30 weeks!

Um, is this right? 30 weeks?? Whoa, where have the last 30 weeks gone? I can't believe there are only 10 more weeks (give or take a few weeks or days!) until I meet my son! I have been so busy lately with finals and end of the semester final projects and papers and whatnot that I haven't really had time to think about my pregnancy. Now, I'm done with school for the semester- hallelujah!- and I passed both my classes!! I can't beleive I did 12 credits of graduate school while pregnant and passed every single one of them. If I had to do it all over again, I'm not sure I would... because it was tough. Really tough. Like I probably wouldn't recommend that anyone do it because I'm an achiever and I had a tough time making myself get through it. This "tired like you've never known" that people talk about when you're pregnant is true. It exists. It is truly an exhaustion like never before. And it is perpetual. I wake up in the mornings exhausted, drag myself out of bed, and by the time I get to work, I'm ready to lay down and take a nap. Not joking. Then all throughout the day I have to constantly get up and move around because I.am.so.tired. Seriously. Then some nights, I'm so tired that when I lay down to go to sleep, I'm too tired to sleep. Anyone know what I'm talking about? But at any rate, I did it! I feel so proud of myself for pushing myself to stick with it and gut it out til the end! Now I only have 3 more classes until I have my MBA! Woohoo! I am so excited that this time next year I will be holding my precious baby boy in one arm and my master's degree in the other!!!

So, because I was so busy I haven't been able to post every week like I wanted, but now hopefully I'll have time to post more often. This past week was a busy week because I had my last 2 classes and finals and final presentations and projects due and then Wednesday and Thursday were packed full of appointments that just kind of popped up! One of which was my appointment to get my cavity filled. Yeah, I said cavity. Have I written about this yet? I don't think I have. So I've been having some pain in my right upper teeth and I haven't been chewing on the right side for a few weeks now. My gums were swelling and I was getting food packed in what I thought was my gums so I would use my water pik every night to get the food out. Yeah, gross I know. Well, wayyy back during my second visit after I found out I was pregnant, I had told the doctor I thought I might need a calcium supplement since my teeth were kind of starting to hurt and I wasn't able to drink milk because it was hurting my stomach. I was trying to eat yogurt and cheese but you can only get so much calcium that way. At any rate, the doctor basically blew me off, threw a sheet of paper at me and told me those were foods that contain calcium, I'd be fine. I'm not an idiot, I know what foods have calcium in them, and I've lived in this body for 26 years, I think maybe you should pay attention to concerns I have... ESPECIALLY WHEN 2 MONTHS LATER I HAVE A HUGE CAVITY!!! Ok, so I'm a little angry at that particular doctor, but I got a cavity and there's nothing I can do about it now. So at any rate, I had to have my cavity filled this week. I was a little nervous because I canNOT lay on my back anymore because it is SO uncomfortable. In fact, when I went to the dentist for my checkup (when they discovered my cavity) I had been laying in the chair for my cleaning and had to sit up all of a sudden and almost passed out. Everything went black and the dental hygenist was like "are you ok!?" and I was. I just needed to sit up and then she let me lay on my side for the rest of my cleaning. So when I went to have my cavity filled I tried really hard to be a big girl but I didn't hesitate to remind them that this was my first filling and that I was very nervous. It actually wasn't so bad. Maybe it should be an awful experience, that way it deters people from getting cavities again but it really wasn't anything like I thought it would be. They numbed my gum with a gel first, then the dentist gave me my injections of numbing stuff and by the time they came back after letting it set in and work, I could blink and not feel my right eye so I felt much better knowing I was completely numb on that side of my face. I thought the drilling would be the worst part, but it really just sounded like an electric toothbrush and I couldn't feel anything so I was ok. I did start to get nervous though when the dentist told the assistant to keep rinsing and suctioning because he couldn't see anything since my gums were bleeding so much. This went on for what seemed like forever and he ended up filling the cavity and then having to go back and drill and re-fill again because my gums bled so excessively. If you didn't know, some pregnant women's gums bleed at the slightest thing and to have someone picking and drilling and spraying and suctioning only made mine worse. He was clearly getting frustrated, which is never a comforting thing for a patient to witness, so my palms started sweating profusely as thoughts of me having to leave with a huge drilled hole in my tootha dn come back after the baby got here to have my cavity filled. Luckily he was able to finally fill it and I left numb and slightly sore and dehydrated (from all the sweating) and completely prepared to have myself babied all day (Brandon came with me for moral support, even though he just sat in the waiting room). By the time I left the dentist's office, I had been there so long that I had to call into work because I had my doctor's appointment that day and I would have driven to work and had to turn right around and come back for my doctor's appointment. So Brandon took me to get a smoothie and listened to my slurred rendition of what happened as they filled my cavity (remember, my whole face was numb).

