33 weeks (and 4 days)

This week's belly pic was taken yesterday by the ultra talented Kate NG Sommers, who generously offered to take maternity photos for me! We had a fun time, and were reminded of how awkward it is to have photos taken of yourself :) I think there will be some awesome ones, I'm very excited to see more! (all in due time I know ;)

First, I created a poll to guess the birth day, weight, etc - to vote, click on the "Expectnet" link on the right, or click here!

So, this week was kind of a busy one - I actually wrote notes to myself throughout the week so I wouldn't forget to write about anything in my post! First, I had a midwife appointment on Monday, and Ben came with me because instead of working from home that day, I had to go into the office and I didn't want to pay for parking :) Once again I was up 1.5 lbs, which surprised me. I eat like crap and really don't work out so I keep thinking I'll gain more than the recommended 1 lb per week, not slightly less. Hopefully it keeps up that way, but my next appointment is the day after 4 days of Christmas celebrations so I doubt it :) My blood pressure is still nice and low, and my belly measured a little small (31.5 instead of 32.5) but nothing that they were concerned about. Baby girl apparently was head down at the appointment, hopefully she stays that way! Her heartbeat was on the high side again (guess that is normal for her) and they heard an acceleration with movement, which the midwife said is very good. Overall, a nice and boring appointment :)

I asked one question, about how often they artificially rupture your bag of waters, and the midwife student I was seeing talked for like a half hour about it - the more questions I ask, the happier I am with the midwife group there - they really are very flexible about how they approach labor interventions and seem like they really take into account what the patient wants and also let you know the risks and benefits of each procedure. I had a few more questions, but needed to get to work so I'll save those for my next appointment. I'm getting weirdly excited for labor actually - I know parts will be horrifying, but it seems that a very high percentage of women say it was one of the best days of their lives when all was said and done and the baby is out, so hopefully I will be one of them :)

This Wednesday was my last prenatal yoga class! I did 2 full 8 week sessions, and now the center I went to is on a 2 week break and obviously I can't sign up again in January because I'll have my baby somewhere in that session - crazy! Even though I never wanted to go to class before it started, I was always so glad I did by the time it was over :) I went to the Wednesday night class at St. Paul Yoga Center and it was great - pretty easy when I started, but by now it is just the right amount of difficulty for me. I might go to a few drop in sessions in early January, but if you do go, definitely sign up for the whole session - nothing is as good of a motivator as paying in advance :) I think I'll be able to use a lot of the breathing techniques and poses during labor - hopefully they will help!

In the "what's going on with my body" department, my belly button is fully out and proud now - and I think it looks super weird. Others tell me it doesn't, but when I look down I think it looks pretty freaky. It also is super sensitive and kind of hurts when I brush it against something, for instance, my desk at work (it is right at the perfect height to run into the edge). One day I put a band-aid over it which seemed to help :) My fingers are definitely swelling a bit too, and I have pretty much completely given up on my rings. I was wearing just my tiny wedding band, but even that leaves an indent now so I think I'll just go without. I've never experienced anyone giving my hand a weird look like I'm an unwed mother, so I'm not going to invest in a fake set or anything. I actually quite frequently didn't wear my wedding rings before because I always took them off to sleep, so it's not like my hand feels "naked" or anything either. Oh well! They'll be back on in a few months :)

I am also officially getting up once per night to pee now. That is REAL fun, especially since the bathroom is not on the same floor as our bedroom. It actually feels SO GOOD to go back to sleep after going to the bathroom that I don't even care. On the days when somehow I don't wake up to go, I have to get up at 5:30 and it seems stupid to go back to sleep (on a work day at least) so I'd rather I wake up at 3 or 4 anyway. I know some women get up 3-4+ times per night so apparently I am lucky in this department, and extremely lucky that it didn't start happening regularly until now.

Baby girl continues to move all the time - it is great :) Apparently her knees/legs are on either side of my belly (or they were on Monday) and I frequently feel them sticking out in hard lumps. Sometimes it feels like she's moving a leg completely from one side of my belly to the other which is pretty freaky! I also seem to feel like her limbs are OVER my ribs, which doesn't make sense to me. I haven't felt any rib pain at all though, but I do feel like I constantly need to sit up really straight or else I am squishing her. I am a sloucher by nature, but I guess it probably helps me to avoid back pain and things like that when practicing good posture. I did have some major lower back pain last weekend, and Ben nicely made me a rice sock, which helped immensely. I think he has enjoyed it just as much as I did :)

OK, I was going to write more, but this post is already a novel, so I'll just stop now and save the rest for next week :)