Pro tip: Don't feel like dragging your pregnant self down a flight of stairs to fetch a belt
that may or may not fit around your rib cage anymore?
Tuck the offending shirt under the wire of your bra for a temporary fix.
No one will ever suspect a thing.
30 WEEK INTERVIEW
How far along?
30 weeks and 6 days!
Baby's size?
At 30 weeks baby is about the size of a large cabbage, just under 3 pounds, and measures about 15 and 3/4 inches long!
Days until next doc appointment?
4 days (: After this coming appointment, I'll start seeing my doctor every 2 weeks! I can't believe I'm already this far along to be seeing my doctor this often! (:
Total weight gain?
20.4 pounds
Maternity clothes?
The newest adventure in Maternity Wear for Marlyssa has been the purchase of a belly band. It hasn't come in the mail yet, so I can't say how I feel about it, but I really think it will help for when baby is feeling heavy. All the mommas out there know what I'm talking about. If you've ever seen a toddler act like a limp rag while throwing a fit, and then you go to try and pick them up and they suddenly weigh ten times more than they should according to the laws of gravity - it turns out babies in utero are capable of such mischief as well. I can be minding my own business when all of a sudden the baby feels like they weigh all of the 20 pounds I've gained so far and all of those 20 pounds are right on my bladder and other important things.
The belly band is also supposed to help prevent stretch marks from the baby stretching out and moving around since it kind of keeps your belly all tucked in in one place. Aaaaaand trust me this baby loves to stretch out haha. I've gotten this far without stretch marks, so let's get through the remaining ten weeks without getting any either! And no, I'm not one of those people genetically predisposed/blessed to not get stretch marks. I have stretch marks on my legs from weight gain in college. But right now I weigh about ten pounds more at almost 7 months pregnant than I ever have in my life, so I must be doing good so far! I know the reason why I haven't gotten any new marks with this weight gain in pregnancy is because
a) I drink more water than I ever did back then (water helps with skin elasticity)
b) I bathe in lotion (not literally, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I go through about one 8 ounce bottle a week - lotion helps prevent dryness and the itching/scratching that comes with the the tearing of the dermis and the development of new stretch marks)
and c) I take a multivitamin and eat as healthily as I can (vitamin C and E foster collagen production which helps skin elasticity).
How's that for some knowledge.
Also, I want to wear my pajamas everywhere.
The beach, the snow, running errands, parasailing...
Stretch marks?
None!
Sleep:
I haven't been sleeping the greatest, but I'm getting used to it. I seem to do fine on less sleep which is bizarre considering how exhausted I get most days. I seem to wake up every morning after 6 hours of sleep feeling completely rested! ...And then by 6pm I feel like going to bed for the night.
The biggest obstacle of getting good sleep through the night has been from having pelvic and hip pain from sleeping on one side for too long. But rolling over to sleep on the other side can be just as painful. Ouch!
Best moment this week:
Ah! So many things!
1. We went to our first childbirth class and it went great! We live in a super small town, so including Jason and I, there were only two other couples signed up for it and one of the couples wasn't even there. Haha
We got a lot of really great information and a TOUR. Yes. Tours are the best. They help me mentally prepare so I can begin to visualize myself in anxiety provoking situations. Being able to visualize myself in places before the fact helps me tremendously in just about any area of life. If I know what I'm walking into visually speaking, it almost always helps reduce my anxiety and fear. It's almost crazy seeing the two delivery rooms though, knowing that in ten weeks I'll be in one of them just having the time of my life!*
*Check back with me in ten weeks on that.
2. Over the weekend Jason and I began putting the nursery together! So far we've assembled what will be the baby's changing table which is a dresser that we got from Ikea. I also brought in a bookcase we already had, and the glider we bought from a thrift store. I plan to re-cover it, but since I've never reupholstered anything before, let alone something that moves and glides, I'll be forming a brain trust with Jason. My mind just doesn't like wrapping itself around complex things like that. He can help me figure out what to do and how to do it, and I'll just do the sewing haha
3. Speaking of sewing, I started working on some of the projects for the baby's room this week! I'm all done with sewing baby blankets and receiving blankets. I made four cotton-backed fleece blankets and ten receiving/swaddling blankets. Insider tip: Never sew with stretchy fleece. It is a headache. And it will make you want to cry. Not in a physical sense, but in a soul-crushing, "why-must-this-stuff-be-so-stretchy-in-all-directions" sense. Also, when you cut the fleece material, you'll get little fuzz balls everywhere that will make you look like you got in a fight with a herd of chickens and lost.
