Baby Yeah- 35 weeks

Large and looking done!!!

Size of baby: 

A bunch of carrots... another weird, vague reference. How big is a bunch? About 18-19" long, and 5-6lbs!

My total weight gain: 

29lbs. Just got weighed at the Doctor's this morning. He isn't one to guess the size of babies, but he did say Owen feels small-ish and will probably be in the 7lb range. Of course that is no guarantee... but sigh of relief that I probably won't have to push out a huge-ass baby.

Stretch marks: 

Not yet.. my skin is still holding out..   

Movement: 

He's running out of room. He still pushes and stretches, but the movement has calmed down a lot, and I can go hours now without feeling anything, or something very slight. Fantastic for when I want to rest!!

But...  he is a major hiccuper. Major. Like 8-10 times a day he has the hiccups, sometimes very strong ones, and sometimes soft ones.

Oh! And get this... I felt his heartbeat the other day!!! I was standing in a store, with my left hand cupped under my belly and I thought "that's a weird twitch he's doing, what is he doing??" then I realized that twitch was his heartbeat! It was pretty distinct. I never felt Austin's heartbeat from the outside, so that was a pretty awesome moment. 

Sleep: 

It's hit or miss. It's still been pretty hot here so some nights I'm just hot and can't get comfortable. The heartburn still plagues me.... it's just not great restful sleep by any means. Some nights are just awful and some are less awful.

What I miss: 

Not eating up to 8 Tums a day. Ugh. If I never eat a Tums again in my life, it will be too soon. Just the thought of them grosses me out now. That chalky texture.... <shudder>. I know the heartburn will go away when he's born, and it was bad with Austin too, so I just have to deal with it.

With Austin, the Old Wives Tale was true and the heartburn meant he had a head of hair when he was born! I hope it's the same this time.. I LOVE baby hair!!!

Food cravings: 

Carbs still... cereal, mostly. On Friday last week I ate cereal 3 times a day. And on Saturday night I had a bowl at 10pm (not smart, I know...) because it sounded so good.

I told Neal I'm a little curious why my body wants carbs so bad all of a sudden... I'm afraid my body is either really wanting to pack on some last minute weight, or it's gearing up because it knows I'm going to have a long hard labor or something and it's trying to carbo-load.

Hopefully it is neither of those reasons and it's just a random craving for cereal.

Symptoms: 

Nothing too bad other than heartburn and indigestion. I'm getting some Braxton-Hicks, and they are painful this time! They never were with Austin, but these are definitely cramp-like feelings. Crazy.

I've had several people (strangers mostly) tell me I look "done." Since I am almost done the comments don't really bother me. I am big. I am almost done. I am also the Queen of the Vague response when they ask me how much longer... "oh a few weeks." Not a lie, but not exactly the truth... but how are they to know?? At least I'm not getting the "OH MY GAWD...... you have HOW much longer to go???? Honey, aren't going to EVER MAKE IT THAT MUCH LONGER!!!" comments I got constantly in the last several weeks with Austin. 

I'm Excited About:
Little things... I found Owen's going home outfit. I wanted to buy him something new so he'd have his own special little outfit.

I didn't plan it this way.. but Austin's room is baseball themed and he came home in a baseball outfit. Owen's room is woodland animal themed, and I found this little fox outfit and knew it was the perfect "coming home" outfit!

I also got the cutest artwork for his room off Etsy.. I love it! Now we just need to actually paint and get his room together so we can hang them...

Austin is: 

Still being pretty sweet... and is being more cuddly with me than usual. I know things will be fine, and that every kid adjusts to having a sibling (eventually) but I still hope the transition is smooth for us. I hope that my connection to Austin doesn't get severed or altered forever. I've heard stories from people of "once I had my 2nd kid... the 1st kid was never the same" and those stories scare me a bit.

So for now, I'm trying to savor.