36 weeks

36 weeks

160 pounds

Ugh... I feel like shit all of a sudden. Just kidding! I actually still feel pretty awesome. I'm not too tired. Getting through the day isn't a chore. I think I still have lots of energy! I last pain free for about 5 days after my chiro adjustments. I can't complain about that. 

I'm not sleeping as well as I was before. It's been pretty hard to fall asleep lately even though I'm very tired at night. When I am asleep, it's kind of fitful the first couple hours and I'm up to pee at least twice. I get my best sleep in the morning hours. I'd like to sleep in until 9 everyday, but that's not an option, so I do fine waking up at 7.

Still no swelling. It's been hotter than hell the last couple days with heat indexes in the 100s. We stayed inside Monday, but had to venture out in it a few times yesterday and it wasn't that bad since we were just in and out of the car. I'm still wearing my wedding rings :) 

I had a midwife appointment yesterday and that went well. I didn't ask what my blood pressure was, but it couldn't have been high or she would have said something. I go back in a week anyway, so I'll just find out then. Baby is still head down! My fundal height is right on track. I had a pelvic exam and Sheryl asked if Stella was born early. I told her that she was 2 weeks early. She said, "Looks like this guy might decide to do the same. I can tell by looking that you're dilated a little already." I was going to decline a cervical check, but since she was down there already I figured what the hell. She said very surely that I am 2 cm and my cervix is soft. Of course, that's not uncommon since this is my second baby, but it's still a little alarming! I was mentally prepared for her to tell me I'm still locked up like Fort Knox down there. I'll be elated with whenever he decides to come because he'll be ready, but I don't want him to come early! I want to be pregnant longer this time! Who knows, maybe I'll walk around continuing to dilate for 6 more weeks and he'll be late. That would make for an easy delivery! I'm an incredibly impatient person. I think I've been very good at suppressing that this entire pregnancy. The not knowing right now is driving me up the wall though! I'm not on the edge of my seat yet, but once 38 weeks is here I'm going to assume I'm having a baby anytime.

I can definitely tell baby doesn't have as much extra room as he did before. His movements are a lot more noticeable and it just feels like he's more confined. He's very much on a schedule. I haven't noted times during the day, but it seems like every night between 10:30 and 11 he wakes up and starts dancing around for at least a couple hours. I told Erik we're going to have a night owl on our hands just like his mama.

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Baby is the size of a honeydew

17.2 - 18.7 inches

4.2 - 5.8 pounds

35 weeks

35 weeks

159 pounds

There are only 35 days till my due date! When did that happen?! 

This is not a first thing in the morning picture, but I don't feel huge yet this afternoon so it must be pretty close to how I look when I wake up :) 

I still feel great. I'm not generally uncomfortable. I'm definitely not miserable. I'm still sleeping pretty well. I still have lots of energy. I know I keep saying that every week because I keep expecting for a wave of exhaustion to kick in. Thank goodness for staying healthy and active, I suppose! 

My hips are starting to bother me a bit and I'm having some crazy sacral pain, but my chiropractor helps take care of that. I feel really lucky that it's taken this long for any pain to really start bothering me.

I noticed a small bit of swelling starting the other day in my hands, I felt like my face was kind of puffy when I woke up and toward the end of the day my ankles felt tingly like they should be swollen, but weren't at all. I re-evaluated what I'd been doing and realized my water intake was pitiful. So, I started drinking enough water and the next day the swelling was basically gone.

I've been nesting like crazy lately. This is a good thing for my house! It's actually clean most of the time. I cleaned the entire upstairs this morning. I don't think our upstairs bathroom could be any cleaner than it is now. I kept thinking that the next time I clean up there will be the last time before baby is here. It was kind of eye opening that this is really happening! 

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Baby is the size of a coconut.

17.2 - 18.7 inches

4.2 - 5.8 pounds

34 weeks

34 weeks

158 pounds

Belly is 40 inches around!

