Baby is now the size of:

Things have gotten a lot better this week than they were last week. My blood pressure has stabilized, at least for now, so no induction this week. I will admit to now feeling pretty overwhelmed. There is a lot to get done and not being able to control when/how this baby will be born stresses me out. I do know that says a lot about me but that’s where I am at. I was excited to finally get my hair done before baby gets here!

Sleep: Sleep is still sporadic but a little better now that I have switched up some medication. Acid reflux was keeping me up but now it seems to be under control (yay!)

Maternity clothes / preferred attire: The weather is finally turning here in Colorado so comfy maternity dresses and linen pants are staples. I am also really happy to be able to wear sandals as my feet seem to be perpetually hot.

Symptoms: I am feeling more and more achey in my hips, increasingly painful headaches and general tiredness.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: I have been focusing on iron rich foods to make sure that I am not low when I give birth as well as some foods that are supposed to help prep my body and maybe even help me go into labor.

Exercise: Mainly just walking, and probably not enough. I really should add in more prenatal yoga to help ease my aches.

Mood: Impatient.

Missing: Being able to carry Cannon without back pain and putting on shoes easily.

Best moments: Having Cannon help get his sister’s room ready, it’s so cute, he loves to help!

Worst moments: Headaches getting more and more intense and worrying about Preeclampsia. Luckily we are far enough along that all should be fine if I do have to be induced.

Buying: Lots of little things that we might need for baby girl like bibs and sweet little headbands.

Dreaming About: Having my family all home together. 

Baby is now the size of:

Less than a month to go (hopefully)! Baby feels big, people are starting to comment about “ready to pop” and everything hurts. I am trying to prepare myself for a very long month, I can’t wait to meet this little girl. I have gained about 25 pounds and I can feel every little bit of it. I am so glad that I am not going to be pregnant over the summer, my feet are already feeling too hot.

Sleep: Sleep is not going well, I wake up a lot and feel tired all the time. It feels like a cruel joke that when you are pregnant and when you have a new baby you can’t have much caffeine. I have never needed it more!

Maternity clothes / preferred attire:  Mostly maternity clothing, very little else fits at this point.

Symptoms: Acid reflux is getting really bad and hurting my sleep. I am also really starting to slow down and my body aches. I don’t have time to rest much during the day with running after Cannon and working so by the end of the day I am exhausted.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: Anything too acidic doesn’t sit well with me especially in the evenings so I have been avoiding them. A few weeks ago I had to give up kombucha and I have been missing it.

Exercise: Not much happening here and I feel bad about it. I would like to be at least walking and strength training a bit. But I am worried about this baby coming early so I have been poring my time into getting my classes ready for someone to step in if needed. It’s way more work to have someone else teach my classes then to do it myself.

Mood: Feeling so excited to meet this baby and to NOT be pregnant anymore but also wanting her to stay put and cook a little longer. Emotions are also swinging all over the place about Cannon not being my only baby anymore. I think he will be the best big brother ever but I worry that he will be sad that I don’t have as much attention.

Missing: Feeling human.

Best moments: Having Cannon lay his hand on my tummy and say his sisters name very sweetly.

Worst moments: Hearing that my blood pressure is creeping up and there are some proteins in my urine. I developed Preeclampsia with Cannon and was induced during my 39th week. I would really like to get to at least 38 weeks so it’s a little stressful. For now we are just keeping an eye on it.

Buying: All the things for the nursery.

Dreaming About: Bringing baby home and spending time as a family.

Baby is now the size of: 

Of all the weeks of fruit and vegetable comparisons this one seems the most on point. I do really feel like I have a kicking pineapple inside my belly.

Sleep: Sleep is getting worse, I wake up a lot and have a hard time getting comfortable. Getting up in the morning I feel like I am 90 years old. Everything hurts, I am limping and hunched over. Luckily after a few minutes things warm up, and I start to move a little better but I don’t look forward to going to bed, or waking up these days. I keep reminding myself that it won’t be too much longer.

