Newborn pictures

We had our newborn pictures taken when Owen was a week old and we were lucky that the big boys were even with us for whole family shots! We love our photographer Tara, of Red Thread Images, and are so excited to see all of the pictures she took. For now... a little sneak peak from her blog.

http://blog.redthreadimages.com/2012/08/new-additions-kirkland-newborn.html

B.A.B.(Body after baby), week 1 post delivery

I was talking to some girlfriends about how I was tracking my progress in my venture to get my body back post baby (pictures, weight, measurements, and body fat percentage) and they encouraged me to post it on my blog, SO, here we go... an online tracking of my progress to get my body back after this kiddo.

WEEK #1 Pictures:

Week #1 Measurements (this will be the starting point, however, I did take some measurements at week 38 just to compare to this week):

Week 38

Belly- 41.5 inches

Waist- 40 inches

Hips- 40 inches

Thigh- 21 inches

Boob- 36 inches

Biceps- 10 inches

Week 1 post baby

Belly- 33 inches (-8.5 lost)

Waist- 36 inches (-4 lost)

Hips- 39.5 inches (-.5 lost)

Thigh- 19.75 inches (-1.25 lost)

Boob - 37 inches (1 gain)

Bicep- 10 inches (0 change)

Weight, week 38- 151.5

Weight, week 1 post baby- 131.5 (-20 pounds lost)

I did not take body fat measurements for the first week but will do that for the second week and beyond. I have to say, it's pretty awesome to lose 20 pounds in a week... still have a ways to go but, hey, to not work out at all and feel mildly more like myself versus a huge tanker truck is pretty awesome. Plus, I was able to fit in to two pairs of my pre-pregnancy jeans... they are a little tight and I clearly still have a little bit of a gut/muffin top from the kiddo but to me that was a huge success. I am so ready to be done with maternity clothes!  

Owen David... Week #1.

I am working on a labor story blog post in between naps and feedings and diaper changes but in the meantime, here's a post full of pictures and some commentary from Owen's first week outside of my body. I plan to continue these type of posts throughout our journey of his life, but they may eventually become more monthly. However, this is our first kid together so for a while at least, we'll try to get something up weekly. Enjoy!

Waking up after the first night at home (if you can call it a "night" as we didn't get home and in bed until 5am). Bah! Grumpy face, above...funny as we saw this face on one of the ultrasounds. He was pretty cute sleeping that night as he was still trying to get the lungs to work. We had lots of little noises. He also started screaming before he was fully out of the birth canal so we had a big spit up session on this morning from all the amniotic fluid he'd swallowed. Luckily, we were warned otherwise it might have been a bit alarming.

Owen is pretty hit or miss on swaddling. He likes it sometimes, other times he seems to care less. The above is a picture from his first full day home (our anniversary) while Justin was cooking dinner for me. It wasn't how we planned to celebrate a year...but, it was better.

On the first full night at home, we had a rough night. This is what he looked like most of the night. SCREAMING baby (related: our neighbors hate us). This is pretty common 24 hours after birth as the baby realizes that his world was rocked and he is no longer in the place he called home for 9+ months.

We did as much as we could to soothe him, and eventually he crashed. As did we.

Ahh....

There was lots of sleeping going on the day after that night:

Dad even got a nap too (awkward looking...but, hey, when you don't sleep at all, you can sleep anywhere).

Prior to family naptime, the midwives came over for the 24 hour check in to see how Owen was doing and how I was doing. Owen looked great. He weighed in at 7.8 pounds so had lost about the approximate amount of birth weight that most babies lose. They were very pleased with how we both were doing and since this was a different midwife than the one who delivered Owen, they told us how many great things they had heard about the birth. It was pretty cool and I feel very lucky to have had a relatively easy birth and a birth that exceeded even my wildest expectations. They were happy with how I was doing too and since I had had such minimal bleeding, there was really no issues with me.

