Posts tagged belly pictures
35 weeks (more, actually, this is late, go figure).
My two complaints are: 1) I am always tired and 2) my legs feel like those cheap wooden chopsticks right before you snap them in two. So much achy-ness. I also have developed a taste for red velvet cake. Which is less of a complaint and more of a woo-hoo. Because it’s delicious. And I still have half a piece of red velvet cheesecake leftover from yesterday in the fridge. So…big plans for tonight.
The closer we get, the more I am really excited to find out if it’s a boy or a girl. I waver back and forth between feeling like I know that it’s a girl, and then between having no clue. And when I am struck with the inability to sleep, I like to browse the online world of shopping delights on my phone and imagine our baby in teeny tiny little elephant hats and stuff. I think we’ve settled on a girl first name, but are still waffling a little on the boy choices and the middles. Getting down to the wire…but I could never make a definitive decision until I meet the little tyke, anyway.
I am also trying to savor my twosome time with Rosemary. And the relative simplicity of tasks like walking to the library with one child. And still cleaning (do you know how hard it is to remove a cover from an Ikea Poang?)
My doctor thinks this baby will be fairly small, like Rosemary, who was only 6lb 5oz even though she was two weeks late. I’m measuring on track, but when we listen to the heartbeat and feel the baby’s position, she comments on it still having room to wiggle. Baby moves a lot and I’m certain its feet are up on my right side. Apparently it is also quite a bit lower than it was a few weeks ago, and I can feel thwomps (hands?) down there, too.
On the home stretch now. Getting excited!
41 weeks
Yup. 41 weeks today. Apologies that my blog has turned into a complete whine-fest the past few days…OK, past few weeks. It has been SO hard to sit around waiting and waiting, I cannot even begin to tell you. Pops-to-be is feeling it, too, I can tell. We both want this baby out! Everyone constantly wants to know if the baby’s here yet, and everyone constantly has ideas for bringing on labor. It’s aaallllll been tried, thanks, and I’ve never been more pregnant than I am now.
I’m plenty uncomfortable and I can tell the baby’s really low, but I don’t really feel indications that I’m going into labor any second. It is difficult to sleep and I am constantly analyzing everything—worrying about less baby movement or contemplating if each twinge could possibly be a contraction.
So the waiting game continues. People say I will miss being pregnant and I should be enjoying this time. But I guarantee that I will not miss it, dudes. I am ready for my screaming, pooping, awake-every-hour miracle of life.
40 weeks
What is there to say? Except blllllleeeeerrrrgh, I am still pregnant. I know I shouldn’t be so impatient. After all, today’s my due date (and actually, tomorrow’s my due date based off my last ultrasound), so up until this point, it’s not like baby’s been late.
It’s just that I feel no closer (physically) to going into labor now than I did six months ago. Seriously, it feels like it’s never going to happen. No braxton hicks, no water breaking, or any of that other crap that’s supposed to happen.
I am just hot, tired, and mostly uncomfortable any way you slice it. Seeing other people’s babies and birth stories is also really starting to irrationally annoy me. Andrew and I are really ready to meet our kid now!
Dear god I hope this is the last belly picture. 39 weeks today on the Fourth of July, and it’s now looking very unlikely that we’ll have a Betsy Ross baby. Baby’s as big as she’s going to get and fully developed and ready for the outside world. We took this picture right after we got home from (yet another) a long walk. It’s still quite warm out, but on the other hand, it’s done wonders for the veggies we’re growing, which you can see right behind me in the picture.
I feel so much more pregnant than I did just a few weeks ago. It’s so hard to sleep now and so uncomfortable to move around. Just putting on yoga pants is a momentous task because it feels like there is a watermelon lodged in my pelvis. Despite that, I managed to do a lot of cleaning on Friday. The kitchen, vacuuming and mopping floors, the baby’s room, the dog bed, the toilets, laundry, organizing—I went on a real spree. Andrew was thrilled to come home and find the couches completely unusable because I was washing and drying the cushion covers. I was sitting on them on Friday morning and realized I simply couldn’t imagine a baby touching them. It occurred to me they have never been washed since we bought them two years ago, and since then, they even came across the Atlantic on a freight ship. Yuck.
Other baby prep we’ve completed: went to Costco yesterday to stock up on some things, taped phone number list by the phone, finished (mostly) packing hospital bag, finished baby laundry, bought baby nail clippers, had final meeting with the doula, got my TENS machine, topped up our mobile phone credit, arranged Southpaw’s potential dog care for while we’re at the hospital, and got Andrew’s hair cut. It’s looking like a dramatic improvement…
So, pretty much all set for baby’s arrival!
38 weeks
We trekked into London this evening to go see Paul McCartney. It was almost 90 degrees, which made me very unhappy. But, the concert was AMAZING. I can’t believe I was this close to a Beatle. And Paul’s still got it. He played for almost three hours and did two encores. I especially liked “Eleanor Rigby,” “Mrs. Vanderbilt,” “Two of Us,” and when he played “Something” on the ukulele and told a story about George. He played all the classics though, too.
