Week 32

How I am feeling 

I had my first bout of heartburn the other night.  I actually wasn’t sure what it was at first because I have (thankfully) never had heartburn before.  Lucky for me it didn’t last too long and chewing a couple of Tums seemed to do the trick.  Other than that I have felt very good.  I am still exercising regularly so I have had solid energy and Darren and I have also been taking walks every day so I think staying active might be helping. 

I had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and I met the other OB at the practice I am working with.  I loved her too!  She was wonderful and very receptive to my questions and my thoughts about the birth.  I am measuring 32 cm, which is right on target, and Lilly’s heartbeat was 135, which is also right on target.  It’s nice to know she is growing well and seems to be healthy.  I just wish I could see her again!

Here is what I look like at 32 weeks:

Baby movement:

The other day I was trying to let Michelle and Chad’s daughter, Allie, feel Lilly move, but she wasn’t cooperating.  That seems to be a pattern.  Whenever I want her to move for someone or she is moving, as soon as they put their hand on my belly, she stops!  Michelle was able to feel her move a little bit later that evening, but even that was just some light thumps.  The cutest thing was when their son, Ryan, said goodbye to me and he kissed my belly to say goodbye to Lilly as well.  It was so cute it almost made me cry!

I am supposed to be counting kicks right now for the doctor.  I am supposed to count how many times she moves for an hour, twice a day.  It’s hard to count when she is moving a lot!  Last night I was actually confused because I could feel this weird slow pulsing that almost felt like a strong heartbeat, but it was far too slow to be hers.  I had Darren feel my belly to see if he could feel it, but he couldn’t at first.  I decided it must have been Lilly’s first hiccups!  It was crazy!  If I pressed Darren’s hand on my belly he could feel it a little.  She had them for about 10 minutes and I didn’t pay attention to anything else during that time.  It was so neat to know what was going on with her for once that I was entranced.  I asked the doctor if she could tell how Lilly was laying yet, but she said it was a little too early, so I am still always guessing if I feel a hand or foot.   

Shout Outs

There are a lot of shout outs this week!  First, thanks to Cindy V. for lending me some fabric scissors and hot glue guns for one of my DIY projects (more on that below).

We have started receiving early shower gifts from friends and family who are out of town, so it’s been a very exciting week! 

Huge thank you to my mom for getting us the Britax convertible carseat!

Huge thank you to Darren’s mom for getting us the Medela breast pump!

Huge thank you to my friend, Allie C, for getting us the changing pad and cover! 

We have such amazing friends and family J

Nursery:

Ok, sooooo the nursery is not quite done.  Boo!  I really wanted it done by the end of our track out.  However, it’s almost done!  We are just waiting to get some of the artwork we are going to put on the walls (see Week 28 post to see a few samples) and the frames for them so we can put everything up all at once and make sure everything fits and flows.  For now I will just post pictures of the different pieces we have completed and then next post will hopefully be of a finished nursery (at least the décor). 

First, we have the finished tree decal!  I was skeptical about this at first (and almost wanted to return it), but I am so glad we didn’t!  It only took about 30 minutes to put the entire thing up and that is including putting up each individual flower.  I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but it was kind of fun!  I absolutely love the way it turned out!  We saw similar decals on Etsy for anywhere from $70-$100.  We got this one from Babies R Us for only $17 (after using a $10 gift card we received for registering there).  What a great deal!

I made this hair bow holder/decoration from an old frame I got from goodwill for $8 that Darren re-stained, some hot glue and pink ribbon ($2 from Joann Fabric).  I can’t wait to get more cute clips for Lilly to add to this!

Darren’s big project was staining these solid wood shelves that we got from Michaels for $9 each.  These will be perfect for small stuffed animals, picture frames or other display items we get for Lilly. 

A big trend right now is displaying baby’s initials in the nursery.  Originally we were going to do this on a mirror, but after a small mishap with an old mirror we had, we decided to instead paint the letters pink and frame them with dark wood frames.  It will look much nicer on the green walls, but here is a preview.  The letters were $2.50 each at Michaels, the paint was $1 at Walmart and the frames were $3 each at Roses. 

Now onto my DIY version of Mount Everest…the pom poms.  I saw these online and loved them and I found a DIY blog post that made them seem very easy to make.  This is not untrue, because they are actually quite easy in terms of how they are made, but the process and the time involved was far more than I anticipated.  Tracing and cutting circles out of fabric is definitely not something I enjoy doing, and it’s not something Darren enjoys doing, but we powered through and traced and cut out literally thousands of them!  Thank goodness my husband is so wonderful and helped me (he is so amazing!)  Then I had to hot glue each circle on the paper lanterns, which again, is not difficult, but was very time consuming.  In hindsight, this is a DIY project that I might have been better off just buying, but I will always look at these pom poms and know how much love and effort went into them for Lilly…who will have no idea what they are and will not care what her rooms looks like for a long time, but oh well!  I think they turned out great and it was nice to have a big project for track out! 

Labor and Birth:

We met with Kalan, our new doula today.  She was adorable and so sweet!  She is actually pregnant herself with her third child (due in August) and Darren and I felt very comfortable with her right away.  She shared some of her experiences and made us feel really good about our birthing choices, especially our choice to work with Triangle OBGYN and deliver at WakeMed Cary.  She is also a great advocate for breast feeding and offered her support for as long as well need after Lilly is born, which is amazing since I know breast feeding can be a challenge and having a trained professional to help me will be so great. 

She also brought up an idea that we had never thought about or even heard about: placenta encapsulation.  Hold on, keep an open mind!  I first thought this was some sort of preservation of the placenta, but after she explained, it’s much different.  Placenta encapsulation is taking the placenta, dehydrating it, grinding it into powder form and then putting it into capsules (pills) to be ingested by mom.  I know this sounds odd and strange, but when I did some research there is a lot out there that supports this practice.  One of the main benefits is helping to ward off the very common “baby blues” that can sometimes lead to post partum depression.  Doing this helps balance hormone levels, enhance milk supply, increase energy and also increase iron levels.  What’s also important is that there is absolutely no evidence that there can be any harm to mom (or baby).  I know this sounds very odd, but I think we might try it.  The doula we are working with offered to encapsulate the placenta for us, so the “icky” part would be done and I would then just be taking another pill, similarly to how I take my prenatal vitamin.  If you are grossed out, I understand.  I was grossed out too when I thought about it.  But after doing some research, I think it might be something we try.  I am not definite yet, but when something has quite a few benefits and no risks or side effects, it kind of seems like a no-brainer, even if it’s taboo in society.  Let’s remember, breast feeding was considered taboo at one point too!