I basically was on serious bed rest for most of the first week at home, especially the first few days...this is typical of natural births, really any birth. I could barely walk up my stairs as my hoo hoo was a train wreck and my ta tas were slowly being destroyed by sucking. If I wasn't sitting on my butt, I was taking sitz baths to soothe my poor little nether region (related: sneezing post birth and moving from sitting to standing? Pretty much raw torture). I had a bit of tearing but nothing major and no stitches required but I think that after pushing out an 8 pound turtle in only 25 minutes (the majority of first time moms push 2-4 hours), anyone would be sore. SO, the majority of the week was spent like the above picture- lots of cuddles (and also lots of pictures, see following:)  

Also, we had several visitors this week. We captured pictures of one visit- we had our friends Jen and Cam over and their 2 week old daughter, Olivia...otherwise known as Owen's first girlfriend. Although, Owen looks upset in the above picture...so maybe he is worried she won't like him. She seems a little bit disinterested so I guess this was his first broken heart. Poor guy.  

We also got to see times of the night that we haven't seen in YEARS. 3:50am above and Owen was WIDE awake. Yippee! At least he is cute.

On Friday we (spontaneously) decided to take our first road trip to Leavenworth to get the big boys for the weekend. Owen did great in the car. He started to get fussy about 5 minutes before we got to Leavenworth (it turned into a 2+ hour drive as we hit traffic leaving Seattle) but otherwise did great. He was a little thrown off by the whole being in the car thing so didn't nurse very well while we were over there so on the way back he was a little more fussy but really he did great considering.

A shot of the gorgeous mountains on the way over. I was SO glad to get out of the house!

And a shot of poppy and Owen one morning... and about 2.5 seconds later, we had to change his outfit. Let me just say: in the contest of Owen's bodily functions versus mom, I am SORELY losing. I keep forgetting to tuck his little pee pee down so I have ruined a ZILLION outfits because the pee shoots out of his diaper. And one day I was changing a dirty diaper only to get projectile pooped on AND peed on! Welcome to parenthood!

This post is sort of like my brain lately- scattered! Prior to our Leavenworth trip, we got out of the house for about an hour on Wednesday. We took a trip to babies r us to buy a swing for the little man. Again, I was SO happy to go anywhere but after walking around for about 20 minutes, I was ready to be home to sit on my butt again. Picture above of Owen (dressed by dad) ready to go.

And after we got back, Justin putting together the swing.

And the little man swinging away... he was a fan! I'm glad we waited to get it though once we knew he liked the swinging motion, otherwise, that would have been a pain in the butt to build and then not use. The thing is freaking HUGE. The gear that comes along with babies is sort of ridiculous.

And a few more photos because I am biased and think this kid is pretty cute (also- the next two are evidence of how big his hands and feet are...we are taking bets on if he will be bigger than dad. We think there's a good shot):

Justin took one picture of Owen and I one morning in bed just after I'd nursed him. This is clearly the PG shot but the other pictures Justin took (which are R rated and not blog appropriate) are funny because it captures us both in our diapers- Owen clearly in his and me in mine.  I was totally rocking the depends all last week. Seriously, I can't believe I knocked them. They were AMAZING and so much easier than dealing with pads and underwear especially when I could barely move my legs to get anything on them. I love the above picture above though, despite my scary looking hair. What a sweet little boy.

Midwives.

A lot of people have asked us why we used midwives for the birth of our baby. In fact, I think we've both gotten our fair share of feedback on using midwives, and I can't say that it's been all positive. In fact, I think most people think we're insane. Maybe we are. Crazy hippies, check! Just living up to the expectation.

Anyway, the feedback ranged from a blank stare and a "what's that mean?" to a "WOW" and a quick head turn, to "that's awesome, but I could NEVER do that" to "You should just schedule a C-section!", to "Well, I GUESS, if that's your choice, just make sure you at least make them give you the drugs." I didn't really think it was that weird to attempt to do a non-hospital birth when we decided to do it. And by deciding to do it, I mean there really was no decision other than WHO to choose and WHERE to go as our midwives. I always knew I wanted a natural birth (people have been doing this for millions of years, right?) and Justin's education comes from a very homeopathic, natural based center. Additionally, his first two kids were born in the hospital with less than dismal experiences each time so he knew that there was something better out there too. To seal the nail in the coffin, I had a pretty irritating experience with my western doc OB-GYN when I first found out I was pregnant which just made me realize that there was no way in hell I was going to experience this NORMAL experience with her (or any other OB) all the way. Oh yeah, and don't forget, we are just your every day crazy hippies....

