31...

How far along? 31 weeks. (and one day)

Total weight gain/loss: Didn't check this morning, so not sure.

Maternity clothes? Of course. Or occasionally Noah's hoodies, but only first thing in the morning when it's cold...

Stretch marks? Noah thinks he spotted a couple faint ones on my side, but I'm not entirely sure they're new. So...maybe?

Sleep: Mediocre. No change expected there.
Best moment this week: Got his changing table set up (well, Noah did - I very helpfully observed) - it's nice to have something in his room. Amazon sent us the crib, too, but they shipped the wrong color, so we're waiting on the replacement. Should be here today. I'll take some pictures of the room once it's all full of stuff.
Movement: Not as much as last week, but still plenty.
Food cravings: Saturday Night Casserole, at the moment. And water. Didn't know you could crave water, but I do.
Gender: Boy.
Labor Signs: No no no.
Belly Button in or out? Still safely in. Hope it stays that way.
What I miss: Non-hurty back. *whine*
What I am looking forward to: The rain stopping. It's been raining since Saturday and isn't supposed to stop until next Saturday. Woe!
Weekly Wisdom: I probably shouldn't complain about the weather when I'm living in a place where 58 degrees is a cold day.
Milestones: Due date is almost exactly two months from today - May 30.

I'm really good at peeing in cups.

So I went to the doctor again on Thursday. It was terribly boring; there's not much to tell. Jim is growing appropriately, and I am growing appropriately-ish - gained a pound more than I should have since the last visit, but then again, I was a pound less than I should've been at the last one, so I shall declare that a wash and continue to eat cookies.

For once, I was totally prepared with a full bladder so I could give them the traditional cup-o'-urine before my appointment, but alas, it was insufficient. There were some white blood cells in the sample I gave, so she decided I should have a urine culture done to see if the trouble was coming from my bladder (no good!) or if it was just nosy bacteria wandering over from the vagina to check out the landscape in my urethra (as my doctor suspects). Unfortunately, this required another cup of urine a mere twenty minutes after producing the last batch, so they left me alone with a couple glasses of water (which I dutifully guzzled) and a sterile cup (which I dutifully filled).

As I might have suspected, this post-appointment water guzzling left me having to pee urgently about halfway home, just as I hit the construction* near our house. Naturally, Jim took this as a signal to tap dance on my bladder until I managed to get home. Next time this happens, I'll be hanging out at the hospital for an hour after my appointment just in case.

* Construction season is just as bad here as in Pennsylvania. Possibly it's worse, since there's three times as much summer.

30 out of 40.

How far along? 30 weeks.

Total weight gain/loss: 25 pounds total. Not horrible.

Maternity clothes? Ja.

Stretch marks? Still no. Had a weird dream that my entire stomach turned permanently purple, though.

Sleep: Okayish. I sleep pretty soundly, but it takes a while to get there.
Best moment this week: Anything that doesn't involve tiny feet between my ribs.
Movement: Lots, most of which apparently involves Jim trying to lace his feet into my ribcage.
Food cravings: Plums and chocolate chip cookies, both of which are on my kitchen table.
Gender: Boy.
Labor Signs: Nope. Starting to notice a few more BH contractions, though.
Belly Button in or out? In - not much change.
What I miss: Being able to safely travel away from easy access to a bathroom.
What I am looking forward to: Another appointment on Thursday and meeting my new doctor a couple weeks after that.
Weekly Wisdom: None. Too hot to think of wise things.
Milestones: 3/4 of the way done. That sounds terribly impressive, no?

Have to apologize for the blog silence lately; there just isn't much to report. Noah goes to work and does apparently interesting things, I muck around at home cleaning stuff and baking things and growing cool plants, Bruce chases anything he sees and charges the windows, and Jim gets increasingly strenuous in his kicking. We're all happy and healthy, but there's just not a lot to say about it at the moment. Rest assured that if something particularly interesting does happen, there will be a suitably informative yet sarcastic post written about it with all due haste.

11 weeks to go...

How far along? 29 weeks.

Total weight gain/loss: Didn't weigh this morning, so not sure. I'm not sure how accurate my scale is, though. I had myself down as up three pounds in the last two weeks, but the doctor told me I was only up a pound and a half.

Maternity clothes? Ja.

Stretch marks? None yet. Fingers crossed? They'll probably come in the dead of night at like 39 weeks, though.

