33 weeks- Merry Christmas!!

At 33 weeks, our little growing baby boy is getting to be big! He now weighs about 4 1/2 - 5 lbs and his length ranges between 17.5-19 inches, about the size of a pineapple. According to thebump.com, he may grow up to a full inch alone this week! His body is still fattening up as he gains about a half a pound a week, and his bones are starting to harden. His skull will continue to remain soft and not fully fused together- this allows him to pass through the birth canal, and it will continue to be fairly soft after birth, to make room for his growing brain through childhood.

Mommy has been doing pretty good this week. My sweet husband has taken to sleeping on the couch, which has allowed me to get almost a full 8 hours of sleep each night (minus the bathroom break of course!) I guess our full sized bed is just running out of room with my humungous belly! My feet continue to swell, and sometimes I am having Braxton Hicks contractions, but not too often. I am definitely getting some stretch marks now, unfortunately, and my biggest complaint is usually that I am just plain uncomfortable and huge! But it was fun to think yesterday, as we woke up on Christmas morning, about 12 months from now when we will be pulling a 10 month old baby out of his crib to open the presents that Santa brought : )

Our baby room looks a bit more complete now, we have the crib put together, which is a huge eye opener to us first-time parents. Kinda helps to make it real! I am looking forward to the glider that the Skinner side of the family will be pitching in for- now we are looking for some sort of dresser and nightstand to put in the nursery as well. Here is a link to the facebook pics we have accumulated of Sean's room in progress.

Christmas was nice this year. Mike was home for it, which is always wonderful. I also appreciated it a lot, because I am very used to having a full house, and both of our roommates went to Seattle this year for Christmas, so I probably would have been a bit lonely and even jealous if Mike had not been here. We got up in the morning, opened the presents that my parents sent us, and went to making breakfast- stuffed french toast, yum! Then we showered and got ready to go see the movie Avatar. We got there early, to find out they were opening late for Christmas. So we went back to our house with our two couple friends that were hanging out with us for the day- Tiff and Dan, and Katie and Carl. We watched some movies, the boys played video games, and I made some crock pot chili to sit while we went back to catch the 3 o'clock showing of Avatar. After the movie we just came back to our house to relax and enjoy the rest of Christmas. I spent the end of my day watching Mike play his game on xbox as I fell asleep on the couch. It was a very relaxing day, just like it should be : )

Last week I made a gingerbread house with some friends over at Kylie's house. Mike was still offshore, so we unfortunately didn't make the 2 story plantation style home he was drawing up blueprints for : ) But we did have fun, and took some pictures while we were there- here is the link to my facebook album.

32 weeks

This week, Baby Sean is weighing close to, or maybe more than, 4 lbs., and measuring about 17-19 inches (depending on what you read!). Pick up a large jicama to get an idea of what his weight is like. I'm supposed to be gaining about a pound a week from here until the due date, and about half of that goes right to him. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least some respectable peach fuzz) and his skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth. His head is down at this point, as it's probably the most comfortable for him as he continues to run out of space, and it's the direction he needs to be in to be delivered normally.

As for Mommy this week, I have all the typical 3rd trimester complaints- my ankles and feet are both swelling like crazy, and unfortunately I never get any full relief from it. My lower back and hips ache constantly, especially when I am sitting or lying down for long periods of time, and I tire very easily when walking or doing anything physical. I am starting to feel pretty useless at this point, and I am not sure what I will do because we still have 8 weeks to go! I was able to get the laundry basket out of the bedroom and I'm working on a second load to wash right now. I've been trying to keep up with the housework- it's easier when Mike is offshore, I try not to make too much of a mess by myself, and I don't feel like I have anyone to impress so the house is allowed to get a little dirty : ) I already told Mike if it bothers him that the house needs to be vacuumed or toilets cleaned that he is more than welcome to do so, but because his son is constantly kicking and pressing against my lungs it's getting to be more difficult for me to do it by myself!

