35 Weeks!

 First of all, sorry for the huge gap between blog posts.  Life caught up with me and, honestly, more often that not, my first priority after getting home from work has been napping, not blogging! But here we are, at 35 weeks and 4 days :)

What's up with Babyopolis?

Your baby now weighs about 5.25 pounds and measures approximately 18 inches from head to toe (coconut sized). His elbow, foot or head may protrude from your stomach when he stretches and squirms about. Soon, as the wall of your uterus and your abdomen stretch thinner and let in more light, your baby will begin to develop daily activity cycles.

This week, your little one is now sporting fingernails and has a fully developed pair of kidneys. His liver can also process some waste products.

There's much less amniotic fluid and much more baby in your uterus, which has expanded to a thousand times its original size. You've probably put on between 25 and 30 pounds and your weight gain has hit its peak. Even your belly button has got bigger and has popped outward. You may be feeling breathless now that the top of your uterus is up under your ribs.

 What's up with Stephopolis?

I feel very elephantine at the moment.  I think baby's growth spurt has been catching up to me and I feel like I am 100% full of baby.  And he definitely loves to make his presence known.  His favorite thing to do (besides shove feet in my ribs) is to stretch out to full capacity and stick various body parts out every direction.  While entertaining, this activity is also getting quite uncomfortable.

6 more days that I have to physically commute in to UBC and I am definitely in countdown mode.  When I'm at work, everything is fine, but the I am tired of the bus/train combo. 

I've also been having sleep problems, which I can attribute to heartburn and hormone-induced insomnia. FUN.  But, apart from being vaguely uncomfortable, I have no major complaints.

Bullet points!

• How far? I'm 35 weeks 4 days
• Cravings: Nothing specified.  I just want to eat. A lot.
• Complaints: I just want to be done with work and have the ability to nap during the day.
• Workouts:  I've been pretty lazy.  Mostly just walking around campus and up/down stairs.
• Appointments: Midwife appointments are ramping up and I'm getting all sorts of handouts about 'what to do when you think you're in labour'. Yikes.  
• Classes: Birth class! We attended 'baby bootcamp' for two full Sundays in a row and we learned about birth (natural and with interventions) and breastfeeding.  It was a really empowering class and helped dispel a lot of my anxiety about labour and birth.  Of course, the whole process is still a huge unknown, but I now feel prepared for all possible outcomes.  And, as an added bonus, Adam got to role play the part of a women going through a C-Section and I was an Anesthesiologist. haha.
• Tours: Royal Columbian Hospital maternity ward.  We were led around the birth and recovery rooms at RCH and learned about newborn procedures and the specifics of our particular hospital, including what to pack in the hospital bag... (more on that below)
• Nesting/Organization: The baby room is done (apart from some minor, minor things).  We still have a few things to buy, including receiving blankets and another car seat base.  But we've ordered this cute decal for the baby room, which should really pull everything together.  The one other thing we really need to start putting together is the hospital bag (which is actually two bags - a labour bag and a post partum bag).  We have most of the necessary supplies, we just have to go into assembly mode!

Week 32!

What's up with Babyopolis?

Your baby now weighs approximately 3.75 pounds/ 1.7 kilograms and is about 17 inches / 42 centimetres long from head to toe. Although his lungs won't be fully developed until just before birth, your little one is inhaling amniotic fluid to exercise his lungs and practise breathing.

You're probably gaining a pound/ 450 grams a week, largely because your baby is likely to gain more than half his birthweight during the seven weeks before delivery.

 What's up with Stephopolis?

I know it says that I'm probably gaining 'a pound a week', but I real feel like I'm gaining a pound a day.  I feel heavy right now, and I think it's a combination of the heat, lots of walking and being just shy of 33 weeks pregnant. 

The baby is moving all. the. time.  My midwife gave me a handout on 'kick counts' and cautioned that fetal movement usually gets more subtle and less dramatic in the last weeks of pregnancy.  If this is the case, my little guy did not get the memo! It seems like he completely shifts his position at least once a day and likes to shimmy his feet a lot.  I also get pointy knees/elbows/other limbs jabbing me all the time.  And one of his movements actually took my breath away during a meeting today.  He kicked out so hard that a portion of my stomach moved quite dramatically and it caught the attention of another meeting attendee who was like '...are you ok?!'.

And even though I haven't been as consistent with the exercises my physio prescribed for my SPD, what I am doing seems to be working.  My pelvis isn't as sore and I'm sleeping better at night.  It could also be attributed to the fact that the baby has shifted into a head-down position which means that some of his weight is higher, and off my pelvis.  Whatever it is, I hope it stays like this!

That's not to say that I'm completely pain free, though.  I'm getting some lower back pain now and it's a struggle to sit at work for any length of time.  I have to go for lots and lots of short walks - at least I work on a pretty campus!

And, because I can't find the camera this week, instead of a picture of me, you get a picture of a 'large jicama' (which apparently equates to the baby's size this week).  What a weird looking veg.

Bullet points!

• How far? I'm 32 weeks 6 days
• Cravings: Cherries.  And ice cream. Mmm.
• Complaints: Heat. And my commute
• Workouts:  Physio exercises and wandering all over campus
• Appointments: Midwife appointment last week (everything is measuring perfectly!)
• Babyopolis stuff: The baby room continues to become assembled! We now have a crib mattress, a laundry hamper and so. many. clothes.  This is going to be a very well dressed young lad!  We still have to get the crib bedding and this baby carrier. 
• Emo moments: Two.  The latest one (tonight) revolved around being overwhelmed at the sheer amount that I don't know and can't anticipate about this little baby.  He's so safe and content right now, but I'm worried about what happens in 8 weeks... I'm also wracked with indecision about all the decisions that come with having a newborn.  Like, what kind of baby monitor should we buy? What type of bottle (I plan on nursing, but I also want to pump eventually).  Arg. So many choices.