Maternity Pictures!

Our maternity pictures are finally up on our photographer's blog!  You can see them all here.

Here are some of my favorites:

Hump Day Bump Day

Here is my picture from last Sunday, at 34 weeks!  I was dressed up for church, where our friends' little girl Bridget was baptized!  Such a sweet occasion.

I guess there are only about 6 more of these left, huh?  So crazy! 

Another Milestone: 35/35!

I can't believe it...time keeps marching on and I blink my eyes and I'm 35 weeks pregnant with only 35 days to go!  Or 35/35 as we like to abbreviate on The Bump :)  Annnd, I only have 18 work days left!  Wow!  My boss and the person who will be taking over for me while I'm gone are coming tomorrow - it's really getting real now.  Craziness!  Oh, and did I mention that there is also a carseat in my car?  Yep!  Things are totally getting real over here.  I can hardly believe it.

Here's my update (or bumpdate as some of my fellow bloggers call it):

How far along?: 35 weeks, 35 days to go!

How big is baby?: Baby is about 20 inches and continues her steady weight gain (she’s about 5.5 pounds). While she won't get much longer, she will continue to pack on the pounds — including large amounts of baby fat — right up 'til delivery day. Something else that's moving at a mind-boggling pace these day: fetal brain development! There’s a lot going on inside that tiny head, which is, by the way, still soft to allow an easier exit through the birth canal.

Any appointments or updates this week?: No doctors appointments this week, but we did have an appointment to view our maternity pictures!  They turned out amazing, I was in tears looking at them all.  I can't wait to share them once we get them from the photographer!  Tonight we have a breastfeeding class at the hospital and next week we start the child birth classes. 

Body changes?: Nothing really new, everyone is commenting on the bump though and how I don't have much time left!

Maternity clothes?:  Oh yeah.  I've been sticking to dresses mostly because pants are just too uncomfortable with my size plus the heat.

Best moment last week?:  Getting to view our maternity photos.  I didn't expect to get so emotional...everything just hit me that this is really happening (silly, I know!).  We are so blessed.

Food cravings?:  I've been majorly craving sweets like ice cream, chocolate and candy but I'm trying my best to avoid them from now until delivery day.  I find that I can do it if I stick to eating fruit so that I can still have some sweet tasting food and avoid ALL desserts.  The other day I had some bad stuff (flan and cake) and then it made the cravings get a lot worse. 

Symptoms?:  Still swelling, some back aches from sitting at my desk all day.

Exercise?: Walking and doing some stretches

What I miss?:  Totally vain moment here: getting to wear my cute summer clothes.  All my maternity stuff just makes me feel so frumpy!

What I'm looking forward to?: Getting to hold my baby in my arms, I just can't wait. - Yep, still this!

Memorial Weekend Babymoon

When I was in the first trimester, going on a babymoon seemed like a really dumb thing to do.  Why would I want to be away from the comforts of home while I was pregnant?  I was afraid that my nauseousness and constantly feeling bad would last for the whole time I was pregnant.

Then I hit second tri and I felt like myself again!  A trip sounded like an awesome idea but Art had not asked for any time off because of my previous adamant feelings not to go anywhere.  So we couldn't pull anything together until this past weekend, and we weren't even sure if that would happen.  It was all very last minute.

Our babymoon was just two days, one night but it was very luxurious - Art booked us a room at one of the nicest hotels in town!  It was a stay-cation since we didn't have much time.  We arrived in the afternoon with plans to enjoy the pool and amenities and go to dinner.  We had a dinner reservation at 8:30pm, the only time we could get on such short notice.  Once we arrived we found out why - they were having fireworks at 9pm.  We briefly considered changing our dinner plans but decided that having a nice romantic dinner trumped watching fireworks. 

We got settled into our room, which was beautiful, with a balcony and a nice view of a lake.  Then we made our way down to the pool and ordered some drinks (virgin mojito for me, pina colada for Art) and relaxed.  The weather was great and the pool felt so nice.  We stuck around there for a few hours before making our way back to our room to get ready for dinner.  I thought that 8:30pm would be too late to eat but it ended up working out pretty well because we had plenty of pool time and didn't have to rush getting ready.

For dinner, we ate at Norman's, their nicest restaurant on property.  Art and I love eating at nice places when we can get away with it, especially somewhere that we have never been before.  The dinner was so delicious, we were served this amazing bread (yeah, it's just bread but I swear it was sooo good, we both couldn't stop eating it).  Next course was a salad, followed by an empanadas appetizer.  Our main courses of course were so yummy.  I got the yellow tail snapper, which was very fresh and cooked perfectly.  Art got a pork dish that he loved.  For dessert, I chose one that had a chocolate truffle, chocolate cake and ice cream.  Yummm!!!