#DirtyDancingwithDairy
Movement:
I don't know if baby has settled into their final position, but the baby has been in one spot all week. I know this because the right side of my rib cage is sore from all the kicking and stretching out and moving around. Ay yi yi.
It will be so good...to be able to breathe again...like a normal person...and not get winded...after writing...one sentence...once...the baby...is born.
Phew that took a lot out of me. Nap time!
It will be so good...to be able to breathe again...like a normal person...and not get winded...after writing...one sentence...once...the baby...is born.
Phew that took a lot out of me. Nap time!
Food cravings:
Eat all of the cookies.
Anything make you queasy or sick?
Scents that bothered me at the beginning of my pregnancy have been bothering me again. Thankfully I haven't had to be around them too much. But when I do, it makes me want to vomit.
Have you started to show yet?
This past week at church someone said, "You're starting to show!" so I said, "Yeah, it only took seven months!" And then he looked at me like I was crazy because "...surely she's not seven months pregnant."
Which would be true. I'm not seven months pregnant.
I'll be seven months pregnant tomorrow. Big difference.
Which would be true. I'm not seven months pregnant.
I'll be seven months pregnant tomorrow. Big difference.
Missing anything?
Some days I still miss sleeping on my stomach, but it's not too bad. I do miss not waking up in pain in the middle of the night!
Gender:
Labor signs?
None!
Belly button:
Still just hanging in there as an Inward. It's really just a tiny little dip now. Like almost flat, but not quite.
Flat...Vlad...Flad...Fladd...
It's official, I'm naming my belly button Fladd Inward.
Fladd: Slavic. A variation of Vlad meaning, "ruler, peace"
My belly button rules peacefully over all.
Which is so much nicer than a violent belly button.
Or we could go the German route and say,
Fladd: German. A variation of Vlade, meaning, "thin sheet cake"
Who doesn't like cake?
Is your exhaustion and delusion showing yet?
...Maybe.
Wedding rings on or off?
Still on all the time except when I work out (which is when I normally take them off anyway)
Still on all the time except when I work out (which is when I normally take them off anyway)
Happy or moody most of the time?
Generally happy most of the time! I think after all the craziness of the holidays, driving out to Minneapolis for a few days, being gone for our vacation, and then having an off-week last week, I finally felt ready to get back to my normal routine. And I managed to get a lot done!
Weekly symptoms:
Very itchy bumps on my legs, can't really bend over to pick things up (squats all day), lots of pee trips, fatigue from standing/doing too much in one stretch, general fatigue and tiredness, hip pain, pelvic pain, sensitivity to smell, acid reflux
Looking forward to:
Continuing getting the nursery all set up! We still need to put the crib together and do a few other projects, and I still have a lot of sewing ahead of me, but the room is really starting to take shape! It's starting to feel like we're really going to have a baby! (:
Would you like to see more?
Check out my other "bumpdates" below!
Check out my other "bumpdates" below!
PREVIOUS BABY BUMPDATES
My husband and I were out of town, otherwise we would have been at that class also! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a small world! Or I guess it's not really a small world when it's such a small town haha. Were you at class last night?
Deletehahaha I was trying to figure out if you had an invisible string for a belt or what. ;P INGENIUS.
ReplyDeleteHahaha. It's brilliant right?! I had to stay really still for my shirt to stay in place like that, but it worked for taking a picture! (: I can't say it's the first time I've done some weird wardrobe hack for the bumpdates either :P
DeleteYou look gorgeous! Motherhood agrees with you! I wish we lived closer, I would come and help you after you had the baby! But know that you and Jason and baby are in our prayers!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! Thank you for the continued prayers as well. It's so nice to have people praying for us and the baby!
DeleteFor some reason I can never respond on a thread, so forgive me for starting another one. :)
ReplyDeleteNope, my husband is out of town for work so we couldn't make it to any of the classes. And since these were the last ones offered before our due date, I'll be doing this whole first time childbirth thing with no classes! A little scary, but I think I'll be ok. :)
That's too bad! We missed one of the classes as well. I'm thinking of looking for videos online to help cover some of the stuff I think we missed so I don't feel totally in the dark when the time comes. But I still think the best way for for me to deal with the thought of labor is to not think about it at all hahaha
Delete