28 Weeks Pregnant: 3rd Trimester!

Welcome to the THIRD TRIMESTER!!!

I am nesting like crazy. Last night we went to Aldi after our midwife appointment, got home around 6:00, ate dinner, and then I CLEANED. I was still scrubbing the bathtub to death at 10:30 PM.

I have so much to catch you up on that I feel like it’s been a month since last week’s blog.

Norah should be about 15 inches long from head to toe and weigh about 2 ½ pounds. She can partially open and blink her eyes, and she experiences REM sleep. I’m feeling increasingly more connected to her every time she moves. It’s still hard for me to figure out what position she is in, though. I can tell if something is a kick or a punch, but I don’t know which, and I can tell when something feels like an elbow or knee, but I can’t tell the difference between those, either. Sometimes I can tell where her head is, but not often.

I had a midwife appointment yesterday, which is why I waited to do the blog. I’m measuring right at 28 weeks, so it seems as though Norah had a growth spurt (I was measuring a week behind at the last appointment)! I also weighed more than I thought: 131.5 pounds. As you know, a week ago I weighed 128.5, according to the Wii Fit. The heartbeat was very loud this time! Amy first felt around to figure out what position the baby was in. She couldn’t tell for sure, but it seemed to her like Norah’s head was down and her back was along my left side. Knowing that, she was able to optimally position the Doppler. It sounded like little submarine blips instead of swishes. The heart rate was around 150, with some variability since she was moving around, which is a good thing.

I mentioned to Amy our plans to travel to Pennsylvania this June, which I am now realizing I had not yet mentioned to you! I have either interned or taught at a music camp up there almost every summer since I was old enough – so probably nine or ten years. I was going to forego it this time, but it starts about a week later than I thought, so after some consideration I decided to go for it. We could really use the money. Besides, they are in the process of hiring Travis to do some art/writing classes as well, so it will really be worth making the trip. We plan to drive up and stay at my mom’s house, and she is happy to baby-sit while we are gone from 7:30 to 12:30 each day for the three week duration of the program.

Anyway, we brought this up to Amy, and she seemed a little bit concerned. The camp begins on June 13^th, and there is a possibility that Norah could make her appearance as late as May 29^th or thereabouts. She suggested that at 36 weeks I begin taking a hormone balancing supplement called 5-W (or W-5? I’m trying to Google it and I’m getting nothing…). The way she explained it is that it will not induce labor, but it brings your hormones to optimal levels for the labor process to begin on its own when your body is ready. Travis and I haven’t really discussed it yet, but I think I’m on board with that plan. Amy said they usually give it to mothers who have a history of going late, and they’ve had good outcomes with it.

My next appointment will be at 32 weeks, and after that I will go in every two weeks! I think after 36 weeks I will be going every week. I can’t believe we’re already that close. I can’t wait to meet our daughter!

The Bradley class is going really well, and I’m enjoying it a lot. This week we talked a lot about comfort measures, both for the rest of pregnancy and for labor. She gave us some really helpful advice for all kinds of pregnancy ailments, including lower back pain, which is becoming my biggest complaint. I think it’s a common one. I’m excited to try some of her suggestions. They mostly involve Travis using a sheet or a long piece of fabric to pull on my feet or pull up on my belly, etc. It’s kind of hard to explain – I guess you had to be there. J Travis drew little pictures of everything so we would remember what to do.

Mary said that next week’s class will be mostly geared toward the husbands to teach them how to be good labor coaches. I’m looking forward to that!!!

Aargh! I need to hurry this up or I won’t be able to finish before my lessons!

Valentine’s Day: we made cheese fondue! It was amazing. We went to The Fresh Market (we NEVER EVER shop there), which was a fun trip…Travis likes their free coffee samples. J Anyway, that’s one of the few places you can find Emmenthaler and Gruiere (I probably spelled both of those wrong) cheeses. And they’re expensive, but fondue is pretty much a once-a-year treat for us, so we splurged. Yum!

Then I made a surprise dessert for Travis:

Heart-shaped brownies with raspberry puree. Oh. Heaven. Travis found this amazing brownie recipe maybe a year ago, and it’s all we’ve used since. They’re very rich and dark and dense. If you want the recipe, Google Alton Brown Brownie Recipe. The puree was just raspberries and a little bit of sugar (it said super fine, so I just used confectioner’s) blended until smooth. You can strain out the seeds if you want. Oh, by the way, I always bake the brownies in a larger pan than the recipe calls for. Otherwise I think they’re too thick.

Ok, here we go:

Making Room for Norah

This week I tackled the coat closet;

(Before) (After)

And our bedroom closet.

(Before) (After)

It's not amazing, but you can walk into it now!!!

I also got a lot done on Norah’s closet, which I’m so excited about! It’s coming together really fast! I’m not showing you till I’m done, though!

Last, but certainly not least, we had two baby showers this past weekend! They were both amazing, and we so appreciate everyone taking time out of their weekend to have fun with us and shower us with gifts for baby Norah! Here are some pictures from Saturday’s shower, which was at my sister Laurie’s house.

My mom knitted these! There is a matching hoodie, too!

Travis had to guess the flavor of baby food!

The other shower was on Sunday with another expectant couple from our church. It was themed “The Baby G Shower” because both babies have “G” last names! It was super fun, and we had lots of yummy food! Sadly, I don’t have any pictures from that one…maybe someone will email me a few? J

I wanted to tell you about some of the stuff we got, but the list would be way too long! We got literally everything we registered for except for maybe two or three things, which we can buy with gift cards, and we got some super cute outfits, and a few handmade things which we love…the list goes on! We are so grateful! We even got a couple of great cloth diapers, as well as gift cards towards the ones we plan to order. Oh, I can’t wait to do that! I’m ordering a batch as soon as GoGreen Pocket Diapers restocks their diapers in a week or two.

