29 weeks...

Each day it sinks in more and more...we are going to HAVE A BABY! Yes, I know this sounds really stupid, but really, we are not naive to believe that a child will not change anything in our lives. I guess I imagine the worse and that it will change EVERYTHING. But for instance I imagine bad things like, I imagine having to be in labor for 40 hours, to the point that, even though I don't want an epidural because of my fear of them, but me having one because I have been in labor for so long that I give in to the idea (or maybe this will happen immediately, I have no set in stone plans, other than I would MUCH prefer no epidural bc of my fear). Anyway, I imagine a baby that will keep me up so much, that I will not know what my name is the first few weeks. I imagine most things as being infinitely more difficult. Yes, I know people have kids all the time. My expectations are just for the most extreme. I HOPE Pedro, enjoys our newborn as much as he enjoys the toddlers, however, maybe we will take the trade off, because the idea of chasing around a toddler, sounds just as exhausting! My mom got me a book, the chicken soup for the soul for new moms book. Anyway, that doesn't make it any better! The stories keep talking about how they are so tired they are wearing different shoes. Or how they went for a run with their baby in a stroller and it screamed once they got to the turn around point of the run (although it was mile 12 of a 24 mile run) and had to run the whole way back with a screaming baby. I know people say the tradeoff is well worth it, but scary nonetheless! I told Pedro that he may have to start running some of our errands (not likely) once the baby arrives, for instance today, we had to get dog food. We were driving to get the food, which Pedro has been with me to get a few times, in the past year. And he starts going to a store that I haven't been to in almost two years. Then we get to the store and I tell him to grab the bags of food (we buy two different brands and mix them) and he grabs the small bags. I told him those are not the bags we buy, we buy the big bags because our dogs would eat the small bags in a week... and he wasn't sure which size we usually buy. Worries me quite a bit, because that would have been something easy to go and do! Oh, well...he will get the hang of it, or I will, lol.


This week, I swear I have gotten bigger. Not sure if the pictures will demonstrate that, but usually I wake up thinking "I'm looking skinny today (sort of)", but this week I feel quite a bit bigger. I have also had a horrible cold for nearly a week, which has made my sleep not very good. My glucose results came back normal, I was a little worried since the ultrasound tech thought our baby was really big, which can be a sign of gestational diabetes. But all my lab work was good.

Workouts have just been ok this week, because of the cold. Monday's run club, instead of running with everyone, I took Stella with me for a 3 mile jog/walk, because the cool air was making my throat/cough worse. With the snow this week, I think I might have made an official change (minus Saturday's and nice warm days), to runs on the treadmill. Prior to being pregnant the treadmill was the most horrible thing ever. Now, the idea sounds pretty good. I can run slow, and not "see" how slow I am running (which at this point is ridiculous) and I can go to the bathroom at any point and my water is right there. I may change my mind once it gets nice out again, but this week that was my main workout. I did the stairmaster a few times, but my cold was making me short on breath, but this didn't happen on my slow treadmill runs.


This week we have also started painting. We needed to paint our hallway, so that has been almost completed and we have primed the walls in the baby's room. Tomorrow we are hoping to do almost all of the painting, in the baby's room. Then after my shower next week, we will be able to get the whole room done! Which is good news, just in case our little one decides to make an early appearance.

This weeks belly pictures:



Here I am at week 25, only 4 weeks ago!




Random facts:
Day's till due date: 78
Day's pregnant: 202
Baby's length: 17 inches
Baby's weight: 3-4 lbs
Scary fact: She is almost her length now, but will come close to TRIPLING her weight over the next 11 weeks.
Development: teeth buds for permanent teeth are forming in her gums
Day's till next doctor appt: 7 (then every two weeks)

28 weeks or 3rd Trimester!

I can't believe we are already in the 3rd trimester. Time has flown by. Remind me of this when I am even bigger than I already am and I am swearing about how large I am, and how long it is taking. Or at least, I have heard that the last few weeks are the hardest because you know the baby could be coming at any time..and you are a lot bigger (can I actually get bigger? I don't want to know the answer to that!).

I also did my glucose test this week. It was ok, the baby enjoyed the sugar because she was moving for the entire hour after I drank it.

