Best Baby Ever

I’ve been neglecting the blog, since it didn’t seem as important to keep it up any more. But I’ve missed it, so I’m back. I’ve been journaling regularly in baby’s journal, so she’ll have that record at least, of the time that isn’t chronicled here. 

Now that Megan is pregnant, I’m reliving all of my preggo days. I can see now why I got so much advice from other folks – everyone loves a pregnant lady, especially other former-preggos (that is, moms). I’ve been trying to pass on all the best bits I learned during my own delicate time, while not over-burdening her with unsolicited advice. No one likes that. But since I can’t pass down clothes – she’s having a boy – I must pass down pearls of wisdom. 

I’m so glad I kept these little records for Vy – the journal, this blog, all the pictures and notes of how I was feeling and what was going on. Since I’m already dreaming about having another one, it will do me good to remember just how much it all sucked for a while, hehe. 

But she sure is the cutest little thing in the world. I’m in love with her hands this week. They are so little and cute, so expressive in ways she doesn’t intend. I want to eat them! I know it’s probably silly of me at this stage, seeing as she’s only 3 months, but I find myself hugging her to me, especially at night or early morning, when she’s sleepy and nursing and we’re all alone, and feeling just the barest hint of sadness at the fact that even as I can’t wait to see her grown up and gain the milestones ahead of her, I am already clinging to her babyhood, feeling like it’s just sailing by me all too quickly; that as much as I want to hear her talk, I already miss the fact that she can’t, that she just blows bubbles and smiles; and even in that I am nostalgic for the days only a few short weeks ago when all she did was sleep and eat and cry because she was just a newbie and too small to do anything else. Sweet, sweet pain of motherhood. I want you to grow up, but I want you to be forever my baby. 

Now that I’m back at work, Shawn has assumed day care duties. They are getting along famously. She’s only had one bad day so far, and he’s enjoying it more than he thought he would – I think we were both worried that she would be screaming all day, that only I could calm her and that she would freak out when left alone with him. But so far, they’ve become fast friends. I make him text me pictures during the day, and updates. Her picture is all over my desk, so I can look at her funny face all day long. I totally laugh out loud to myself at random intervals when I chance to catch one of her pics out of the corner of my eye. She’s the best ever.

Final Countdown

Well, we're at 39 weeks, and counting down. I could do without this week. Everything hurts and I'm as big as a house. I'm actually fantasizing about being able to workout again. My hips hurt all the time, my groin muscles are sore because she's sitting on them, my stomach skin is stretched out and itchy, I'm tired and sleeping until noon every day, my back hurts, and I can't sit forward. Gah. I am well aware that this week is going to fly by, and that even the few days she might be late will go by all too quickly and I'll be missing these days of having my life all to myself, so I'm going to complain about these silly things now while I still can!

Here's the BabyCenter info and picture. At our appointment on Monday, she was about 6 lbs 12 oz, so the sooner she gets here the better, as far as I'm concerned -- I don't want her getting any fatter, hehe!

 Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

38 Weeks

Hello there,
Today is Day #2 of my maternity leave, and I've been pretty productive so far. I have a to-do list for today, but I also just want to hang out and read and relax. Today is my 38th week, and I've posted the info on baby below. She's getting big, and pushing me around from the inside. She looks like an actual baby now, hehe.

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Day 1 of Maternity leave. Some people have asked that I post a pic every day so that they can track the Droppage. So, here is Pic #1.

Synchronize Your Watches

Well, here we are at 35 weeks, and I'm starting to get information on how to know if I'm in labor and what will happen during delivery. This baby is getting bigger and heavier every day, I have to pee about twenty times a day, and I'm having just a slight bit of good ol' nausea again in the mornings, though not nearly to the debilitating level it was before.

First, here's the update from BabyCenter about how big this baby is:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

I don't know who they modeled that drawing after, but my belly is way bigger. 

