with the announcement.  She was more concerned with the leaf she found outside.  I guess you can't blame her because she knew this already.

The Hater and I have begun name argumentation.  Let the games begin.

I'm 20 weeks.  I've gained a total of 11# since the beginning of my pregnancy - par for the course.  Runt kicks and wiggles off and on all day long, but it's not so strong that it's waking me up in the night -- yet.  Everything measured normally in the biophysical ultrasound today.

At this point the most pressing thing that's concerning me about the next 20 weeks is the summer that's going to be here before we know it.  Not looking forward to hot HOT days as the medium-hot days already zap my stamina and make me want to take a nap.

Three cheers for estrogen!  The Hater will soon be outnumbered 4:1 in the house if you count the cat.