Pregnancy Lowdown

I am waddling through my 35th week of pregnancy.

Vivian was out in the world, in my arms and itty bitty, at barely 35 weeks. We had our 24 hours of bliss, and then things got hard.

I am so thankful that Baby Boy is still cooking away in my belly - but I'm also nearing the end of this pregnancy and have documented nearly nothing about it.  So, a little re-cap for my own (admittedly wavering)  memory.

First Trimester was spent feeling mildly nauseous around the clock.  Nothing sounded good to eat, but not eating made me feel worse.  Carbs and ice cold club soda with lemon were constants.  My culinary low point involved having to have rice-a-roni (the only other time this stuff has touched my lips was freshman year of college in the dorms when we'd make it in the microwave late at night) and a packaged caesar salad for dinner one night.  There were some scares, too - a too-early ultrasound with no heartbeat and then bleeding at 9 weeks, sure I was miscarrying again and put on modified bedrest for a week.  Though there was a layer of stress throughout those early weeks, there was a bigger layer of gratitude for the gift of being pregnant again.

Second trimester I gained some energy and appetite back and lost my marbles a little.  Many, many days in December and January began with crying in the shower and then fighting - or giving into - tears each day.  I was not myself and it was not fun.  I was still excited about the baby and still recognized the many blessings in my life, but I was a ball of messy hormones.  (At the end of January my doctor changed some of my supplements and a week later I started feeling better.)  We found out we were having a boy at my 16 week check up (I knew it was a boy!).  We also had our Level 2 ultrasound and fetal echo-cardiogram to check out Baby Boy at 20 weeks.  The anticipation of these appointments was very difficult for me - knowing we were going into a situation where doctors would be looking for something to be wrong.  But in the end, the appointments were lovely - the technicians were cheerful and warm, pointing out all the cute things baby was doing as they checked measurements and body parts in the background - they helped us focus on the very sweet, wiggly, thumb sucking cutie in my belly instead of the what-ifs. 

Third trimester has been the best.  I've had a happy and (mostly) calm heart, baby has moved and grooved, Vivian has grown excited about her baby brother and Vince and I have fun joking about boy names each night on the couch as we watch my belly wiggle.  I listened to my gut at 30 weeks and switched from the OB I had been seeing back to the midwives and hospital where I delivered Vivian.  My belly is BIG, my face just got fat and Baby Boy moves way more than I remember Viv moving.  I still can't get enough ice cold club soda with lemon and plain yogurt and granola always hits the spot (along with ice cream and homemade baked goods, ahem).  I wake up a lot at night, unable to get back to sleep, but that's my only complaint...and I'm not complaining!

My goal was to make it to 35 weeks, and I'm so thankful to have hit this milestone. I would love to make it to to the point where I can't stand to be pregnant anymore, but we'll see what Sweet Baby Boy has planned.  We are so looking forward to meeting this little guy.