35 weeks: 17 questions

1) How far along? 35 weeks...8 3/4 months pregnant...full term in 14 days!  When I visited my family home in Wisconsin last weekend, my dad said, "You only have 4 more free Saturday nights left!"  

2) Total weight gain? 17 pounds so far
3) Maternity clothes? Nothing new. Same few maternity dresses + David's clothes

4) Stretch marks?  No 

5) Sleep? Yes, but the baby kicks wake me up at 4-5 AM every day...which is only one of a few things that I'm happy to wake up that early for!

6) Best moment this week? David drove me up to Cincinnati where we had a nice lunch with Grandma Trudy and his mom, Nancy.  Then after he drove back down to Tennessee for work the next day, Nancy drove me up to her house in Indiana where we stayed the night until the next day when my wonderful in-laws, Fred and Nancy, drove up with me to Wisconsin for a fun weekend with my family.  My female relatives hosted an intimate baby shower on Saturday, and I have pictures to post tomorrow...

Lunch at Panera

Grandmas Susan and Nancy find some baby clothes after lunch

Soon-to-be Uncle Bill

Soon-to-be Uncle Chuck

My mom and me

 My parents and me

 Close-up of the baby's maternal grandparents and me

Bill and Carly playings "bags"

 And their opponents, P.J. and Chuck

 Family on the patio

 Uncle Peter grilling the meat for dinner

 My parents, Chuck and my in-laws out to dinner at the Range Line Inn restaurant in Mequon Saturday night

 Some sneak peek photos of the baby shower from Saturday... above is the adorable and delicious cake from the shower. (thanks to Aunt Marsha for these particular photos)

7) Miss Anything?  No, I'm just running around this week, checking off things from the to-do list before it's "go time"!

8) Movement? Yes!  Mostly in the early morning and late at night

9) Food cravings? Fruit and Sprite Zero soda (which I occasionally mix up for Bud Light in our fridge and pull out the wrong can...)

10) Anything making you queasy or sick? Mint-flavored things

11) Gender? Girl (We received some more adorable baby girl clothes last weekend. She will be well-dressed for every season!)

12) Labor Signs? No

13) Symptoms? Exhaustion... AND, I'm getting blonde/orange highlights in my hair from the sun.  My eyebrows have turned an orange tint, too.  I'm not highlighting my hair or putting any lemon juice in it, and I've never seen this orange-auburn color in my hair, so it must be the hormones!

14) Belly Button in or out? Out!

15) Wedding rings on or off? Still on

16) Happy or Moody?  Happy, even if tired! 

17) Looking forward to what? My mom is in Knoxville this week to help me and David organize our guest room/nursery and to join us for the co-ed baby shower/pool party that our good friends, Walt and Mary Margaret, are hosting for us on Saturday!

 35-week belly pictures:
These pictures are actually from last Saturday (34 weeks, 5 days) after the baby shower, since my mom and I were driving all day Monday from Wisconsin to Tennessee. 

Babylicious Adventure Filled Day

Today, we did a lot of stuff dedicated to the baby... it wasn't all super exciting, and so I want to publicly thank my husband for his support and absence of any complaining today.  He was great, and we ended up having a pretty good day.

First, David came with me to my OBGYN this morning for another BPP appointment (non-stress test plus ultrasound).  I weighed 145 pounds, and my blood pressure was 102 over 68.  This was "good" but a little lower than my "normal low" blood pressure reading.  This reading made more sense later when I felt extremely light-headed after resting for 5 minutes, with head elevated while resting on the chair and blood rushing to my feet pointing downwards, doing the non-stress test.  I started to feel very warm and get a headache, some of the symptoms that I get when I feel an oncoming fainting episode.  These symptoms make me nervous because I have fainted a handful of times in my life (including once when I was teaching in the classroom!), so they moved me to another room where I could lie flat on the bed and have a fan in the room.   Below is a picture that David took of me before my near fainting episode.

The non-stress test went well, and the baby was kicking plenty.  Next, we went back to use the ultrasound machine.  The baby looked healthy... good ribs, muscle tone, heartbeat, etc.  My doctor did however mention that the placenta was starting to "age" or break down slowly.  She pointed out just a few white calcium spots that we could see in the placenta on the ultrasound screen.  These spots mean that the placenta is getting older, which is normal at this stage of pregnancy.  She said that when the placenta starts to resemble a "cauliflower cut in half where you can see all the white florets inside" on the ultrasound screen, then that is when the placenta is not functioning to its full capabilities and its time to deliver the baby.  My placenta did not look anything like that yet, but definitely gained a few "white spots" since last week.

The baby had also rotated into the breech position this time when we first saw her on the ultrasound screen, whereas she had been head down for the last two weeks.  However, she then ended up rotating sideways by the end of the appointment, so my doctor said it's not concerning if the head is up or down at this point, and that there's still time to rotate the head down before delivery in 4-6 weeks.