Sleep: Neh. Back hurts. Bladder is tiny. Am used to it by now. Maybe the bladder issue is good practice for getting up five times a night with a newborn.
Best moment this week: Ultrasound! D'awwwww.
Movement: Loads, usually late at night when I'm trying to sleep or early in the morning when I'm trying to pretend I don't have to get up to pee.
Food cravings: Tomatoes, tomato sauce, V-8, etc.
Gender: Boy.
Labor Signs: Nyet.
Belly Button in or out? In. Noah makes fun of how tiny it's getting.
What I miss: My jawline. I think I've gained half the weight so far in my chin(s).
What I am looking forward to: Eating food and then sleeping.
Weekly Wisdom: Moving helps the back pain. More walks, more dance classes, less lounging, less moping.
Milestones: Dunno. 8 weeks left until full term, though, which is pretty cool/scary.

Drums... Drums in the deep.*

Drums = hiccups. The deep = my pelvis. Freaking weird, man.



* If you don't recognize that from LOTR, you should be ashamed of yourself.

BREAKING: James grows some, continues to look like baby.

I think he's maybe got Noah's nose (wide bridge, bump in the middle). Noah thinks I'm making stuff up. James has no opinion on the matter.

Other relevant data from yesterday's visit:

• Jim's head is still big but no longer as hugely disproportionate as it was - 76th percentile.
  
• He weighs about 2lb 13oz, which is 57th percentile - up exactly a pound from the ultrasound four weeks ago.
  
• His heart and brain and other bits all look awesome, including his 'weewee' (ultrasound tech's word, not mind - she was very interested in getting shots of it).
  
• My fibroid is more enormous than it was. It went from about a 4cm diameter last time to a 6cm diameter yesterday.
  
• My weight gain, urine, kidneys, and uterus all appear to be fine.
  

The appointment itself was rather tedious (four hours at the hospital due to various comical mishaps), and that is all I have to say about that.

28.

How far along? 28 weeks, so 12 left - just 84 days. That sounds extremely short. (or extremely long, depending on how much my back hurts at the time)
Total weight gain/loss: Up two pounds this week (whoops), so 23 total.
Maternity clothes? Naturally.
Stretch marks? So far so good.
Sleep: Bad! Sleeping goes as follows: spend an hour trying to find a position that doesn't hurt my back, sleep half an hour, wake up to pee, repeat. I think I got about three hours of sleep last night. Also, pregnant dreams are freaking weird. *whine*
Best moment this week: Saw my belly move last night - that might have been more creepy than anything, though.
Movement: See above. Also, Noah can feel him pretty much any time he puts his hand on my belly now, so that's progress over the previous stealthy-ninja-baby.
Food cravings: Summer squash, but I don't have any.
Gender: Boy.
Labor Signs: Nej.
Belly Button in or out? In. Kind of sore-feeling, though, which is odd.
What I miss: Being comfortable. At all. Ever.
What I am looking forward to: Lots of stuff! On the agenda for this week: dance class tonight (Noah and I are taking Carolina Shag lessons - he's better at it than I am), La Leche League meeting tomorrow, ultrasound Thursday, gaming Friday night, and Labor/Delivery tour Saturday morning. Lots of good stuff coming up.
Weekly Wisdom: Maybe I should look into spine-removal options, because owww back pain.
Milestones: Moving belly? That's a pretty good one, I think.

Noah is a saint.

Mostly, anyway. Last night I was making tuna melts for supper (om nom nom - especially with pickles) and, alas, I dropped one while transferring it from pan to plate. For whatever reason, this started off the crying. Not just sniffling, but actual chest-heaving, hyperventilating sobs with tears and mucus flying everywhere.

The poor man, not realizing that this was just hormones (the entire time I was crying I was wondering what the hell I was crying about, since I didn't feel even remotely upset), spent the next twenty minutes trying to reassure me that the poor disassembled tuna melt would probably still taste good, etc., until the hysterics finally decreased to a point where I was able to speak.

For his sake, I hope the hormones go back to their normal levels once James makes his appearance.

Wonderful what we can do nowadays...

Doppelganger.

So I was just lounging around reading one of the childbirth books I got in the mail today (very informative pictures - completely nekkid 70s chicks accompanied by their mustachioed gold-necklaced menfolk - I'll show you sometime!) when I looked out the window to see Bruce, apparently escaped, wandering across our fence. I was about to run out in a panic to catch him and bring him back in when I noticed Bruce sitting on the window watching Bruce climb the fence.



Looks like we've been infiltrated.

Gratuitous picture of Noah being all productive and manly.

He's handy to have around, that man.