Ok, I could just keep rambling on and on, but I have to go!!! I hope you are having a great week!

27 Weeks Pregnant

Welcome to the end of my second trimester – already! I am officially 6 months pregnant. I guess the division between second and third trimester is sometime between 27 and 28 weeks, so…tomorrow-ish? It’s going so fast!

My end-of-trimester stats:

Weight: 128.5 lbs.

Belly measurement (all the way around – not vertically like the midwife does): 36 1/8”

My pre-pregnancy weight was 112, and waist measurement was 26”, but I’m not sure if I was measuring it in the same spot back then. At 13 weeks (end of the first trimester) I was 113 lbs, and the biggest part of my belly was 31.5”.

Norah is still approximately eggplant-sized. Her lungs and immune system are maturing, and her eyes can sense light. They should start to open this week or next. I’m getting more and more anxious to meet her!

I forgot to say last week that my dad finally got to feel a few little kicks! Usually she isn’t very active when we’re over there visiting, so he had been waiting a long time! He felt her again the other day, and Travis’s sister Rachel felt a few kicks yesterday. J Travis and I are still the only ones who have felt the really strong kicks, though. Sometimes I feel her on opposite sides at the same time – I think she’s kicking with both feet and her head moves up simultaneously. It’s weird.

Travis has been sick for nearly two weeks now! Last week he had some mild thing that was mostly just making him tired and headachy. Then, just as he was starting to feel better, he picked up something worse. He refuses to miss work since it throws off his class schedule, so he’s been toughing it out and taking lots of Theraflu. L He also still hasn’t found out about Teacher of the Year yet! He thought they were going to announce it almost a week ago.

I was really tired all the time last week, probably from fighting off whatever Travis has. Luckily I haven’t gotten it so far. I’ve been taking zinc supplements every day (zinc stops viruses from growing, so if you start taking it when you think you might get sick, it’s really effective). Anyway, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped with my pregnancy exercises, but I did more than I usually do, so it’s fine as long as I keep increasing everything gradually.

We talked a lot more about nutrition at yesterday’s class. I did really well with my protein goals. I was supposed to try for at least 70 grams per day, and there were only two days when I was a little below that. Most days I was around 100, and my highest was 107.8. A study done by a Dr. Tom Brewer years and years ago showed that pre-eclampsia (toxemia) in pregnant women was ELIMINATED when women ate at least 70 grams of protein a day, plus as much salt as they wanted. A lack of salt can cause low blood volume, which in turn causes other negative effects, including a higher risk of hemorrhage after birth.

We learned about avoiding certain toxins that are commonly found in foods, such as some artificial colors, lead, nitrates, aluminum, saccharin, and many more. We also spent a lot of time learning about different nutrients and their importance in pregnancy. For example, vitamin C strengthens the amniotic sac, lowering the risk of PROM (premature rupture of membranes), after which premature birth cannot be prevented. Anyway, it’s interesting stuff.

At the end of class, we all got on the floor with pillows and blankets and practiced relaxing. J Mary, the instructor, led us in a guided meditation. We are supposed to practice this every day. No complaints here! I was so sleepy afterward.

We haven’t really celebrated Valentine’s Day yet. We exchanged gifts yesterday, but are waiting to have our cheese fondue dinner until Travis is feeling better. I didn’t get anything big for Travis. The main thing was a set of dinosaur cookie cutters, which sounds silly, but if you know Travis it makes sense. (We recently ordered a cheap-o umbrella stroller from Amazon with cute dinosaur print, not so much for Norah as for her daddy.)

Travis got Norah and me each a half a dozen roses: pink for her, white for me. (I don’t mind that they’re not red. Travis thought white and pink looked better together than red and pink, and I tend to agree.) He also got Norah a cute little rubber ducky with a temperature sensor on the bottom, and one of those pillows that velcros together to look like a dog when you’re not using it. He said I can use it until she’s big enough for it, so that’s the one I brought to class last night. J He also got me a big canister of trail mix (mostly nuts, to help with my protein intake) and a bar of dark chocolate (my favorite thing in the world).

Lastly, my progress on the house this week. I think from now on I’ll call this section…

Making Room for Norah

The fun thing I did was use the Paint program to depict Norah’s closet and changing table and map out where I plan to put things, as shown below:

Currently, the closet looks like this:

It really won’t be too much work. I just have to empty it out and put a shelf above the lower rod. I’m hoping to stop by Home Depot later today or tomorrow to get them to cut one for me (and pay using one of those gift cards we found!).

The other thing Travis and I did was go through all of our clothes. Yesterday I spent hours rearranging things in our closet (which I can’t show you yet, because I’m still not done) and bagging up an unbelievable amount of clothes, which I then took to Goodwill. When I say “unbelievable,” I mean Travis got rid of 46 shirts and 10 pairs of pants (many of which had been sitting in the attic for a couple of years), and I got rid of 29 tops, 7 pairs of pants, and 2 dresses. Truly unbelievable, especially considering we had just done this around the time we got married and cleared out a similar amount then. Here are a couple of pictures:

Hopefully I’ll keep making progress this week! I think I will – I’m feeling pretty motivated (read: nesty).

I’ll see you in trimester three!