We had yet another midwife appointment today.  Blood pressure is super awesome at 96/50.  The results of my gestational diabetes and anemia tests were great!  I’m up 25 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.  Baby is still head-down, is of apparently “medium” size, and has a heart rate of 128 bpm, which according to old wives’ tales (if you’re into that sort of thing) indicates that it is a boy.  The baby prefers snuggling into the ribs on my right side.  I try to push him away from there because it kind of hurts, but he just kicks back and goes back to his preferred position.  He’s already defying my wishes!  The midwife assured me that my Braxton Hicks contractions are fine and normal.  Actually, I wasn’t too worried about it to be honest—it’s other people that need the assurance!  We also received the paperwork for pre-registration at the hospital.  As soon as that packet of papers was passed to me, I began to realize how close we are getting!  Tomorrow we are going to a “Meet the Midwives” session, where we will listen to a brief talk on nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding, introduce ourselves to any of the midwives we have not yet met, and eat some yummy food.  We go back in 2 short weeks for our next appointment.  I absolutely cannot believe how quickly things are going now!

I hit the 30-week mark last week.  In addition to reaching this milestone, I also seem to have picked up some not-so-fun 3rd trimester aches and pains.  Since getting out of the first trimester, I’ve really had a very smooth, uneventful, and relatively painless pregnancy, so I probably shouldn’t complain too much.  But over the past 2 weeks, I’ve been sleeping like crap.  I keep waking up in the middle of the night and consequently feel like I’ve been hit by a truck the entire next day.  With my work schedule, it’s a vicious cycle that I hadn’t really been able to break.  As of last week, my sleep was getting worse and more violently interrupted.  Yes, I said violently.  There were several occasions where I would be sleeping and then sit STRAIGHT UP in bed, hand to my right eye, wincing in pain.  My eye would be watering, and it would protest when I would shuffle to the bathroom to inspect it under the glare of the overhead light.  I would continue to feel like I was getting stabbed in the eye for the next several hours.  Moving my eye hurt.  Closing my eye also hurt.  If you’ve ever tried to keep your eye perfectly still AND open, you know that this is pretty much impossible.  And not fun at 3AM.  The next morning, I would dutifully get ready for work.  I would drink my coffee, which did not wake me up.  Instead of feeling awake, I would just feel tired and jittery.  I would deliver some unintelligible lecture, meet with students for a few hours, try to stay awake long enough to grade papers and prepare more lecture material.  Come home, repeat.  The fatigue and stress were wearing me out.  I was starting to get contractions because I was so tired and stressed and TOTALLY UNHAPPY about going to work.  The contractions were also exacerbated by the fact that the elevator in my building at work is being repaired over the next 6 weeks.  I work on the 4th floor and go up and down the stairs several times each day.  Not fun. The combination of sleep deprivation and running up and down the stairs was not pleasing to me.  So I cancelled my alcohol lecture on Friday, made an eye doctor appt, and found out that somehow (who knows how), I managed to scratch my cornea.  Not serious, but apparently this is something that heals on its own within a couple of days, and I had been dealing with it for WEEKS.  Doc thinks something had been lodged in my eye and had only recently worked its way out.  The happy ending to this story is that I slept PERFECTLY this weekend, with the help of lots of eyedrops.  And now i am feeling much better.

 

On a super awesome note, we had real spring weather this weekend.  This is me enjoying said spring:

I also had a very relaxing yoga practice this morning.  I was feeling pretty good at the end of it; the sun was shining, and it was almost 60 degrees, so Rob and I walked around outside for several hours.  We also bought a diaper bag, which is the first baby item we’ve bought so far.  I decided it was time to start thinking about maybe preparing for this baby materially (at least a little!)  

 

On that note, we actually have started preparing a room for the little one.  We inherited some used baby furniture (thanks Kathie and Kevin!), and have set it up as best as we could.  There are some little things we still need to tackle, but I have to admit, it’s just a nursery.  The kid will outgrow it before we know it and will want to define his or her space in his or her own terms.  Here’s what we have so far, sans finishing touches (and unfortunately the litter box still hasn’t found a more permanent home):

 

Notice that the baby has a pair of Bose speakers already!  You know I love this kid if I’m willing to share speakers!

 

And finally, I have to share my “official” 30-week picture.  I took it the day I played hookie from work and visited the eye doctor.  Notice how i am still in my pjs and haven’t brushed my hair!  I’ve been told it’s a look with which I will become increasingly familiar:

I’ll update again on Tuesday–we will have another midwife appt that afternoon, so I should have some additional info by then.

Ciao!

I don’t feel like working on my lecture prep, so I’m going to tell you about our super awesome visit with our pediatrician instead!

Our new doc has just finished her residency.  She is energetic, balanced, and her approach is science-based. yeah!  Rob and I both absolutely loved her.  Everyone in her practice seemed really friendly and willing to answer all of our questions.  AND they are a 2-minute drive from the house.

We discussed many things with our new doc.  We talked about circumcision, immunizations, breastfeeding, etc.  I walked away feeling well-informed and confident in her ability as a physician.  One more thing we can check off our list!

I am hitting the 30-week mark on Thursday!!!  75% of the way there!  Only 10 weeks to go!  Good thing it’s starting to go by fast because my back hurts like hell!!!

Boy was yesterday action-packed…  This here Papa-to-be did a little gym climbing in the morning and then accompanied the Mama-to-be to a couples pre-natal yoga workshop in the afternoon.  I wouldn’t say that I’m exhausted (strictly speaking) but there is certainly a tinge in the ol’ muscles.

The workshop was a good one.  It had been probably about 7 or 8 years since the last time I was in a yoga class like that but many of the poses were familiar.  (Alas! No headstand-based poses…)  It was interesting to be around some other pregnant couples (some as far along as 38 weeks) and there were certainly some useful lessons there.

I think that a lot of the things that the instructor encouraged for the labor process are things I would have done anyway.  But it that bit about applying pressure to the sacrum?  Goldmine.

Yesterday we had our “almost 28-week appointment.”  I’m up a whopping 18 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight!  My blood pressure is super awesome at 102/58.  Baby is wiggling and kicking on a regular basis.  A couple of days ago, he/she kicked me so hard in the diaphragm that it took my breath away!  All good signs of a healthy little critter.  Tomorrow I go for the third trimester glucose tolerance test and blood work to check for anemia.  I blocked out my schedule for the afternoon and will be happily leaving work at lunchtime to get this stuff out of the way.  We will also be meeting with a pediatrician soon.  Our midwife recommended that we set up an appointment with a prospective doctor to establish a relationship with him or her prior to the baby’s arrival.  I also just signed up for childbirth classes, which we are scheduled to complete just 10 days before my due date.  Yikes!  On top of this stuff, I am starting to see the midwife once every 2 weeks instead of once each month.  All of this extra stuff on my calendar is going to force me to cut back on work—which frankly cannot happen soon enough.  Ever since we got back from vacation I’ve been really ready to throw in the towel.  I am feeling a little tired, and I can’t seem to find the motivation to work on stuff for the two classes I am teaching, let alone work on anything related to what is left of my very inactive research career.  I only have 6 weeks left of work, and believe me, I am counting down the hours.  Luckily, my beautiful and amazing friend Deborah will be here to keep me company after I am done with work; she will provide much-needed girl bonding time before my life assumes a drastically different form!    So that is where we stand these days—we are getting increasingly excited, and it’s starting to become more of a reality as we get closer.  It has already been a transformative experience in a lot of respects, and I am so lucky and happy to be able to share it with Rob.  It’s so obvious how much he loves his little baby already—he is going to be a super awesome papa!