Week 31

How I am feeling 

Only two more months!  I really don’t have many complaints about being pregnant, but I am definitely excited for Lilly to arrive and to start the next big adventure in our lives.

I am sleeping so much better after speaking to Carissa about putting a body pillow behind me when I sleep to keep me from rolling into to my back, which inadvertently wakes me up (sometimes in a slight panic).  It’s funny to see me get ready for bed though because I have a big body pillow stuffed behind me (I am sleeping on my left side), a pillow between my knees, a small pillow propping my belly up and a pillow that I am hugging between my arms.  Darren calls it my “nest” and has been very supportive and accommodating J

Here is what I look like at 31 weeks:

Baby movement:

So according to my books, Lilly weighs about 3 ½ pounds right now and she is packing quite a punch!  I love that her movements are so prominent, but it can be very distracting and almost startling at times!  She seems like a little prankster right now too because every time she is moving and shaking like crazy, I grab Darren’s hand to let him feel and then she stops!  She takes after her daddy in that respect, who also loves to make jokes and play pranks. 

It’s also so crazy to actually feel her on the outside and the inside!  Sometimes there is just a big lump sticking out of my belly and if I push on it, it pushes back!  That sounds weird, but I hope you get what I mean.  I can’t imagine how much more active she is going to get, but I am very anxious to find out!

Shout Outs

A huge thank you to my mom for buying us our infant car seat (below) as well as our convertible car seat (which is on its way)!  You are awesome, mom, and we love you!

A big shout out to Jared and Carissa S. for taking a mini vacation with us to the coast.  We had a great time, as always!

Nursery:

We moved some of the furniture around in the nursery and have finally decided on the final décor!  This blog will be a lot of “before” shots of the nursery and the materials we are using to decorate, but by next week, I hope to have a completed (or almost completed) nursery!  Well…we are still missing some essentials, as you can see (i.e. crib mattress and bedding, changing pad…etc) but hopefully those things will be coming in the next few weeks. 

Here is the nursery now:

These are the shelves we bought that Darren is currently staining:

This is an old picture frame I found that I am going to make into a hair bow holder/decoration:

This is a mirror we had in our house that we are going to re-stain and mark with Lilly’s initials:

And lastly, this is the fabric I am going to use to create three “pom poms” to hang on the ceiling:

  

We ordered paper lanterns and will be hot gluing small pieces of fabric onto the lanterns to create the pom poms.  I am not normally very crafty, but I really love the idea of making things for Lilly.

Labor and Birth:

We received some bad news this week: our Doula, Helene, is moving to Dallas because her husband got a new job.  I am surprisingly not as stressed about it as I thought I would be.  I think it’s because we have educated ourselves so much about labor and birth, so I feel pretty confident.  However, Helene’s backup is another option for us, so we are not without a doula completely.  We have not met with her back up (I don’t even know her name because I am waiting to hear from her), so we are not positive if she will work out, but I am confident that things will work out.  Sometimes things happen for a reason. 

We also went on a tour of Wake Med Cary, which is where we will be delivering.  I was absolutely thrilled with the hospital and their progressive policies regarding labor and birth.  It was refreshing to see that they talked a lot about using different positions, utilizing a squat bar, bathtub or birthing ball and that they are advocates for healthy women and healthy babies, not a one-size-fits-all birth.  I came “armed” with a long list of questions to make sure that all the things we want in our birth plan would be able to be done, but I only had to ask a few because the majority were already addressed in the tour!  I was thrilled to know that the staff supports immediate skin-to-skin contact and breast feeding after baby is born and that all tests and treatments can and will be held off for an hour or more to provide adequate bonding time.  I was also thrilled to see that there was not a nursery full of babies because the hospital supports “rooming in” with baby so that there is minimal separation.  There are also long visiting hours (11 a.m.-8 p.m.) so we can have lots of friends come and visit us (hint, hint!)   

Oh, I almost forgot something really funny!  As we were on the tour, the tour guide brought us to the nurse’s station and announced “there are some of the nurses who might even be taking care of you when you come!”  We all waved and smiled and I realized that one of the nurses was my ex-boyfriend’s mom!  I don’t know that she saw me or recognized me, but it definitely made me laugh.  I told Darren this and he thought it was hilarious.  I know she would be an amazing nurse but I think if she happened to be there, I might have to request a switch.  It might be a little awkward to have her there and doing exams…etc.  Crazy small world!