My veins are lazy slackers. Also, 33 weeks.

I had an appointment with my new doctor this morning. She was extremely nice, except for the fact that she's also pregnant and due about three days after me, which is terribly inconvenient, so I still don't know who will be around when I'm delivering. Still, she gave me lots of good information about labor and delivery practices here. Apparently their hospital doesn't believe in episiotomies, which is very nice to hear - she said she only does four or five a year in cases where the alternative is C-section. They're also very much in favor of giving the baby to the mother straight away and leaving the various procedures until afterwards, which is nice, and they're willing to let women go up to 42 weeks before talking about inductions.

She did, unfortunately, lose some of my goodwill by sending me right over to the lab to get some blood tests (syphilis and HIV this week, but stay tuned for gonorrhea and chlamydia at my next appointment!). My veins are, shall we say, lacking in personality. They don't tend to stand up and introduce themselves. In any case, I got stuck a lot of times. Fortunately, I'm getting really good at not crying, running away, or punching the lab tech. There's nothing like pregnancy to kill your fight-or-flight instincts.


Note also the extremely pretty burn scar. Noah is now in charge of getting all things out of the oven.

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How far along? 33 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: Up about 25 pounds according to the hospital scales. That's not bad at all for 33 weeks, I think.
Maternity clothes? Yes. Need more tank tops and sleeveless dresses. Sleeves in Georgia are an absolutely absurd proposition.
Stretch marks? Not yet.
Sleep: Not bad. Lots of peeing, weird dreams, the usual.
Best moment this week: That ultrasound was pretty fun.*
Movement: Yes, mostly at 10pm when I'm trying to sleep.
Food cravings: Cold things. Ice cream! Popsicles! Ice water! More ice cream!
Gender: Him.
Labor Signs: Nope, just the usual fake contractions.
Belly Button in or out? In but increasingly tiny. Noah thinks it's going to pop out soon.
What I miss: Standing up without grunting like a water buffalo.
What I am looking forward to: Cloth diapers getting here! Noah finally let me order them. And I'm maybe going to a La Leche League meeting tomorrow just so I can meet some ladies I can call if there are breastfeeding issues once he gets here.
Weekly Wisdom: None, my brain is full of cute baby things rather than wisdom.
Milestones: No real ones, I think, but there's only 49 days until my due date, and that's just weird.

* My definition of fun now includes having a complete stranger poke my bladder for twenty minutes after filling my bellybutton with weird-smelling goo.