Anyway, the exciting news was that today we went for a 3d/4d ultrasound. We went ahead and paid for one in case we would not get any more ultrasounds and since the baby wasn't exactly cooperative last time we wanted to try again. Today was no different. Our baby is not very helpful when we want pictures. They think it is because my abs are really strong (can't believe there are any muscles at this point) and they are holding everything in closer. Funny, because my stomach is so large, I can't believe there is not A LOT of room in there! Anyway, we did confirm that the baby is a GIRL! We also found out that she is estimated to be pretty big. Right now at 28 weeks she should weigh about 2.25 lbs. The tech believed that she is closer to 3.5 lbs (or about 3 weeks ahead). She has a nice double chin, chubby cheeks and appears quite chunky. As, we know things could be big this week and smaller or on track next, but right now she seems to be sizing up to be a big baby (haven't decided if this is good or bad...lol). She liked to smile a lot. She also liked to put her giant feet by her face so we couldn't get a good view.

Here are a few of her pictures:







Here is my belly at 28 weeks:




Random facts:
Baby size: 16 inches long (we did not measure her today)
Baby weight: apparently between 2.25-3.5 lbs
Days till next doctor appt: 13 days
Days till due date: 84
Days pregnant: 196
Development: Baby now blinks and has REM sleep cycle so she could be dreaming

27 weeks...

This is the last week, before being in the 3rd trimester! I have now officially reached my highest weight ever, in my life. Surprised that I have almost weighed this much before? When I played bball I weighed close to this and when I could bench 225lbs (hard to imagine right?) I weighed close to this. I am up about 23lbs right now ( + or -3lbs depending on time of day and water weight). I have been gaining appropriately during the second trimester of about 1lb per week. The doctor said some people taper off a bit during the third trimester and some people gain more. Let's hope that I either taper off, or maintain a slow gain.

This week I had my regular checkup at the doctors office. After waiting for an hour in the room because my doctor was in labor and delivery, I had my five second checkup. This week, I am measuring slightly ahead, but I know this measurement can be ahead, behind or on track and change each time. I think she said I was close to 28.5 weeks, and I am 27 weeks. So, not a huge difference, although it probably was the growth of the week before. Baby's heartrate was around 150 and everything is looking good. Next week, I have to go do the glucose test and then I will be back at the doctor at week 30 and then going every two weeks after that. I can't believe how time has flown.

My workouts have been going pretty good. I have been taking the dogs for a run. I take Stella out for about 2 miles then I switch and take Polar out for about the same. We are not running very fast. I think the dogs can almost walk at the speed we are going! The stairmaster and elliptical are on my off days of running and I lift weights on those days. Nothing else too exciting, other than I am still running. The only downside with the slow running is that I still run with run club and I know that not many people run as slow as I do, and I don't mind, but sometimes they want to stay with me and I would prefer they just get their run in, I know that I am slow and I don't want them to waste their workouts.

This week I also got my flu shot. I am not a big fan of getting one, but after hearing the pro's and con's for the baby, I decided that I would get one. I coach and spend a lot of time around kids, so in general, I am more susceptible to being around someone that might have the flu, so I went ahead and got one.

Symptom wise, things have been pretty good. I do find that when I am laying on the sofa, I have a hard time breathing if I lay a certain way. I still have the nosebleeds and I still have my "clown" lip issue. Really, other than that things have felt pretty good. Today I am a bit more tired than usual, but it could be because I know my weekend consists of coaching about 10 games or so, plus run club and a meeting at the gym.


We also had my baby shower, with my team this week! It was great! We had about 21 of my players there and their mom's. They got me a wide range of things from my registry and a lot of things that we need. When you have nothing for the baby to start with, I am very thankful, for everyone helping us get the things we need for our baby! I know some of the things are luxuries, but I am so happy people are willing to help us! We still need a large variety of things from, bottles and different size clothing, to bigger items like a monitor or pack n play. We have one more shower with our family at the beginning of November, so hopefully after that, we will be set and ready to get everything cleaned and organized!!!!

