Baby Bump @ 35 Weeks!

15 Weeks

25 Weeks

35 Weeks

Holy growth spurt, Batman! And I'm not just talking about my belly...look at those chunky arms! Damn. I guess that's where this past month's weight gain went. Mystery solved. Looks like I have a whole lot of push-ups in my future!

How your baby's growing:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete. From now on, baby's growth is mostly in the plumping up department -- though she won't get much longer, she'll put on a pound or more of baby fat before birth. (She's about 15 percent right now and will be about 30 percent by full-term.) Her hearing is now totally developed (tip: baby responds best to higher pitches).

Apparently my baby doesn't pay attention when I read these weekly reports to her, or maybe her hearing isn't as developed as they say, because she has definitely not laid off on the somersaults. She is the moving-est, flipping-est baby ever. I swear, sometimes it feels like she's in there spinning herself around like a propeller. I get punches and kicks all around. She hasn't really settled on a position yet. Some days she's transverse, others breach. I have yet to catch a foot in the ribs so she doesn't seem to be at all interested in turning head down LIKE SHE'S SUPPOSED TO. Hopefully she'll get on board with the idea during the next few days, but even breach would be preferable to transverse for the c-section. So we'll see.

Weight gain?  34 lbs and determined to keep it under 40.

Maternity clothes?  My current focus is on picking up a few nightgowns/jammies for post-delivery. I need things that I can wear around the house that will allow me to be super comfy and give the baby easy access to the boobies, but will be conservative enough that I won't feel like I have to get dressed when we have company. I've found a few good ones and I think I'll pick up a nice comfy robe to throw on over what I have already that may not be quite so in-law friendly.

Sleep?  Humph!

Best moment this week?  Definitely my surprise shower on Saturday. My friends are AMAZING! Also, I wish I could say my maternity pictures yesterday were a really great experience, but if I'm being honest, they were exhausting. I'll be surprised if we end up with even 5 good ones. It got so hot, I'm sure I'm sweaty and bright red in almost all of them. Crossing my fingers to at least have a few that are acceptable.

Movement?  Still pretty much constant. She's a mover and shaker, that's for sure!

Food cravings?  Low fat vanilla yogurt with granola and blueberries or pineapple

Food adversions?  Nothing new here.

Labor signs?  Braxton-Hicks is my constant companion. I go through periods where I'll have contractions 10-15 mins apart for a few hours, then nothing the rest of the day. Other days I'll have 7 or 8 of them just spread out.

Belly button in or out?  Definitely out and visible through my clothes.

What I miss?   Breathing, sleeping, eating/drinking without suffering from heartburn, and doing anything physical without becoming totally exhausted and out of breath.

What I am looking forward to? Getting this baby out of me!!!

Emotions?  Mostly too tired to be anything....though Logan would probably say that Mommy has been  "Grumpy Gus" lately.

Milestones? Technically today marks my 35/35 milestone, meaning that I'm 35 weeks along and have 35 days left....except our munchkin will be coming a week early so we really only have 29 days left. Or less!

Mini-He

I can't believe I put up my weekly Bump post without including the baby info! So here it is:

How your baby's growing:

Baby's now the size of a honeydew! She now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 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. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that 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. Also, baby can now recognize and react to simple songs...time to start practicing your lullabies! In fact, baby will recognize frequently sung tunes after birth and probably find them soothing. Less cute news: She now urinates about one pint per day. Get the diapers ready!

And since Hubs hasn't made an appearance on the blog in a while, here we are after dinner and our marathon mall walk on Tuesday night...

And here is my proof that Vivienne looks just like her Daddy:

Daddy's Girl!

Baby Bump @ 34 Weeks!

