Week 34 ~ Baby Pineapple!

How far along? 34 weeks down, just 6 left to go!
Weight gain? I gained 3 pounds in the past 2 weeks which brings the grand to 24 pounds! However, over a third of that is just from this last one month…. I think watching the pounds stack up on home stretch is going to be challenging  :-/ but I’m TRYING not to stress about it!

Maternity clothes? Yuppers! I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well non-maternity maxi-dresses fit :-) I recommend being in the third trimester when the temperature is conducive to maxi-dresses; they greatly reduce the amount of maternity outfits needed ;-)

Stretch marks? None for now!

Sleep: I'm still sleeping very well :-D

Best moment this week: A local photographer was doing a stylized shoot to market her photography business, her best friend’s cake-topper business, and her mom’s floral business. They set up a neat baby shower scene and needed a pregnant model – so I volunteered! They had such a beautiful set-up and it would have been an awesome actual baby shower, if there weren’t so many mosquitos :-P Hubbs and I attended a breastfeeding class that was actually quite informative and interesting! I’m a morning person, so evening classes are exhausting- it feels good to have one checked off the list!

http://www.hannahgaulphotoblog.com/?p=2205 

Movement: Baby hasn’t moved much at all in the past few days, and when he does move the movements are much more subtle. He had been moving so forcefully there it was borderline painful. After 2 days of so little movement I tried to remain calm and not worry, but on the third day I needed some reassurance. Yesterday I went to the women’s center at the hospital to see if a friend was available to check baby’s heart-rate with a Doppler, but she wasn’t available because she was in a debriefing after a CODE! Yikes, that certainly didn’t help my level of anxiety. Luckily I was able to swing by later and another nurse checked baby’s heart-rate for me. He was at 135bmp which was a bit lower than usual, but still in the normal range. Also, the nurse could see his heart-rate, but we couldn’t hear it, which seemed strange to me. Luckily I had my regular doctor’s appointment this morning and we could hear baby’s strong heart-beat at about 150bpm, which is typical for him. After thinking about it a bit more, baby is probably running out of space and sleeping a lot more since he’s growing so much these days. Also, I’ve been trying to cut back on my sugar intake, so I’m sure that makes him less active. I also realized that I usually have one cup of coffee in the mornings and my OB appointments are at 9:00am, so his baseline heart-rate probably really is around 135bpm, but it’s generally higher at my regular appointments.

Food cravings: I have managed to cut sugar out for the past 2 days! That seems pathetic, but it has been a TOUGH habit to break because I'd been having at least some sort of sugar every day for the last month or two!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope!

Labor signs: Nope.

Symptoms: I've been so ADD this whole week! My inability to focus is frustrating because I haven't made progress on anything. Running in circles when there's much to be done is ridiciulous! The pregnancy brain hasn’t helped, and forgetting things I would typically remember is agitating.

Belly button in or out? In, but it’s sure getting shallow :-P

Wedding ring on or off? OFF! I tried to wear it a few times this week and it worked for part of the day, but now I’m nervous and don’t want it to get stuck, so I’m not risking it anymore.

Happy or moody most of the time: This has been one of the harder weeks of my pregnancy, but it still hasn’t been that bad. Physically I’ve been fine, but I’ve had an overwhelming sense of anxiety. I think realizing that there isn't much time before baby arrives and I only have 6-8 weeks (at most) to have everything ready at work to hand off is intimidating! I originally thought I'd have time to train the new person, but now it doesn't look like I'll have much, if any time to get the him/her up to speed. I created a list of upcoming events with checklists for each so that at any given time someone else can see what has been done and what still needs to be done- I'm hoping that's a good communication tool that will enable a smooth transition! I have resigned myself to the fact that I have to prioritize my workload and I can only get done what I can get done (and that's NOT everything!) and that has to be good enough. I'm sure a new person will get things figured out- just like I had to when I started. 

Looking forward to: My friend who is due the day after me is having her baby shower this weekend!