Work is DONE DONE DONE!!!

32 weeks 1 day

In the past 8 days I worked 60 hours. Yep. 60. I paid for those 6 days off over the Christmas holidays. I've never been so tired, yet wired, in all my life. My eyes are burning out of my skull, but I find it difficult to settle down to sleep. I need a glass of wine. le sigh

At least, after that work week from hell, I'm finished. Done. I'm now on 4 weeks of annual leave (the first three have been approved, still waiting to hear back on the fourth) and then I'll get a doctor's note from Dr. Bob and use up sick leave until the baby comes. At least I'll have full pay until then...even if babe is s-l-o-w like Jesse was.  

Even though I'm now off, and have, potentially 10 weeks til the newbie arrives, I have a lot to accomplish. I have to get the house in order (HUGE task), get Jesse (and myself) into some sort of regular (and early) sleep routine, and hopefully, get to work on potty learning. Oh, and then there's the Hypnobabies Home Study that I haven't even started yet (digging that out tomorrow) and getting everything prepared for our home birth. I'm actually kind of looking forward to these tasks though. I can't wait to feel productive around the house again....it'll be a nice change.

Frig.

31 weeks 5 days

I'm pretty sure babe is no longer vertex. There does not seem to be a head in my pelvis. In fact, it seems to be floating somewhere around my belly button. What kind of pretzel shape is this wee one in right now?! I'm gonna try to not start freaking out until around 34 weeks though. 34 weeks is a good limit, right?

Happy New Year!

31 weeks 1 day

I can't believe it's 2011 already. Only 9 weeks til full term, but likely another 11 til Trouble arrives. We've had a hectic, but happy Christmas holiday. I was lucky to not have to work this Christmas, as I worked the last one. I did have to work last night though, and I'm finding it much more difficult. I feel so much less agile right now than I did at this stage with Jesse's pregnancy.

In the past couple of weeks, I've had 2 appointments. One with Dr. Miller, my midwife's back-up GP. And one with my midwife. Both went really well. Baby's heartrate is fabulous. My belly is measuring about a week ahead of schedule. Jayme estimates the baby to be about 3 lbs now. Oh, and we have a vertex baby!!! That was becoming a little bit of a worry, since this child has been moving around a ton still, but mostly staying either breech (with its little head up in my ribs) or transverse. Right now, baby is in left occiput transverse position - exactly the same as Jesse during the last few weeks of pregnancy. I guess the left side of my uterus is roomier?

Other than appointments, we haven't done much lately to prepare for this little one. I haven't started Hypnobabies yet. I've been meaning to, but I've been so busy! I'm going to try to drag it out tonight and start listening. And I only have 3 shifts left now, so once I begin my leave I'll be much better able to get everything ready. There's so much to do! A couple of projects I'll be working on is getting Jesse into a regular, earlier bedtime routine and working on potty learning a little more. I'll also be doing more to prepare Jesse for the birth and the new baby. He does seem to understand a bit of what's going on though. Every day he'll rub my belly and ask, "How's baby doing?" So, so sweet. I love my boy!

And now for the belly pic update. I'm starting to realize why people think I'm due any day now!

28 weeks - Hello 3rd trimester!!!

A bit of this and a bit of that....

I'm in a lot of pain right now. I don't know what the hell is going on, but it feel like my hip joints are rotting from the inside out. I ended up sleeping with Jesse in his bed last night, and that's probably what did it. The right one is the worst. And my left ribs hurt too. So no matter which side I lie on, I cannot get comfortable. It really sucks.

On a lighter note, I had a crazy vivid pregnancy dream last night. These are very few and far between for me. I had 2 that I know of with Jesse, and now this one with Trouble. I dreamt that I had an unintentional unassisted twin home birth. How's that for wild? Apparently my midwife and her assistant were waiting for me at the hospital, but the babies came too fast for me to make it out of the house. It was actually quite a wonderful dream.

26 weeks 1 day - Hiccups!

I'll post a new belly pic later, but I just had to post this before I forgot! Baby has been getting hiccups! One of my favorite things about the last weeks of pregnancy (not that I'm near the end or anything). I noticed them the first time very early yesterday morning, at 26 weeks on the dot. I'll have to get them on video sometime.

25 weeks 3 days - a bunch of updates

I suppose I'll start with pics. Boy have I grown! I'm starting to feel pulling and stretching on my sides now. And it's no wonder, really. This was me 2 weeks ago.

And this is me now:

Big difference, huh? I think so anyways. I really feel like my belly has really popped out just in the past week. Even though I'm only up by 6 1/2 lbs, I'm definitely starting to feel pregnant now!

In other news, I had a good prenatal appointment with my midwife, Jayme, a couple of weeks ago. Belly is measuring right on target and baby's heart rate is in the 140s. Jesse had to get in on the action too...we had a listen to his baby with the doppler and measured his teeny tiny belly. He loved it. I got told off for not eating enough, so I'm trying to work on that. In my defense though, I had been sick and really hadn't felt like eating much at all. Some food had actually been making me gag. I also need to up my water intake, which I've been working on as well. It was also suggested that I add some spinach to my smoothies, which I've been doing. You don't even notice a difference! It's pretty good actually. I should post the recipe. I'm going to try some avacado in it tomorrow as well, I think.

I also had a prenatal appointment with Dr. D, who damn near broke my heart when she told me should would not be acting as back up for Jayme. She explained her reasoning, which is fine. I just wish I'd been told sooner, as I've been going to her clinic for 3 months now. So tomorrow I'm calling Jayme's usual back-up, Dr. M. I've worked with him before, as a doula, and he's absolutely wonderful, so I'm sure I'll be taken care of. Before she cut me loose though, Dr. D suggested I start on ASA 81 mg per day and calcium 1000 mg per day to ward off any issues with pregnancy-induced hypertention or pre-eclampsia. I had some blood pressure issues with Jesse, so I'd like to do what I can to prevent that this time. I need to look into it a bit more though before I start taking meds.

And lastly, I've been asked by a couple people about my newborn cloth diaper stash. So I figured I'd share what I have thus far. In the first pic, you'll see a dozen unbleached prefolds, 16 bleached prefolds, a small Bumstoppers fitted, 2 WAHM one-size fitteds, a small Imse Vimse cover and 2 small Swaddlebees covers. In the second pic, you'll see 9 small Fuzzi Bunz (these were Jesse's), 3 Swaddlebees Econappies, and a Bum Genius 4.0 snap dipe. I'm still waiting on 2 Blueberry Coveralls (one-size covers) to come in the mail.

I cannot wait to try these dipes out on Trouble! Oh the cuteness! :) I think I'll wait before getting more though...who knows, I may end up with a reason to buy some adorable girly fluff!

Just for fun...

I so totally have to update with belly pics and appointment updates and whatnot, but for now, this will have to do:

These are just a preview from our photo session on Middle Cove Beach this past Saturday with my very talented cousin Tracy Penney Pomroy.