Ok, here's this week's survey...

How far along? 30 weeks 3 days

Weight gain? 28 pounds... I actually only gained a pound a week this past 2 weeks.. wow! I did good compared to my previous 2 pounds a week gain-age that I've been consistently keeping since 1st trimester...

maternity clothes? Mostly yes. And mostly the same things over and over. Anyone know where I can get CUTE maternity clothes? I'm not a huge fan of Motherhood Maternity because I just can't feel good about myself feeling fat AND looking frumpy...

Sleep? Never more than 3 hours at a time (due to baby-on-bladder syndrome), which is awesome when I'm falling asleep at work. I feel like a whale in the bed and when I turn over (which is often because my hips have started falling asleep when I lay on one side too long) its like a tidal wave going thru the bedroom and poor Brandon is startled out of his sleep every time I flip over (even though I try reaaaally hard to do it as gentle as possible) and asks "are you ok!?"

stretch marks? none so far... I've had Brandon check for me because I can't see past my belly button to the underneath of my belly

belly button in or out? Out. Definitely out.

Best moment this week? not having homework, not having to go to class and spending time with the love of my life.

movement? yes. I've read that you should feel at least 10 fetal movements an hour throughout the day... well, I might have an Olympian because this guy thinks it is 10 movements a MINUTE sometimes! And he's still chillin with his feet in my ribs and if I bend over to put my shoes on or pick something up, he does NOT like to be squished. He will immediately shimmy his little behind up in the middle of the ribs and stay there until I stretch out enough so he can get comfy again... demanding little fella =) ... (just like his Mama!)

food cravings? mostly frozen yogurt... randomly one day I craved dill pickle spears

Food aversions? coffee

what I'm looking forward to... getting the call that our crib has finally come in!

milestones.... BabyCenter.com says that I will be getting more and more clumsy because my center of gravity is shifting and the day that I read this I did a "bumper-car-like" move in the main office at work and enjoyed a good round of jabs from my coworkers =)

Hello... Third Trimester?!?!

Wow! Am I really in my third trimester already??? I am 28 weeks pregnant... wow, where did the first two trimesters go?? These past few weeks have been a whirlwind with school, finals coming up, work, and coupon classes, not to mention BEING PREGNANT! This week we had 3 coupon classes and the one Saturday was an open to the public class, which was a success! We had a great turnout and the facility was awesome for holding a class.

Saturday night, our life group drove an hour to eat at a place that is country style food, buffet of course, and we had a blast. I was a little nauseous by the time we got there because it was an hour of curving twisty roads, but by the time we got to get our dinner, I felt much better. I like country style foods, but I wouldn't say its my favorite. I guess I always question exactly what goes into it (AKA how much butter and fat) to make it taste the way it does. BUT, I will say that I ate my weight in fried popcorn shrimp (little shrimpies, I like to call them). For dessert they had blackberry cobbler that I thought would be really great with some ice cream, just one problem though, no ice cream on the buffet. However, Kate is so good to me and asked our waitress if there was-by some wild chance- any vanilla ice cream in the place and lo and behold there was!! Now, it was probably ice cream from 1970 and just a touch freezer burned, but I ate a few bites nonetheless because at this point I reaaally wanted ice cream with my cobbler. Thank you Kate =)

After we got back, I packed up my bags and headed off to Virginia for Mother's Day and to say goodbye to my house. What? Oh, my mom was only moving out of the house I spent my entire childhood in and I had to say goodbye to it and look around one last time. And what was the very first song I heard on the radio on my drive up to Virginia? The new Miranda Lambert song "The House that Built Me." Yeah, I cried. Why? Here are some of the lyrics:

I know they say you cant go home again.
I just had to come back one last time.
Ma'am I know you don't know me from Adam.
But these handprints on the front steps are mine.
And up those stairs, in that little back bedroom
is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar.
And I bet you didn't know under that live oak
my favorite dog is buried in the yard.

