Changes to the body

Today, I am 34 weeks. I have two more weeks and I will be “set free.” I cannot believe that it has been over 9 weeks that I have been laying down…so two weeks should go by pretty fast. At 36 weeks my doctor will no longer prevent me from having the baby. I can get up, go for walks, go to the movies, do household chores, and even go to work. I will not longer be working from my couch, which is a pretty good thing considering that my belly is starting to out-grow the space under my laptop desk. I mean seriously...how can that belly fit under a 10 inch tall, by 20 inch wide space for much longer.

We have big plans for the week that I get off bed rest. Within 7 days of my release, in addition to working a full week in the office, we are going to take maternity photos, I am going to have a belly casting done, and I have a maternity spa day scheduled. The spa day is the use of a gift card that Nick got me when I finished the 3 day walk. I was supposed to have the massage and facial treatments the following weekend after I walked 60 miles…but instead we spent that time in the hospital. So I am going to take full advantage of his sweet gift now! As for the photos and belly casting…I have always wanted to do them! For some reason I want to make sure that there are multiple records of how big I grew during my pregnancy.

Speaking of growth…I have actually done really well with it. At my appointment this week I measured 32 centimeters. The measurement is from the pubic bone to the top of my uterus and should be plus or minus one centimeter from my gestational age. So I was 33 weeks and a couple days…and measured 32. Right on track! My weight is also growing…a bit more than I would like this week. All together I have gained about 25 pounds, which is not bad at all. However, 4 or 5 of them have been in the last couple of weeks. It seems like I have been retaining a little water weight. At least I think it is water. I feel a little swollen these days and my bras have been cutting into my skin and leaving ugly indentations on my skin. Hopefully if I just cut out a bit of my salt intake it will get better.

I really shouldn’t complain…I know that some of this is just the way pregnancy goes. In fact, I was experiencing some serious swollen ankles in the earlier stages of my pregnancy. But ever since I started spending 98% of all of my hours laying down…swollen ankles are not an issue. I also have not gotten a single stretch mark yet (good for the photos we are going to take) and my belly button is still an “inny”…at least for a little while longer. I normally have a very deep belly button and it has gradually become more and more shallow. We will see how long it holds out.

Yep…in two weeks we will be able to go back to a normal life. It may only be for 2 days…it may be for another 5 weeks. Normal…until the baby comes and changes our world forever…

A busy couple of weeks

Today, I am 32 weeks and one day. Again…32 is a big number. And it has been a couple of big weeks! Once I made it past 30 weeks, and was demonstrating some emotional difficulty, my doctor gave me a night of “good behavior leave.” On December 30th I was allowed to venture a block from my house to go to Jenn and Alex’s holiday party. It was an exciting adventure because I was able to get dressed up and do a little socializing. Although they live in the complex directly behind ours and in normal conditions we would just hop the fence, Nick and I chose to drive…a good choice. We arrived early so that I could claim my spot on the couch…because I still had to be horizontal. But their couch was comfortable and everyone was great about making sure that I had anything I wanted to drink or eat. It was fun to have people attend to my belly and engage in conversation about my pregnancy. Although I couldn’t fully participate in all of the festivities of the evening…it was exactly what I needed!

New Year’s Eve was more exciting than a regular day. We had our weekly ultrasound scheduled and because Nick didn’t have to work, we decided to do the trip without my parents. The ultrasound tech did the usual fluid check and heart rate. But during this trip, she also took the measurements of the baby to determine the weight. At 30 weeks and 5 days, our baby was 4 pounds…in the 68th percentile. A big, strong, healthy baby! My heart was singing to hear this news. Now I just have to get Nick to stop lovingly calling our child a “porker!” After our appointment we made a quick stop at World Market to pick up some furniture that we purchased. The rest of the day was taking down Christmas decorations and putting together a coffee table and some chairs. We also purchased a cabinet to display our new china…but that would have to wait until the next day! Instead we were focusing on our dinner plans…Fondue!

My friend Elena had brought us all of her Fondue stuff so that we could do something special for New Year’s Eve. I looked up recipes and my parents & Nick worked hard to prepare all of the dips and dippers! I did help out by grating all of the cheese…which, although I didn’t have to leave the couch, it was still challenging to do laying down. We had two different cheeses…an oil concoction to cook the beef and shrimp…and lots of veggies & bread to dip. Then for desert we had fruit and pound cake and biscotti to dip into two delicious flavors of chocolate. It was delicious. Other than the moment when I caught my napkin on fire and burned my finger…it was perfect. I fell asleep while watching the party in Times Square, but Nick woke me up in time to see the ball drop and receive a first kiss of the New Year. 2010 is going to be awesome!

My parents left the next day to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days. It was a cold adventure for them…but I think it was good for them to get out of the house. They have been amazing and so helpful…and I am sure that they were happy to do something that wasn’t about me for a couple days. So it was just Nick and I for the rest of the weekend. We hung out, watched movies and didn’t do much of anything on Saturday. It was the true definition of a lazy day with both of us asking what we had done with the day before going to bed. The answer…nothing. Sunday was actually pretty productive! We put up our China in the new cabinet. By “we” I mean that Nick unpacked it and stacked it near me so I could peel of the stickers on each piece…then he actually put it all up while I commented and corrected from the couch. Boy…I have a patient family! Nick was so cute…he wanted to make sure that everything was clean and organized when my parents returned so that they would know that he could take care of me in their absence. I love him.

This last week has been crazy busy with work. Two days of my team in my living room, practicing a workshop that we are putting on in 20 different cities starting at the end of January. They were doing a dry run for the consultant team in our office on Thursday and Friday and we had some additional changes that needed to be made. They worked unbelievably hard this week…including still being at the office at 1:30am on Wednesday night. I am so grateful that I have a team of people that work so hard and take so much pride in what we do…even with satellite management from me. I too had some long days of working…and Nick has managed to catch a cold…so this weekend we have been putting in some serious rest. Today for me is all about online shopping for baby stuff and maybe finishing my first knitting project of a scarf. I am almost out of yarn…and then I will have to do some doctoring of the holes that are found randomly throughout my amateur work! It is amazing…I have been on bed rest for 7 and a half weeks. Almost 2 months. And I haven’t accomplished nearly as much as I thought that I would…