Quick and clear sidenote: OF COURSE if something happened we would have gone to a hospital. OF COURSE if there was an emergency situation we would be in a hospital. [Not idiots. And also, this is why OB's are trained in surgeries... and also, most birth do not end in situations like this]

So, pre-baby, we assumed we would have a low risk birth and all would be completely ok. As such, we debated our options which were 1) Hospital birth with a midwife 2) Stand alone birth center birth with a midwife 3) Home birth with a midwife. We quickly eliminated #1. Why? Because hospital midwives are still under severe direction of doctors so most hospital based midwife births we read about did not end up being the type of birth we really truly wanted. So were left with choices #2 and #3. We met with who were going to become our midwives and eventually decided on option #2 for several reasons. The first reason was that our house is a little hard to get to. If we were to do a home birth and I were to need transport to the hospital, it would take a bit of time. If we were to do the birth at the birth center, we'd be a block away from a hospital just in case. The second reason is that we REALLY liked our group of midwives (there are 3 of them). The third reason was that I really didn't know how messy it would get in a home birth and if that would be terrible to clean up. So, we made choice #2. Easy.

But why midwives? Is the question that I always get asked. Followed by: "why would you want to risk it? SO MUCH COULD GO WRONG... Just go to the hospital." OR, "Aren't you going to want drugs?"

I won't go into the specifics and details and statistics that support the reason why I am a firm believer in natural birthing but I will say that there is ample support and evidence out there for it, and against the present day "normal" hospital births...and that anyone who wants to hear it can reach out to me and I will be able to talk to you for hours on end and refer you to a bunch of reading material on the subject. I will say that the c-section rate has tripled in the United States in the past 25years and it's been proven that much of that has to do with drugs that are now commonly associated with what is becoming the "norm" for labor in the US (pitocin to induce, epidural to manage pain). True, necessary c-sections are a rarity in this country, the majority of c-sections if we boiled them down would probably not be necessary, especially if we are looking in comparison to other countries who have just as many births that have c-section rates of about 12% versus ours of about 30%. I did not want to have a "fear" about birth which is so often instilled by OB's... IE: your baby is too big, your pelvis is all wrong, your fluids are too low, you have to be induced now, and then you need a c-section only to find out after the fact that it probably would have all been ok. If there was a cord prolapse or something seriously medically WRONG, a c-section is the only way to go but unfortunately, c-sections these days are more cases of drug interference, not letting the body/baby work for women, and convenience for both families who want to schedule when their babies are born as well as doctors who want to do the same. 

Justin and I wanted to try this all naturally knowing that MY ancestors for millions of years before me were able to do it that way. Based on what I've read, babies head sizes and amniotic fluid levels have not changed that significantly from even 40 years ago but those are two main reasons that c-sections are given. Aside from not wanting to be thrust into a situation we were not comfortable with that could very well likely end in a birth that was less than we wanted, we wanted to put me into a situation where both he and I could more readily control the outcome. Of course, as with all births, control has to be completely surrendered but I wanted to put myself into a situation where my body would be allowed to do that in whatever means necessary (whether that means in a birthing tub, on a birthing ball, on my hands and knees, or hell, standing on my head). I wanted to be able to move around as freely as possible during active labor and to be able to eat throughout labor. I did not want to be restricted by the rules and regulations that so often come along with birthing in hospitals (IE: no eating, you have to be monitored which restricts movement, come in as SOON as your water breaks which often is not necessary, having someone tell me when to push when my body didn't yet feel the NEED to push, etc).

Aside from wanting a labor that would allow my body to work for ME versus someone else telling me what to do, I wanted to allow the baby the best possible entry into this world (ASSUMING, of course, that he was fine and would not need urgent medical care. That would of course change the game). Many hospitals take the baby directly away from the mom following labor, cut the cord and clean he/she up. I know that some hospitals are starting to go away from this and are starting to put the baby directly on the mom, leave the cord intact until it stops pulsing, and wait to bathe he/she but not all abide by this. With midwives we already were understood in this respect. It's also understood by the midwives (as it is their practice) that the first hour after birth is dedicated to the bonding between parents/baby, establishing breast feeding, etc. They allow the placenta to be delivered in the time that it happens (versus yanking on the cord to get it to come out) and then only after the mom is cleaned up and the family has had bonding time, do they take the baby to do all the vitals, etc. Then 4 hours later after the family's "high" has worn down, they are sent home to their own bed to sleep.