I discovered on Monday morning that red meat does not agree with my system anymore. After having to stay home sick because I had been up in the middle of the night throwing up, and was just too exhausted to do anything but sleep until 11am and then lay on the couch feeling gross, Shawn and I decided that it must be the beef. I'd had some yummy steak the night before, and it seems like every time I have red meat my body reacts that way. Mom said she had to avoid it as well. Makes me sad. I hope it goes away.

While I'm not yet "sick of being pregnant," I am getting restless to have her here. So I guess in that sense I'm tired of being pregnant -- I just want to meet her. The anticipation is getting to me. After next weekend's shower I can start setting up an actual nursery -- I'll have my changing table back, and it looks like some more furniture and stuff as well. If we don't get our dresser, I have a $50 Ikea gift card that I'll use towards getting the one I want.

When I flipped the calendar over to March yesterday morning, I had a very surreal moment of, oh, that's it -- just one month left, and there it is, in visual aid, only those days I can see right now, right in front of me, that's all the time I have left. Start the countdown.

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:

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...

Monday Monday

I have finally updated my belly pictures, but so far they're only on Facebook, so you'll have to find them in the Oh Baby! album there until I get around to posting them in the blog. We missed a week of pictures while Shawn was at NAMM, but it's still a pretty good slide show. It's so funny looking back at some of the earlier pics when I thought I was showing so much, compared to now when I really am. I was so much smaller then. Well, I will be again, someday. By September, I hope, when my Mom gets married. I'd like to have most of the weight worked off by then.

I spent some time with Lila last night, who's due date was just moved back to February 5th from January 28th. She's jolly and round like Santa, hehe. We checked out her nursery, which is darling, and ate cheesecake and tea and talked about weddings and babies and life changes. It was nice to have some quality time. She's still working on remodeling the house with her hubby, and hopefully they can have it mostly finished in a week.

My shower is in two weeks, and the more I see that gifts are being bought from the registry, the more excited I get. Not in a greedy way, but because I'm finally and actually going to have her things in the house, and I can start getting ready for her for real. I'm pretty close to chucking out a lot of the stuff in the house, like half of what is stuffed into the closet. I just don't think I need it all, especially the two boxes that were never unpacked from the move... Shawn is going to disassemble the changing table before the shower, so that I can send it home with Vicki to paint all pretty. And it looks like someone purchased my bassinet, so I'll have that to set up, and acclimatize the cats to its forbidden status.

The baby is kicking and I have a bit of something in my contact lense. I want a venti iced latte...

New Development Info

Good morning, all. Just a quick dip into the blogosphere to share the baby updates that came from various reliable sources this morning. I'm coming up on 27 weeks, so here's the important info, first from BabyCenter, and then from Kaiser:

  This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

This info from Kaiser is a little bit early, as, according to them, I won't be entering my third trimester until next week. But it's still some good info about what to expect. So if I start complaining about any of these things, you've been forewarned:

Your Third Trimester

The third trimester of pregnancy spans from week 28 to the birth. Although your due date marks the end of your 40th week, a full-term pregnancy can deliver between the 37th and 42nd weeks of pregnancy. During this final trimester, your fetus grows larger and the body organs mature. The fetus moves frequently, especially between the 27th and 32nd weeks.

In the final 2 months of pregnancy, a fetus becomes too big to move around easily inside the uterus and may seem to move less. At the end of the third trimester, a fetus usually settles into a head-down position in the uterus. You will likely feel some discomfort as you get close to delivery.

See pictures of the fetus at 32 and 40 weeks of development .

Normal symptoms you may experience during the third trimester of pregnancy include:

• Braxton Hicks contractions, which are "warm-up" contractions that do not thin and open the cervix (do not lead to labor).
• Fatigue.
• Back pain.
• Pelvic ache and hip pain.
• Hemorrhoids and constipation.
• Heartburn (a symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD).
• Hand pain, numbness, or weakness (carpal tunnel syndrome).
• Breathing difficulty, since your uterus is now just below your rib cage, and your lungs have less room to expand.
• Mild swelling of your feet and ankles (edema). Pregnancy causes more fluid to build up in your body. This, plus the extra pressure that your uterus places on your legs, can lead to swelling in your feet and ankles.
• Difficulty sleeping and finding a comfortable position. Lying on your back interferes with blood circulation, and lying on your stomach isn't possible. Sleep on your side, using pillows to support your belly and between your knees. Later in your pregnancy, it is best to lie on your left side. When you lie on your right side or on your back, the increasing weight of your uterus can partly block the large blood vessel in front of your backbone.
• Frequent urination, caused by your enlarged uterus and the pressure of the fetus's head on your bladder.

