Yes, I haven’t posted a weekly update since 23 weeks. I know, I’m so bad! Summer is pretty busy, that’s my excuse! I’ve taken at least an iPhone photo most weeks at least though! And I have SO MANY posts coming up this week, this weekend, next week, I’ve been busy. Okay now onto the fun update – I was just glancing through my update from week 23 and a lot has changed!
WEEK: 29
MONTH: 6
TRIMESTER: 3
GENDER GUESS: Totally 50/50. On the one hand the baby has huge feet, which seem more like a boy (and it kind of looked like a boy in the 3D ultrasound photos). On the other hand, my skin is smooth and my hair is generally pretty and my pregnancy has been pretty good and I feel like that sort of favors a girl.
BABY’S HOMEWORK THIS WEEK: Right now the baby’s head keeps growing bigger and bigger to make more room for its brain growing (and that’s why I keep having to go to the bathroom more and more often, too!)! The baby’s skeleton keeps hardening more each day during this whole trimester, and to help with that, at least 250 mg of calcium are deposited in the baby’s bones each day! The baby is working on developing its eyesight more and more all the time, too. (via babycenter.com) Baby also is getting more and more active (this I can feel!), and is practicing breathing movements by rhythmically moving its diaphram. And the baby’s brain is now able to regulate its temperature, so it starts losing the fine hair that’s been covering its body to keep it warm. (via StrongMoms).
BABY’S SIZE: Baby weighs between 2.5 and 3 pounds, and measures between 15 and 17 inches long! Holy crap, how is that baby fitting inside me, my belly doesn’t look big enough to be holding that!
BABY LOOKS LIKE: A little person 
BELLY PHOTO: Here are photos from last week, Week 28, at my parents’ cottage (with my hubby!), and then an iPhone photo from this week, Week 29, which very nicely shows the perfect round shape of the belly!
WEIGHT GAIN: 21 pounds. Wow, it seems like a lot! But my doctor says it’s perfect, and at my appointment last week I’d gained 4.5 pounds in 4.5 weeks, so that’s exactly as it should be. Still, I’m on schedule to gain more than what I wanted – my ideal max was 30 pounds – so I don’t love that. But I guess what’s the difference between 30 and 33 pounds, not so much, I’ll still have to exercise and it will still come off in the long run.
SYMPTOMS: My belly feels big to me now. I know I’m still smaller than most women at 29 weeks, and I know I’ll be growing a lot more, but it feels big and is always there now (a few times I’ve even opened the refrigerator door and forgotten to take that extra half step back and had the door skim my belly, which kinda hurts around my belly button when that happens!). I have a hard time sitting down on the ground, which I’ve been doing a lot with my cats lately. And I have a hard time getting back up. And a hard time leaning over. And a hard time getting out of bed in the morning (our mattresses are still on the floor cause queen box springs won’t fit up the stairs, one of Jody’s imminent tasks is building bed frames for our and the guest room beds). And I realized today as I was getting dressed that putting on underwear and pants is now a little bit of a struggle. And I still have 11 weeks of growing, holy crap! This week my belly also feels really tight. I keep assuming it’s the skin so I’m moisturizing lots, but maybe it’s the muscles too now that my belly seems to be really growing a lot. When I stand up from sitting down I feel almost like I have to hunch over just a tiny bit at first cause the belly feels so tight. And the skin right around my belly button looks stretched and weird – the belly button is still an innie but I’m on BB (belly button) watch every day now cause I’m certain it will be popping to an outie very soon (and it’s pretty sensitive right around there right now, too). The belly looks cute and perfect though, and I love touching it (and LOVE feeling the baby move with my hand as well as with my belly)!!! I also need to go get some normal underwear now, I finally admitted, cause the baby is head-down right now (more on that in a bit) and anytime I’m standing up and I sneeze, yes some pee escapes, not a lot, but just enough that I have to go change my pants – so it’s time for bikini underwear and those annoying little panty shield things. Oh, and I was just taking a shower and shaving my legs and suddenly thought, “my legs look huge!” I don’t know if I’ve suddenly gained more weight (which totally could be the case, I saw a couple photos of me from my parents’ cottage and I think I’ve indeed gained weight now all over, including my face – boohoo!!!), or if my whole legs are swollen – cause my feet and ankles are definitely swollen today, so maybe it’s just spread up my legs a little? I don’t know which I prefer, cause I don’t think my whole legs are supposed to get swollen so that would make me worry, but I also hate the idea of having visibly gained weight on my legs so they look fat. Oh well, 10.5 more weeks!