Here is us from after dinner:

The next day we went back to the pool and relaxed again for a few hours before it was time to leave.  Even though it was a very short babymoon it was much needed for both of us.  We came home feeling happy and reconnected again.  It's hard to believe that it was probably our last trip as just the two of us!  Reality is starting to sink in that our little girl will be here soon!

Hump Day Bump Day x3!

Since I've been slacking on my bump pictures lately, I decided to get all caught up and share them all with you today!  Here we go...this is me at 31 weeks, back on May 12th (I think this was an after church picture):

Next up, my favorite, a hot mama picture!  My friend loaned me this sexy little black dress, you can really see my belly in it!  This was from a night out to dinner at our favorite Italian place at 32 weeks:

And finally, the most recent "Oh-crap-we-forgot-to-take-my-picture" picture, from Monday night.  Please don't judge me for the lack of makeup and messy hair.  I guess this one is capturing that tired third tri look, lol:

So there you go!  Happy Hump Day Bump Day!

34 Weeks

Wow, another week down!  Sorry I never put up an official 33 week update, and for slacking on the picture posting.  There has been a lot of stuff going on lately and I haven't been on my computer at home that much.

So, backing up to last week, I had a really good prenatal appointment with my doula, Cynthia.  She showed me some exercises to do that will help open up my hips and get the baby into a good position, and also encouraged me to keep doing my Kegels (I've been so bad about remembering to do them!).  She also wants me to go for a walk every day and make sure that I'm eating right.  I told her about my little sugar habit addiction and she challenged me to cut out sugar from now until the baby comes.  I told her about how it's kind of my last indulgence now that I can't have caffeine or alcohol and she reminded me that I only have 6 weeks left and that the more sugar I eat, the bigger baby will get, and that means a bigger baby to have to deliver! GULP.  Okay, I can do this.  So starting today, I'm going to try.

She also talked to me about the importance of good posture and not reclining right now, because it can encourage the baby into a sunny-side up position, which makes delivery harder.  So I've been trying hard to work on all of these things we talked about.  I also got an exercise ball, which Art blew up for me yesterday.  I have to figure out how to use it, so that's on the agenda for this week. 

I will update more tomorrow on our holiday weekend and all that fun stuff :)  For now, here's the 34 week rundown:

How far along?: 34 Weeks, only 42 days to go!

How big is baby?: Your baby now weighs about 5 1/2 lbs. and is 18 1/2 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well.   Three more weeks and she will be considered full term!  Babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

Any appointments or updates this week?: I had a quick 34 week check up today, and everything looked great.  I go back in two weeks.

Body changes?: Definitely lots of swelling in my hands and feet, especially with being outdoors so much over the weekend.  

Maternity clothes?:  Yep, my maternity swim suit has been getting used even more than I thought it would!

Best moment last week?:  Getting maternity pictures taken, celebrating my mom's birthday and going on a mini babymoon with Art over the weekend

Food cravings?:  Sweets, sweets, sweets!  I am going to try hard to satisfy those with fruit though, instead of my usual candy and ice cream.

Symptoms?:  Having to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes!

Exercise?: I went for two really good walks, I pushed myself as hard as I could.  I also went swimming a few times.

What I miss?:  My old body (being 100% honest/selfish here).  I've been getting more and more uncomfortable lately.

What I'm looking forward to?: Getting to hold my baby in my arms, I just can't wait. 

Another day, another breakdown (or, why hormones suck)

I want to apologize in advance, because this is going to be more of a vent-y post than usual.

I'm on day two of having a mini-meltdown as soon as my husband gets home from work.  After yesterday's occurance I swore that today would be better.  After all, yesterday was a really crazy day.  I had to get to work extra early for a customer event that started at 7am.  Then we had a big important meeting from 4-6pm with a bunch of people that I had to try to make small talk with (ie. I was a little intimidated and very worn out at the end of it).  Then I went straight from there to a class at the hospital on epidurals.  I didn't get home until around 8:30, after having to stop to get gas for my car and realizing that our Costco membership was expired. (Costco has great gas prices!  Too bad I had to go renew my membership first).

So anyway, I chalked yesterday's cry fest up to the fact that I was exhausted in more ways than one.  Oh, did I mention that I didn't sleep well the night before either?  Well, I didn't.

Today seemed to be going better for most of the day!  I had to get up even earlier for another customer event, since this one was farther away, but I went to bed earlier.  Plus after the event I just went to the office, no meetings.  After getting home I did meet with our awesome new doula (I will update about that soon, I promise!) but that was fun and actually stress-relieving.

Then a couple of things set me off, and as soon as Art got home I was bawling like a baby.  I just can't seem to pull myself together these days.  It's so upsetting because I am normally great at just sucking it up and swallowing my feelings.  Maybe it's better to let it all out, but it sure doesn't feel like I am being the strong person that I want to be.  Not to mention that I hate burdening him with this.  I hope that I can come to terms with my feelings/hormones soon...and that tomorrow night hopefully I won't be having another breakdown.