Today I mailed out Christmas cards, went to Babies R Us and bought our stroller/car seat combo, and went to Target for groceries. I was able to spend about $25 less than I had originally anticipated, so that made me super happy- that money goes towards filling up the gas tank! I cannot wait until January 1st- Mike should have a decent paycheck coming in and I won't have to keep stressing about the cash flow in our bank account. We are crossing our fingers that his work stays steady through all of January, that way he can be home with Sean and I after the birth for a month or two (or three if we are lucky!) before he has to go back to work. It's a risky bet to make- his job is so seasonal and winter is usually very slow.

I guess I forgot to mention I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Everything was pretty good- I told him I was getting a lot of dizziness and shortness of breath. Part of the reason is my lungs and diaphragm are running out of room, so I am literally getting less oxygen to my brain sometimes ; ) He also ran some blood work, and said everything was normal but my blood sugar was a little high. He advised me to eat often, every 2 hours or so, and try to find low carb/high protein snacks so my blood sugar doesn't spike and then drop, which may be what's causing the dizzy spells. I got also my doctor's approval at our appointment on Wednesday to leave my work at 36 weeks, so January 15th will be my last day, woohoo!! That way I can be home resting/nesting until the baby is here, and at that point I will be on a short term disability for 6-8 weeks, with some pay. After that I am allowed up to a year off with leave of absence, no pay. I am not sure when I will schedule to go back to work, or if I will stay for long when I return. Ideally I want to find something where I can work from home, but I guess all of that will fall into place when it needs to.

31 weeks

So at 31 weeks our countdown truly begins.... we're all single digits now! 9 weeks until our due date of February 13th, and 5 weeks until they'll consider us full term! If you remember last week, they estimated our baby at about 3 lbs, 8-9 oz at the ultrasound on 12/3. Well, according to all the baby sites I read about pregnancy, at 31 weeks our baby should be somewhere between 3.5-3.8 lbs. So he is ahead of the game! Which makes me happy, hopefully it means he is healthy! Babycenter.com says to compare his weight at this point to 4 navel oranges- so we'll call it 5 just to compare. I'll tell you, my belly feels a lot heavier than 5 oranges LOL! But there's a lot of fluids, etc. in there as well, so it's to be expected. At this point in pregnancy, he can turn his head back and forth, and all 5 senses are in working order, but he won't use smell until out of the womb. His brain is making connections with all those senses- tracking light, recognizing different voices, and (lucky for me) he is putting in normal sleeping periods. I notice he isn't quite as active allllllll day as he was for the last few weeks. He is still very active during the times that he is! But I actually get a break here and there, where he must be sleeping. I wonder what he dreams about?

This past week I have been bargain shopping. We had our baby shower last Sunday, and it was wonderful. We got lots of nice things, and I am sure we will still be receiving gifts here and there, but afterwards it made my nesting brain make a list of things we still need to get before his arrival. I have been accumulating coupons and shopping for the best deals I can, since we are broke as a joke, we need to save as much as we can, while still preparing for Sean to be here in possibly less than 2 months. We got our mattress last week with a 15% off coupon, and I ordered a breast pump online with a 20% off coupon. I also used a great deal suggested a long time ago by my friend Sarah at jilliansdrawers.com for cloth diapers. You buy a whole variety of newborn cloth diapers for $150, try them out for 21 days after baby arrives, and if you don't like them at all, you send them back and they refund you $140. You only have to pay that $10 difference plus shipping. It's an incredible deal, and eliminates the number one problem I have heard about moms trying out cloth diapers- they think they know what they want, so they buy a bunch of one kind of diaper, and they don't fit right or they don't like the way they work so they give up. I really want to try it out, and hope it works, but I am realistic in saying that I have never done it before, so we will see once it is a reality. I just think about 6 months from now, while all the other moms are still buying Pampers at $25 a box, I will be content with our cloth diapers that we already have, never needing to buy more unless I want a new color, etc. And that landfill of dirty diapers that I see in my head is lowly decreasing in size, which makes me feel oh so much better.

