weekly Belly Picture - Week 32

How far along? 32 weeks.

Total weight gain? 27 pounds.

Body changes? Belly grew a lot within days it seems. Areola are bigger.

Sleep: Pretty good. Lots of dreams. Waking up a little earlier in the morning.

Best moment this week: My baby shower and birthday celebration!

Gender: GIRL :)

Food Cravings / Aversions: Craving ice cream and bread with butter. No aversions.

What I miss?

Symptoms:

Movement: Yes. This week mostly when I go to bed and lay on my sides.

What I am looking forward to? Going through all my baby shower presents and finishing up the nursery.

Milestones: Losing all the weight I've gained LOL

Thought of the week: I feel very blessed and thankful.

weekly Belly Picture - Week 31

How far along? 31 weeks.

Total weight gain? 24 pounds.

Body changes? Just getting bigger LOL. Breaking on my chin.

Sleep: Good. Crazy dreams. Last night I dreamt that I saw my baby girl. She was already a few months old and looked just like Brad. She had brown hair (not as curly as I hoped) and had brown eyes. Her eyes were just like Brad's. As I was trying to figure out what traits she had of mine...I woke up haha. Overall my dreams are very strange and vivid.

Best moment this week: Simply enjoying the beautiful South Florida weather.

Gender: GIRL :)

Food Cravings / Aversions: Still craving ice cream, apples, bread and butter. Coca Cola. No aversions. Although I made gazpacho today (one of my favorite dishes) for some reason it didn't taste the way it usually does. I didn't do anything different and Brad liked it, so I'm not sure if my taste buds are reacting differently to it because I am pregnant. I will try again tomorrow, maybe it will taste better to me.

What I miss? Wine!

Symptoms: Lack of energy. Otherwise pretty much a symptom free week except last night my little girl switched her position and started pressing down on my bladder and lower right side of my abdomen. It was quite uncomfortable and I had to pee a lot because of it. I swear I could feel her heart beat when I watched the lower right side of my belly because I could feel the beat and see my belly move to it. She's still hanging out on that lower right side because she's been kicking a lot there. Another symptom I have quite often are these cramps on the middle right side of my back. It happens when I drive for a while or sit in the same position for a period of time. It's very annoying and when Brad is around he massages the tight spot but when I'm alone I have to toughen it out.

Movement: Still the same.. some days she's very active on others she's more quiet.

What I am looking forward to? My Birthday, my baby shower and seeing my family and friends.

Milestones: this 3rd trimester seems to be going slow ;)

Thought of the week: I have to laugh at myself but I get very excited when I see a bird fly up to my bird feeder. I love watching these little colorful birdies twerp and twitter!

Nesting, nesting, nesting...

In the last week (or two) I've had this urge to nest and get the nursery as ready as possible. I was so glad that all my furniture arrived by now. The glider was the last thing to come in and it's great to finally have a chair in that room to sit in. It gives me time to relax and imagine what it will be like to have our baby girl in here soon. I also feel like doing as much as possible now that I still have energy. I want to enjoy and take it all in peacefully. I'd hate to rush in the end and do it all when I'm so pregnant and exhausted. I also have a break right now with writing because I am waiting for my chair to review my first three chapters.

