Late night.

It's almost midnight and I still have hours left on my homework assignments. It's such a magical thing to look down and see the silhouette of my nursing babe, her tiny ear perfectly lit up by the glow of my computer, and hear her gulping down nourishment. Time to push off doing homework for yet another day so I can embrace her cuddles and sweet milky smell in bed.

30 weeks. With (some) pictures that aren't from Instagram!

29w6d

How far along: 30 weeks 

27w6d     2lb 10oz and a week ahead in growth

Weight: 157 pounds. I am now 10 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, so after losing 30 pounds that means I've gained 40 pounds! It's funny to explain that to people who didn't know I was so sick because they look at me like, 'Uh, there is not 40 pounds of extra weight on you.'

27w1d

Emotions: This past week I have been really emotional about getting closer to the end of pregnancy (I still have 10-ish weeks to go, so in reality I still have quite a while) and have really enjoyed being pregnant. It is still all sorts of uncomfortable, but I've been loving the routine I feel with baby girl's wild kicks right before going to bed and first thing when I wake up, seeing my belly grow and contort and be different every day as I rub oil on it, and having Vince look at me and my belly with a totally different kind of love than before. I know it'll be a whole new world of amazing when she is finally here, but I'm also loving these moments so much!

Nesting: I had my baby shower this past weekend and was hoping it would give me a bit more energy to get everything done, but it hasn't! I still have some of the motivation I mentioned at 27 weeks but I've been pretty tired the past few days and have wanted to do nothing but lay on the couch, which is what I've done. I'm mentally ready to get shit done, but not physically.

28w2d

Sleep: Still waking up frequently to go pee, but getting back to sleep right away. Luckily this is something that has not suffered very much! To update from 27 weeks, my iron levels are great but my thyroid level were off and I was taking too much of my medication so I had gone hypothyroid, which was making me exhausted. That's actually a good thing because I was able to reduce my medication! So since reducing that, I have been feeling much more awake and alert. But still lazy.

29w

Cravings: Chocolate still. I now have a chocolate milkshake or two a day with vanilla ice cream, milk, and cocoa powder and it's just what I need calorie-wise and chocolate-wise!

 Not pregnant...

Pregnant! 29w1d

29w2d

Movement: I was starting to notice a routine with her, but now that's all changed! On Monday I had an appointment with my massage/craniosacral therapist and mentioned that she was still breach. She did a couple things to encourage baby girl to move and to help her realize that she has a lot of space to move within my belly. Up until now, she has been firmly nuzzled into my left hip and has not wanted to move. She'd occasionally meander over to my right hip, but within hours would be back to my left. After seeing the therapist, though, she is not in either hip and is very much in my belly! The evening after the session and in the days that followed I've felt more movement than ever and they've been BIG movements, so I'm hoping she'll be closer to birthing position at my next ultrasound. It was really crazy to wake up Tuesday morning after the session, stand up, and feel my center of gravity had shifted drastically and they I was very front-heavy. It's been incredibly uncomfortable for me because I'm not used to carrying her this way and my stomach is really tight now, but I'm hoping it helps in the end!

29w3d The night of my session.

29w5d Two days after. I'm sure it's hard for people who aren't me to notice a difference, 

but she is now so much higher and sticking out! 

Wedding Ring On or Off: It's back on, bitchez!

Best Moment of the Week: My baby shower last Saturday! I'm surrounded by such awesome and amazing ladies and it was fun to hangout with all of them, and see friends throughout the week who weren't able to make it to the shower. So much love.

Looking Forward To: Christmas! We changed our big trip due to money and the realization that I don't want to sit in the car for long periods of time, so we'll be going to Vegas to eat a bunch of good food and see the Bodies Exhibit before heading to southern Utah for Christmas at some condos with my extended family.

29w5d

Panicking About: Keeping up with laundry once we have a baby. We haven't had a washer and dryer our entire almost six years of living here (aside from the 8 months we moved away and then moved back) so you'd think we have a system down, but nope! We let it pile up until we are out of stuff to wear. I've already noticed a huge change in my insistence to have a clean house and just do things as they need to be done (what a concept!) so I'm hoping that translates over to laundry as well and I just do it. 

29w5d Juicing!

What I Miss: Not spending a fortune on toilet paper. Ok, so it's not a fortune, but we almost go through a 12 pack a week now! Just because I pee tiny amounts each time doesn't mean I can use a tiny amount of toilet paper. 

Milestones: Appointments are now every two weeks since I'm in my last trimester! I'm not actually stoked about that because my appointments consist of my doctor asking how things are, me saying fine, them trying to tell me info I already know and them realizing I already know it, then me leaving. I know the belly checks and heart rate are important, but it still seems like such a waste of time!

We drove in a storm way early in the morning on Thursday just so my doctor 

could tell me to gain more weight. Productive use of our time!

It's a...

From the very beginning, I had a feeling the baby was a girl. I would sometime sway, trying to convince myself it was a boy because that's what both Vince and I wanted, but in the back of my mind something would always say WRONG.

Then when we had an ultrasound around 13 weeks, the tech guessed that it was a boy, but since it was obviously very early, to not put much weight on it. Vince felt convinced for a while, but I was still like, 'Eh, nope, I don't think so.'