This week we will be getting our crib, and next week will be the stroller/car seat combo, with the help of Mike's parents and mine. I am so excited to think about getting everything ready, but man, who thought babies needed so much different stuff!! The good news..... Mike went offshore last night!!!! Woohoo!!! Now our fingers are crossed that he stays out there for several weeks LOL. He has no idea how long this job will last, so let's hope it's not just 1-2 days. Even that would be helpful at this point, but we'll still hope for the better.

Here is a link to my facebook album with shower pics (I didn't feel like uploading them all to Blogger...) and here is my belly pic for the week. Mike isn't here, so after several attempts at a good picture, this was the best I could take by myself LOL.

30 weeks

Just as a disclaimer, at this point in the pregnancy, the updates I have been doing may vary a lot more for each baby, as development can vary so much. But just for fun sake, I will keep doing them anyway: D

At 30 weeks, our baby is about the size of a cabbage (our very own cabbage patch kid!) weighing in at about 3 lbs and getting close to 16 inches long. His skin is becoming more smooth, but his brain is getting more wrinkly, increasing the surface area making more room for that essential brain tissue. Now that he can regulate his own body temperature, he is shedding the downy body hair called lanugo which was previously keeping him warm.

We went to the doc on Thursday, and had another ultrasound. No good pics, unfortunately- he is a bit too big to capture very much in one screen, which is a good thing! I was 29w5d at my appt., but he was measuring at 30w3d- about 3 lbs. 8-9 oz. So our little man is growing healthy and strong! His head is about as far down into my pelvic bone as he can get- I am starting to feel the results of that. They were trying to get a good look that the placenta and my cervix, and his big head was in the way most of the time! They did see that the placenta moved a bit since my 20w U/S, but not quite enough. Doc says he still considers it placenta previa, just meaning that the placenta partially covers my cervix. He recommended one more U/S at 36 weeks, since it is almost out of the way, and it if continues to be stubborn, it just means I have a scheduled c-section instead of a normal delivery. In the meantime, I am on light duty activities for the most part, but I can continue to work until 36 weeks since it's just a desk job.

My sleep schedule is constant now for the most part- I wake up about every 3 hours. I am guessing that will be Sean's schedule when he gets here, I can't see any other reason why I can't sleep more than 3 hour at a time without waking up! He kicks a lot now, to the point where my stomach looks like there is an alien trying to break out inside! I was even telling Mike that I think he has somehow bruised parts of me on the inside. He will kick, and at first it doesn't bother me, and then he will kick another spot and it feels so tender it hurts. But I am so happy and excited to think about meeting this little guy, in as little as 6 weeks, or hopefully no longer than 10 weeks!

In other news, Mike was sweet enough to cater to my needs of having Christmas decorations up soon after Thanksgiving. He hung the Christmas lights on the house on Monday night with Josh, and then we picked out a tree and put that up in the living room. I was too exhausted to do much on Monday (I actually stayed home from work that day because the exhaustion was too much to handle) but then when I went back to work on Tuesday he got the tree all decorated for me! Our living room is a little short on space now, but it's beautiful. I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music, especially instrumental (my favorite). I broke out the Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker, and have been listening to that full blast in my car. They say having your baby listen to classical music helps with brain development- I don't know if it's true or not, but it calms me down and I like it, so that alone must be good for him.

Today Mike and I are off to Lamaze- I am so glad my friend Katie (who is 35 weeks tomorrow!) and her hubby will be there with us. Mike and I went to the hospital tour and birthing basics class on Tuesday, and it was waaaay too crowded for my liking, and I could feel the tension from Mike as he tried to not look like he wanted to run away screaming. So hopefully having some friends there will help make it more comfortable. Tomorrow is the baby shower and I am so excited! But the only problem is that it is at my house, and due to my extreme exhaustion, I have not been cleaning house much- and I am embarrassed to think about having so many people here unless I clean up a bit. I am going to see how much I can get done when I get home today, like a quick vacuum and tidying of the living room, and the rest will just have to wait.