Marination Time: 26 Weeks
Size of baby: Baby is one and two-thirds pounds this week, and fourteen inches long. The size of an English hothouse cucumber.
Total Weight Gain/Loss: 18 pounds. I am starting to feel my weight when sitting in one position for too long. Cannot imagine what another 10-15 pounds will feel like on, but I know I will find out!
Maternity Clothes: Yes. New stuff being brought out this week! I love my warmer weather options and am even excited about the outfit I have on today to travel to Kauai.
Sex: Baby girl.
Movement: It was a weird week for movement. Two nights this week I was very short on sleep and she did not move very much which naturally made me concerned. I think my exhaustion plus stress in getting ready to be out of town just affected her. By yesterday she was back up to her usual antics, and then some. DM and I think she’s making up for being so quiet the past few days. I am still tracking her moves to make sure nothing is strange.
Belly button watch: Innie.
Sleep: The sleep I got this week was good, just brief. It really affected me and LB both, so I will be trying to avoid that in the future.
What I miss: Not much this week. I was too busy getting ready for our trip to be reflective on pre-pregnancy life.
Cravings: A funny story for this week. I have generally ate very healthfully during this pregnancy so far. My default is some kind of salad with grilled chicken for protein and a mix of veggies and color on any given day. Which sure, can get boring. On Wednesday this week we were set to get just that, and I totally backtracked and we ordered pub food. Granted it was still chicken in my sandwich, but I went for the one with pepper jack and bacon on it with fried onion strings on top, all on a pretzel roll. And oh yes, sweet potato fries. Mercy! At least I don’t have mega cravings like that often!
Symptoms: I am continuing to fight some swelling and I think that symptom will be here to stay off and on. Over the weekend we were to head to the Irish American Heritage Center Saturday night for some St. Pat’s festivities. I had been on my feet getting stuff done around the house for about 8-9 hours and got in the shower to get ready to go, when lo and behold I look down and my legs and ankles are looking huge! So much for those plans. The rest of our night involved me sitting with my feet up and having a little “I thought this wouldn’t happen to me” pity party. Ha!
I also had some swelling on one or two other days this week, which was not necessarily predictable. Sometimes it happened at the end of the day, but twice I woke up puffy in the morning. Weird. I’m drinking water more than ever before now and with the exception of my pub food night, trying to watch the salt (which honestly should be happening anyway, even if salt/sour things are where it’s at for me during this pregnancy). The water also should help with my other new pregnancy symptom this week – first noticeable Braxton Hicks contractions. I got some belly tightening with a little pain, even, for the first time on Saturday evening when it was clear I overdid it. The pain was so fleeting but it got my attention. Since then, no pain at all, but now I’m attuned to the belly tightening sensation for sure. So far, this has been an every other day thing and very brief – maybe only one or two instances when I feel that way. It is awkward at work and sometimes happens right before I need to visit the ladies room. Today though, as we have been traveling, I think it definitely has been correlating to the movement/activity of going through the airports. I’ve had at least four but am counting on this being out of the ordinary for this stage of pregnancy. Water and putting my feet up help me relax that feeling fairly quickly.
Best Moments this week: We had a great time on St. Patrick’s Day with DM’s friends. There were at least half a dozen babies/little ones at our celebration at Chief O’Neill’s, and there will be two more in the mix next year. DM put the crib together this week and moved my grandmother’s over 100 year old rocking chair into the nursery. It is coming along! Also we could not be more excited to get away this week for our trip to Kauai. We are bringing work and lots of baby gear and “birth” related reading/tasks to do while away (don’t be jealous), but we will at least be in an awesome place while reading. And one more “best” moment – this week was one of my best friend’s birthdays, and while we were out to lunch to celebrate, she shared that she is pregnant and due at the beginning of October. We were with another best friend that is due the beginning of August. So, my two bridesmaid best friends will have babies within three months of our Little Bean – I can’t believe it!! All part of our “master plan” – ha!
Here is a picture of us on St. Pat’s, followed by a picture of DM putting together the crib in a freshly painted nursery. DM also painted the dresser as well – we just need some fancy knobs to go on it and it will be ready to go. One last sappy comment before signing off – DM has amazed this pregnant lady very much of late with the speed with which he has tackled nursery projects and honey-do’s…not that I would have expected less, but I have to brag on him for a minute or two!! 🙂
