My Big Fat Belly 2.0 - 30 Weeks

How far along: 30 Weeks, 2 Days

Symptoms:  Not much of anything.  Still some on and off braxton hicks but very infrequently.  I didn’t have these with Carter, so sometimes it’s hard to tell if that’s what it is.  They say that if your stomach gets really tight then it’s a braxton hicks contraction…well sometimes my stomach does get really tight, but I don’t feel pressure.  Other times, I feel pressure and am sure that it’s a BH contraction.  Either way, the stomach tightness and the pressure is very infrequent so it’s normal for this stage in the game.

Maternity Clothes:   Pretty much all maternity.  Still wear a few things that aren’t maternity (like workout clothes and jeans), but it’s mostly just maternity for comfort for me!

Weight Gain:   21 pounds total so far.  I’m doing better than I did with Carter at this stage.  I was up about 25 pounds with him at 30 weeks.  As far as total weight (the actual number on the scale), I’m 13.5 pounds less than I was with Carter at this point.

Sleep:  No change-still sleeping with a bunch of pillows around me for comfort.  As my belly gets bigger I am having a harder time rolling from one side to the other in the middle of the night.

Belly Button:  Still in and I still think it will stay that way since it never popped with Carter.  And there’s still no sign of the line from my belly button this time around.  It showed up with Carter around 28 weeks but no such showing with Baby Garrett yet.

Stretch Marks:  None yet.  Didn’t have any with Carter so I’m hoping it stays that way.

Cravings/Aversions:   Nada.

Exercise Routine:  Well, let’s just say I’m starting to get tired.  I’m doing good to have 5 days a week of exercise, but sometimes it’s just 4.  Though I’m hoping that will change now that Carter starts school twice a week next week.  I’ll be able to pick back up my pure barre workouts while he’s in school and that will certainly help.  Still doing P90x at home.  Planning to literally workout until I push this baby out but we’ll see how it goes.  Right now my struggle is waking up to workout.  I’m going to bed super late these days for some reason so I’m not waking up till almost 8.  Most of the time I’ll workout anyway and Carter just watches and imitates but sometimes I’m just too tired and my body is saying no so I don’t on those days.

Baby Size:  Garrett is a whopping 3 pounds and 17 inches from head to foot now.  He’s getting close to the length he’ll be when he’s born but he still has some plumping up to do!  The good news is that if he were born right now, he would survive.  He’d be in the NICU, but he would survive with medical interventions. 

Movement:   Still moving a lot, but his movements are starting to slow down a bit.  This is expected since he’s kinda running out of room.  I’m not counting kicks or anything like that (who has time for that with a 2 year old running around the house??) but I know he moves enough to satisfy my curiosity of whether he’s ok or not.  Plus I still have my fetal doppler to hear his heart beating whenever I want to, which is something I’ve been doing a little bit more often this week since he doesn’t move quite as much as he used to.

Swelling and/or Signs of Labor:  No swelling yet!  Every now and again there will be a day where my feet appear swollen at the end of the day, but they’re still normal for now.  Fingers aren’t swollen yet because I’m not having any issues with my rings.  With Carter I’m pretty sure that I stopped wearing my rings around week 33.  Hoping I can still wear them up to delivery!  And definitely no signs of labor.  Hoping those won’t come for at least another 7 or 8 weeks!

Gender:  I am the queen in my house of boys!

Appointments and Such:  Just had my 30 week appointment and all was fine.  The belly is measuring right at 30 weeks and my weight and urine sample looked good.  Something I am grateful for is that I haven’t had an iron deficiency with this pregnancy.  With Carter, I had to take medication for low iron.  Also, I got the prescription for the PPD medicine (Zoloft) that my doc wants me to go ahead and start taking.  For those of you that don’t know, I had PPD with Carter and was on medicine for several.  My doc said that since I got PPD once, I would likely get it again so this time we’re trying to be more proactive.  Most anti-depressants can take up to 6-8 weeks to kick in so he wanted to go ahead and start me on the medicine at 30 weeks, just in case Garrett came early.  I’m really hoping this works.  I can’t begin to tell you how much I didn’t enjoy Carter’s first months.  I cried daily and most days regretted having a child (I’m so ashamed saying that now).  I desperately want to know what it’s like to be smitten with a newborn.  To come home with him in my arms and never want to let anyone else hold him.  The 30 week appointment was my last appointment in a 4 week series.  Now that I’m close to birth, I’m moving to appointments every 2 weeks until week 36 and then it will be every week until Garrett arrives.