My girl and I floating around on the 4th of July

Yesterday I left our 34 week appointment feeling totally defeated. I've been so great about keeping my weight gain low all this time...until this last month. Apparently I've DOUBLED my total gain since my last appointment. It's hard to believe considering that aside from the belly, I still look exactly the same. My clothes even fit exactly the same except for being tighter through the middle. I'll be damned if Kyle or I can figure out where I'm hiding the 15 or so newly acquired lbs, but the scale doesn't lie so they must be hanging around here somewhere. My husband was so sweet about the whole situation. He told me repeatedly that I look amazing and even gave in to my demand that we follow up our dinner with a 2 hour walk around the mall. We walked until my back nearly gave out and the ouchy contractions started before he convinced me that I had reached my limit and we went home. Today I'm planning out circuits I can walk through my building a few times a day when I need to stretch my legs. We have 4 floors so I can get in some good stair climbing AND all but the top floor stays nice and cool so I won't overheat like I would outside. (It's been over 100 degrees here the last few days.) I know it probably sounds silly to worry so much about my weight when the important thing is that my little princess is doing well, and that's totally true. But the thing is, I gained nearly half an extra person with my first pregnancy and I'm still carrying about 20 of those lbs. I've been pretty determined to not let that happen this time around. Our plan for the next 5 weeks is to fit in light exercise as often as possible and to really focus on fixing healthy meals and snacks. No more fast food at lunch time because I didn't have time to pack something. I'm just going to have to make time.

We haven't set our official date for the c-section yet - and probably won't until our 36 or 38 week appointment - but our doc did pencil us in for 8/9/10 while we were there yesterday (and wrote a little note in our folder). Needless to say, we're pretty excited about that. Of course, this is all assuming that Vivienne doesn't have her own plan and decide to come early, though honestly that would be totally cool with us too. I'm tired of being uncomfortable and extra hot.

A friend of mine is going to take some maternity pictures for me this weekend. Kyle begged out because he hates having his picture taken, but I think I'll still take Logan along and get some cute sibling/belly shots if he'll cooperate. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to wear. I spent almost two hours last night trying on outfits and staging my own little photo shoot. I've learned that sometimes things that look cute in person do not translate well in pictures, so now I always do test shots of my outfits beforehand. I have one dress picked out but I'll need some cute, bright shoes to pull it off because it's black and dark gray argyle and that's not going to work so well for summer pictures without a nice pop of color. I also ordered a pair of black smocked waist lounge pants from Destination Maternity that I think I'll wear with either a bright pink tank or a yellow tank with blue jewelry. Any thoughts?

Baby Bump @ 33 Weeks!

Well, as you can see in the background, Vivienne's room is finally starting to come together. Her bed is made, her tissue poms are hung, and I've been working really hard to go through all of the goodies from our baby shower. I separated out all her newborn clothes and have folded and waiting in one of her drawers, but they actually still need to be washed. I should probably get on that. I have the rest of her clothes separated out by size into labeled boxes. I did the same with Logan and found it to be really convenient and cut down on the clutter. I mean, do I really need her 6-9 month stuff hanging in the closet already? Nah.

So anyway, I'm starting to feel pretty prepared for her arrival. I think I've picked out her coming home outfit and I started packing our bag. I've been having some anxiety lately just thinking about the c-section and recovery. I almost think it was easier the 1st time around, not knowing what to expect. Instead, I suspect I'll spend the next 6 weeks remembering how much pain I'm going to be in afterwards, plus this time I'll also have a 3 yr old to take care of when we get home. On the positive side, you can't imagine what a comfort it is to know that I'm not going to be doing it all alone this time. Kyle is going to take off work for the 1st week - I told him he might as well take the whole week since he'll be using 3 days while we're in the hospital. What's another 2 days, right? And I'm EXTRA lucky because my Mom is going to take vacation the next week and come down to spend the days with me, so I'll have 2 weeks of help while I get back on my feet. Then I'm on my own.  Eeek!!!

Soooo...yeah....let's get to the baby stats before I freak myself out. I'm going to skip the survey this week because nothing much has changed in the last 7 days.  Maybe switch to bi-weekly...

How your baby's growing:

You are one hot mama -- literally. A 20 percent metabolic rate increase throughout pregnancy can leave you begging for a cool breeze no matter what the weather is like. Things are heating up inside as well: Baby may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and her brain is developing like crazy. Pretty soon, she'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, she's started to keep her eyes open when she's awake. This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (about the size of a pineapple or canteloupe) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal. These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Vivienne Jane in 3d!!!