I appreciated that David came in with me today on his day off from work.  It was the last time that he would see our OBGYN doctor at this clinic before I start my appointments at the hospital downtown, where we will meet with the doctor that delivers the baby.  I have one more appointment at this clinic next week before it "becomes real" and we regularly see the building and doctor that will take care of business for the rest of the pregnancy.

The second part of our baby activity filled day started at 5:00 PM when we drove downtown to our "Baby Care / Parent Transition: Guide to First 6 Weeks" class.  We were the first ones there, and were eventually joined by two other couples.

 We learned to "swaddle" among other useful information at the class.

 Afterwards, we celebrated as graduates of our baby class by grabbing dinner at the "Twin Peaks" restaurant.  Apparently, it's like a Hooters restaurant...yes, the waitresses are wearing tight tops cropped at the belly and showing some major cleavage, in addition to the shortest shorts that I've ever seen worn by a girl, practically underwear.  

But, here they wore Uggs boots with their waitress uniforms because the "Twin Peaks" theme not only refers to their upper anatomical parts but also to the ski lodge setting seen throughout the restaurant.  Hey, the waitresses were nice, there were plenty of big-screened TVs, including a personal one in our booth, and the food was actually really delicious! 

 After a day full of baby prep, David was eager to cheers with a frosty brew.

 I ordered a delightful lemonade topped with a maraschino cherry.  I could order a glass of wine, but I figured that I only have a month left with baby in the belly and decided that I could wait that long to indulge in any alcoholic treats. 

David thought that this picture with me eating my cherry from my virgin drink was hilarious, and so I promised to him that I would post it because he was a good boy with our "baby overload" adventures today.

 Per the suggestion of our Twin Peaks waitress, we ordered fried pickles.  How fitting for us after spending a day at the doctor's office and the hospital with other pregnant couples for a baby class!

 They were FANTASTIC.

The end!  :)

34 weeks: 17 questions

1) How far along? 34 weeks...8 1/2 months pregnant

2) Total weight gain? I weighed 145 pounds last week, so the total weight gain is 17 pounds. 
3) Maternity clothes? Yes, just a few dresses so that I don't look like a thug all of the time wearing David's athletic shorts that go down 3 inches past my knees. 

4) Stretch marks?  No marks! 

5) Sleep? Yes, I have been sleeping and napping a lot, but I'm starting to wake up in the middle of the night, and it's not always to just use the bathroom.  I have been having the worst nightmares, several of them with SVU themes from my favorite TV show.  I'll wake up in the middle of the night and yell at David to save me from a rape incident.  Yikes! I have to start reading/watching more pleasant stuff before I fall asleep.

6) Best moment this week? My doctor printed out some cool 3-D ultrasound pictures last week and I had healthy reports.  

We got some pool time at the Chapman house, and we thank them for allowing us to visit as often as we do!

After David's help with cleaning off my toenail polish on Saturday night, it was nice to have a pedicure date with Amy P. on Sunday and catch up!

Finally, David left on the Brewers game for us to actually watch together tonight!  He hates the Brewers, but there was really nothing else on TV.  And, he got a kick out of watching this Milwaukee fan enjoying his cheese curds who was caught on TV below. 

7) Miss Anything? I don't move around as fast as I used to, and doing a load of laundry in one day feels like a huge accomplishment to me, but I'm okay with slowing down my pace of life a little bit. 

8) Movement? Yes!  I still wake up early in the morning because of it, and it doesn't bother me! The kicks and punches never get old.

9) Food cravings? Lots of fruit.  I've been perfecting fruit smoothies at home with our blender, minus the big bag of kale that I bought several weeks ago!

10) Anything making you queasy or sick? Still the mint flavor and smell in anything, so I put away temporarily a hand soap with mint flavor from Bath & Body Works in a cabinet and replaced it with another hand soap dispenser. As much as I have been bashing mint lately, my favorite ice cream flavor is still mint chocolate chip. 

11) Gender? Girl

12) Labor Signs? No

13) Symptoms? Very tired!  And weird dreams

14) Belly Button in or out? Out

15) Wedding rings on or off? They're still on and not even tight yet, to my surprise at this late stage in the pregnancy.  I might be speaking too soon, and my fingers will swell like sausages next week!

16) Happy or Moody? A little moody because I've been so tired lately as I try to get things done at school and around the apartment. 

17) Looking forward to what? David and I will meet his mom and grandma for lunch in Cincinnati this week as I make my way up with David's parents to Wisconsin for the weekend.  My lovely female family members in Wisconsin have generously offered to throw an intimate baby shower for me on Saturday.  I haven't been back home since Christmas, so it'll be nice to see everyone! 

 34-week belly pictures:

I love this maternity dress that my mom-in-law, Nancy, gave to me because it's so comfortable and keeps me cool in the summer!  I asked my husband nicely to take some pictures of me because I was getting bored with the normal "selfies."  Most of them are awkward, and I'm pretty sure that David did that on purpose.

And here is my photographer and his canine helper.  The photographer was a little camera-shy after the photo shoot.