Belly Shots

...of the maternity variety! I haven't been the greatest at posting maternity pictures, so I thought I'd post several at one time.

Here's 10 weeks again:



Same outfit at 30 weeks!



Red balloon!



Twenty-eight weeks right before Sophie's 3D ultrasound:



This is at 22 weeks at the beach in Florida:



And this is 18 weeks at the time of Sophie's 2D ultrasound:



Time has really flown by! At this rate, the next pictures you'll see will be of Sophie's cute little face. Only nine weeks left!

Thirty Weeks!

Thirty weeks! I can’t believe I’m so close to the end of this pregnancy journey. I remember being so excited that I was pregnant when I first found out. I’m still excited, but the excitement has changed from being excited about new pregnancy experiences to being excited about finally getting to meet our little girl. I’m not to the point where I’m sick of being pregnant, but I am anxious to meet Sophie. I still enjoy her little kicks and nudges and part of me wonders if I’ll miss this when she’s born or if I’ll just be happy to have my body back.

One thing I did get back – my appetite! I can eat! That may not be such a good thing, but I’m happy I can expand my menu choices to include old favorites like chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes– yum-o! Since getting my appetite back, my favorite meals have been home-cooked or “downhome” recipes. I’ve been craving chicken and dumplings so bad! I can’t wait until my Momma is here to cook me some of that deliciousness. I’m not able to eat large portions though, which is a good thing. I can eat small amounts several times a day, so I think Sophie is pressing on my stomach. Another slight problem is increased heartburn. I knew this would happen, but it’s with everything! I’m avoiding foods with any kind of red sauce – spaghetti, pizza, salsa – but yesterday I got heartburn from eating oatmeal! I shouldn’t complain too much, heartburn is way better to deal with than constant nausea and vomiting. At least during that aspect of my pregnancy I was so excited to be pregnant that I was happy I was sick.

Sophie’s definitely getting bigger. Her movements are stronger and I can see her move beneath my skin! I thought this experience would be an alien-freaky-like experience, but it’s actually really cool. I find myself staring at my stomach hoping I’ll catch her moving. This morning she made one of the biggest movements I’ve felt up to this point and I was disappointed I didn’t get to see it. I was still laying in bed, in the dark with no glasses! But it felt really neat.

At this point in her development, Sophie should be about 16 inches long and weigh about three pounds. I feel so huge already, how can I handle her gaining four to five more pounds? And it’s getting pretty achy “down there.” How much more achy will it get when she’s her full weight? Enough scary thoughts for the day – I banish them from my head.

Other not-so-scary questions are when am I supposed to pack my hospital bag? When should we have the nursery completely finished and ready to go? All through my pregnancy these questions have just been dismissed in my mind as stuff one does at the end of the pregnancy – but I’m here! I can’t believe I’m here. Only 68 days left! Excitement! Anxiousness! Nervousness! Happiness!

No Crystal Ball

Nobody gets a peek at the future. Why do you think we’re designed that way? Why do you think we’re not allowed to know how everything will turn out? Would it take all the fun out of life? Would it not allow us to learn from our mistakes?

These questions came up because I often think when making a decision, “If I just knew what the circumstances are going to be, I could make the right decision.” But all we’re left with to make important life decisions is what we already know about a situation and potential circumstances. To add to that, it seems that if we knew the future of some of our actions, we might change our minds about the decision if the path turns out to be too difficult, and we would never learn or gain what we needed to from a situation.

Have I completely lost you in my babble yet? The reason I was thinking about all this is because in my recent childbirth class, the instructor talked about the different ways to “help” along the birth of the baby. All of which included using one’s legs. I thought I was completely decided on getting an epidural, but if I go this route, I won’t be able to have control over what’s going on down there. For example, I wouldn’t be able to move onto all fours to shift Sophie’s position from posterior to anterior, the way she’s intended to come out.

However, I want to be alert, not groggy, and experience as little pain as possible when Sophie is born. That equation equals epidural. I’ve decided I don’t want any other kind of pain reliever because they generally just make one drowsy and “not all there.” I want to be completely “there” when Sophie’s born so I know what’s going on and I know what options I have if something goes wrong.

The part where knowing the future comes in is that if I knew how Sophie is going to be positioned, how long my labor will be, and how much pain I can actually handle, I could make the perfect decision for Sophie and me! Where’s my crystal ball?! I’m scared!

I just pray that I do make the right decision. But if I do have complications, the one thing that will get me through it all is knowing that I will have our little girl in my arms soon.

Tagged

The Rules: Answer the questions using only one word. Then tag three others. I tag: whoever wants to respond.

1. Where is your cell phone? DESK
2. Your significant other? LOVING
3. Your hair? BLONDE
4. Your mother? SWEETEST
5. Your father? STRONG
6. Your favorite thing? HOME
7. Your dream last night? UNEVENTFUL
8 Your favorite drink? STARBUCKS
9. Your dream/goal? HAPPINESS
10. The room you’re in? SMALL
11. Your hobby? SCRAPBOOKING
12. Your fear? KNIVES
13. What do you want to be in 6 years? TEACHER
14. What you’re not? LITTLE (Haha!)
15. Muffins? CINNAMON
16. One of your wish list items? EUROPE
17. Where you grew up? MILITARY
18. The last thing you did? WORK
19. What are you wearing? CLOTHES
20. Favorite gadget? CAMERA
21. Your pets? FURRY
22. Your computer? NECESSARY
23. Your mood? RELAXED
24. Missing someone? FAMILY
25. Your car? NEW!
26. Something you’re not wearing? POLISH
27. Favorite store? BOOKSTORE
28. Like someone? YES
29. Your favorite color? MANY
30. When is the last time you laughed? MONDAY
31. Last time you cried? MONDAY

Little Night Owl

Over the past few weeks, I’ve worried and wondered why Sophie doesn’t move much. I’ve recently discovered that she does move a lot, she just moves at night when I’m sleeping. I’ve never had a problem sleeping through most nighttime disturbances and apparently a baby wiggling around in my belly is not an exception.