Again, there are a myriad of reasons that we choose this way to birth and I could go on about them forever with more substantial evidence BUT, I know it's a controversial subject. I know people live and breathe western doctors (prime example: my mom and I could not disagree on my choice of birth more... or really how I treat anything medically versus how she does). I truly believe in the power of western medicine and I believe that it is there for a good reason. BUT. If it's not necessary, I don't think it has to be utilized, especially for something that is so truly PRIMAL and NORMAL as birthing. At the end of the day the only really important thing is that we have a healthy mom and a healthy baby but, in the best case scenario, we chose the option that would utilze our end goal with pleasant results in between.

A couple of pictures from our birthing center- this is one of the 3 suites:

Week 39...and...

A BIG SURPRISE.

Pictures:

Week 39, day #2... decided to take weekly pictures on Saturday morning, August 18 as I had been having contractions since 2am and figured that although it could be false labor, I better get one last belly shot in just in case.

View #2.

And week 38 for comparison.

As most of you loyal blog readers know, the contractions I woke up with on that Saturday morning were in fact real, and baby Owen David joined us at 12:10am on Sunday morning. He was 8 pounds, 21.5 inches long and pretty much perfect. The labor went seamlessly and I will post the whole birth story shortly.... For now, pictures of the little guy just minutes after his birth:

Week 38.

Week 38. One week in to full term and no baby yet! But getting closer by the day. Pictures:

Week 38 #1. (Sorry the picture for #2 didn't quite work so this is all there is....) Oh well!

And week 37 for comparison. Um, did I not just totally explode in a week? What the hell?

How I'm feeling?

This week was, well, WEIRD. Really weird. I was out at a client ALL WEEK which was interesting given that I could seriously pop out a kid at any given moment. The other interesting part was that for the first client of the week, we were in a building with no air conditioning. Not a big deal normally but when the weather in Seattle looks like this AND you are hugely pregnant?

Yeah. Really not enjoyable to sit around in a non-AC client all day. Bah. But I made it through and the rest of the week I was in an air conditioned office all day and was happy as a clam to be at work and not at home since it was 4 million degrees in our house. (Seattle has one week like this a year...yippee for being almost 10 months pregnant this time around! And related: FEET ARE THE SIZE OF MY HEAD).

Also weird this week? False labor. I woke up one night to contractions that I SWORE were labor contractions. NOPE. Kidding. They went away. Well, thanks for the wake up call for that! I was totally stressing about it though because it was so hot. Our birth is at a birth center which IS air conditioned but we are released relatively shortly after the birth (4 hours is typical) so we would have a brand spanking newborn at home with us in a million degree house. But after I realized it was false labor, I just went on my merry way and didn't think about it.

THEN, the next day, I attempted to work out. Well, during said workout, I started leaking. Like out of my hoo hoo. I went to check, not blood. Just clear liquid. Smelled it, not pee (OH how glorious it is to be pregnant!) What else could it be?? My water breaking? I peed and then resumed working out figuring that it was just a weird one-off thing. Nope, workout had to be stopped because I KEPT LEAKING. So, I called the midwives and they basically said that with the amount I was leaking, the color, the description, etc., the thing to assume would be that my water had broken. So, they basically said they wanted labor to start within 24-48 hours and gave me a list of instructions for what to look out for, what to do, etc. (INSERT FREAK OUT!) So THEN we were sure we were going to have a baby. We went to bed that night assuming we'd wake up in the middle of the night and have to go in as I'd be in labor.

NOPE. Tricked again.

No contractions, nothing. What the hell? That morning the midwife calls of course to see how I made it through the night and I tell her I had no contractions. Just to be sure it wasn't my water, she wanted me to come in to get checked out. I went in, checked it out, and it wasn't my water. It was just cervical fluid. WHAT?!