Nursery Developments:   Carter’s new furniture is painted and done!  We still have to move it into his room and move all of his furniture into Garrett’s room.  Once the furniture is in place, I can do better planning on decoration for Garrett’s room.  At that point, that’s all we’ll need is a few decorations and pictures on the wall.  I’ve already gone to one consignment sale and got Garrett a few things.  Mostly, I just buy clothes for Carter that will end up being passed down to Garrett.  But of course every baby should have something of their very own so I have been getting Garrett a few things.  Anyway, we have also gotten out Carter’s newborn clothes storage box and put together all of the clothes Garrett will wear.  I still need to wash them and get them hung up though.  Something funny….my app on my phone for babycenter told me I needed to go ahead and pack a hospital bag.  I laughed a little bit because had I done that at this time with Carter’s pregnancy, that bag would have been sitting by the door for a whopping 2 1/2 more months.  Needless to say, I doubt I will pack a hospital bag until a little closer to week 37 or 38.

Maternity Pictures:  My fantastic sister owns her own business, Lindsey Smith Photography, based in Tuscaloosa.  She recently did our maternity photos at River Walk in Tuscaloosa.  I am SO excited to see how they all turn out!  She is so dang talented with taking pictures!  She sent me a couple of sneak peeks that I put on my Instagram account and I’m pretty sure that her business page will have a few on Facebook within a couple of days, so go like her page on Instagram (@lindseysmithphotography) or Facebook (Lindsey Smith Photography) to check them out.

Bump Pic for Week 29:

Bump Pic for Week 30:

 

I’m not gonna lie, I despise BOTH of these pictures of me.  But it’s all I have so I’m just gonna go with it.  I imagine that the pictures from here on out will just get worse as I get bigger and more swollen ;)

Carter Does P90X

One of Carter’s favorite things to do everyday is watch me do a P90x workout.  He copies almost everything I do, but there’s one move that he loves more than the others.  It’s called “the Dreya Roll” (for those of you have done P90 and know the move I’m talking about).  For the rest of you that don’t know what this “Dreya Roll” is, here’s what it looks like when adults do it….

And here’s what it looks like when the tiny humans do it….

Justin sent me this video the other night and it had me laughing hysterically!  Love that kid!

My Big Fat Belly 2.0 - Week 28 - Trimester #3

Can you believe it?!?!?  Because I can’t….week 28 is the first week in the 3rd trimester!  Only 12 weeks (or less) to go!

How far along: 28 Weeks, 3 Days

Symptoms:  Still have braxton hicks contractions every so often.  They are strong enough to stop me dead in my tracks for just a second, but then they’re gone and I’m fine.  So crazy to me because I never had them with Carter.  I’m still sleeping fine and don’t have any issues with back pain or leg cramps or any of the issues I had with Carter.  So grateful!  Making the consistent effort to workout as often as I do is definitely paying off!

Maternity Clothes:   Pretty much all maternity.  Still wear a few things that aren’t maternity (like workout clothes and jeans), but it’s mostly just maternity for comfort for me!

Weight Gain:   Up 19 1/2 lbs so far this week.  I’m doing pretty well with the whole ‘one pound a week’ thing.  At 28 weeks with Carter I was up roughly 21lbs.  As far as total weight goes, my weight right now is 12lbs less than it was with Carter at 28 weeks.  It’s an awesome feeling, let me tell you! 

Sleep:  No change.  Still sleep with a bunch of pillows.  Justin laughs and makes fun of the “pillow wall” between us in the bed so that I have back support :)

Belly Button:  Still in and I still think it will stay that way since it never popped with Carter.

Stretch Marks:  None yet.  Didn’t have any with Carter so I’m hoping it stays that way.

Cravings/Aversions:   Still nothing out of the ordinary.  Well I take that back.  Justin and I were driving in Tuscaloosa looking at a car one day and we passed this chinese restaurant that I used to go to all the time when I lived there.  I made him go eat dinner there.  I haven’t had chinese food this entire pregnancy so that was a first.

