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.