Maternity clothes / preferred attire: There is a limited amount of clothing that I can choose from at this point. I try to think about the last time I wore something so I am not wearing the same shirt every time I go to story time with Cannon but really if it’s clean and fits I am wearing it. I have one pair of maternity jeans that are really comfortable and I am getting my moneys worth out of wearing them all the time (when not at work). I have also taken to wearing a lot of sandals even when the weather is a little questionable.

My feet have been getting hot really easily and putting sandals on is super easy.

Symptoms: Most of the same continuing plus some new pain in my hips, I googled sciatica in pregnancy this week.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: Lots of cravings for sweets and salads. I have also been craving lots of water, it seems like I can never get enough.

Exercise: Slowing down here, an hour or more of cardio just wipes me out for the day so I am sticking closer to 30-45 minutes and less weight in strength training.

Mood: Swinging from “it’s taking sooooooooo long” to “I have no time left!!!!”

Missing:  Feeling good, moving, running, picking up Cannon without pain and breathing.

Best moments: When Cannon gave my belly a hug and kiss. Getting to see Cannon egg hunt with his cousins for the first time and seeing his face when he got his “you’re going to be a big brother” gift.

Worst moments: Nothing that is the worst just more pain and difficulty sleeping.

Buying: All the non fun essentials for the hospital and postpartum. It’s time to get everything organized and start packing the hospital bags.

Dreaming About: Spending time as a family after baby comes home.

I wanted to write a post covering a day in the life on a day that I am not working on campus. It’s not that these days are so exciting or glamorous but I want to be able to remember what the days were like when it was just Cannon and me. This is also such a fun, sweet age, Cannon is so much fun to be around and really lights up my days.

This was a Monday and fairly typical for a day that I don’t go to work. The details may vary but this is a normal Cannon/Mommy day.

******************************************************************************************

4:30 AM My alarm goes off and I struggle to get up….getting up at anytime is a struggle for this 35+ weeks pregnant body. I change into some workout clothes and head downstairs for some coffee.

I can’t have much caffeine right now so it’s more about the habit of having coffee and I can pretend that it is helping me wake up. In the morning I usually try to do some type of strength training or yoga.

I workout until Cannon wakes up for the day.

5:30 AM – Cannon usually wakes up around 5:30, Cory and I switch off getting him up for the day, but often both end up in his room because we can’t wait to see him. Then it’s a whirlwind of diaper changes, getting dressed and heading downstairs for breakfast.

Cannon loves to eat multi grain cheerios, bananas, berries, oatmeal and waffles. He used to love eggs to but has been rejecting them lately, we keep trying though because you never know when he will change his mind again.

6:30 to 8:30 AM we play at home or run errands if we need to after Cory heads off to work. On this Monday we stayed home, played and I finished getting ready for the day.

9:00 – 11:00AM Cannon and I head to a friends house for a playdate. We have a fun group of mom and kids we like to get together with at least once a week to play. Cannon is just getting old enough to really enjoy playing with other kids and loves getting out of the house and around other people. He goes stir crazy really easy if we stay home too long.

11:00 – 11:30 AM we rush home to eat lunch, although Cannon loves to snack throughout the day so lunch usually isn’t much. After lunch we head upstairs to his room where we sit in his rocker, read a book and on most days he falls asleep in my arms. This is one of my favorite things. Cannon is go, go, go all day so it’s nice when he slows down to snuggle.

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM Most days Cannon naps between one and a half to two hours. During this time I will often eat lunch, clean up a little, respond to work emails or work on a blog post if I can. While I LOVE spending the day with Cannon nap time does go by in a flash, it feels more like 15 minutes. This is really the one part of the day that I actually get to sit down.

1:30 PM – 2:00 PM When Cannon wakes up we have a snack, play a little and get ready to head out to the Rec Center.

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM Cannon loves going to the child sitting at our local Rec Center. I started taking him there when he was about 14 months old and he did cry at drop off then (talk about mom guilt!) but now he loves the women who work there and walks in without even thinking to give me a hug. I use the time that he is playing with other kiddos to get in a workout. Right now that looks like about an hour walking hills on the treadmill or elliptical.

4:00 – 4:30 We rush home to meet Cory who usually gets home from work around 4:30.

4:30 – 5:30 We play at home and Cannon usually helps Cory get dinner ready.

