Christmas

What a fun Christmas weekend. It involved lots of family time (both mine and Nick's family), opening of many presents (some we asked for, some were a surprise), and lots of happiness. I love Christmas! I can't wait to bring up our baby girl into our family. She will be loved and adored by all.

29 week update

Christmas is almost here! Only 4 more days! Rachel and the kids are in town. My, how they grow! When I was little, I used to roll my eyes when family members would always tell me how much I've grown. Now I know what they are talking about! Today, my mom, Rachel, Izzie, Lexi, and I are going to the Nutcracker. It is a gret Christmas tradition to really get me uber excited for the holiday (like I need more reasons to be excited). Also exciting- I am 29 weeks along! Approximately 11 more weeks!
How far along? 29 weeks
Total Weight gain/loss? So embarrassing. If it wasn't for the fact that I am growing a (hopefully)healthy baby, I would be bummed for the 30 pound weight gain so far. Waaaaaaah!! My goal is to be one of the moms that takes full advantage of nursing and losing the weight rapidly.
Maternity Clothes? My work maternity clothes were cheaper than normal, so that explains why they are starting to lose their form. Oh well. I only have to make them last for 11 more weeks.
Stretch Marks? Just out of sight from anyone to see, and not too bad.
Sleep? I will never get it again, but I would love a full night of uninterrupted sleep.
Best moment this week? Rachel and family coming to town! I am glad she will be here until after New Years.
Movement? All the time... except when I am trying to have other people feel her move.. then she ends up staying still. It's almost like she is shy alreay.
Food cravings? Things I'm not supposed to eat: cheese, sour cream, etc.
Anything making you queasy/sick? The smell of boiled or steamed vegetables (like brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, etc).
Belly button in or out? Almost flat.
Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy Happy Happy!
Looking forward to: Christmas!

29 week photo

Here is a wonderful bathroom photo of me at 29 weeks. I feel like baby "Z" is big enough to come out, but I know she still has at least 9-10 weeks left to go.

Temporary bed rest

Lower pelvic pain is normal for pregnant women. Your body has to do some stretching in order to accomodate the growing baby. When I went into my doctor's appointment on 12/15, I found out that my all-day pain was not normal. The doctor instantly put me on temporary bed rest until test results came back to ensure nothing was wrong. Luckily, the test results came back fine, but the doctor did say that I needed to take things easy. I guess I am always on the go and I need to slow down. Working from home on Friday did help with the pain. Taking it easy the rest of the weekend by sitting down a lot and baking cookies with my neighbor has made it so I feel much better for the last work week of the year.

28 week update

Hello all! It has been 28 weeks of being pregnant and I have officially started my 3rd trimester. My pregnancy has been fairly easy without any major issues. As I am getting bigger, I'm starting to feel like these last 12 weeks are going to be quite a challenge. We still have yet to set up the crib and other baby stuff, but it is on the to-do list during the holidays. We have been going to labor prep classes. I know what to do during labor, but I am still quite frightened of the actual birthing. :( Now for my update
How far along? 28 weeks
Total Weight gain/loss? I will know today at 2.
Maternity Clothes? It looks like I will have to start wearing some balloon shirts!
Stretch Marks? Still good on that!
Sleep? Sleep has been scarce and interrupted. She is active all night long.
Best moment this week? totally completed holiday shopping. I love seeing all the Christmas lights everywhere and I am officially listening to Christmas music 24/7!
Movement? All the time! It's pretty cool but it makes it uncomfortable to sit or stand for too long.
Food cravings? Loving oatmeal frosted dippers from Trader Joe's.
Anything making you queasy/sick? The smell of boiled or steamed vegetables (like brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, etc). It reminds me of cafeteria vegetables in elementary school. Yuck!
Belly button in or out? Almost flat.
Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy except when I'm driving, then I turn into a monster!
Looking forward to: The hospital tour today then making Christmas goodies with my neighbor! Tis the season!

Haircut

I went to the hair school in San Mateo to get a haircut. For $5, I got a bob haircut. It is a bit shorter than I preferred, but the great thing about hair, is it GROWS! I hope it will be the perfect length by the time baby comes.

We have a gymnast

This weekend was enjoyable. I woke up on Saturday morning and decided I wanted to weed and clear the garden of all pine tree needles. I never want to garden, but something that day just made me think about it when I woke up. It took me 3+ hours and 3 large black bags to clean all the damage from the wind storms we had last week. Although I had back pain, I was quite proud of the job I did.
At night, it has been really cool to lay down and watch my stomach do a bunch of weird movements. Baby "Z"s movements are no long slight kicks and punches, but rather rolling around and moving her knee or elbow across the circumference of my belly. This can also be named "shark fin". It is pretty cool but really weird. I analyzed my feelings on being pregnant this weekend... It has not been a hard pregnancy thus far and I am really looking forward to being the mother of baby "Z", but I really don't care for pregnancy. It's a whole lot of "don't"s... "Don't eat deli meat", "don't lie on your back", "don't eat too much but still eat more", "don't lift heavy things", etc. I am looking forward to not being pregnant so I won't have to be scared of doing things. I hate restrictions! :(

27 weeks

The last week of my second trimester. How time flies! I feel like there is so much to get done, but I need to remind myself to take it easy!
How far along? 27 weeks
Total Weight gain/loss? It's not like I'm avoiding the scales, it's just I'm not actively seeking out where I can find one. I will know my weight when I go to the doctor's next week. I am pretty scared.
Maternity Clothes? It would seem that my butt is growing as fast as my belly. I only fit in one out of the 7 maternity jeans I own. Looks like I need to do some shopping.
Stretch Marks? None that I can see.
Sleep? I have started to wake up in the middle of the night again to go to the bathroom. I have also been waking up around 5 AM each day because she starts kicking and punching. Once I'm awake, my brain starts firing up, wondering what I need to do for the day.
Best moment this week? Getting a mani/pedi with Sarah. I now have sparkly Christmas red on my fingernails and toenails. Yay Christmas!
Movement? As listed in my previous post, she gave me a big gut wrencher when she turned over. That was short-lived pain, but quite intense. Other than that, she is a very active girl. I haven't had to stress about feeling "10 kicks within an hour", as they suggest in the baby books. She does all 10 kicks within minutes!
Food cravings? Peppermint everything. Peppermint hot cocoa, peppermint pretzels, etc. I used to hate peppermint when I wasn't pregnant, now I can't get enough.
Anything making you queasy/sick? The smell of boiled or steamed vegetables (like brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, etc). It reminds me of cafeteria vegetables in elementary school. Yuck!
Belly button in or out? Almost flat.
Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy Happy Happy! I love the Christmas season! The music, decorations, etc.
Looking forward to: Our parenting class tonight. The class will teach us about labor relaxation techniques, best way to change diapers, sleeping techniques, etc. Nick states he's looking forward to the class as well. I have such an awesome husband!

Monumental pain

Quite a header, huh? Last night, while laying down and feeling her kick, I was happy to know that the "10 kicks in one hour" I'm supposed to feel I felt within 45 seconds. She was quite active. While I was reading my magazine, I suddenly yelped out in pain. What I believe happened was baby Z completely rolled over while jutting her legs into my stomach towards my back. My stomach felt overly stretched and the pain took my breath away. I know this is common, but I didn't know it would be so intense! Guess I have this to look forward to over the next 13 weeks!
I am scheduled to leave on maternity leave on February 24th. It seems like it's far away, but then I analyze that it's been 7 weeks since we found out the gender and it just feels like last week. The busy body in me has started breaking down my daily work tasks onto a Word document so that the person covering me while I'm gone will (hopefully) not have any issues wondering what to do.