After my shower in Atlanta, I decided to organize all the clothes I got including the many I had from my sister Noelle. As soon as I started washing them, another big box arrived from my sister Julie with the most adorable baby girls clothes! I was thrilled. I washed everything and began to organize all the clothes in categories. It took me a while to do that there is so much. I can definitely say I have plenty of clothes unit she is at least 6 months old. It's a great feeling and the closet looks so cute with all the clothes hanging from the little pink and white baby hangers! I washed and ironed the bedskirt and crib sheet and put up the crib mobile as well. Brad was out of town last week so I was so anxious to have the glider in the room that I somehow managed to get it out of the car and set it up together. Yeah crazy, 7.5 months pregnant carrying around heavy chairs and putting screws in. I had to laugh myself but I felt so accomplished when I got it done. After everything I have so far was set up, put away, organized, and washed I felt such a relief. The final project was to begin decorating the walls in the room. A while back I purchased this big tree wall decal with birds on it and a squirl. When I got in the mail and read the instructions I thought to myself of course I pick one of the more difficult decals (a tree with lots of branches and tons of leaves) so for the longest time I doubted how I was going to get that thing up on the wall. I thought for sure brad and I would have to do it together and even that would be a challenge. Should I hire someone to do it? So this weekend in my feverish nesting mode I took on the challenge myself. Brad has been incredibly busy these past couple of weeks and is traveling a lot. He's leaving again next week and the week after. Working all weekends, I am also making him edit my massive dissertation. He's over his head. The last thing I want to do is stress him about some tree decal that, let's be honest, could wait to be put up. I still have 69 days left until my due date. But then again, there is this intense need to nest and get things done (and as I so often can't wait to do things, I'll often end up doing them myself) I couldn't wait but to at least try to do it. I watched several videos online on how to best apply one of these decals and felt pretty confident. Needless to say I managed to do it all by myself. Although it took me five hours without a break I got it done. And I actually really enjoyed doing it. I had to cut out different parts of the tree and every single leaf. That took forever. Then they all had to be applied to the wall individually. When I was done I was so happy and Brad was amazed as to how I did it. He was worried in the beginning when he helped me tape up the base of the tree. It was difficult and we were afraid we ruined one of the branches. But we didn't and it turned out beautiful. I'm a big fan of wall decals now. I think there a fairly inexpensive and creative way to decorate a kids room. I also went to buy buy baby in Miami to check out the store and buy a few items. I realized how much I still but hopefully I'll get some nice gifts at my shower and the rest we will have to take care of after. But at least I can say the nursery is coming together and I feel a lot better as I did last week. I was getting a little nervous being almost 30 weeks pregnant and not having the nursery fully set up yet. I'm also getting so excited to soon meet our baby girl. It's really becoming more and more of a reality that we will be parents soon. I've been dreaming a lot about babies and being a mom. I also think more and more about the labour process, imagining what it will be like. I am partly nervous and partly anxious to experience what it will be like.

weekly Belly Picture - Week 30

How far along? 30 weeks.

Total weight gain? 22 pounds.

Body changes? Breaking out more again. Linea nigra very visible now. Sensitive nipples at times.

Sleep: Good. Very vivid dreams, and many related to being a mom or about babies in general.

Best moment this week: Organizing nursery closet and putting up tree/bird decal on nursery wall (it took me 5 hours to do).

Gender: GIRL :)

Food Cravings / Aversions: Craving ice cream, apples, and mostly anything sweet.

What I miss? Feeling sexy and fit.

Symptoms: Braxton hicks contractions have officially arrived! I had them pretty bad for two days and then they seemed to go away. When I do certain movements, usually when I move around quickly or am not that careful, I will get a sharp stabbing pain in the lower left side of my abdomen.

Movement: Yes some days she's very active, on others she's more quiet.

What I am looking forward to? My Baby Shower

Milestones: Getting back in shape...and once again, eating more veggies.

Thought of the week: Time flies when you're having a good time!

weekly Belly Picture - Week 29

How far along? 29 weeks

Total weight gain: 20 pounds

Body Changes? linea nigra visible. belly growing and more visible.

Sleep: better. Occasional discomfort when sleeping on one side for too long.

Best moment this week: Spending time in Atlanta and excited for my surprise baby shower today :)

Gender: GIRL :)

Food Cravings / Aversions: no real cravings or aversions this week. I'm having pretty normal eating habits.

What I miss: sleeping on my back without feeling like I shouldn't.

Symptoms: Occasional tightness (cramps) in parts of my back. Feeling more movement in my belly. At times I feel a strong pressure in my bladder, as if baby girl is pushing more on my bladder than before. Also, my bladder can fill up within minutes now and become uncomfortable..almost painful. Side cramps when walking and my breathing gets messed up. Also, at times feeling my heart beating and pumping stronger (not faster) than usual.

Movement: Yes and it seems like there is less and less room in my belly...

What I am looking forward to: another massage

Milestones: getting back in shape

Thought of the Week: I think we have a name :)