Feelings on the Third Trimester

I've just entered the last third of this rollercoaster and this is what I've noticed so far:

• I'm feeling the extra weight on my body. More specifically, I'm feeling HER weight and the weight of my uterus on my abs and back.
• My heart rate goes higher with much less effort during exercise. I have less lung capacity but my heart and lungs are well-trained and efficient. Also, lifting my knees is getting harder because, well, my belly is in the way!
• Trips to the bathroom are RIDICULOUS. I often loath being out of the house simply for the inconvenience of being away from a bathroom which is the most annoying thing ever.
• Prolactin levels are increasing which may cause leakage of colostrum (the nutrient-rich substance that comes in before milk) from the breasts. I haven't had any leakage but a bit of dry crustiness- kind of like boogers. Sexy.
• Also from the prolactin, I'm feeling more sleepy throughout the day again.
• I'm having some crazy dreams that I'm remembering more. In particular this week dreaming of Ray and I not being together anymore, he actually being with another woman who is having fertility treatments done (!!); another night I had some weird dreams about my mom. My subconscious is feeling insecure?!
• The past two nights as well, I've been a bit uncomfortable laying on my left side which is the preferred side for circulation. This is odd, I'm going to call my doctor's office about that and report back.

Leftovers

Monday's lunch was a treat because I had leftover vegetable torte grinning at me from the fridge. Mom gave me two extra pieces after the party and I knew I'd be so happy if they were still there come Monday. I paired both small pieces with a salad of lettuce, tomatoes from my garden, steamed broccoli, and a hard-boiled egg dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Layers of eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, and tomatoes with basil, cheese and bread crumbs make this vegetable torte really scrumptious. I loved every bite!

Lunch, no. . . Shower!

Saturday lunch was supposed to be spent with my parents at their home with another couple. But when we arrived, I walked right into a surprise baby shower!

Ray was in on it, my mom and four of my closest girlfriends planned a small party, and I was blown away. When we drove up my dad and mom were acting kind of odd, but I had to pee after the long trip so didn't really notice until after.

Mom made a beautiful spread.

Deviled eggs, gazpacho, smoked salmon, cheeses, breads, and fruit.

The star was a vegetable torte made with late summer zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant- one of my all-time favorites that comes around so rarely.

We ate, chatted, and watched the great slideshow my brother put together of me as a little girl. Everyone guessed on a piece of ribbon how big around my belly is (it made me feel good that everyone guessed too big :-).

Then we opened presents. I received some wonderful gifts including the pack n play with bassinet, my diaper bag, nursing cover, and lots and lots of useful baby goodies like burp cloths, calendula cream, wipes, and baby shampoo.

There's a little family joke about the nose aspirator, (the nose sucky thing).

After presents, dessert- mini cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting, bite-sized nut brownies, and petit fours! My brothers and I loved having petit fours from the bakery when we were very little, so Mom bought some for the 'baby' theme.

Little pink clothespins- no saying "baby" or "girl" or else you lose yours. And some delicious chocolate favors from Fleur de Cocoa.

On the way home I had yet another surprise- we bought the mommy car! We'd been planning to replace my car around this time for a while, and we found the right car at a great price at a dealer in Sunnyvale. We didn't get home until after 6pm so I was starving and exhausted, but very happy after such a full day.

Oats and Beans and Barley

Trolling Grooveshark this morning, doing a little boogie to some childhood favorites

Oats and Beans and Barley

All I Really Need

Baby Beluga

I dare you not to smile :-)

7 Month Bump

The 3rd trimester is here! 2/3 of the way there.

In general:
Baby is about the size of an eggplant, and the lungs are developed enough that were she to be born now, she would survive (with a little help). Fat is continuing to accumulate, gaining more weight now than size. Braxton-Hicks contractions ("practice," harmless contractions) may start to show up around now. Real estate in the uterus, which has risen about 4 inches above the belly button, is getting a little cramped.

