Countdown tradition

As I mentioned in a previous blog, time is flying and we pretty much only have 7-8 weeks to go. A couple of weeks ago I got a pregnancy countdown giraffe-box from my best friend Sabine. Every Tuesday, when we move into the next week, I get to unpack a gift from the box.
Most of you actually know Sabine, she was my maid of honor at the wedding, and also for that big event she made a calendar with gifts to countdown. And when she was pregnant I sent her a gift every month.

It is absolutely great to have such a nice tradition with her. Sabine now it is my turn again!

I forgot one

I actually do have this one symptom that has been annoying, and even painful. I have swollen hands and feet, not a lot, but just enough that I can't wear my rings and had to buy different shoes. I had to buy shoes with laces, so that I can adjust them when the day progresses. Especially now that the weather is getting better it gets worse.

Bending my fingers even hurts sometimes, because the joints are having trouble....

Almost no symptomes at 32 weeks. Is that normal?

Today I am 32 weeks pregnant and I was just reading some of the websites about what to expect at 32 weeks. According to this one website I can experience the following symptomes:

"The common symptoms felt by most women by this stage would be fatigue, breathlessness, backache, constipation, faintness, leg cramps, insomnia, and mood changes, swelling in breasts, leaking breasts, bleeding gums, contractions, vaginal discharge, nosebleeds, stretch marks, frequent urination, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, heartburn and indigestion."

Sounds scary to me...... Luckely I have been pretty much symptom free (so far), which almost seems abnormal??
Jr is however growing and pushing from the inside and this morning I felt for the first time that (s)he can push my ribs. The legs always seem to be on the right side of my body and pushing that part of my belly feels a little sore.
The one other thing I think I noticed are the so called Braxton Hicks Contractions, which means you utures is practicing for delivery. It doesn't hurt, my belly just gets thight and it indeed feels like that muscle is working hard. This all of a sudden made me realize that if I were to deliver 1-2 weeks early we will be parents in about 6 weeks.... Now that is scary! On the one hand I am really looking forward to meeting the little person who is in my belly now. On the other hand, because I have had such few symptomes, I am not sick of being pregnant yet and I think I will even miss my belly and the company of Jr.

Belly gallery

Here is a comparison of my belly over the last 7 months....

Side view

And the front view - I mixed up the captions, since the cm's should have been in this gallery... o well. That's what pregnancy does to my brain.

Belly at 32 weeks

Sean is in the States right now for a meeting, so I made these pictures myself. I think they came out ok. My belly did grow again since 28 weeks. It measures 93,5 cm now (compared to 88 cm 4 weeks ago). Everything is indeed starting to get clumsy, never knew that putting on shoes can be such a hassle.
But these past couple of days I got really spoiled by my mom. She stayed with us while Sean was gone. It was a great visit and nice to relax for a bit... so Jr can grow some more!

Boxing baby at 31 weeks

As published by Sean in the previous post, Junior's footwork is exellent.
However this picture (that we got at the ultrasound last week) also shows the boxing activities that are going on in my belly at the moment. This picture just made me laugh, as it looks like Jr has two little boxing gloves and is ready for the fight.

Kicking the crap out of mommy

Our little one is definitely a kicker. Sandra feels him/her moving around much more than ever. All kinds of things- the feet, the arms (feel pointier and less powerful), the back against the uterine wall, and now the hiccups are coming. This is a good thing because it means that junior is trying to exercise his/her lungs. Yesterday Sandra felt the baby all day long-some big kicks and also pushing for room against her stomach and vital organs. Now after the ultrasound this morning we have video proof of Junior's footwork.

Placenta update

We just had another ultrasound to localize the placenta, which was too low at 20 weeks. Now everything is looking great! The placenta is not covering the exit anymore. It is however still low and at 36 weeks we get another ultrasound to make sure Juniors head is dropped and has enough space for delivery. But the lady didn't expect a problem, so I can deliver naturally. That was a big relieve, b/c for some reason it would have felt different to schedule the C-section with my agenda at this point.

