week 28

Advice Request:

-What are the “essentials” to bring to the hospital besides the obvious?  Was there anything you wish you had brought that you didn’t?

How I am feeling: 

I really like being pregnant.  I think I am waiting for the other shoe to drop to and to feel miserable or sick or a number of other symptoms I have heard of, but I have just been so fortunate that I have felt great.  Do I wish I slept a little better?  Yes, but that seems to be getting better.  Strangely enough, opening the windows and getting fresh air the past few nights seems to have helped.  I don’t know why, and it might just be a coincidence, but it’s something at least.  Although living in North Carolina, I will obviously not have the luxury of keeping the windows open at night up to my due date.

I had my first Big Mac tonight.  Strangely enough, it had nothing to do with a craving, but Darren had bought a Living Social deal a while back for 5 free Big Macs and fries from McDonalds and since it was St. Patrick’s Day, we wanted to also get Shamrock shakes.  I will say, I don’t really see the big hype around a Big Mac.  The Shamrock shake however, was delicious.

I realized last night when a friend I had not seen since I announced my pregnancy asked if she could touch my belly and mentioned that I was probably sick of people touch my belly, that no one except for Darren has in fact touched my belly!  And then strangely enough, Darren and I were out walking Maggie tonight and we met up with some of our neighbors and one of the ladies asked if she could touch my belly.  I thought it was funny because literally no one has asked or attempted, and then twice this weekend I was asked.  Maybe people feel weird?  It doesn’t bother me (with friends of course), so don’t be afraid to ask J  It was so nice seeing our neighbors tonight.  They were very sweet and excited for us about the pregnancy.  It was nice to talk to them since we hadn’t seen them in a while.  It was also nice because the ladies were very sweet and loved my belly.  Well…a couple of them joked that they hated me because my belly is not that big yet, but there is still time!  Speaking of belly…

Here is what I look like at 28 weeks:

Baby movement:

She was really moving and shaking last night!  One of her kicks actually made me flinch!  I was lying on my side like a good mommy-to-be (which apparently she does NOT like) and she was doing somersaults or the backstroke or something because Darren and I both felt these waves of movement over my belly and then she was kicking up a storm.  I love it!  It is hard to fall asleep with dance dance revolution going on in my belly, but it is so worth it. 

She is still relatively quiet during the day, which is good.  But lately in the mornings she has been sitting really low and making me feel like I have to pee constantly.  It’s a little problematic when you are a teacher because I don’t have the type of job I can just go to the bathroom any time I want.  Luckily I usually don’t have to actually go, I just feel like I have to, so I can make it through my classes.     

Shout Outs

I am so excited because my mom, sister and niece are going to make a trip down here to see us in April for our baby shower!  And the icing on the cake is that my girl Jess L. is also going to come!  It’s a long trip for them, so they get a huge shout out for this!

 

Nursery:

Our amazing friends Jared and Carissa sold us their glider rocker with ottoman!  I absolutely love it!  As soon as I sat in it, I told Darren I might start sleeping in it because it is so comfortable.  It is so nice to know that I have a comfy place to spend those many hours during late night feedings.

I am also looking for a touch lamp as a nightlight so I can easily turn in on and off without fumbling with a switch.  Carissa and Jared have one and I think it’s such a smart idea.  However, I cannot find one that does not look like those old, gold Tiffany style lamps.  So if anyone has seen them anywhere, please point me in the right direction.   

We are planning to move the furniture around and figure out what we need for decorations over track out.  I am still on the fence about the tree decal.  I really love some of the art I found on Etsy like the ones below and I am now thinking of using these as inspiration for the décor.  How cute are these???

Favorite Names:

Sorry to disappoint, but I have still not been able to 100% decide on Lilly.  Am I nuts?  Haha.  I know I love the name and Darren is completely sold, but the thought of this decision is so daunting!  I know there is no rush, and I should wait until I am sure, but in the meantime we refer to her as Lilly and others are welcome to as well.  I really do think it helps me to hear the name.

Labor and Birth:

We had our first day of our two-day childbirth class today.  It was in downtown Raleigh…on St. Patrick’s Day…with the parade down the street.  Luckily we arrived early enough and left late enough to avoid any traffic.  However, Darren and I ordered lunch from Roly Poly sandwiches and we had to cross the parade route to get there and back.  We waded through the sea of green and made it fairly easily, but I was definitely a little bit nervous that we weren’t going to get by. 

The class was great.  I was a little uncertain at first because I thought the content was lacking in the beginning and the instructor seemed like she had a few too many cups of coffee, but things were much better after lunch.  We rehearsed various laboring positions as well as some focusing and relaxation techniques.  It was really helpful because I was able to try out positions that I either didn’t know about, or didn’t think would work for me and I liked them.  We also learned more about the different stages and phases of labor, which was helpful to get details about since I am planning to labor at home as long as possible until we hit early active labor. 

She also had some very helpful visual aids (nothing graffic!) that helped us to see how the positioning of the baby is so important in labor and pushing because of the different angels of baby’s head and mom’s body.  That might not make sense, but it was very interesting to learn.  We also watched a video of various women going through the different stages of labor and then (skipping the actual birth) we saw an elated mother holding her baby and him latching on for the first time.  I couldn’t help it, I cried!  The instructor asked me if my tears were from fear, but I told her it was very emotional to see that.  It is amazing how well nature has prepared both baby and mom for this experience.

I am really looking forward to next week’s class and learning more.