Our little Chickpea:
The kicks and punches are much stronger now and still a little irregular but occur throughout the day and night. She measures at exactly 28 weeks today which is pretty perfect. She also has a funny way of playing hide-and-seek when Ray tries to feel her movements. She'll be rolling all around until he puts his hand on my belly. Then she goes silent. Sly little thing.

Me:
How's this week? Hot. The past three day have had high, nearly record temperatures and I am having a hard time staying comfortable. I'm trying to get most activity done in the mornings and I sit close by the air conditioner in the afternoon. Nighttime is tough because it takes me a lot longer to get to cool enough to be comfortable and sleep. Tomorrow is supposed to cool down and this weekend even more so.
Saw the doctor this morning, weight gain is good at 3.5 pounds, blood pressure normal, and I PASSED the glucose test! I don't have gestational diabetes, which I've heard is one of the biggest discomforts of pregnancy.
I also received the rhogam shot, given for my RH negative status, just in case the baby is RH positive. Nice big shot in my bottom which is supposed to be sore tomorrow.

The Dresser Has Arrived!

Any new furniture is exciting. Today the dresser finally arrived!

It was delivered this morning at 8:30am while I was eating breakfast. As you can see it's also our changing table; the topper came separately and the men were nice enough to install it for me.

I can't wait to fill the lower drawers with her little clothes and stock the top ones with diapers, wipes, and lotion. First I want to put in some nice liners, and I'm thinking about switching out the knobs for some pretty lavender or yellow ones from Anthropologie. These are fine but they're huge and plain.

Originally I wanted the dresser on the other side of the room, but after much haggling this weekend Ray convinced me that it has to go here due to space issues with the other elements- the glider and ottoman will take up more room than I had thought, and we'll have a bookshelf too. I didn't love the idea of it just inside the door because of the view in the room- also potential stinkiness from the changing table right there :P. That's probably a fruitless concern, and the pale yellow glider will look pretty in the far corner. Really cannot wait until those items are here too!

Inspire

Cannot wait to mimic this pose

see the original article here

Craving Alert

After a morning of walking/shopping I wanted a really good lunch with flavor and texture.

Guacamole is something I like but don't usually eat too often. I've been craving it more the past few months; I've been eating it more often than usual.

So I stopped at Chipotle and got a burrito bowl/salad with lettuce, a bit of rice, salsa, fajita veggies, a little corn salsa, and lots of guac. At home I tossed the lettuce and rice in some chipotle-apple dressing that was packaged on the side (yum!) and piled on the rest of the ingredients with some pinto bean-salsa puree I made a few days ago.

Delish. Ate the whole thing.

The Dreaded Glucose Test

Uck SO glad this test is done. Hopefully I pass and don't have to do it again.

The glucose screen is given to discover whether or not you have developed gestational diabetes in later pregnancy.

From Babycenter.com:

Between 2 and 7 percent of expectant mothers develop this condition, making it one of the most common health problems of pregnancy.

When you eat, your digestive system breaks most of your food down into a type of sugar called glucose. The glucose enters your bloodstream and then — with the help of insulin, a hormone made by your pancreas — provides fuel for the cells of your body. Like the type 1 and type 2 diabetes you can get when you're not pregnant, gestational diabetes causes the glucose to stay in your blood instead of moving into your cells and getting converted to energy.

Why does this sometimes happen when you're pregnant? During pregnancy, your hormones make it tougher for your body to use insulin, so your pancreas needs to produce more of it. For most moms-to be, this isn't a problem: As your need for insulin increases, your pancreas dutifully secretes more of it. But when a woman's pancreas can't keep up with the insulin demand and her blood glucose levels get too high, the result is gestational diabetes.

So that's the deal. It's one of the biggest potential inconveniences during pregnancy; diagnosis means dietary restrictions and more close monitoring. According to my Mom, this test wasn't standard when she was pregnant with us kids. It was only given if higher risk was detected by your doctor. Today it's more of a standard practice, probably because of more cases of regular diabetes, and the consequences for you and baby can be severe if steps aren't taken to manage it. To check, a glucose screen is performed between 24 and 28 weeks. Per my doctor you get a better reading later on, so I've waited until 27.1 to do it.

