Week 34

Week 34 Feb 11 – 17^th

Baby is the size of – A cantaloupe!  He is 4 ¾ pounds and 18 inches long.  His skin is smoother and his lungs are developed so much so that if he were born today, he would survive and not need much medical help to develop his breathing. 

How I’m feeling – My pain has pretty much gone away this week, so I am gradually trying to become somewhat active again.  My belly is big enough though that most running feels awkward so I’m trying to focus on walking, swimming and keeping my strength up.  I do feel as I’m waddling more and more so when I just get out of bed.  I am up 3-4 times a night going to the bathroom or getting water.  I don’t find that I have a hard time sleeping or getting comfortable, but turning over is difficult from time to time.  Mostly because I’m holding a pillow between my legs and that big thing has to go with me whenever I move.  I find that bowel movements are sort of difficult to have, but I’m still going a normal amount.  My belly is moving like crazy…I’m surprised he hasn’t run out of room yet!  I can tell that his feet are pushing up against my ribs and I feel little flutters down near my pelvis.  I can definitely feel where there is a head or butt pushing out.  He is curled up in a “C” shape a lot of the time.  Sometimes it does hurt but nothing probably compared to what birth will feel like! 

I’m starting to fully realize that in just a few short weeks, our lives will change forever.  No more just going out for a walk by myself or running to the store or sleeping in!  So we are trying to relish these times and be thankful for the 3 ½ years being married with just us that we have experienced.  It’s a good change but it’s still change and will take time to adjust.  I’m ready to not be pregnant anymore but not sure I’m ready for a newborn…but ready or not it’s coming!

**Physical Therapy update – I went back to the PT for just a follow-up and saw a female doctor this time.  She pretty much said the exercises I were given weren’t the best, which I could have told you.  3^rd trimester…doing curl ups and tons of exercises on my back, duh?!   Then, she had me walk down the hallway and back 2-3 times and said I have scoliosis.  Um, what?!  I have never been told this before by any doctor and have had recent X-rays at our Chiro’s of my spine.  Zero curve in it.  What the heck?!  I was pretty mad about her assessment when all she did was look at me.  I do have one shoulder higher than the other and one hip raised, which is the hip that hurts.  She said I was “lerching” when I walk.  Gee thanks, it’s not like I have 20 extra pounds only in the front of me!?  I tried not to let it ruin my day and my chiro quickly debunked her Scoli diagnosis so I will take her a picture of my X-rays when I go back to PT.  However, I did more reading online which is a good and bad thing, and found that I “may” have nonstructural scoliosis, which means that it is not a deformity of the spine but a muscle imbalance and exercises/stretching gets it back in place.  This, I can believe and will whatever exercises needed to fix it.  But for her to give a Scoliosis diagnosis without X-rays seemed a little ridiculous to me. 

Also, this week at school we had Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I was having a really bad day on Thursday, just missing my dad and not wanting to stay at school until 8 pm.  Then, my principal pulled me aside and wanted to go over my sub maternity plans at 3:15, which is during our only hour long break.  I was quite perturbed by this and asked if I could see him earlier.   Nope, come by at 3:15.  Okay, whatever.  Then I find out we have a teacher meeting about a student after my meeting with him.  Seriously, more meetings?!  I finished with my principal which was harmless and walked in with him to the teacher’s meeting.  I walked in and everyone yelled, “Surprise!” .  To which I responded, “I don’t get it.”  And I didn’t.  Turns out, it was a surprise baby shower for me!  I was so overwhelmed and everyone kept remarking how I wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around that day.  Sorry guys, but thanks for thinking so much of me!  It was a great start to the weekend!

 

Baby Shower at work...my face was about 10 shades of red if you can't tell!

 

Activity –

Monday – Elliptical 15 min, Ran .5 miles on treadmill, weights 10 min

Tuesday – Rest

Wednesday – Jog/Walk – 2.15 miles – 29 min

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Rest – shopping/running errands

Saturday – 1 mile walk on treadmill – 16 min, weights 15 min, swim 20 min

Sunday – Jog/Walk – 2 miles -28 min, Pregnancy DVD workout – 35 min

 

**BONUS - It's not much, but hopefully you can see the bump move in this video.  Around 20 seconds my thumb moves quite a bit...that's him!

 

Weight Gain – I think I’m up to a total gain of around 22-25 pounds, again depending on the day.  My scale at home read 163-164 this week.

Baby stuff bought – We got our boppy in from my friend Katie and it’s already washed and set up.  I put the mattress pad cover and sheets on the bed already.  The only thing left in the nursery is to organize the closet, bookshelf and hang our stuff which should be this week sometime.  I also need to work on our baby book before he comes.  I ordered some more cloth diapers from eBay and those came this week.  I also ordered special detergent on Amazon to wash them in.  It’s all coming together!