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
this brokenness inside me might start healing.
Out here its like I'm someone else,
I thought that maybe I could find myself
if I could just come in I swear I'll leave.
Won't take nothing but a memory
from the house that built me.


Ok, first of all... the line that talks about the handprints makes me cry right away because when we put in our concrete driveway, Josh and I put our handprints in the corner of the drive in the concrete. And yea, I had the back bedroom for a while... so anyways, the point of all of this is to say that this song makes me boohoo because I grew up in that house. There are a lot of memories contained under that roof... my whole life. And yes, I'm crying AGAIN as I type this because I'm female, I'm pregnant, and I am VERY hormonal.


So anyways, I went "home" for Mother's Day and ended up going through some boxes of things from my childhood and deciding what to keep and what to throw away with my Mom. We went to church Sunday morning and then out to lunch to celebrate our Mommy! Not to get sappy again on you, but I have to write a little something to my Mom so I'll try not to get to personal but hold on, because I'm already crying again...


Mom,


Happy Mother's Day! This is officially your 26th Mother's Day... can you believe it? I think you have done a fantastic job as a mother. I only hope that as I am about to become a mother to my own little munchkin, that I can be at least half as wonderful as you are. I truly mean that. You have been a constant in my life that has been invaluable. As I think about all the people who have come and gone in my life, I can only name one person who has been there since day 1... You! Of course, Josh and Brandon, are my other constants, but they haven't known me as long as you have =). You've been a pillar of strength and morality for me that hasn't wavered. Never once have I seen you move from what you believe to be right and true and even in our darkest hours, you were steadfast. In some of my hardest moments in life, you were the one holding my hand or holding me up, like at Mr. Scott's funeral. You have sought to please God and no one else and this is probably your most admirable trait. I have heard you tell me and Josh more than once, that we can hate your guts, but you are responsible to God for us so you are a parent first, then our friend. And you have been a constant source of laughter and joy. Some of my favorite memories from life involve us laughing, like the time at that seafood restaurant where we laughed so hard we cried, the time at a mall somewhere out of town that you thought something was so funny, the whole mall literally turned and looked to see where the peals of laughter were coming from and Josh and I had to walk away. The time that we tried to move a bed either from downstairs up, or vice versa and got stuck in the landing of the staircase and we both laughed so hard I almost wet my pants. Then, don't forget the time at the drive-thru at Subway when we couldn't order because we were laughing so hard we couldn't speak. Not to mention all of the fast food restaurants after that infamous day... So, Mom, even though your "angel baby girl" is grown and married and almost a mommy myself, I still look up to you and admire how you approach life. We may be different (not much, some would argue) but I still think you are the most wonderful woman in the world. You are, by far, the strongest woman I know and I will continue to try to be like you, especially as baby boy comes into the world. Here's to the most amazing Mom in the world and to another 50 years of Happy Mother's Days and now Happy Grandmother's Days too!

I love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my mommy you'll be.


Ok, let's dry our eyes and get to the weekly survey...


How far along? 28 weeks 3 days

Weight gain? Yeah...about that 25 pounds... I've officially gained more than that! At my doctor's appointment I had to get weighed and I've now gained 26 pounds this pregnancy! YIKES! And I still have 12 weeks to go!

maternity clothes? Mostly yes.

Sleep? Eh, some nights its ok, other nights not so much

stretch marks? Not yet...

belly button in or out? Still half in half out but a teeny bit more out than in.

Best moment this week? Going home to see my Mom and brother!

movement? feet in ribs... constantly.

food cravings? not really... most days I just have a hard time even figuring out what I want to eat...

Food aversions? coffee

what I'm looking forward to... decorating our nursery!


milestones.... BabyCenter.com says this week that he's able to make out light that filters in through my belly!! So cute! I find myself wanting to make different animals with my hands and put them against my belly so he can see the shadows... =)