A Flood of Posts

You may have noticed the HUGE gap in posts. Well, first I wasn't getting pictures off my camera (lazy). And then I had a baby without taking a quarter off grad school (I basically mentally am still in October. I missed November almost entirely). I'm trying to amend that as quickly as possible, thus lots of pictures will be posted without much narrative, similar to the last one. But it's currently after midnight and if I'm lucky I'll get 4 hours of sleep before I wake up again, so the rest will need to wait... hopefully not too long.

Summer Pictures

I was going to add captions to these, but I think I'll leave them as is. Maybe I'll add them in later...

Salmon Fishing:

4th Anniversary:

FBC Baby Shower:

 Fair:

 Baby Prep:

Hawaii

Survival Tip #20: If you didn't before, start using sunscreen. You're base tan will fade.

Summer has found Washington. While much of the country experienced a heat wave, Washington kept herself temperate. Lots of people have said this was a terrible summer, but I feel like I remember last summer being not as nice as this one. Maybe I've just adjusted to the climate, or lowered my expectations. Or maybe it's because I'm pregnant and running hotter than before. Regardless, it has been beautiful here.

You may remember me mentioning in previous tips that the weather being bad here is a perfectly good reason to travel, but that is not the only good reason. Louisa graduated from High School this June, and to celebrate, the girls in the family (minus Shawna :( ) took a trip to Hawaii to celebrate. Originally this trip was scheduled for September, and I would not be able to go, but the date got changed to August, and I was able to go! I had never been to Hawaii before, and with Baby on the way this seemed like potentially my last chance for a while to be able to go. So I got permission from my doctor, copies of my chart notes and refills of my prescriptions and was off!










We went to Oahu and stayed at the Ko Olina Marriot resort. It was fabulous and beautiful! At first when we landed at the Honolulu airport I was a bit disappointed; I thought it looked unfortunately similar to Southern California. But then we began to drive away and things began to look tropical. It was a week that was both busy and restful. We went to Pearl Harbor, the North Shore, and the Dole Pineapple Plantation, and spent LOTS of time tanning, floating, resting and reading at the resort's pools and lagoon. It was heavenly. I took advantage of my lack of stretch marks and wore a bikini. I read "The Help"and loved it! And it was amazing to see all the birds and wildlife in Hawaii. I can't even describe how cool the trip was, and I can't wait to tell my daughter someday about how she went to Hawaii before she was born :) AND I can't wait to come here with her on the outside, and Vander sweating in the humidity beside us!

I still need to get pictures from Emily, but here are a few I have.

at the beach restaurant where we ordered lots of frozen lemonades :)

The Disney Aulani, about a month before it opened. A short walk from our hotel.

At Pearl Harbor

Sunset

Pipeline, off season

mini pineapple at the plantation

Sunset on our last night.

Goodbye Lagoon, I'll miss you!

32 weeks

Survival Tip #19: If you are discouraged, find people whom you identify with.

We are seven months into this pregnancy... only two more to go! It feels like time is passing so fast, and so slow at the same time. Baby is doing great. She is measuring within expectations (which means ahead but not beyond the margin of error for a fundal measurement). I now feel her up in my ribs, down really low, and have had a few Braxton Hicks contractions. She moves a ton and is so strong. The other day she kicked me and I saw my whole belly reverb from side-to-side. Crazy! Sometimes I feel like she is pushing so hard it hurts. Other times I feel the gentle push of a little hand/foot/elbow and she'll leave it there long enough so I can touch the little spot. It's almost like holding her. I am so excited to meet her and see what she looks like! Will she have my nose, or Vander's eyebrows ;)? I started throwing up more again, so the ARNP has me taking my Zofran every 8 hours regardless of how I'm feeling. I'm also now taking Zantac for heartburn and an iron supplement. All this makes me feel like maybe I wasn't made for pregnancy and can be discouraging. I'm so thankful for how supportive Vander is through all of this though; I don't know how I'd do it without him... although I suppose I wouldn't be in this state without him either :). In addition to Vander, several women have come up to me and told me they were also really sick with their pregnancies. Hearing them helps me to not pity myself. I always thought I would be the type of girl who is at her best when she is pregnant. That has clearly not been true. Yet every time I meet a woman who had a hard pregnancy she tells me it was totally worth it. Most of these women have multiple children so I believe them. :)

   I realized about a week ago that I have been so focused on the idea that Baby will probably be late (the average gestation period is 40 weeks, 3 days), that it never even crossed my mind she could come early! I'm suddenly freaking out that we are not going to be ready for this baby because I'm counting on 9ish more weeks before she comes, when really she could come whenever God wants! In some ways I know this is ridiculous, but there are still a few things to take care of. We have done our hospital tour but still need to do our birth class. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on that might help me understand how to care for our daughter. I watched "Pregnant in America" and "The Business of Being Born". We have a crib now (a hand-me-down from Vander's co-worker/mentor), thank goodness! Some of my sweet friends are throwing a baby shower for me in September and after that we will pick up anything else we need. I need to figure out childcare for her while I'm in my internship (8 hours a week, but don't even get me started; I hate the thought of leaving her!). I know that really, I don't need to worry, I just need to slow down my racing mind, and enjoy where I am now.