The lady also took another good look at Junior and I asked her to look at the echodense focus in the heart again, which was our big shock at 20 weeks. It was completely gone!
Jr was really active and would kick back every time the echo probe would push on the part of my belly where the legs are. Also Jr was boxing, we have cute picture from it which I will post after we scan it, sucking it's thumb and drinking the amniotic fluid.

The lady also saw if Jr is a boy or a girl, we have no idea. That was a big temptation to ask her.. but we didn't. Looking back at some of the video Sean took my guess would be boy, b/c it looks like there was something extra. But I could be 100% of.

Single digits (30 weeks)

I can't believe we are entering the single digit countdown to our due date. 30 weeks definitly sounds very pregnant to me!

Midwife checkup

Yesterday I had another checkup at the midwife. I started going there every 3 weeks now. Luckily Sean got home from work early and was right in time to go with me to my 5.30 pm appointment. It is always nice for him to be involved that way.
The midwife was explaining us how the baby was located and both me and Sean got to feel the head. The head is still down, which is a good sign and Junior is not very likely to turn around into the "wrong" position anymore, since (s)he seems to prefer this position. Now it is the big question if the placenta is still blocking the exit. We have that ultrasound next week and I am really curious to find out.

Everything else the midwife checked was also still fine, my BP is still 120/75 and by now I gained 10 kilo's (22 pounds) and Jr's heartbeat was still nice and strong. Mom and baby are still healthy and right on the charts!

Planning mood at 29 weeks

The other day I was in a planning mood and I was figuring out when all the different classes to prepare for labor will be. So over the last couple of days I have been signing up for classes / tours /trainings etc.... so by the time Jr comes we should be all prepared with a binder full of notes!
May 6th is our first class, which is an extra evening for my aerobics class during which the husbands can join. My teacher will explain the different stages of labor, the role of the husband (Sean pay attention!!) and some breathing excersises to help you through it.
May 27th we have a tour at the hospital where I plan to deliver.
June 10th I have a breastfeeding class at the midwifes office.

I feel my focus shifting towards this kind of planning as compared to work. I still have 6,5 weeks at work, but it is getting a lot harder to concentrate. I guess this is normal, since some of the women in my aerobics class experience the same.

Rocking chair

Grandpa Musters (hihi, looks funny spelling this out for the first time) made a nice rocking chair for the baby room. Today it finally stopped raining after 2 weeks of storm and I decided to stain the rocking chair. We wanted to stain the chair instead of painting it so it will keep it's wood structure and it is a nice contrast with the white furniture.

It took me about 3 hours! Yes, bending down with a belly and stiff neck from sleeping horrible doesn't make it easier. But.. I got it done. Now let's see when I feel up to putting coat nr. 2 on. Maybe I will look at Sean nicely.... honey.... you busy?



Clover is supervising.


Done!

Junior's hiking gear

As we like active vacations we plan on taking Junior for nice hikes in the future. We had already briefly looked into the framed backpacks that exist for hiking. However we didn't feel it was necessary to buy one right away since we won't be able to use it until Junior is 6+ months.

But then a colleague of mine mentioned she was selling hers because her daughters are getting to old for the backpack. We got a great deal on the backpack, so we decided to buy it after all.

Clover didn't want to volunteer showing off the backpack so once again Mr. Hippo was our model!

Last trimester is starting

As of today we are officially in the last trimester of the pregnancy. This is going to be an exciting trimester I think. We are going to some classes and a "tour" at the hospital to totally prepare. Also my maternity leave will start in less than 8 weeks already. On the downside the belly is getting heavier and I will be more limited. I am starting to have the little annoyances now like reflux, bloody gums, shortness of breath and of course still going to the bathroom 5x per hour. But o well, so far I still can't complain as the pregnancy has gone by without any major issues (luckily) so far and I have been able to function normal.