Someone Else's Birthday

Today is Nate's 32nd birthday!

Excellent frosting detail, no?

Tomorrow is Mr. Belvedere's alleged birthday, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to have to wait awhile.  That's okay.  I had a minor meltdown yesterday after my prenatal appointment, mostly due to the fact that I'm tired of seeing the numbers on the scale climb to numbers that I was hoping to never reach.  Perhaps someday I'll wear my weight gain during this pregnancy as a badge of honor.  Just not at the present moment.

As for other birthdays, yesterday would have been my cousin Tom's 31st birthday.  We went down to Illinois today to celebrate my cousin's life at his funeral and luncheon.  It was wonderful to see so many people who loved him, and as with any funeral, I saw people I hadn't seen in years.  It's still hard to wrap my head around his passing, as it is for most everyone else.

Charting the Belly: Week 34 (almost 35)

I. Am. Feeling. Big.

It'll be 35 weeks this Thursday, and I suspect like every other pregnant woman at this point in her pregnancy, I am ready to get this baby out.  But I've got some time to go, and some room to grow.  I had Nate take some pictures this morning, and I was disgusted with every one of them.  I couldn't bring myself to post them because it looked as though my face was pumped up with helium.  So, we tried again this evening, and I didn't look at the camera.

I'm picking lint off of my shirt

I have read everything about the next five weeks in preparation for light at the end of the tunnel (before the next adventure of parenting).  The highlights?  Read on:
"Your baby will spend the next few weeks putting on weight."
Awesome.  As if topping the scale at 200 pounds isn't exciting enough.

"Your ballooning uterus is crowding your other internal organs."
Like my lungs, my bladder, my stomach, and any muscles that used to help me put on my shoes and pick up stuff off the floor.


"You may have trouble sleeping at night."
Really?  No kidding.  

Charting the Belly: Week 31

Jabba or me at 31 weeks?

I really wanted my photographer to crop the picture to cut out my chubby face, but he said no.

This guy can't tie his shoes, either

I Think I'm having a Contraction...

I'm fairly certain that I had one of those Braxton-Hicks contractions tonight.  These are those false contractions where the uterus tightens up in preparation for labor, which, dear reader, is just over two months away!  Yikes.  Anyway, I felt this pressure in my belly, and when I touched it, my protruding gut was rock hard.  It didn't hurt, but I certainly noticed it.  It relaxed after about a minute.  My mom said that she used to get painful ones with my sister and I that would stop her in her tracks.


As an aside, she also said that she would sit on the steps of our patio when she was pregnant with me (and then later with Mary) and cry because she was so fat.  We made our mom pile on 60+ pounds each time, most of which was water weight.  I think our older brothers were much easier for her.


Birthing class #2 was pretty exciting, mostly because there were two women in labor while our class was going on.  One gave birth right as class started, and the other woman was audible throughout class.  The looks on the faces of the dads was priceless.  I'm not sure when she delivered.  I could certainly feel the energy!  The night before was a full moon, too...


We talked quite a bit about exercise and many of the benefits of keeping up with exercise during pregnancy.  There are all sorts of statistics about the benefits to both the mom and the fetus.  I found all the myths that we discussed rather interesting.  Here are a few:

MYTH: Pregnant women should not exercise more than three times per week.

TRUTH: Following a doctor’s approval, it’s recommended that pregnant women engage in 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily, five or more times a week.

MYTH: Pregnant women must keep their heart rate under 140 beats per minute during exercise.

TRUTH: Instead of counting beats per minute, use the Borg Scale (measures perceived exertion) or a simple talk test to assess intensity.

I currently swim once a week, use the elliptical machine about 2-3 times a week, and take a weight training class twice a week (Power Flex).  Oh yeah, and my homework was 200 Kegels a day for the next week.  So exciting...

Does This Baby Make Me Look Fat?

I'm depressed.  I have already gained 20 pounds so far and I'm just over 22 weeks along.  According to the guidelines, I'm "a bit ahead of schedule."  The baby isn't even one pound, yet my check up last week showed that I gained nine pounds from last month to this one.

Does her mullet add a pound or two?

I guess I'll have to tone down the eating now that the holidays are over.  No more of these kinds of conversations:

"I'm going to finish the apple pie, okay?" I inform Nate.
"Split that apple pie in half and share it."  He gives me that you already ate your extra 300 calories today look.  I ignore the look while I reluctantly cut the pie fairly evenly down the middle, but I scoop the larger piece out of the pie tin and into my hand.  I lift it up to my mouth and Nate sees me chomp down, enjoying it like a giant slice of pizza.
"You don't want a plate?" he says.
"No.  Do you?"
"Um, yeah...And a fork."