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM We eat dinner together before taking taking Cannon upstairs for a bath.

After bath, it’s pajamas and story time

Then one of us cuddles Cannon and puts him down for the night where Cannon usually sleeps all the way to the next morning.

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM After Cannon goes to bed is my main work time. I park myself on the couch with the monitor so I can watch Cannon sleep and laptop for most of the evening.

This schedule doesn’t leave much if any time for me to clean our house or get other things done that I would like to but it does allow me to teach 3/4 time and spend much more time with Cannon than when I worked full time so I can’t complain too much.

9:00 PM I head up to get ready for bed, I am usually exhausted and fall asleep fast.

Soon this schedule will be turned on it’s head by the addition of a little sister.

Baby is now the size of:

Yyup…I do feel like I have almost five pounds of butternut squash baby inside of me. Baby is getting SOOOOOO big, I am really not sure where I am going to put her if she gets any bigger. In good news I am FINALLY over the cold that I had been suffering from for almost a month =) I am super late this week getting this update posted, so much to do, so little time!

Sleep: Sleep isn’t too bad….I do still have to get up a couple times a night to go to the bathroom and wake up to roll over, which is an event these days. Then there are the times I wake up with sharp pains in the belly. But it could be worse, I haven’t had any leg cramps so I am happy about that.

Maternity clothes / preferred attire: Yup…..all the time. And I am starting to wonder if all my maternity clothes are going to make it to the end.

Symptoms: I have been really thirsty and digging ice water again. I have also been super tired and getting body aches.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: Not too many cravings or aversions I just seem to go from sooooooo hungry to overfull quickly!

Exercise: Same as the last few weeks, I am wondering how much longer I will even be able to keep up with my current schedule or if I will just go into labor at the Rec Center.

Mood: Pretty good overall but I get irritated easily and I am for sure getting over this pregnancy part. Trying (and mostly failing) at trying to enjoy the last bit of likely my last pregnancy.

Missing: Wine, running, breathing, carrying Cannon without pain, normal clothes.

Best moments: Getting to cheer my mom on to her age group win at a local 5k, she was even slowed down by running with her Golden Doodle Tucker who took first dog.

Worst moments: Not pregnancy related, but hating all the bad news lately. I was really upset to see the story about the sweet puppy who died on a United flight. The puppy was a French Bulldog, I have been hugging Huphry a little tighter and vowing to never fly with him if at all possible.

 

Buying: We have been shopping for a rocker for the nursery and think that we finally have landed on something we both like.

Unfortunately it won’t be this rocker that we really loved because Babies R Us is going out of business and we can’t order it.

Dreaming About: Holding my little girl and smelling her sweet newborn smell.

Baby is now the size of:

33 weeks pregnant! The weeks are flying by and crawling at the same time. I am still (STILL!) a little sick. I talked to my Midwife about being sick for over three weeks on Friday and she said it was just because I am pregnant and have very little immune system. I am getting better but sooooooo slowly. I am not coughing like I was last week which is a big improvement but I still have crud in my lungs and am congested. One day at a time…..

Sleep: Sleep has not been great and I feel tired and sleep deprived all the time. I am sure this will be the story of my life for at least the next six months.

Maternity clothes / preferred attire: YUP! most of the time I am in full maternity wear and feeling kind of sick of it. I do still wear some pants that have drawstring waists (jogger and linen pants) under the pump. But most of my normal tops are stretched too far to be seen in public. This bump feels super “in your face” at this point.

Symptoms: I have been having some of the “there’s no room left!” symptoms. A couple of times I have felt the third trimester nausea. I think this is mainly due to the fact that my stomach has no room and it’s hard to digest anything. I have been trying to eat smaller amounts more often.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: Not too many aversions but I do have a strong sweet tooth.

Exercise: Trying to keep up with my exercise but it is getting harder, my body often feels achey. I need to try to incorporate more yoga and stretching.

Mood: Is tired a mood?

Missing: Feeling good or at least normal.

Best moments: Getting to hear baby’s heart beat and hear everything is on track at my doctors appointment

Worst moments: Not really pregnancy related but Cannon fell on his face pretty hard on Friday and was really upset about it. I hate when he is hurt, it’s so awful.