(pregnancy is so freaking weird).

So, after that I was REALLY freaked out that this baby is imminent and I think Justin was too as he went that day and installed an air conditioner in our room. I have to say, it's been pretty freaking awesome with this heat so I am loving it... and loving that I have such a handy husband.

But, still no baby. Bets on if he comes on our anniversary? (August 19th)....

How I'm changing?

You'd think I'd be done changing but as evidenced above, I'm still getting bigger! And clearly, my body is doing all sorts of weird things to prep for the arrival of this kid.

 

What I'm eating?

Same old stuff. Really can't say that I'm eating anything differently or weird. Really trying to eat enough protein as I know labor is going to require some serious strength.

Weight I'm gaining? 

I was 151.3 this week... That is almost a 3 pound gain. HOLY CRAP. Generally gaining that much weight in a week this late in the game is cause for a tilt of the head, but given that my weight gain has been so reasonable (approximately 30 pounds so far), it's really not a huge concern. Additionally, because it's been so hot, it's most likely all water retention. Fine with me as long as no one tells me that all of a sudden this kid is going to be 12 pounds!

How I'm sleeping?

Not terrible, not great... I will say I am sleeping much better with the a/c though... of course, still have frequent pee breaks.

What's the baby doing?

-The baby is 19.75 inches, 6.8 pounds pounds or the size of a leek (um, aren't leeks skinny?? Somehow I think this is an analogy fail....)

-At this point, the baby would be totally fine if he came out... he's just fattening up in there and getting those lungs ready.

What we are doing to prepare for the baby?

Midwives again this week but the appointments are getting to be pretty uneventful (minus the time we went in to check to see if my water had broken). Basically we're just waiting now.

Random thoughts on pregnancy (pregnancy brain?)

So, I didn't have time to go get a pedicure this week, my toes were disgusting and I can't reach them to save my life so guess what? My sweet husband offered to do them for me. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I figured that it couldn't be much worse than they already looked. So he painted my toenails. And honestly, they actually look BETTER than if I'd had them done at a pedicure place. CRAZY!! Unfortunately I don't think it's a true passion of his so I won't be able to solicit his services post-pregnancy but still, I was impressed!

Seahawks! (and last day night pre-baby??)

Last weekend Justin and I got tickets to the Seahawks game from a friend. We ended up going to Seattle early to have dinner at a cute little greek cafe and we wandered around Seattle for a bit too. We don't really know when the baby is going to join us so this could be our last night out without a baby for a while! Justin had pretty terrible food poisoning the day before so we were glad that he was recovered enough to go out and enjoy this night.

At dinner.

And at the Seahawks game! Since it was just a pre-season game, it wasn't a "typical" Seahawks crowd but I still thought it was really fun. We left at around mid-4th quarter when my feet started to get more swollen and I was getting progressively more uncomfortable. Good times!

Week 37.

FULL TERM. (!!!!!) It started off scary enough as most of you know (click here if you really want the details) but, that all ended ok and now we are just plugging along at FULL TERM. Meaning, technically, I could have the baby any day now. Will that happen? Probably not. But still. We. are. almost. there. Part of me is very happy about this fact as I am so completely over being pregnant but part of me is not quite ready for the whole newborn baby thing yet either... SO, I guess that means we just have a little bit of roasting.  Pictures:

Week 37 #1.

And #2. HOLY CRAP by the way. I AM HUGE.

36 weeks for comparison.

And because I really wanted to depress, er, well, motivate myself to get this baby out and my body back someday, I went back to the earliest pregnancy picture I have documented- the above was around 12-14 weeks. BAAAHHH. I can't believe I thought I had even remotely gained weight then (although I had- about 7 pounds, actually. Again, BAHHHHHH).

How I'm feeling?

Like I mentioned above and a million other times, week 36 ended with a crazy scary blood scene and midnight rush to the midwives so that is how week 37 started. BUT, other than that, it was a fairly status quo week. I mean, as status quo as you can really get at 37 weeks pregnant.

