Three Four

We’re 34 weeks along now, and we’ve been keeping busy. Time feels like it’s moving very quickly – time seemed to move so slowly during the first trimester, when I was tired and nauseous, and the times that I feel good and am enjoying being pregnant seem to go by too quickly to enjoy.

And for the most part, I do enjoy being pregnant! I wasn’t sure if I’d be one of those women who is either loving pregnancy or hating it, and for the most part I do love it. I’ll never have this time back with my baby – for the most part I feel like he is safe with me, my constant companion with his kicks and pokes. This is our together experience and it feels unique and special. I don’t feel too tired yet, unless I have a bad night’s sleep, and I feel good going about my daily life. One thing I’m not pleased with myself about is that at around 30-31 weeks I stopped exercising – it just seemed like there was too much else to do, and sometimes walking made me uncomfortable and I had to pee a lot and it became a nuisance. So I stopped, and I feel bad about it, but I try to make myself feel better by saying at least I made it that far with physical activity. As of my 33 week appointment I’ve gained 30 lbs, so I seem to be on track for the “normal” 25-35 lb weight gain. I got my Tdap shot, and beginning next week I begin weekly appointments and non-stress tests. I’ve had some uncomfortable symptoms start up the past week or so – notably acid reflux at night, and my feet have all of a sudden started swelling – I had no swelling all summer, when it was hot and humid, and now that fall and the cooler weather has hit I thought I’d be okay. Well, the past few nights my feet have swelled and at first it was very jarring! I wake up in the morning and they are normal, and I try to drink lots of fluids during the day and I’ve been checking my blood pressure and it’s normal, but the foot swelling is here.

Next week I am starting a reduced work schedule of 4 days a week vs. 5 days a week – not much, but I think I will enjoy having that extra day to myself! I want to start getting our hospital bags together – at my last appointment I was asked if I had started that yet, and nope, I haven’t, so I am going to use the days off to work on that. These past two weeks have been a horror show at work – I supervise three people, so we are a team of four (including myself) and the past two weeks I’ve had one person out on medical leave and another out on bereavement leave, and my boss has been at a conference in California (I was supposed to go, but my doctor nixed that idea because I’m too far along for cross country air travel now.) So I’ve been working a lot of nights trying to keep up, and I will be glad for next week when my boss is back, and at least one of the ladies that has been out on leave is back. We’ve also discussed how we are going to divide up my work when I am out on leave, and I have to start training people on my accounts and tasks beginning next week. So things are getting real at work with preparing for leave and all that good stuff.

We’ve decided on a pediatrician – we had a prenatal consult with a local practice, with a doctor that came highly recommended. In fact, my friend S tried to get in with him but he was not accepting new patients when her son was born in February. Lucky for us he just recently started taking new patients again, and The Husband and I both really liked him right from the get go. The practice was nice and clean, we toured the offices and then sat down and “interviewed” him. We talked about breastfeeding, immunizations, circumcision, his philosophy in practicing medicine, the office policies and staff, etc. Everyone was so nice, the receptionists seemed very pleasant every time I talked to them – from booking the appointment to confirming and then meeting them in person. Everything seemed to jive with our wants, and the office is five miles from our house so it doesn’t get much more convenient than that. The Husband gave his stamp of approval right away, so that made me feel good and that’s one task of our list.

We’ve also had two classes at the hospital and had our maternity unit tour. We sampled the cuisine a the hospital cafe, their french fries were so.good. Like really good! The Husband was satisfied with the options and food so at least I know I won’t have to worry about him complaining about food while we are there. Next up is a breastfeeding class, and then we are done with the classes that we’ve registered for and I can check all that off my list too.

The baby’s room is progressing, even though we have a corner stacked with unopened boxes full of baby items we received at the shower. All the big stuff is together, and we have decor on the walls, and now it’s just down to more of the putting stuff together and getting rid of boxes phase.

Feeding, Reading and Gliding Corner

Baby’s closet is small!

As for non pregnancy/baby preparations, I had a fun night out with my family two weeks ago – all of the ladies on my father’s side, and including my mother, went to see Wicked in Providence. We had a nice Italian dinner on Federal Hill first then went to see the musical. It was a great musical and the food was delicious, and I’m glad I went even if I was battling a bit of a head cold.

Today we got a few of our maternity photos back – our full online gallery should be up soon, but she sent us a few “teasers”, if you will, this afternoon and I can’t wait to see the rest. We did them outdoors with our doggie girl, and I really love that it was fall and we got some great New England foliage and scenery – fall is my favorite season, even if the past two years it’s been marked by loss.

And some “bump shots” for those that like that sort of thing.