Last night I woke several times due to an evil, pounding headache that lasted through the night. Sheldon offered to go get me some Tylenol late last night since we didn’t have any in the house, but I was certain once I fell asleep the headache would go away. I was wrong.

Even though I woke up four times last night to re-adjust hoping it would help my headache in some way and then discover after getting comfortable that I had to go to the bathroom yet again, I was happy to notice that Sophie was making all kinds of crazy movements. I’d get back in bed and lay there trying to figure out what she was doing, but her rhythmic movements would put me back to sleep.

Her little kicks and punches don’t bother me yet. I really enjoy feeling them, although some of them do stun me if she hasn’t moved in a while and she flips or makes a big movement I’m not expecting. I'm happy that I finally have my answer about her movement patterns.

That’s about it for now. Twenty-nine weeks tomorrow!!

Health Updates

Monday I had my three-hour glucose test and yesterday was my 28-week doctor’s appointment. The glucose test went as well as can be expected. The syrup stuff they made me drink wasn’t too bad. I requested the orange flavor again, so it just tasted like Fanta orange soda. The only hard part was being required to drink 10 oz. of it in less than 5 minutes. I’m not a fast drinker. But I did it. The phlebotomist (blood-taker, vampire…) was great as usual. She only missed my vein one time, so I was stuck five times instead of four, but it really didn’t hurt at all. Sheldon was able to be there with me also so the time flew by.

I got my results on Tuesday. My doctor said only one of four of the test results came back abnormal, which means I DON’T have gestational diabetes (woohoo!), but could mean little Sophie may not be so little when she’s born. The doc said she could be slightly bigger than average. In my little mind that means, maybe she’ll come early (but not too early) and be average! It could happen. The doctor suggested that I eat less sweets and carbs. What am I supposed to eat then?! That’s my entire diet! Meat just doesn’t sit well with me and lettuce becomes less and less appetizing every day. Bleh.

So yesterday was my normal check-up. Sophie’s heartbeat was a strong 156 beats per minute and everything was normal. The doc is pushing me to find a pediatrician, so he set up an appointment for Sheldon and me to meet with one of the doctors. I really didn’t think I was that behind, I guess getting on the pediatricians’ schedules may be what takes so long…hmmm…I didn’t think of it that way until just now.

The only slight concern that I had was that at my 26-week appointment I had gained a total of nine pounds since the beginning of my pregnancy and when I weighed-in yesterday, I had lost two pounds. How that happened, I don’t have a clue. But my doctor didn’t seem to be concerned. He said Sophie is developing right on schedule, so as long as she’s good, then I’m good. So I guess I’m allowed to be excited that I’ve only gained seven pounds up to this point. I should be allowed to celebrate with chocolate and ice cream, but apparently that’s not allowed since I had one tiny, little glucose test abnormality.

Tomorrow is our first childbirth class. I’m a little anxious, but excited too. Maybe the thought of giving birth in about two and a half months will become more real. I really don’t have a clue at this point. I’ll update you after the class to let you know if I was successful in getting one. Wish me luck!

Twenty-eight weeks and 3D ultrasound!

Ahhh! I’m only 12 weeks away from delivery…maybe closer! It’s so exciting! Time has gone by so fast because we’ve been so busy. Sheldon and I were out of town all last week with business stuff and this week our schedules are filled too. We haven’t made any more progress on our house/baby projects since my last post. Maybe we’ll be motivated this weekend to get some of the stuff done. It just feels like we have so much time, but we really don’t. If you count the weekends we have open to finish projects, there’s only about seven weekends left! Ahhhh! I only have seven weekends left to get my life in perfect order and become a perfect person so I can be a perfect parent! Ok, so that probably won’t happen, but I can try.

Fun and not stressful baby stuff to talk about is our 3D ultrasound! It was so neat to be able to see Sophie. Some would say we cheated, but I don’t care. I feel much better knowing that my little darling has all her limbs, fingers, toes, and all the other necessary body parts. She’s also cute to top it off…even with the orange hue in the pictures. Here are some of her candid shots.











We had the ultrasound done at Stork Vision in Fort Worth. They seemed like the best company according to my research. The room was pretty big and there were two leather sofas for guests to sit-in on the ultrasound if the couple wanted to include family and friends on the special day. We also got to watch the ultrasound on a 42-inch flat screen television. The only down side to the whole event was the lady doing the ultrasound. She wasn’t very enthusiastic about anything and seemed like she was trying to hurry through the ultrasound to get to the next person. Other than that, everything was great.

For an update on Sophie’s growth and development, BabyCenter says that she is about 2.25 lbs. and measures to about 15 inches in length. Her eyesight is developing, so she can open her eyes, she’s sporting lashes, and she may be able to see the light that filters through to her. Neat!