32 weeks, 5 days

This is Jake exploring one of the new baby items. He's doing such a good job with it lately!

This is the slice (hunk) of cake that I got for myself this evening. I dished it out at about 6:30 and I'm still working at it! This cake is left over from Kara's shower this past weekend. It was great to spend that time with she and her family. Her friend Christine and I sported some Thing 1 and Thing 2 t-shirts. 

Yesterday I started having some cramping and at times it felt like Adin was attempting to claw his way out of my vagina. I literally can only describe it as the period pains where you feel your uterine lining shedding. I had a few moments where I considered Jesse and I taking a trip to our local hospital to see if I was having contractions - but laying on my left side seemed to help. I contemplated taking a bath - but our stupid furnace doesn't heat the water up high enough for me and I didn't have the energy to boil a few pots of water in order to get some heat in the tub. This morning the clawing out of my vagina sensation was still there but it wasn't nearly as bad. I literally was scared yesterday that, when trying to poop, I was going to push him out. A coworker today assured me that he's in there good and tight even though I have that feeling. It was nice to get that assurance. 

Countdown to my shower = 5 days! Super excited! 

32 Weeks, 1 day

32 weeks...

32 weeks...!

32 weeks !?!?

Where has the time gone?! Really, where?! In less than 8 weeks (crossing my fingers that it's closer to eight weeks) Jesse and I will have a little baby to care for and nurture. Jesse is providing Jake with so much TLC that I am borderline jealous because he knows that Jake will get shafted a bit after the baby comes home. Jake is still being needy around me, but from what I see that's normal.

I have taken the advice of some of my amazing friends and followers - as items come in I am putting them out for Jake to sniff and lick. I got a boppy newborn lounger (new product, look it up) in the mail last week and I put it on the kitchen floor. Jake sniffed, licked, and then picked it up attempting to bring it to his bed. I made him put it down and he returned to sniffing it. Then when I attempted to pick it up he slammed his paw down on it. I took that as my cue to give him a few more minutes. Since, I have put it on the couch, in the chair, on our bed...he sniffs and then rests his head on it.

In other pregnancy news - the highlight of my day was taking a good poop. The constipation is really cramping my style. It's limiting my movement - I feel like poop is all the way up in my lungs. I took a flaxseed oil vitamin last night and this morning and took a few poops today. The sad news is...I'm not empty. Goodness!

I had an OB appointment today. Here are my stats: Great blood pressure, great heartbeat, uterus is measuring perfectly and weight is right on track. I even talked Trader Joes with my OB - she was under the poor misconception that it was really expensive. I educated her :)

I also wanted to point out how much I appreciated the comments on my last post!

31 Weeks, 6 Days

So I think I want to try cloth diapers. Definitely not full time, but during the day when Adin is hanging around the house and maybe nights until he's sleeping longer. They have come a long way in technology/methods where they look nicer and don't leak through because there's a cover. Infants use around 6,000 diapers within the first two years. That creates over a ton of waste that takes longer than is known to decompose (scientists are guessing around 500 years, but diapers haven't been around that long).

In my research I found that I could go the expensive (start up cost) route of using "cute" cloth diapers which are about $20 each and, of course, it's recommended that you get 24-36 of them. Hmm, that would be an initial cost of at least $480. Diapers would be about $50 a box and a box will probably last about a month, so after 10 months they would end up paying for themselves. Or I could find an economical set (which I did) which gives you 12 cloths and 3 covers for only $50.

Of course, I do all this research and then ask Jesse what he thinks and he's not a fan. Maybe I'll share the statistics with him and pitch how "green" we would be - maybe then he'll come around. Or I can talk about lowering our carbon footprint. Or maybe it'll just stay on my registry and if it gets bought I'll deal with it while I'm home on maternity leave and during the summer and he can put on regular diapers.

Oh, and studies show that children who use cloth diapers potty train sooner and do not get diaper rash. Just saying. Who's on my side versus who is on Jesse's side?

Sad News

I cannot post it to twitter - so I will email it to anyone who would like it :)

31 weeks, 5 days (aka 8 weeks 2 days to go)

A friend sent me a text today wondering if I was ok because I hadn't posted a blog or tweeted recently. Yes, I am. I've just been busy and lazy all at the same time. And exhausted! Saturday night, being the party animal that I am, I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30, rolled in to bed per Jesse's request at 10:30 and woke up at 7:30 the next morning. By 3:30 Sunday afternoon I was ready to go back to bed!

In the past few weeks I have been reminded how precious this whole experience is. I have the pleasure of being pregnant at the same time as some friends. Their experiences are showing me how each pregnancy is different and helping me to be grateful for each healthy day and each kick and roll that I feel. We are all going to have happy healthy babies, but some of us are experiencing more stress than others and they are all in my thoughts each day.

Adin has been stretching a lot. Don't get me wrong, he still punches and kicks, but I feel his body creeping inside my uterus as he stretches out. Usually right into my rib, lung, or diaphragm. He will stay there for a few minutes and then slowly retreat back into his original spot. He stretches up my right side, near the middle, and then on my far left side. Jesse and I can now see his stretches from the outside and how lopsided my belly looks.

Baby gifts have started to trickle in and it's so exciting to open a box and find a spot in the nursery for the items. I also find myself sitting in the nursery for 10, 15, 20 minutes at a time just rocking in the glider and looking around. I took the jogger stroller for a stroll around our house today and played with all the zippers and clips, etc. I found an iPod hookup in one of the zippers and there's a little speaker on the inside of the shade thing so we can play music for Adin. That's pretty great!

I am going to post a tweet now with a recording of Adin's heartbeat. My phone has an app (for that) where it works like a stethoscope or a doppler and you hold it against your belly where the baby's heart is and you can listen to the heartbeat. Then, you can record it and email it or post it to facebook or twitter. I tried to find the heartbeat at 16 weeks, 20 weeks, and 25 weeks. The app says in it's description that it's for use at 30 weeks or later, so I waited. Yesterday I decided to give it another try and within seconds I located Adin. His heart was on the left side of my pelvis.