I had an OB appointment this past Friday and everything looks good!! As I mentioned above, the baby is now head-down, and the doctor said it’s likely to stay that way now – yay! I had suspected that it was head-down now, well really I was pretty certain of it. For the past couple weeks, whenever I walk any distance, even in the grocery store, I will at some point feel A LOT of pressure down there and I have to walk really, really slowly to be comfortable, so I figured that was the baby’s head doing that. And I now finally have to pee A LOT, sometimes numerous times each night, and many times during the day. The worst part of that is this – I have a big bladder, so my whole life I’ve never had to pee a lot and when I do, I get a wonderful relief from going from full to completely empty – but now, I feel like I’m full and have to really go and all that comes out is a little “tinkle tinkle” and I’m done and there’s no sense of relief there! So not fair! Now after the baby is born I can’t wait to 1) sleep on my stomach (oh it will feel like heaven!), 2) eat hot dogs at Costco (they have the best ones!), and 3) have good pees again! Oh and another reason I knew the baby was head down is cause I feel little feet (well pushes, but I assumed and now know it was feet) pressing out at the top of my uterus at various times each day now, and for the past couple weeks! I often lift my shirt up and look to see if I can see any shapes, but usually it’s just a faint bump even though it feels like it should be a very big bump pushing out!! I know one of these days I’ll be able to see the shape of a foot there! So I think how right now, the baby weighs about 3 pounds and I’m feeling the pressures below and feet kicking up high, and I wonder what it will be like at 38, 39 and 40 weeks when the baby weighs a hopefully nice 7 pounds and is bigger and stronger!
I’ve also noticed a big difference already between the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Once I passed into the third trimester it seemed to happen almost immediately that I felt more tired (and need naps again sometimes), more uncomfortable, and it’s harder to move around. I cleaned the bathroom today and it was a hassle going from my knees to standing. And when I’m sitting I need to be reclining more, but then have to switch my weight from one side to the other if I’m sitting too long. Oh and sleeping! Knock on wood, I don’t seem to be having insomnia lately and that makes me so happy, but if I sleep on one side too long then I wake up with a massive muscle cramp in that thigh that I was sleeping on. I also thought today, both when I was struggling to get dressed, and when I was kneeling down and getting back up again, that I’m going to have a pregnant waddle soon – the baby’s head down there seems to make everything more uncomfortable, including sometimes walking right after I get up after sitting for awhile – so yes, I know I’ll have the pregnant lady waddle by the end. And it’s getting harder walking up the stairs every time I need to go to the bathroom now, too; no more running up, it’s more like a very slow clump, clump, clump.
CURRENT MOOD: In love with my perfect round belly!! And loving that I keep feeling the baby move more and more all the time, and it’s so incredible to think that it’s a little person in there, it could be born right now and survive (with lots of help of course). I wonder how aware it is when it’s awake, what it sees, what it feels like in there. I also right now, because of how tight and stretched my belly feels even now, think this baby will be more likely to come early than late. I hope I don’t eat those words! But really, my body is having a hard time making room already – I feel like it’s going to expel this baby before 40 weeks! And it’s okay if it’s maybe up to two weeks early, we’ll be ready for it (by the beginning of October I want us to be 90% ready!) and then the baby wouldn’t be huge coming out (I’m starting to get nervous about labor now that it’s coming up in the very near future and I can’t put off thinking about it any longer!)! But I want the baby to stay in there and keep growing and developing until at least 38 weeks!