I'm still feeling great. My energy is still up there, but my pelvis/back gets sore quite a bit quicker these days. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning. This is probably a direct effect of my not being able to fall asleep until the middle of the night lately. 

Once I do get to sleep, I'm sleeping well and staying pretty comfortable. A few nights ago, my hips started bothering me and I thought, "Oh no, not already." When I should have been thankful that I went this far into pregnancy without any hip pain. It didn't last long, though, and I haven't noticed it again.

I don't think I've been craving anything in particular lately. I've just been eating like normal and trying to drink as much water as I need. It's been so hot and I know I haven't been drinking enough. 

My belly button is definitely different this time! I don't think it's going to pop out all the way, but I think it'll get close. 

I was looking the other day and I don't think I have any new stretch marks. I can still barely see the ones from Stella. Looking back, I didn't notice most of them until after she was born.

I just got back from a midwife appointment and that went very well. Sheryl is back and was pretty annoyed that the lab didn't run my blood to screen my glucose test at all. She's not concerned about me retaking it since I'm staying so healthy. They didn't run some other test either, so at my appointment in 2 weeks she's going to draw a vial of blood and send it in again. Over the weekend I noticed a couple annoying headaches a couple of times. I woke up with one and then got another in the evening. One went away with Tylenol. The other didn't. I immediately started to wonder if my blood pressure was going to start acting up again like it did when I was pregnant with Stella. Knowing that worrying wasn't going to help anything, I stopped and made sure I was taking my magnesium supplement every day (I'm pretty forgetful with my vitamins). 

• My blood pressure was perfect today (110/78).
• My fundal height is right at 34cm.
• Baby is, in fact, head down. His body is on my left with his butt up under my left ribs and his feet are kicking out my right side. He flips and flops a little bit, but that's his main position :) 
• His heart rate was in the 130s

 Basically, everything is perfect and I couldn't be more thankful for such an easy, healthy pregnancy.

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Baby is the size of a butternut squash

4.2 - 5.8 pounds 

17.2 - 18.7 inches

33 weeks

33 weeks

158 pounds

I totally slacked last week's update. Oh well :)

I feel great again. That cold was terrible and annoying for almost 2 weeks! I've still got lots of energy during the day at least. I'm starting to have a hard time waking up in the morning, but I'm sure that's because we've been staying up kind of late. 

I'm still sleeping well and staying comfortable all night. It's starting to get difficult to turn over in our giant cloud of a bed. I wish Stella's bed was a queen so we could just switch her for a few months. It's only a full size though and nowhere near big enough for Erik and I and I refuse to sleep with her because we've just gotten to a good place with her sleeping by herself.

I think baby is finally staying head down most of the time! I'm pretty sure he flipped on Sunday while I was doing my spinning babies routine. He's got his head down, body on my left and his feet on my right just like Stella did. I'm pretty sure Stella started out with her body on my right and feet on my left and then flipped over. I'll (hopefully) always remember that because my stretch marks on my left are bigger than on my right side. After being worried about him being like this I did some reading, I learned that this position is the most favorable (other than his back being out) for starting labor. He still kind of floats into a couple different positions in there, but at least I know he's not stuck. Before he'd flipped, I was starting to have a terrible pain on my left side where his head had been sitting. It was like he was stretching whatever skin/muscle was right there and it was horrible. 

I had a prenatal appointment last week and that went well. Sheryl was gone in Germany, so her back up nurse practitioner was there. My blood work results came back, but she didn't see any result or report of my glucose tolerance test. Hopefully they just forgot to send it because I'm NOT taking that test again. My iron is a little low (not surprising) so she suggested I start taking an iron supplement. I still need to pick some up and start taking it... oops. 

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Baby is the size of a durian?? WTF is that? 

4.2 - 5.8 pounds

17.2 - 18.7 inches

31 weeks

31 weeks

157 pounds

Belly is 39 inches around. I don't feel that big!!! 