After the freak incidence, I was feeling rather sorry for myself Friday morning as I was still scared shitless from it all and a bit traumatized. Plus, I was tired after a night of not much sleep and definitely not restful sleep. So I made the rather stupid (yes, honey, I said it...stupid) decision to wear heels to work that day. DUMB. Let me just say: when you haven't worn heels in about 6 weeks and you are 37 weeks pregnant and totally front loaded, it is not the brightest idea. Especially when you are taking your clients out to lunch and you eat shit not once but TWICE in front of them, one time in which you were also in front of an entire restaurant, the second time in which you were in the middle of a street. Silly pregnant girl. Noted: as crappy as you feel and as bad as your heels are- NOT A GOOD IDEA when you are this pregnant.

Other than the high heel incident, I also freaked out and realized that I wasn't quite ready for the baby to be here yet so, I spent the weekend ATTEMPTING to nest like crazy and to cross a bunch of things off of the to-do list. That lasted about 10.5 seconds before I would have to take a seat and put my feet up. Seattle had one of its hottest weekends of the summer and we hit about 95-98 degrees. Not many people in Seattle have air conditioning because these days happen about 3 times a year so it's just not worth it and normally it's not a big deal. I am not going to lie, it's pretty freaking miserable when you are pregnant. MISERABLE. My feet were the size of my head and I thought that I was one of the lucky ones to not really have swollen feet/legs, etc. NOPE. All I needed was just a little heat. My feet were even too puffy for flip flops. Ice and elevate, that was about all I could do.

After the heat of the weekend, I'm happy to report it cooled down here and along with the cool down, my feet also deflated a bit. Phew. I also worked out again a few times this week which is becoming more and more of a comedy than anything else. I lifted weights twice this week, and walked once (which was miserable- the walk- oh my poor little hips). I didn't work out thursday and poor Justin got food poisoning that night so we had a rough night of tossing and turning all night so Friday was out for attempting to work out too. Probably for the best.

How I'm changing?

This question seems silly now... I'm just getting bigger, getting a tad bit more swollen and getting ready to be done with this! I really cannot believe how slow and giant I am right now. I seriously move at a snails pace, and that might even be exaggerating a bit.

 

What I'm eating?

Same old stuff. No cravings anymore and there haven't been for a long time. I will say that I am just NOT feeling meat at all so in that respect I feel a little bit more normal than I have in a long time. However, I still am totally and completely repulsed by peanut butter. I have no idea if I'll ever like it again. It's kind of sad, really, considering how much I loved it before.

Weight I'm gaining? 

I was 148.6 this week... last week was 148. Half a pound gain, pretty normal.

How I'm sleeping?

Not terrible, not great... about the same as last week. Getting up to pee a lot but also I will have 4 hour chunks where I'll sleep straight through without having to pee which is really exciting!

What's the baby doing?

-The baby is 19.25 inches, 6.3 pounds pounds or the size of a swiss chard (you know, as much as I'm not quite ready for a newborn, pushing a 6.3 pound baby out does not sound too terrible...at least to my nether region!)

-At this point, the baby would be totally fine if he came out... he's just fattening up in there and getting those lungs ready.

What we are doing to prepare for the baby?

Midwives again this week but the appointments are getting to be pretty uneventful. We've covered everything so now we just wait... and wait... and wait. I'm measuring right in line with where I should, blood pressure is fine, everything is great. So yeah, what we're doing other than little to-dos that are more me being a crazy pregnant nester is just waiting.  

Random thoughts on pregnancy (pregnancy brain?)

The end is miserable. Everyone keeps coming up and saying how great I look, especially once they find out how far along I am but who even cares? You aren't glowing anymore, you aren't reveling in your "little" bump, you ARE waddling, you are peeing every 2.5 seconds, you are swollen, and just feel disgusting everywhere. Everyone told me this would happen but I never believed it. I don't know why. I just figured that it couldn't possibly be THAT bad. Oh man. It is that bad. I think that's how you get ready for labor because you will do anything to get the kid out... I mean, it's GOT to be better than this, right? Or at least you sort of have your body back and not your cute little pre-baby body but just YOUR body where you aren't sharing it with another 7 pound human being. Maybe not at first when you're trying to recover and it is still uncomfortable as hell but you can at least breathe again, right? I guess I honestly really don't know if it's better after you have the baby (at least initially and solely from a body aspect- CLEARLY having the baby is the best part) but I will say that the end of pregnancy royally SUCKS. I know I have it pretty easy too, but WOW. I cannot believe how just downright awful it is. And I swear, if someone says to me one more time that "you are almost there!" with some cute-sy smile, I may have to have someone restrain me from slapping them. (Related: the end of pregnancy makes me VERY CRABBY).