With that all said, here are a few monthly progress pictures to catch up:

Little Wiggler

This was taken with my iPhone. Sorry about the quality. Baby was moving so much today I was able to get a few video clips. I think I wrote before about how shocked I would be if Baby started moving (like this) and I somehow didn't know I was pregnant yet.  If your stomach just started moving like this how would you feel? :)

24.5 weeks down...

Survival Tip #18: Summer weather means summer clothes! Just because you don't live in California does not mean you don't get to wear those cute dresses and tank tops you once loved!

*So I needed to think of a Survival Tip for this post and was struggling to do so, but I found a way to make it work! In the summer it gets warmer, even in Washington, and the longer you live her the more acclimated you become. So with that warm weather comes the opportunity to wear summer clothes! It's this pregnant woman's dream! I love being able to throw on a dress and leggings for the day! Way easier to get into/out of than jeans, and it just adds to the feminine feel of being pregnant. So there, the tip is done, and now I can add a baby update without trying to connect it to WA living.*

5 Months Down! Took this a few weeks ago now...

When I checked this picture to see if it was blurry I was shocked at how big I'm getting! Oh my goodness! And it's just going to keep growing too... And I went to Target to look for this shirt in a bigger size so I can keep taking pictures of it in October... and they didn't have it! Eek! Let's hope it's stretchy enough, or comes back in stock!

I have this funny back-and-forth feeling about being pregnant. I feel a little bipolar. At times I love it so much, and then sometimes I hate how uncomfortable I feel. It is odd because one moment I will find myself hating the heartburn and thinking "How can I do __ more weeks of this!" and then Baby will move and I forget all those feelings in a blink.

I love feeling Baby Girl move around inside of me. She is big enough now that I can touch my stomach and know she is right under my hand. For example, right now I have the laptop on my stomach and I can feel exactly where she is. And she literally just kicked to prove to me that is true :) Baby definitely responds to pressure (will touch where pressure is applied) and some times I wonder if she is doing this to say "Give me space!" or perhaps she is trying to snuggle up to the pressure source. I hope I'm not giving her a complex, touching my stomach all the time. Anyways, I more often find her on the left side of my body and she likes to touch my belly button area. Two new developments in movement: I can now feel her kick/punch/whatever in multiple spots simultaneously AND she has started doing this funny thing that feels like she is pushing her foot/fist/whatever along my stomach. From the outside it feels so alien-like, if I did not know I was pregnant I would freak-out. When Vander felt her moving this way he looked almost scared. Even though it can be freaky, I love feeling her move.

At my last Doctor's appointment we found out that Baby is totally healthy and measuring in the 80th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for all her limb lengths. This means she is measuring big, just as we expected. The NP who saw me (I'm trying to find a new doctor because mine is moving to TX with her re-stationed Army husband), said that sometimes they will do ultrasounds to see how big baby is closer to the due date and possibly recommend C-Sections or inductions if the baby seems to big. I really hope that isn't what happens for us. I want to give Baby and me a chance to do everything naturally, and I really don't want to be told I can't have a baby vaginally because she might be too big (btw: ultrasounds are not a great way to predict birth weight as much as limb length). If my mom had my sister and I (10lb 4oz babies) vaginally, I think I should be able to try. And the reason my mom needed a C-Section with brother is because he was 24 inches long and was basically too long to move into a birthing position, but even then she still tried. And I don't see my desires as a prideful thing, but rather I just don't want to take care of a baby and a C-Section scar. I'm just practical I guess. :)

As for me, I am still throwing up occasionally. Since the last baby post I had one week where I only threw up once, and then got food poisoning the next day. Cruel. Besides that week, my average has been 3 pukes a week now, and it is way more manageable! When I throw up it isn't followed by constant puking the rest of the day, and because of this I haven't taken my Zofran in two weeks! Yay! I love when people ask how I'm feeling to see how they react when I respond "I am only throwing up 3 times a week! I feel great!" Something that has become tricky is now when Baby wiggles around it sometimes feels similar to a queasy stomach feeling. I just try to calm myself down when this happens and remember I have thrown up a million times now, what is one more if it does happen, and to appreciate feeling her move.

Well, that is all for now. I'll try to keep updating more regularly, especially as we get closer to the EDD!

Pictures of Summer: A post without words...