Haven't been feeling so hot the last almost a week now. I've been battling a terrible cold that I think I'm just starting to get over. I feel like it shows in the picture :( I was miserably stuffy for 4 nights and a cough started 2 days in and that all just sucks. As long as I'm better before the weekend I'll be happy because we're going camping again! 

Despite the cold, I still feel pretty good during the day. Monday I walked 2 miles and yesterday we were outside at the park from 10 to 2. That was a fun time. Stella was so worn out that she fell asleep in the car and napped for 2 hours! It was nice for me at the time, but it made for a late night up and a cranky morning from her and I'm exhausted today.

Now that I can mostly breathe normally sleeping is very fine. I'm not waking up in the night tossing and turning yet. I'm staying comfortable for the most part.

Even though I've been up and moving around non stop, baby has been transverse the entire last week. It's been incredibly uncomfortable and is starting to make me nervous just a little bit. I know he still has plenty of time and I need to stop worrying. I just don't want him to get too comfortable and decide not to turn. If baby does end up breech I would have to deliver in the hospital and I do know that there is one doctor that will deliver a breech baby and I'd 100% rather do that than have a c-section. It would be a matter of him being on call that day though, I think. Oh well, I shouldn't even be thinking about it right now. 

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Baby is the size of a pineapple. 

15.2 - 16.7 inches

2.5 - 3.8 pounds

30 weeks

30 weeks

156 pounds

Oh hello weight gain. I'd been wondering when you'd show up ;)

I still feel awesome. I'm staying active chasing Stella around, keeping up on house work, and going for walks at least 3 times a week. I wish we went every day, but it just doesn't always work out. Even though I'm still moving around, my body is weak. My arms are weak, my legs are weak, I'm sure my core is weak from not actually exercising. I hate it. Going up the stairs makes my legs burn sometimes. I tell myself I should just climb the stairs 10 times in a row a couple times a day and I'd be in shape in no time. I'm worried about my endurance for while I'm in labor. While I know I should have thought about this a long time ago and started something, I don't think 10 weeks to go is too late.

Sleep is still great. I'm still waking up on my back a lot. It's not uncomfortable (or impossible) yet. I suppose when it is I won't just automatically flip there in my sleep.

I went to the chiropractor yesterday and she did more work on me than she ever has at one time! I was super out of whack and I'd been feeling it. It has always been painful to lie on my back on a hard floor with my legs extended, but it started becoming painful for my sacrum to lie like that in bed. Lying on her special pregnant belly nest on the adjustment table even hurt my sacrum. She adjusted my pelvis two different ways and they both hurt, but felt so good. I've been sitting terribly, too. I've always sat with my left leg tucked up under my butt or just folded with my foot resting on the inside of my right thigh. It's comfortable, but I know it's terrible for my hips. I told her I'd been sitting like that a lot and she said she could definitely tell by the way my psoas muscle was tight on the left. She worked that out and it HURT! Baby is still primarily oblique/transverse with his head on my left side. She said my left round ligament has been consistently tight at every adjustment so we Webster techniqued that. I already feel better today. I'm so glad I'm going every other week now :) 

Baby has started getting his feet up under my ribs a little bit when I don't give him enough space. I'm still getting lots of movement from him. I felt hiccups again the other day! I'm still working on doing (most of) my Spinning Babies moves to encourage this kid to get in position. I'm not worried about him being breech, but I am worried that he'll be facing my side (instead of my back) again like Stella was. I don't want to experience back labor again! 

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Baby is the size of a cucumber! (Stella's favorite veggie!)

15.2 - 16.7 inches

2.5 - 3.8 pounds

Boy or Girl?!

Sunday we finally got to tell everyone the sex of baby goose! It was such a lovely party and so much fun! 

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Everything looked amazing

Time to cut the cake! 

BOY!!!

Here I am breaking the news to Stella that she's getting a baby brother. Her reaction, "Oh, but I wanted a sister!"

I can't really say if she's excited about it, but she says she's happy that she's getting a brother when we ask her.

Before we were even pregnant she was asking for a baby sister though. Maybe someday, baby bird.