We went to a consignment sale for baby clothes this week and we got some great stuff! Most stuff was about $3.00! Here is a picture of some of the stuff we ended up with:

One fun thing was that last night while I was in bed, the baby must have been stretching out. I could feel her from one hip all the way to the other hip. So, she was laying sideways and stretching out. They were quite large kicks so the length that way must be a little short for her!

Alright here are the pictures this week:




Random Facts:
Baby's length: 15inches
Baby's weight: 2lbs
Days till due date: 91
Days pregnant:189
Development: At this point the baby has more taste buds than she will at any other point. This means that she can easily taste the food that I am eating and may react to it! (spicy food..mmm).
Days till ULTRASOUND: 7!!
Days till next doctors appt: 21 or 6 if you count my glucose test.

26 weeks...

This last week was the first time that I have had any "issue" during pregnancy. I am not sure I will call it an issue. But it did call for me to have an early doctors appointment. Last Friday, I woke up to a really bad sharp pain on my right side. I was thinking, this is quite awful, I can't imagine labor pain! Anyway, it lasted for part of the morning and was pretty painful, but I figured it was pain from the baby growing and now occupying my right side (if you remember two days prior was the first time I had felt her on that side). I worked out and did my usual stuff and then later in the evening I was very crampy. Not just on the right side, but had pretty bad cramps. I drank some extra water and figured I would see what Saturday would bring. Saturday, I ran in the morning but only 2.5 miles, I didn't want to aggravate whatever the issue was the day before. I was fine, but after I ran, I had one lesson then I went home and rested the rest of the day and drank plenty of water. But by mid afternoon, I was crampy again. It went away and came back again that night when I went to bed. Sunday I woke up with the feeling and then had to coach 5 games, and my stomach just felt "different" than what it has been feeling. That is the best way I can explain it. My mom and Pedro were both very worried. I wasn't worried, just assumed it was growing pains. Although, everyone that I talked to told me they never had these pains/cramps and then one person told me she did and it was pre-term labor. Great. I called the nurse Monday morning and told her that I was currently feeling fine, but I explained the cramping over the weekend and she decided it was best for me to come in that morning.

I went to the office and they did my blood pressure (110/55), heart rate (62), measured me (25), weighed me (up 3lbs) and listened to the baby's heartbeat (155). Everything was looking right on track and good. She told me that it was probably just growing pains and that maybe with my tight abs/obliques before that it would cause more pulling than an average person. She told me that the running I am doing could cause more of the pain as it pulls more on my muscles. She didn't say I couldn't run, just that it might get more uncomfortable for me. I know the pain she is referring to from running, I get it most days after I run, it feels just like a sore muscle in my lower (what use to be) abs. That doesn't bother me. I'm going with what she said it was, growing pains, but it was a little different than the pains that I have had from running and even today, laying in bed I was a bit achy in my hip/oblique area. I will still go back for my next appointment as scheduled and continue on from there.

This week we got a very unexpected present in the mail, but one I have been wanting. We got our BOB stroller! That is exciting, because I plan to run with our baby, but also because it isn't a little stroller where Pedro will look like he is pushing a doll's stroller because they are so much smaller. We will likely have both types of strollers (I think Linzy is loaning me her's) so we will have that too, but this one should be good for my runs! I assume the baby will like running, with all the running she does now!

We haven't purchased anything lately and our nursery is still at the same point. We are waiting for my first baby shower, next week with my team, and then getting the room painted, then the baby shower with my family. We will also be getting our new windows sometime in Nov. Hopefully, by about Thanksgiving we will have our room together. I don't want to have to spend the last month of my pregnancy organizing the room/clothes etc.

A big week:




As I keep saying, it is very strange. I workout everyday. I eat well. I don't eat bad food. Yet, I am bigger and heavier each week. I definitely have zero control over this!

Random info:
Days till due date: 99!!!!
Days pregnant: 181
Days till next doctors appt: 7
Days till 3rd trimester: 7!
Baby weighs: 1.75/2 lbs
Baby size: 14 inches (cucumber, not sure I have seen a cucumber this size?)
Development: Baby's ears are more developed and can hear us talking. Also, she is inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, to get her lungs practiced.
Days till 3D ultrasound: 15