Paint The Barn Red: weekly baby bumpdate / 32 weeks

I call this one "Stripes in Every Direction".

32 WEEK INTERVIEW

How far along?

32 weeks and 6 days!

Baby's size?

At 32 weeks, baby weighs about 3 and 3/4 pounds, is about 16 and 3/4 inches long and is about the size of a jicama! And mommy (that would be me) is hoping that baby is now about half (or maybe even just a little over half!) of what they will weigh at birth haha

Days until next doc appointment?

4 days!

Total weight gain?

22.8 pounds

Maternity clothes?

I've been wearing my belly band more now (after I hadn't been wearing it as much as I should) and I think I'm falling in love with it again. Last night I was even able to sleep with it on! I had tried wearing it to bed once before, but that didn't work out so well. I decided to give it another go last night because it felt like the baby was trying to rip through the middle of my abdomen with how much stretching was going on, and it helped ease the pain!

Stretch marks?

Ugh. Sadly... I think I'm starting to develop one. Thankfully it's nowhere where anyone would ever, ever, ever see it. It's somewhere I hadn't been using lotion and shea butter and yada yada, so in that sense I know that the lotions and potions on my belly and legs are helping since that is not at all where the stretch mark is. No big deal though, it just means my daily lotion routine just got a few minutes longer than it already is. haha

Sleep:

I have been able to sleep a little better this week. I still wake up several times a night in pain and get less sleep than I should, but I seem to be getting a good nights sleep more often than I was the last couple of weeks. And I really think sleeping with my belly band on more often now will help!

Best moment this week:

The baby had hiccups! (: I don't know if this was the first time it's ever happened in my pregnancy, but it's definitely the first time I noticed it happening! I know there was a time where I thought the baby was having hiccups, but that was several weeks ago. Looking back, I think it was probably just small kicks and twitches and not hiccups. This time Jason and I were sitting on the couch, watching the baby move around when we saw the same spot in my belly "hiccup" at a very rhythmic rate for several minutes. (: Jason put his head up to my belly so he could feel every hiccup and I of course could feel them too. (: It was so cute! Haha. I can't wait to hear those little baby hiccups in person! (:

Food cravings:

I'm really digging cantaloupe right now. I know, my cravings are so boring haha.

On the other hand, Jason has had some interesting pregnancy cravings #lolwut

This weekend while we were having lunch, Jason pulled out a roll of Ritz crackers, some cheese, and... ...spaghetti sauce?

I get it. They're like mini pizzas in a way, if you think about it. But really?

I just looked on at him in confusion, not being able to look away from yet another of his odd condiment combinations. (I mean, last time it was salsa on buttered toast.)

When he was done with the cheese and spaghetti sauce portion of his snacking, he ate some plain Ritz crackers and said with much delight, "These are really good! They're really salty though."

And I'm still standing there looking at him, realizing that I'm the pregnant one in this scenario.

Anything make you queasy or sick?

No, nothing really! I still get acid reflux after I eat which can leave me feeling pretty "meh" and miserable...thank goodness for Tums (:

And then there's been a couple times where I feel both hungry and pukey at the same time which makes for quite the predicament.

Movement:

The baby moves tons! I think the weirdest feeling is when I'm working out and all of a sudden the baby decides to get active too. Because then I'm moving, my insides are moving, everything is moving and nothing feels normal anymore.

My movement on the other hand has been significantly reduced to the point of not wanting to. Oh, I still make myself move, but that doesn't mean that I want to. I'm still working out for four hours a week (1 hour x 4 days a week), but sometimes it's doing the non-workout related things that wear me out the most. Like over the weekend Jason and I went to the local hardware store and there were a few moments where I wondered if the baby would/could be born right there in Menard's.

(I can see it now, the local newspaper would read, "Menard's Baby born to waddling woman and husband" ...and depending upon the grammatical know-how of the writers at the local newspaper, townspeople would be wondering for years if both the woman and her husband were waddling at the time of birth, or just the woman.)

Not that I was having contractions or anything labor related, but it felt like the baby was playing for the National Limbo Championship Title with my internal organs.

...Limbo...Hawaii...palm trees...warm weather...I think we should move to Hawaii. You know, so our baby will have a fighting chance at the National Limbo Championship Title. Also, beach babies are everything.

I'm not biased or anything.

Have you started to show yet?

Aha! I told you this changes from week to week!

This past weekend at church, a few people told me they can really tell now that I'm showing.

...But then they ask, "When are you due?". So I say, "The end of March". At that point everything must be done in their power to not let their jaws hit the floor. "March?! But that's next month! Aren't you supposed to be huge and waddling around by now? I thought when you're that far along you're supposed to be (*holds arms out in a large circle and waddles from side to side*)."

I always get a kick out of people's reactions. I love it! My little baby belly and I are like a magician's disappearing act haha.

Missing anything?

Some days I just want cake mix, you know? I also miss having strength. Don't ask me what it is, but there's something about pregnancy that slices your pre-pregnancy strength into a measly, laughable, joke of a conversation. I used to be able to dead lift more than my body weight. I used to be able to do unassisted pull-ups. I used to carry olympic plates like they were a bag of groceries. Now? Now I workout with 10 pound dumbbells and get worn out. I try to remind myself that after the baby is born and I've been cleared for exercise post-partum, I can start working at gaining my strength back.

I mean it's gotten to the point that I've started telling myself if I carry a 10 pound dumbbell in each hand and add in the fact that I've gained 20 pounds, it's like I'm actually squatting 40 pounds.

Which is both sad and not at all how it works haha

Thanks to muscle memory (praise!) my strength should return pretty quickly after the baby is born.

Gender:

Baby is going to be a surprise. (:

Labor signs?

None!

Belly button:

Be it ever so slight a dip, it's still a dip!

Wedding rings on or off?
Still on all the time!

Happy or moody most of the time?

Happy most of the time! I do have my moments though... I got pretty flustered this weekend because I was really feeling the "there's still so much to do and so little time to do it" pressure. But I was able to talk myself down from my little freakout. Only after freaking out of course.

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, acid reflux, rhinitis of pregnancy (nosebleeds), foot pain, back pain, sciatica, mild nausea

Looking forward to:

More nursery projects! We weren't able to get a lot done on it this past weekend, but we did start painting the book racks for the nursery and I started sewing some cloth wipes for the baby. It seems like I work myself so hard during the week that I end up totally pooped on the weekends when Jason and I can actually work on getting things ready for the baby. So...I'm trying to rest more this week to have more energy for the weekend. (: And speaking of poop, DIY-ing a diaper sprayer* is another upcoming project we'll be making for the baby!

*Settle down those confused furrowed brows my friends. We're cloth diapering! I was intrigued by the idea because it saves money (a big plus for us) and the environment. Plus, cloth diapers are so cute!

"So what you're trying to tell me is that you grew up in a liberal arts college town in Southern California? Ha! Yeah, right."

I maka de joke. That's exactly where I grew up!

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