Stocking up.

Last weekend we finally went to pick up all of our spring releases from our wineries. I was the DD/sipper and Justin of course had the full on tasting experience. We ended up with 12 bottles from our 3 different wineries, all of which we were very pleased with. Now we are adequately stocked up for post-baby....and I just got an email regarding our fall releases that come out, oh, next month. Guess we will be even MORE set then...just in time!

Week 36.

Almost full term!! Yeehaw. It was a pretty week especially the last day of week 36. See here if you haven't read the bloody details yet (and want to). Pictures:

Week 36 #1.

Week 36 #2

And week 35 for comparison.

How I'm feeling?

Week 36 was not the best week for feeling awesome. IT. WAS. ROUGH. It started off with the flu (click here) and ended with a bang in which we essentially had a murder scene on our hands (click here, but be warned it is graphic and TMI).  I also had crazy weird symptoms this week like intense right side pain (kind of on my kidney) as well as left shoulder pain (what?) and I kept getting headaches after eating (huh?). I think all of these things were somehow related to the little bug we had as everything is gone now. Well, the should pain was probably from lifting something... Anyway, needless to say, I'm glad week 36 is over.

How I'm changing?

Bigger, more contractions... we're getting there folks. But not done yet. As much as I am OVER being pregnant, I'm not quite ready for the baby to be here yet so I guess it's ok to continue to look like an exercise ball crawled into my stomach for a little while longer. The closer it gets though, the more I am just DONE.

What I'm eating?

 Nothing unusual here. Pretty much the same old things. Still revolted by peanut butter (am I ever going to like peanut butter again??) I am having to eat more frequently (still). If I don't, I start to get pretty light-headed. My sweet husband did make us an Olympic inspired pizza the day after our little incident (I guess technically this was week 37, but oh well):

Weight I'm gaining? 

I was 148 this week... last week was 146.5. Based upon our midwife appointment, I, er, the baby had a huge growth spurt this week so the 1.5 gain was pretty in line with that.

How I'm sleeping?

Not terrible, not great... more sleep than I'll be getting soon, less than I've gotten before. I slept great when we were sick but then after our little incident I was in ultra nesting mode and freaking out about everything that had to be done. Like DUSTING. I woke my poor husband up at 2am talking about dusting and the next day I came home to him dusting ever crevice in our house, including a fan that is about 20 feet in the air (yep, I have a great husband). 

What's the baby doing?

-The baby is 18.75 inches, 5.75 pounds or the size of a crenshaw melon (we're back to the weird fruits... what in the hell is a crenshaw melon?!)

-At this point, the baby would be totally fine if he came out... he's just fattening up in there and getting those lungs ready.

What we are doing to prepare for the baby?

Midwives again this week- we had our strep b test which is basically a swab of uh, ALL your nethers to test for this bacteria. Basically if the test comes back positive (meaning you have strep b), you have to get antibiotics during labor.

I also printed off copies of our birth plan this week. I'm not sure if it's really THAT beneficial or not to have a written out birth plan but I figured it was better to have it than not. So, I did it and printed it and we are good there.

And... like I mentioned last week- maternity pictures. Another from the set for a full shot view this week.

Random thoughts on pregnancy (pregnancy brain?)

Do you know what someone said the other day? "It's really not a big fucking deal to have a baby, people have babies every day." TRUE. There is some truth to that. I can see it. BUT. What about things that happen every day that fall into this category that do happen to people but are LIFE ALTERING? Maybe not a big deal because they are "common" but is that theory really legit?  I get it, to an extent, I do. Babies happen to a lot of people. It's no big deal to those who have done it..maybe. But it is LIFE ALTERING, no matter where you stand in the kid and parent spectrum. And that being said, it IS a big deal to those of us who are affected and impacted by these little people in our lives.