Finally, some new pictures

Well, I finally have some pictures to upload. Hopefully soon I will have pics of our trip to San Clemente. The trip was fabulous, gorgeous weather, and I loved seeing all the places that Shawn is always talking about. Aunt Marg and her friend Gerri put us up for the weekend, and cooked up some delicious dinners of salmon and steak and ice cream. Yum! Plus they had this amazing memory foam mattress topper for the guest bed, I swear that was my favorite part. I actually slept all through the night without having to toss and turn from hip to hip, it was amazing. Shawn got to go fishing for a while, even though he didn't catch anything, and I got to tour the site where I think we will have our wedding and reception. It was a long drive there and back, but it doesn't seem as bad when you're making the trip with another person. And we got to borrow Shawn's parents' Jeep, which made it nicer than taking our Camry down there.

I am trying to really enjoy these last few weeks of baby-free living, and not take for granted being able to just sit and chill and not do much of anything, and just feel her kicking inside me while I do my own thing. Even though it seems so far away still, the weeks are already flying by -- I finally got around to posting up about four weeks' worth of belly pictures, and I can't believe it's been even that long already. The weeks just topple down on top of each other until the weekends come again, another week marker is reached, and it gets closer and closer to the main event.

Lila was giving me the details of how her labor went, and even though everyone's experience is different, I was definitely reassured by what she told me. She said it wasn't as crazy or chaotic as she had expected it to be or worried about. I'm glad I have her to learn from, I'd hate to be the first one to go, so to speak. She gave me lots of pointers on things to bring to the hospital and such, too.

Weeks 30-33:

33 Weeks and a Babymoon

Well, here we are at 33 weeks. My goodness. Baby is moving and shaking all day, and no longer in a cute way, but in a painful, those-are-my-ribs kind of way. I have to pee all the time, so this car trip down to San Clemente to visit the Godmama of Excitement is going to be an interesting ride, haha.

First, here's the info from BabyCenter for this week:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

 Let's back up a bit, shall we?

My first baby shower was on the 12th, and it was fabulous. Gramma D and Auntie Nicole did a crazy good job of making the house into a purple flower wonderland. There was tons of delicious food and giant cupcakes, and I went home with a carful of clothes, diapees and wipees, my bedding set, and a bunch of other baby goodies. Now I just need somewhere to put it all. And I must remember to do my thank you notes next week.

Then, I found out later that night that Miss Lila Jane finally had her baby girl, Ava Elise, at 8lbs 8oz. Everyone is home now and doing well, and hopefully next week I will get a chance to get out to see them.

Went in to see Dr. Hayes on Monday, Valentine's Day, and all was well. We met with the postpartum counseling lady, who went over some basic questions with me, gave me some info on what PPD looks like and so on, and her card, in case we should need to talk to her later. She was very nice.

Dr. Hayes seems less worried about my increasing girth than I do, so perhaps it is all in my head. She measured my stomach and was pleased, and we listened to Vyla's heartbeat again. At first the doppler wand was right on top of her, but then she scuttled away and hid somewhere, and it took a minute to find her again. But, you know, there are only so many places you can go inside a uterus, so we eventually found her and got a solid 10 second listen to her heartbeat, which is still strong and fast.

My next appointment was scheduled for two weeks later, on March 7th, after which I will start coming in about once a week and they will start checking me for all kinds of different things, and, I imagine, doing at least one more ultrasound to figure out how she's laying in there.

This weekend, Shawn and I are driving to San Clemente to visit Aunt Margaret, or the Godmama of Excitement, as Shawn christened her when he was a kid. She calls him Shawniecakes. I think that's awesome. It's raining and poopy outside, but we have the Jeep, so I'm confident. It will be fun to see the place where I plan to get married next year, and to take one last trip just the two of us. Of course, once she's here we'll have all kinds of fun family trips that we can take, but the nostalgia of having a trip, as a couple without cares, for the last time, is nice. I must admit, there is a part of me that sometimes wishes we had held off on this surprise for a time. I've never been sad about this pregnancy, nor am I now, but every now and then I think about all the things I would have liked to have done as a carefree couple that we sort of skipped over, and it does make me a bit low -- for example, even though I love the idea of having my baby be a part of my wedding, and I think it will be so much more special with her as a part of it, I still sometimes think about having been able to have my wedding first, and then moving into having a baby.

But then, I don't plan to stop being fabulous just because I become a mother, so really, what is all this worry for? In fact, I will be extra fabulous, because I will be Fabulous Me + Adorable Baby + Super Hot Husband. So really, all the more to admire. ;)

32 Weeks

As I wait patiently for Lila to go into labor, so that I can dash to the hospital and help her welcome her little one, the first in the group of 2011 Babies, I'm getting ever closer to my own due date. It's been such an annoyance to me this whole time to have my official due date be on a Wednesday, despite the fact that, according to the measurements on the ultrasound, it should be on a Friday. I hate that kind of disparity! It's not at all neat and tidy and it means I can't ever feel confident in saying today is my X Week! Although, I've pretty much been going with Friday, cause it's tidier than Wednesday. So, in anticipation of tomorrow being Week 32, below is the latest news from inside my stomach, courtesy of BabyCenter.com.

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Apparently, 32 weeks means I have 56 days left to go. Wow, counting down in days now? That's a little too real for me. It's already coming way too soon, what with Lila about to pop and all, the shower this weekend, and all manner of other real stuff happening.

Also, I'm excited that baby is going to be a hare, that is, born in the Year of the Rabbit. Apparently, rabbits are good with money, creative and sensitive, and remind me a lot of Pisces. Which is good, because she'll need some of that to balance out her Aries nature. Shawn, as a Gemini, will get along well with the Aries baby, as they're both prone to being crazy and having lots of energy. I'll be there when it's time to relax.

This belly of mine is getting increasingly large. It's sort of hard to image that it has 8 more weeks to grow. Like, where is it going to go? So far, ***FINGERS CROSSED*** no stretch marks have shown their ugly faces. I'm going to redouble my Palmer's Lotion efforts, just in case.

Once again, Lila makes me workout

29 weeks

After enjoying a bit too much dinner last night, I was sitting on the couch, at home alone while Shawn was at rehearsal, watching SVU and playing CityVille on Facebook. While waiting for my points to accrue, I saw some newly posted pictures from good buddy Lila's husband Alex, mostly of the renovations on their house, but also including one of pregnant Lila (albeit not as super pregnant as she is now) doing a pregnancy yoga dvd in their den. Shamed into working out myself in the face of such blatant one-upsmanship, I hauled my growing booty off the couch, changed into yoga pants and a sports bra, and did 3 ten-minute segments on my 10 Minute Solutions Prenatal Pilates DVD. While it would have been only a moderate (maybe even light) workout for me in my prime, last night it was challenging enough to leave me feeling pleasantly exhausted afterward, sore in good places, and accomplished. It's amazing one what little burst of motivation can do. Tonight I am amped up to go for a long walk on the beach to get some cardio in -- gotta switch it up.

Because yeah, it's not okay that my maternity clothes are starting to get too tight -- in the butt. In the stomach, fine. My stomach is supposed to be growing still. But in the ass? Not so much. Not okay, missy.

Another lovely benefit of the workout was that it convinced me to actually go to sleep at a decent hour -- after a hot shower I Was more than ready to pass out at something like my intended bedtime. See, oh recently lazy body of soft tissue? Remember all those workout benefits that you took for granted all these months? Feel-good chemicals; better sleep; increased motivation; heightened creativity; and, soon, better fitting jeans? Remember those? Now, if I could only stop wanting ice cream all the time...