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For the test I went to the blood lab, checked in, and was given this lovely little chilled bottle to drink. It contains 50 grams of glucose and tasted exactly like flat orange soda. I'm very glad it was cold; warm flat soda = yuck. You have to drink all of it within five minutes. Some women find it makes them queasy but I was lucky and was able to chug it about a minute and a half.


Next, you wait. For an hour. Forgetting a book or something to do would be a big mistake. I brought mine and the time went by pretty fast. Finally, blood is drawn to check my blood sugar level and see how my body processes sugar and turns it into energy.

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My doctor gets the results in a few days. If the reading is normal I can breathe easy- no gestational diabetes. If the reading high, I have to go back for the second test which requires fasting and 3 hours. Keeping my fingers crossed! Kinda wishing I had gone at the beginning of the week so I could find out by the weekend, but I'll probably hear on Monday or Tuesday.

Week 27

And Ray thinks I'm not eating enough. I'm getting bigger each week, so how is that happening if I'm not?! I know he just cares, but the nagging about food is tough on my hormonal temper.


The line up and down my stomach is pretty dark now and runs all the way from the bottom of my chest to my girl parts. At least it's vertical, a slimming line right? I notice people looking at me often now, checking out the bump.

I've been really tired this week; not quite what it was like during the first trimester but nearly. I'm sleeping a half hour later naturally so I'm trying to just let it happen. I also keep straining something in my neck, alternating between the same place on both sides. I'm not sure what's causing it, whether it's the sleep position I have to be in or stress or simple fatigue. It doesn't develop after exercise so I don't think that's it. I'll be mentioning this to Doctor R. next week.

Had dinner last night with four of my dearest friends; we were all together for the first time since Christmas! (someone's always missing from our get-togethers). It will be Thanksgiving or Christmas again before we are all together, but we always pick up where we left off. Ann is heading back to Ithaca for her last year of grad school, but before that her sister is giving birth today! Her second child, a girl, by scheduled C-section. She's in my thoughts today.

I Forget

• Add "remember stuff" to the list of things I used to do.

Cause I don't do that anymore :-P

I'm very happy it's Friday, because Ray is home on the weekends and we usually do at least one fun outing, big or small. Tomorrow morning we are going to Lullaby Lane in San Bruno one more time, to make the final decision on the stroller and car seat we want. We chose one before without research- dumb idea on these two things. We need to be serious and pick the best combination for us.

Food is also usually more interesting on weekends. Mmmm food.

How long do I have till afternoon snack time?

I Used To : But Now

I used to~

• Sleep mostly on my back and stomach
• Drink wine on Fridays and weekends
• Sleep all the way through the night
• visit Napa, Livermore, and Santa Cruz wine countries on a regular basis
• wear size 0 jeans and a 34B bra
• use 15 pound weights for legs and back
• eat and adore raw salmon and tuna sushi
• occasionally skip dinner in favor of dessert
• Never snack between meals
• stress over the calories I consumed at a meal, or turn down delicious things because I was over my daily mental limit

But now~

• one by one items in my wardrobe don't fit
• workouts are longer and lower impact
• I stick to 3, 5, and 8 lb weights, occasionally using 10 lbs. Still combo the 8s in one hand for back
• I drop things, super annoying because to bend I have to spread my knees to fit the belly in between them. I'm sure it's really attractive.
• I'm beginning to waddle. A little bit.
• Scrubbing the bathtub is getting difficult because the belly is in the way
• I eat some meat to meet the protein requirements (though burgers and steak aren't interesting because they have to be well-done. gross)
• I have some form of dessert every day- fruit or no sugar added cocoa on weekdays, and something more fun on weekends- and I don't stress over it . . . as much :)

~Maintaining~

• Sense of balance- no dangers of falling or tripping, still pretty sure on my feet
• Sleep schedule is the same- I've always been early to bed early to rise.
• Muscle tone- I feel so lucky having the green light to exercise!
• I was obsessed with food before, still am now
• Love of clothes shopping- I've found some pretty heinous maternity clothes but I've found some super cute ones too. And (as I suspected prior to pregnancy), looking/shopping for baby clothes is even more fun than shopping for me!
• Love of sushi- while I can't indulge in my very favorites, cooked and vegetable sushi is still fair game. That includes unagi (eel), shrimp tempura, and california rolls.