There were some moments I wavered away from girl and many times where I said I had absolutely no idea. The morning of the ultrasound (I had worked the night shift and came home to snuggle with Vince at 6am) I was very sure it was a girl. Enough to tell him I was very pretty positively sure we were having a girl.

Turns out...

...I was right! IT'S A GRIL!!

While terrifying all on its own, especially after walking around my college campus and realizing how many idiot girls there are, I realized that not all girls are like that. (And there are definitely a fair shair of idiot boys.) I'll obviously have to be ok if my daughter wants to dress in shorts that don't cover her butt or pretend to act like they don't understand something just for the attention, but at the same time I have the chance to raise her to respect herself to not do those things. And that's what brings me back around to the terrifying part - Vince and I will have a huge role in shaping this baby girl into the woman and human being she is going to become. What?!

While I don't understand a single thing about make-up (I've had the same eye shadow since 7th grade...I wish I was kidding) and I'd much rather go ride my bike than get a manicure, I can teach my daughter about the things I love while also embracing the things she loves if they happen to be different, which will ultimately make me a better person.

Anyways, all this to say I am totally over the moon excited to raise a strong, empowered, beautiful little girl. A GIRL!

Into the woods we went.

NO GENDER! That's right, we are having a garden snail and it doesn't have a gender.

Ok, really the baby just didn't spread its fat legs so we couldn't see anything. Just an incredibly active baby who was moving every other part of its body! I had a strong feeling leading up to it that we wouldn't find out, so I wasn't really disappointed. I'm definitely starting to want to know though, especially because I've been (finally) starting my baby registry because I'm about to have a baby shower at work. That definitely made me realize I'm having a baby! And it made me realize how few gender neutral things there are.

So instead of a cute gender announcement, you get some pictures from about two weeks ago (I was exactly 20 weeks). After seeing a million pictures of the fall leaves on Facebook from my bike riding friends, Vince and I decided to go walk in the woods instead. It was beautiful! Roxi also had a blast chasing squirrels and got one trapped in a downed tree. It was squealing and squealing while Roxi barked at it - I felt so bad for it.

Someone had a fire going as they were chopping wood. 

^ Vince can't seem to take a focused picture of me, ever. I asked him to take a few pictures of my belly tonight on my phone and 3/3 were blurry. 

^ But this blurriness was my fault. I was trying to focus on my belly, didn't get it at first shot, and was too cold to get another since we were leaving.

^ Can you see Roxanne in this picture?

 

^ Driving with the windows down and the heater on.
After walking around we went and hungout with a friend who works at the nature conservatory. The conservatory is a bunch of cabins far from anything at the base of the mountain with a large expanse of open prairies and trees. The sun was setting as we drove out there and it was just stunning and everything was engulfed in bright red. No photo editing here!

^ Seriously, REAL LIFE!

 

Long overdue update!

I feel like this update is long overdue but I've been too lazy/sick/busy to do it:

I'm growing a baby! Ultrasound due date is February 27th, last period due date is March 1st. My midwife wants to go by the later one in case I am overdue so we have more time for natural induction, but I mentally go by the February one so I seem further along. I can do that, right?! And really, it's only two days so WHATEVER.

I was excited for about three days after finding out, then got extreme morning sickness (really hyperemesis gravidarum which is way beyond morning sickness) and lost all contact with the world. It's been all sorts of awful and terrible, but things are finally getting better. I will have a long detailed gruesome post about the bad stuff, but for now I wanted to share some positive things that are going on via an easy survey!

How Far Along: 14 weeks 3 days

Weight: -24/+6 (Pre-pregnancy was 149lbs, lost 30lbs and was down to 119 at the lowest)

Sleep: Finally good! For a long time I was on a backwards schedule and would be up all night and couldn't fall asleep until the sunrise. It was horrible! Now I wake up for class early (around 6am to have time to eat and get ready slowly) and get up by 10am on days I don't have class/work, and try and get to bed by 10, but it's usually a little later.

Cravings: Lychee! All day long. I also eat cans upon cans of olives and beets. Corn on the cob. And COFFEE. I stick with decaf.

Silly Things Vince Said: He's been getting worried over the silliest of things, and the other night he was talking about how we should get in the habit of not buying so much food, or we won't have room when the baby comes. I think he doesn't realize it won't need real food for quite a while, and even then it's minuscule amounts. It is extremely cute to see him get so mad at me because I'm not worried about it.

Movement: None yet, but I'm not far off! I'm nervous because some hyperemesis women say it makes their nausea even worse, so I'm really hoping that doesn't happen.

Wedding Ring On or Off: Off because my fingers are way too skinny. I had no idea my fingers could lose weight, and same with my feet - shoes are too loose!

Best Moment of the Week: Vince realizing that a baby belly is starting to form. Now he can rub my belly and not feel weird about it!

Looking Forward To: Learning how to put in IVs in nursing school this week! We have an entire morning dedicated to it.

What I Miss: Being able to poop. Constipation is real, folks, and my anti nausea meds I'm on makes it even worse. I jokingly say that I want to eat something with gluten just so things get moving! (Though that will never happen.)

Milestones: Officially being out of the first trimester! Depending on who you listen to, some say the second trimester starts at 12 weeks, other 13.3 weeks (because 40 divided 3) and others say 14 weeks. Now I'm in the second trimester, no matter who you talk to.

Belly Picture: 13 weeks 5 days