We were quite close to the front for most of the show, and the baby was moving around lots (perhaps because we were a few feet away from a booming speaker?) My feet and my body are very tired in general. I was up super late last night because I actually thought my water might have broken. Freaked me out and I couldn’t sleep much, but I’ve convinced myself (in the light of day) that no water was broken. Then we spent a lot of time in the sun on our feet today, including an hour walk back to the car afterwards. So, some of us will sleep well tonight.
Perhaps all the walking and standing/dancing will convince the baby to come out this week. I plan on buying some pineapples tomorrow to consume en masse. We were quite worried about the baby coming early and having to miss the Paul show, but now that we’ve crossed that bridge, I want this kid out nooooow. Hope everyone had a good weekend!
37 weeks
Full term! As of yesterday, this baby is apparently fully cooked and ready for life out in the real world. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow, and I am so curious to see if she’s still sunny-side up. Hopefully all the swimming and sitting on the exercise ball has done the trick. At least now that I am 37 weeks, I am cleared to go to the birth center to deliver. Yay!
We went to the farmer’s market yesterday, which coincidentally is right near the place where the birth will happen. “Next time we drive this route, I’ll be in labor and we’ll have our baby on the way home,” I said to Andrew.
I’m still feeling pretty good. I don’t feel huge and uncomfortable. I’m just generally pretty sleepy and willing to nap at any hour of the day. I am ready to be done being pregnant though. I’m ready to sleep on my stomach again, drink a beer, see my feet, and meet this kiddo.
36 weeks. And this was my first week of maternity leave, during which I managed to stay quite busy doing laundry, walking Southpaw, swimming, eating an entire loaf of raisin bread, watching Grey’s Anatomy, 16 and Pregnant, and napping.
By the end of this week, I’ll be considered full term, and I will be allowed to deliver at the natural birth centre in the pool, so I hope she stays in there this whole week. So crazy that there could be a baby here so soon! Baby weighs almost 6 pounds now and is as long as she’ll be at birth (I’d be happy for her to not get too much bigger, as well). I have been trying really hard to get her into a good position, but time will tell if it’s working. I can feel body parts, but it’s hard to tell what’s what. I think I felt a baby butt up at the top of my abdomen earlier this week and something is poking me directly into my lower right hip all of the time (an elbow, maybe?), making it very hard to bend over.
We are almost ready for her arrival. The clothes are all washed and mostly put away, and I just have a bit of work left in the nursery (pictures to come soon), and I need to finish packing our hospital bag. Then thundercats are gooooo!
35 weeks. And just 35 days to go until my official due date. Exciting stuff. I went to lunch with people from our NCT course today, and some of them are pretty close to popping (and much worse for wear than I am…wow, swollen ankles, much? Glad I don’t have that pregnancy ailment). It is so crazy that it is almost baby time.
On the other hand, these pictures are starting to get fairly depressing. Not that I ever had a smoking hot model’s bod or anything, but last night Andrew and I were looking at the first belly picture I took, at 12 weeks pregnant. Oh my god. I had defined hip bones, and a waist, and boobs that were at least two cup sizes smaller, and my face was much leaner. I realize and accept that your body has to change a lot to make a baby, but I wonder if it’ll ever return to somewhat normalcy? I have now made a vow* to seriously use the jogger stroller we bought. After the baby’s born we’ll be running around the hood, for sure. The dog’s getting plump, too, so this can only be good for all of us. If she can get over her fear of the stroller.
It is amazing, though, that I am carrying around a 5-pound, 18-inch-long baby inside of me. And that I’ll be full term and there could be a baby here in just two weeks!
*Vow to jog does not apply unless temperature is below 70 degrees outside. So cross your fingers for a cool summer.
34 weeks. It always surprises me how pregnant I look in pictures, but I guess seeing as how we could have a real baby here in like three weeks, that’s to be expected. Apparently, 99% of babies born at 35 weeks are perfectly healthy, so that’s comforting in case someone decides to make an early appearance. The baby’s lungs and even her hearing are fully developed now. She weighs about 4.8 pounds and is 17.7 inches long, and is going to spend the last few weeks getting into position and putting on weight.
The weather’s been really nice here, and we’ve been doing lots of walking outside, which should help things along once the big show gets going. I’ve got four more days of work until maternity leave, so yay for that! I’ve been drinking a lot of orange juice and craving ice cream (Southpaw enjoys licking the sticks of Magnum bars probably twice as much as I enjoy eating them).
Sleeping is getting more and more difficult by the week, but I suppose it’s good training for when baby’s here. She moves a lot when I lay down, and Andrew can see and feel a lot of baby dance parties from the outside. Go, baby, go!
33 weeks today. Rocking some non-maternity clothes in our garden, and really not looking so cute, but whatever. It’s in the 80s here, but luckily it’s supposed to get cooler later this week. Pregnant and warm weather do not mix.
The baby now weighs up to 4.4 pounds and is 17.5 inches long. So, someone’s getting pretty big in there. I have a midwife appointment tomorrow, and I am curious to see if she’s still sitting head-down. Sometimes I feel crazy flips and wiggles, and I am wondering if she’s constantly changing positions or staying put now (since she’s been head-down since 28 weeks every time they check). I really hope she’s also not back-to-back, but we’ll see.
