Paint The Barn Red: weekly baby bumpdate / 29 weeks

I'm taking this kid to the county fair and I'm going to win the blue ribbon for the Biggest Basketball Grown in One Week.

29 WEEK INTERVIEW

How far along?

29 weeks and 6 days!

Baby's size?

Baby is about the size of a butternut squash at 15 inches long and 2 and a half pounds!

Not sure if baby is the size of a squash, or if the baby is squashing me...

Also, butternut is one of the best words ever. I could say it all day long and never tire of its melodious sound. Butter.Nut.

"You butter nut pout I'm telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town"

No? Okay.

Days until next doc appointment?

11 days!

Total weight gain?

20.8 pounds

Maternity clothes?

Since coming back home from our trip, it seems like my winter boots no longer fit. I normally tie them loose enough so that I can just pull them on, but now that doesn't even seem to work and they have to be completely untied and completely loosened each time I put them on.* (*Each time Jason helps me put them on.) Solution: whenever I take the trash out or get the mail, I wear Jason's boots instead. His are huge on me so I look like a little kid flip-flopping around in their parent's work boots, but it works. Because when he's at work and there's no one home to help me put my boots on... Well, ain't nobody got time for that.

Stretch marks?

None!

Sleep:

It's amazing how much can change in one week. I went from sleeping well every night to tossing and turning about half the nights due to hip pain and the baby moving around and keeping me up haha. But I try to get enough sleep each day! I do this by going to bed before 8 each night. Okay. I haven't gone to sleep that early yet. But there have been a few nights this week where going to bed at 6:30 sounded like a really good idea. All this coming from the girl who normally doesn't go to bed before 1am most of the time... I think I may have skipped over motherhood and went straight into blowing out the candles on my 80th birthday cake.

Best moment this week:

Discovering yoga stretches. Oh. my. goodness. If you keep reading you'll learn I have been having really bad hip pain. The normal stretches I had been trying that normally worked throughout the rest of my pregnancy weren't reaching the outside of my hip where it was feeling incredibly tight either. So I Googled some stretches for hip pain and ta-da! I did them this morning and my hip is hardly bugging me at all! Maybe that's kind of a lame "best moment this week", but really the amount of pain I was in and the amount of relief I'm having now... *Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah* (That's the sound of glorious light shining down from Heaven and cherubs strumming harps while riding unicorns through meadows and among gentle streams and waterfalls, in case you were wondering.)

Movement:

Have you ever seen one of those videos on youtube of a very pregnant woman's belly moving around like there's an alien inside it? Those videos used to creep me out before I was pregnant. I assure you, it's not as creepy when it's your own belly. But my belly definitely looks like that when baby is up to all their usual stunts. It can be quite uncomfortable at times! But never fear! I reassure myself with the fact that the baby will only triple in size before my due date so it shouldn't at all get any more uncomfortable.

Food cravings:

Haven't had any food cravings lately!

Anything make you queasy or sick?

Oddly enough, I've had some mild feelings of queasiness this week. Nothing to write to the porcelain throne about, but I keep getting these almost phantom feelings of nausea whenever I smell something that bothered me when I was first pregnant or think of a food I liked/disliked at the beginning of my pregnancy. This feeling of disgust even applies to chocolate milkshakes which is insane because like hello. Chocolate milkshakes are delicious. Duh. I guess scent really is the strongest sense tied to memory!

Speaking of memories I have to wonder if people ever see me like this:

"It's like she's trying to speak to us. I know it!"

#CaliforniaEnglish

Have you started to show yet?

Judging by the basketball I seem to be hiding under my dress, I'm going to go ahead and say yes.

Missing anything?

Florida! Warm weather! Swimming! Wearing flip flops because it's too hard trying to put humungous winter boots on when you're almost 7 months pregnant! Waaaaaaaah. I even wore my most summery outfit (that still fits) as an ode to missing winter in Florida. Cue sad song on the world's smallest violin.

Gender:

Baby is going to be a surprise. (:

Labor signs?

None!

Belly button:

Still an innie (:

Wedding rings on or off?
On! I haven't had any swelling lately!

Happy or moody most of the time?

Oh boyyyy. Well, here we go. This blog has always been 100% honesty hour with Marlyssa time, so that's not going to change now. Honestly, this week has been a little rough. Tomorrow I'll be 30 weeks along and 10 weeks doesn't seem like a very long time to get everything ready for the baby. When I start thinking of all the things we still need to do... I panic and stress myself out. Then I had one of those Murphy's Law kind of days this week where everything I tried doing ended up failing miserably. I was a champ about it though. Each time something went wrong or wasn't working out the way it should, I moved on to something else.

...Which would then go wrong or not work. So I can honestly say I really did give that day the good ol' college try. But talk about a frustrating time! Especially when I was already feeling kind of stressed and had slept poorly the night before and was having severe hip pain to the point of not being able to move or stand. But I'm still trying my best to keep on keeping on and as a result this week is really picking up again!

Weekly symptoms:

Very itchy bumps on my legs, can't really bend over to pick things up (squats all day), lots of pee trips, rhinitis of pregnancy (nosebleeds), fatigue from standing/doing too much in one stretch, intense back pain (it feels like having the wind knocked out of you - constantly. Sometimes I can't stand or walk from the pain), general fatigue, hip pain, pelvic pain, side cramps, mild nauseousness/sensitivity to smell, acid reflux

Looking forward to:

Getting the nursery set up! I framed some artwork that I made for the baby's room and now that I see them in frames...I can't wait for them to go up on the walls! I'm really excited (: We should be able to start on some of the set up this weekend (:
Also, tonight Jason and I are going to a class for expecting parents and I'm really excited! The brochure says there is a "tour" involved. *Raises eyebrow with intrigue* Knowing I'll get to see the labor and delivery ward eases my little planner of a mind!

Would you like to see more?
Check out my other "bumpdates" below!