CURRENT FAVORITE FOOD OR CRAVING: I would have to say Skittles. Right now I love those things. I even went out to the drug store tonight partly to get cat food, partly to get Skittles. And sometimes I have a small craving/desire for fruit of some kind as well.
When I was at my parents’ cottage in Michigan last week, my family threw us a little baby shower!!! It was SO wonderful and so much fun, and I can’t stop looking at all the cute and soft and cuddly and fun and wonderful little presents we got! We now have lots of cute baby toys and books, sleep sacks, little shirts and onsies, super soft blankets, stuffed animals, some newborn diapers, a thermometer, baby wash and lotion and diaper rash cream, a soft snowsuit, a couple adorable little outfits, burp cloths, washcloths, pajamas, stuffed animals – oh so much and so many wonderful things, I’m so so so thankful for all their help and thoughtful gifts!! And my mom found the baby the cutest and most perfect first teddy bear ever, too! I also went shopping with my mom a couple times, it was so much fun being at Babies R Us with her, whereas whenever I’d go by myself I’d get completely overwhelmed and almost start crying numerous times (well I got overwhelmed once with my mom and started crying, but that’s way better than I’d been on my own!). My parents (and grandma, too!) were so wonderful and got us so many things – the cutest swing ever, a bouncer, a jumperoo, a play gym, bedding (yes, I found some bedding I liked enough and it has many wonderful colors in it that I can do lots with, so while it isn’t my ideal expensive set, or homemade set based off the expensive set, I’ve fallen in love with our new bedding!), bottles (3 brands so baby can choose which it likes best, once I start pumping), changing pad and covers, a tub and little water pourer, adorable little pacifiers, a mirror for the car, oh so many wonderful things! I feel so good now cause I feel like we have a start, and I was able to cross many things off the list of what we need to get, and I just feel so much more in control now and like we’re on our way! Oh and I also found the perfect and cutest little newborn sweater EVER!!! It’s going to be part of the baby’s take-home outfit, along with a onsie underneath, and I need to find soft little pants to go with it and some little socks! I love it!!! I’ll post a quick photo of the little sweater, it’s so tiny but looks so big in the photo!
So I think that’s all with the baby for now! Last week James had really bad diarrhea so I took him to the vet after a couple days, and a few hours after I brought him home he started going crazy, like he was possessed – licking himself, running like crazy, twitching, hiding, even involuntarily hissing, it was so awful to see and I was absolutely terrified. He ended up hiding in a closet for much of 24 hours, but one of these “episodes” would come now and then and he was so scared and so bothered and it was torture for me. It ended up being a severe itch probably in his little butt, and I’m thinking probably the result of the vet taking his temperature rectally (when his little butt was already so irritated from the diarrhea). About 24 hours after it first started, he started acting much more normal and came out of hiding and mostly out and around me, he’d still have some times when he’d start licking his little butt or tail like crazy and then he’d run and hide under a chair for awhile and I’d console him and also try to distract him with a toy. He kept getting better a little at a time, and had fewer compulsions to lick and seemed more like himself, I was soooooooo relieved. I’m still so relieved and so full of joy seeing him be himself, or having him cuddle with me. He still has the diarrhea, hopefully the antibiotics will start working soon. It was a really really really really really hard couple of days. I love my cats so much, I can’t possibly put it into words – they are my babies. It’s been a hard month pet-wise for me (Emma also had bad diarrhea at the beginning of last week, but hers went away by itself after a couple days, and one night last week Ferd ate a third of store-bought brownie that I left by the couch when I went to go the bathroom, so I was terrified that he’d start showing signs of chocolate poisoning and stayed awake most of the night watching him – luckily he was fine). I hope James’ diarrhea goes away soon and we have smooth sailing with our babies after this, it’s so mentally and emotionally all-encompassing for me when something is wrong with them.
p.s. Just as I finished writing this, I sneezed while sitting down and a little pee came out, hopefully not enough that I have to change my pants, but definitely my underwear. I’ll be getting the panty liner things this week. Sorry if TMI, but this is my update about my pregnancy, and that’s a part of it!
by Rebecca Whitney
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