What's next?

26 weeks

Today I'm 6 1/2 months, 26 weeks pregnant.

To me, 14 weeks is more important. That's the time left until scheduled splash down.

Our baby is about the size of an eggplant. Of course it can vary a lot, between 1 1/2 and a little over 2 pounds. I bought a 1.1 lb eggplant this week, which is lighter than the little one I'm carting around.

Around this time, the uterus begins occasional movements known as Braxton Hicks contractions. It's like practice for the big labor push. I haven't experienced any yet, but apparently I'll know it when I do!

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Personally, sleeping has been much less comfortable this week. Until now I've been able to twist in a few modified positions but now the weight of my belly makes only directly left or right doable. Support under the middle is also essential. The constant visits to the bathroom have returned too, back up to 4-6 a night. I have always avoided public restrooms as much as possible, but now I'm up close and personal with them all the time. No way around it now.

Baby is soaking up antibodies from me, preparing her immune system for life after birth. She's also starting to practice blinking and batting her freshly grown lashes. The weight on her is now beginning to pile on baby fat, filling out in that cute, chunky, chubby baby way. She's growing into a little dancer, poking and prodding when I wake up, after breakfast, sometimes in the afternoon, after dinner, and as I'm trying to fall asleep.

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A few truths:

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1. I wear these black pants every day. Yea I'm afraid so, every day. I wear them a few days, do laundry, and put them right back on again.

They are stretchy lounge pants from Target- regular not maternity, and a size XS which shows you how skewed sizes have become. They were too long so I trimmed them to a capri length; I just bought a second pair to trim to a longer length as it gets cold.

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2. I put this red top on just because I thought it would look better in this week's pictures. I stuck my other T-shirt right back on. For posterity:

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On today's agenda I need to do some house cleaning, and a DirecTV guy is coming to reroute the cable from the baby's room to the study.

I've had good morning workouts this week, including today. But I haven't been to my evening prenatal fitness class in a week and a half because Ray was out of town and I didn't feel great on Monday. Now I don't want to go simply because I missed three classes, but I need to haul myself there. . .

*but do I have to?! whine.*

I have a limited time left to whine, so I'm going to use it.

Craving Alert

Lemon fettucine with grilled bell peppers, zucchini, and portobellow mushrooms with garlic olive oil, goat cheese, and thyme

Followed by pumpkin frozen yogurt with a little fresh granola

Good thing this is what I'm having for dinner tonight

25 Weeks and Painting Results

A day late, pictures at 25 weeks:

As you can see, the location of my mirror has changed. It used to be in the baby's room but we've moved it into our bedroom. I'm still working on organizing the space.

This week I can feel her moving around a lot more often and with more force- it's pretty cool!

I think this was my last day wearing this shirt. It's a regular Target top, not maternity, but I have a feeling next time I try it on it will be too tight around the middle. So long, catch you next spring!

OMG this front shot shows even more how big I am!

She's sitting sort of lower middle of my abdomen. People keep telling me I'm "all belly," and I still don't understand what that means. I have certainly put on a little padding in the booty and thighs, and I can see how my face is rounder when I compare pictures from last winter. Maybe I just need to see someone who is "not all belly" to get it?

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Painting yesterday took a little more than two hours, plus a break for lunch. I'm so glad Mom came to help me; her experience cut down the time and increased efficiency in a big way! She took care of the edging work while I used the big roller and took care of the walls. It was harder work than I thought but fun!

Here's the way it looked before:

And after!! I LOVE it!