Buying: We finally bought the baby car seat and basses for both of our cars, as well as an upgraded seat for Cannon in Cory’s car.

Dreaming About: Taking baby girl out to Oregon this summer to meet the ocean and see Cannon play on the beach.

This week flew by and I am excited it is Friday! I am looking forward to spending time as a family, cleaning up the house and working on some projects that will get us closer to being ready for baby’s arrival. Some of my favorites for the week are:

Tom vs Time – On Facebook. I am not a big Tom Brady fan, but I have been watching a lot of videos on my phone while at the gym. I found the Tom Vs. Time video series pretty interesting while passing the time on the treadmill.

MD LIVE – MD Live is a great resource that anyone can use. My insurance covers the use of MD Live so talking to a doctor only cost me $5 this week! I have been fighting a cold for over three weeks and I woke up last Thursday morning at 2:30 AM with sinus pain so bad I couldn’t fall back asleep. I didn’t really have time to get an appointment with a local doctor and I can’t take medication to relieve the symptoms so I was desperate to talk to a doctor quickly. I signed in to MD Live, described my symptoms and gave a little information about my medical history. In about 15 minutes I received a call from a doctor (you can choose video or phone conference). After talking over my symptoms

Burts Bees Protein Powder – When I took my glucose test a few weeks back my iron came back a little low so I have been trying to increase the amount of iron in my diet. One thing I have been trying to include is a green smoothie a day.  I wanted a really natural and healthy protein powder and have really liked Burt’s Bees new line of protein powder.

 

WhatPod’s list of running podcasts – I LOVE listening to podcasts and it’s always great finding new ones to dig into. What Pod’s list of running podcasts is a great way to find some new ones to add to your list, most of my favorites are on the list as well as a few new ones that I am excited about.

Happy Weekend everyone!

Baby is now the size of:

Baby is now the size of a squash…..at least it’s true that I feel squashed. I feel like my belly is big, but also feeling excited that I am getting close to the end and not minding as much that the belly leads me into every room.

Sleep: Sleep is still not great but better than the last couple weeks. I am still fighting this stupid cold so coughing will sometimes keep me up and I did have a shin cramp, but it was so much less painful than the calf cramp from last week.

Maternity clothes / preferred attire: The weather has been typical late winter for Colorado and all over the place. Fairly warm one day, and blustery and freezing the next. The warm days have been so nice because I have been able to wear more of my maternity clothes from when I was pregnant with Cannon. So nice to be able to break out the dresses and linen pants.

Symptoms:  I am so so so happy that I haven’t had much swelling yet! I don’t recall when I started having swelling in my hands and feet with Cannon, I wish I had kept better records. I do recall my feet swelling so bad that they didn’t even look human after a short flight at 33 weeks pregnant. I also remember my wedding rings not fitting pretty early on and this time I can still wear them (WIN!) fingers crossed that this trend continues. Other than that, symptoms are similar to what they have been in previous weeks.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: I haven’t had many cravings or aversions, just trying to eat fairly healthy. I do think I am having more sugar cravings than normal, I should work on reigning those in.

Exercise: I actually feel great when I exercise even with this big belly, I even ran a little last week. The congestion and gunk (technical term) in my lungs have made things difficult but I am still moving most days a week, even if it’s just walking.

Mood: Feeling frustrated about still being sick, I just want to feel normal again. But I am also feeling really really excited about getting to meet my little girl and hold her.

Missing: Running, breathing, getting up without grunting, playing with Cannon with ease.

Best moments: This week the best moments were just spending time outside as a family of three, I know these moments are fleeting.

Worst moments: Waking up with the worst sinus pain I have ever had, at least it was only in one sinus. I was able to talk to my doctor and get antibiotics by the end of the day. The pain was cleared up within 24 hours so I was grateful for that.

Buying: We didn’t buy too much this week but we are trying to get ourselves organized and get a list of what we really need. It’s time to get real about all the practical things (newborn diapers, diaper pail, changing pad, etc) that we need to welcome baby girl home.

Dreaming About: What life will be like as a family of four.