Our 3d ultrasound was last night. I wish I could say it was an amazing experience and Vivienne was cooperative and we got beautiful pictures....but I'd be lying. My little booger planted her pretty little head face down in my placenta and decided to take a nap, giving us a really nice view of her spine and the back of her head. We spent about 20 minutes flopping side to side on the table, standing, sitting, flopping some more...just trying to get her to move. I finally resorted to poking and we got her to wake up and roll over for us. Awesome! Until she pulled both her legs up in front of her face to play with her toes. I poked at one of her little feet until she put it down and we were able to get these shots. It was amazing to see her, don't get me wrong, but I guess my expectations were a little high. I mean, for what we spent, I had hoped for more pictures. Anyway, now I'm even more anxious to finally see her face to face. These next 7 weeks are just going to DRAG by, I'm sure of it!

Vivienne was pouting because we were poking her to try to wake her up.

She looks EXACTLY like my husband in this picture.

Snuggled up against my placenta with her little foot up by her head (on the left).

Pretty in Pink and Oh-So-Sweet Baby Shower

I'm going to share my pics from the shower, but just be warned, there are probably a ton more to come. I mostly just took pics of the food and decorations, so I'll have to go through my sister's pictures to see if she got any good people shots. So let's just focus on the food and crafts for now, shall we?

The candy buffet! Mmmmm! I printed out those cute little labels and tied them on with pink and red ribbons and also added ribbons to the ends of the tongs just to make them a little cuter.

Strawberry filled cupcakes AND strawberry pies.

Baby carriage watermelon (made by an amazing family friend) and super fancy fruit tray. I think I ate about 6 slices of that pineapple!

This is the "food" table....obviously we were more focused on the sweets.

Dessert table with cupcakes, pies, candy buffet, and a chocolate fountain. The bunting hanging on the wall was super easy to make.  I just cut scrapbook paper into triangles, folded over the top to make a pocket  and then taped it closed over the ribbon. The whole project took about 2 hours.

Gift table + drink station. The strawberry lemonade was a HUGE hit! I suspect I'll be making that again at home a lot this summer.

One last close up of the candy buffet because I'm so pleased with how it turned out. We had wax soda bottles, salt water taffy, spice jelly beans, rock candy, candy buttons, caramels, and swirly lollipops.

Our centerpieces were really simple but cute. I taped lengths of red and pink ribbons around these vases then sprinkled metallic glitter and gumdrops on the tables.

Admiring the fruits of my labor.

PS. Overhead lighting is REALLY unflattering.  :(

Baby Bump @ 32 Weeks

Taken at my shower on Saturday

How your baby's growing:

Ready or not, baby's getting ready to emerge. She's probably in the head-down position by now, with her bottom facing up. This is the comfiest way for her body to fit in your increasingly cramped womb and will make her eventual exit (only a few months away now!) much easier. (If she's still head-up, don't panic -- there's still time for a flip before birth.) By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

How far along? 32 Weeks!

Weight gain?  I'm not sure really. I still haven't bought a new battery for my scale at home.

Maternity clothes?  The purple top from this week's picture isn't maternity, but the pants definitely are!

Sleep?  What's that?

Best moment this week?  Definitely my baby shower! It turned out even better than I had imagined and I was blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. Pics and details to come later this week.

Movement?  Today she's focusing all her punches on my cervix and bladder. Kyle says it's "payback for getting it on yesterday." I love my husband.  :)  The little princess, however, is on my naughty list today.

Food cravings?  Pineapple. I think I must have eaten at least an entire pineapple by myself this weekend between my shower and the 2 parties with Kyle's family yesterday.

Food adversions?  Nothing new to report here.

Labor signs?  Freaking Braxton-Hicks.

Belly button in or out?  Deeeefinitely out.

What I miss?  Feminine grooming that doesn't require acrobatics and a series of well-placed mirrors.

What I am looking forward to?  Our 3d ultrasound tomorrow is definitely the highlight, but I'm also waiting for a few baby-related packages to come in the mail so I'm excited about that too!

Emotions? Can tired count as an emotion? Because that pretty much sums it all up.

Milestones:  Ok, no real baby milestones this week, but I have a good Logan one. He has now added the word "freaking" to his vocabulary. I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed. Better than words he could have learned from me, I guess. For now, we think it's kind of funny/cute.