And now I'm sure I want to accent the room in yellows, because the combination is gorgeous with the wall color. Need to find/pick new crib bedding, and finally figure out chair and rug selections.

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In other news, I think I have my first ever yeast infection or UTI. Hurray. The past two days it's been, uh, uncomfortable down there. Apparently it's very common to get these infections while pregnant, and I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon to confirm either one and hopefully get some medicine for relief and to cure it.

**UPDATE** So I have my first yeast infection. Three days of injectable over the counter vag medication. Hey, I'm just glad when the diagnosis is this easy, and easily fixed.

Fridge Decor

I think I'm a little obsessed with Bethenny Frankel and her show Bethenny Getting Married. She's talented, has a wonderful frank sense of humor, and I get to live a little vicariously through her glamorous NYC life. It doesn't hurt that she had her baby so recently and I've watched her pregnancy unfold as I get bigger and bigger.
Lately I've felt more low about my expanding body; I have this unrealistic desire to have my belly grow and grow and have everything else stay the same- skinny arms, face, thighs, and butt with a huge belly. More than the little changes, it's the fear of what I will look like by 38, 39, 40 weeks.

I've never done this before, but I've taped some motivational pictures to the fridge. All Bethenny, because she does inspire me right now. She's a beautiful woman, and her body really changed during pregnancy. She dealt with it outwardly with grace and humor.



On the left: pre-pregnancy Bethenny. Toned, thin, and beautiful. Next to that, two shots from her honeymoon at 7 1/2 months. Bikini-clad and very pregnant, but comfortable in her skin and looking great.



Then the slightly scary shot when she became quite swollen. Yes it happens. Here I also think of something my What to Expect iPhone app said this week- "Repeat after me: I am not fat, I am growing a baby. I am not fat, I am growing a baby."

Finally, on the right, the most inspirational picture of all: what it's all for. A beautiful picture of Bethenny and her newborn daughter Bryn. Bethenny looks back to normal, maybe even better than the first picture. Softer, maternal, and happy. But more than that, Bryn is there. Healthy and beautiful.

Lavendar & White Nurseries

Tomorrow, my mom and I are painting the nursery walls. Our first step in creating her room was the arrival of the crib. Then this past weekend Ray and I cleared out all the other equipment in the room. Now it's just the crib and a hot pink storage bin filled with her few belongings so far.

We've chosen a pretty lilac for the walls, and the furniture is white. There will be other accent colors, but these are the two we are working around. Visuals help a lot when planning any room. A baby's room is no different. I've searched around for rooms in white and light purple, and these are a few that I came up with:





This is a very elegant nursery in darker shades (same room above and below). The ceiling has been covered in a satiny fabric and the chandelier is beautiful. It's a little too chi chi for a baby's room in my opinion, but I appreciate the design. The modern chair is a nice contrast to the wrought iron crib, and the wall hangings are minimal and simple.

This room is my favorite of the bunch. It gets beautiful natural light from two windows. It's an attic room with a sloping ceiling, so the light is needed to make the space seem bigger. Again, embellishment on the ceiling with patterned paper. Beautiful chair, not the gliding/rocking variety but a lovely piece for the eye. The bedding appears to be in orange which is a nice combination with lavender, but not my first thought for a nursery. Good idea.

This room is a little more girly and foofy (apparently one of my favorite words right now). I think the long drapes make the space appear smaller, and there are more items on the floor. I'm guessing things will end up on the floor so starting out that way is not the route I'd take. The wall hanging behind the crib is an interesting play on a canopy. The chair is a nice pale yellow which I am thinking for my own.

Yellow is the dominant color in this room, with lavender in accents. I love yellow, it's such a cheerful color. Natural light can really change the way a room looks too. Light is inviting, darkness isn't. This room has hardwood floors like we do, but the carpet is smaller than I had been anticpating.

Holy purple! This one is really too much! For the first time purple is shown with dark furniture; personally, I prefer it matched with white.

I like the room below because it shows what a white stencil would look like on a dark lavender wall.

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