Exercise Routine:  Still doing 5-6 days a week.  I’m starting to have to do about half of the pushups I do on my knees instead of my toes.  If I do too many on my toes, my ab muscles start to tighten and it hurts pretty badly.  So I usually do them on my toes until I get that pain and then I move to my knees.  Still using a chair to help me with pullups.  I may start decreasing the number in my pullup sets from 12 to 10 sometime soon.  As I gain weight, it’s obviously just a lot more to pull up so the more weight I gain, the harder the pullups are.  I can still do some ab work, but like I said, the muscles are just starting to tighten so quickly that I can only do certain exercises and I can only do them for so long.  I’m also still doing planks, but I have to take more breaks during plank holds than I used to.  So overall, I’m still working out (mainly P90X) all the time, but I am beginning to have to modify several things.  I’m ok with this though.  I am truly shocked I made it to the 3rd trimester still doing P90x at all, much less 5 days a week!

Baby Size:  Garrett is creeping upwards of 2.5 lbs now and is about 16 inches in length.  He’s about the size of an eggplant.    He’s beginning to blink and is also starting to sleep in cycles.

Movement:   Still moving like crazy!  He is still most active in the morning (he usually wakes me up around 7ish-am) and right before I go to bed around 9-10pm.  He moves a ton when I take baths and I still notice most movements when I lay down.  I truly don’t remember Carter moving this much, but I honestly  just wonder if it’s because he was my first and I was unsure of movements.  With Garrett, I can feel every single thing he does in there.  Also I think he had the hiccups for the first time this week but it was very brief.

Gender:  I am the queen in my house of boys!

Appointments and Such:  My next appointment is the day I turn 30 weeks, so August 22nd.  We decided to do our 4D ultrasound at another location instead of at my doctor’s office (it’s about $80 cheaper).  So the ultrasound will be August 15th (Friday).  The location we’re having it done wants you to be between 27-29 weeks and I’ll be exactly 29 weeks on the 15th.  Talk about waiting till the last minute!  After the 30 week appointment with my doctor on the 22nd, my appointments will be every 2 weeks until 36 weeks and then they will be weekly until Garrett’s here! 

We haven’t talked birth plan yet.  I plan to discuss it with my doctor once he starts checking me for dilation.  I absolutely LOVED being induced with Carter and would love another induction, however I would prefer to not go over my due date again.  Justin is a groomsman in a wedding on October 25th in Mississippi (this makes me extremely nervous, but honestly I don’t think we have a choice-this guy is literally his best friend and has been there for us so much in the past) so if Garrett turns out to be the same as Carter and doesn’t show any sign of coming early, I’d like to be induced once Justin gets back from the wedding.  So October 26th or 27th.  I will have to talk to Dr. H about it and see what he says though. 

Nursery Developments:  Lord have mercy we have so much to do still.  Here’s our basic plan for Garrett’s nursery:  Carter’s furniture all came from Buy Buy Baby.  It’s the good stuff too-expensive crib that transfers to toddler bed, nice mattress, 5 drawer dresser and a changing table with a ton of drawers.  Since we want Garrett to have the good mattress and crib (will help reduce SIDS risk), we’ve decided to just move all of Carter’s furniture to Garrett’s room.  We bought a crib that’s also convertible to a toddler bed along with a mattress for a whopping $100 from a neighbor that Justin has already sanded down and started painting.  We also had a random 5 drawer dresser in a spare room and he’s already done painting that one.  These items will go in Carter’s room.  I want to do some kind of reading nook for Carter since he loves books so much, but we need to have the furniture in place before I can make an exact plan for what to do.  So basically, as far as Garrett’s room goes, we have it painted and are in the process of getting ready to move the furniture, but that’s about it.  We do already have a chair in Garrett’s room and have hung a curtain for the window.  I have done ZERO with decorations because I kinda need to see the furniture in the room before I decide how I want to decorate it.   We’re just quickly running out of time!

Bump Pic for Week 28:

Bump Pic for Week 27:

And let’s do another comparison….just for fun :)

 

That would be an 19 week difference.  To the left was me at 9 weeks and then the right is me this week, 28 weeks.  Can’t imagine what the difference will look like if Garrett holds out until 40 weeks like Carter did!