Signs that labor is not far off include the following:

• The fetus settles into your pelvis. Although this is called dropping, or lightening, you may not feel it.
• Your cervix begins to thin and open (cervical effacement and dilatation). Your health professional checks for this during your prenatal exams.
• Braxton Hicks contractions become more frequent and stronger, perhaps a little painful. You may also feel cramping in the groin or rectum or a persistent ache low in your back.
• Your "water" may break (rupture of the membranes). In most cases, rupture of the membranes occurs after labor has already started. In some women, this happens before labor starts. Call your health professional immediately or go to the hospital if you think your membranes have ruptured. 

Finally, I'm going to try to cut out as much sugar from my diet as possible. One day at a time of course, but I'm pretty sure I consume too much of it, so any little bit less is a good thing.

Holidays are Over...Sad

Some new pics tonight before I take my week 26 photos. These are from week 25:

With the turning of the new year it has finally hit me that a baby is about to be here. It hasn't seemed real, or, at least, impending, until now, when it's the year it will happen -- it doesn't seem so far away now. In fact, it's stressing me out to think that it's really only right around the corner. Of course, I'm also super excited that my showers are coming up soon, and once I have baby stuff in the house I'm sure I'll feel more prepared.

Speaking of New Years, I didn't really make any resolutions this year. I have so much I'm trying to get a handle on that I just didn't even consider it. I know that I'm trying to get back in the habit of working out, while I still can, and I have made it my goal to get into better shape after baby than I was in before. I have my mom's wedding in September, and I'll want to be as trimmed down as I can by then. So, eating healthy and getting into healthy habits. But mostly I'm still just nesting a bit and reading my newborn and nursing books, and trying to prepare for baby as much as I can.

I still need to go in and have my sugars tested. These last two weekends have been so busy that I just haven't even remembered or had the time. Plus, on Thursday night I came down with some kind of nasty stomach bug, and I was up for a good part of the night just heaving. It was yucky. Baby seems fine though, she's still kicking away and doing her thing. And after a day of rest and re-hydration, I was back to normal as well.

26 Weeks

I'm caving to the pressure of my original due date and going with Wednesdays instead of Fridays as my week markers. So today is 26 weeks, and below is the info from BabyCenter about what's going on in there:

   The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. She's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when she's born and takes that first gulp of air. And she's continuing to put on baby fat. She now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel. 

Baby:

 Cucumber:

 Yesterday I went to Motherhood and bought a sackful of new maternity clothes. I love post-Christmas sales! I got three new pairs of pants, a dress, and 2 or 3 new tops, all for under $200. Plus a coupon for later and a restaurant gift card or something. So I sort of cleaned up! It's so nice to be wearing things that fit now. My pants were just getting way too tight. I feel stylish and cute again, and, especially with my newly done nails, I feel much better about myself, and that's way more important right now than I had realized.

Which reminds me, I'm finally going to the gym tonight. Brought a packed bag to work and all. No excuses, now.

Belly Pop Pictures

I have been terribly remiss it posting to the blog, and I have a bunch of things to update on, but the notebook with all those notes is in the car, and that's not at home right now. So I'll make do with updating photos and inserting some info on week 24, which is where we've progressed to by now. 


First, from BabyCenter:

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.


***
She certainly is kicking like a little demon. I can feel her more and more during the day now, and this morning it actually hurt when she kicked/punched me in the side while I was trying to sleep in. Here are some more pictures of the belly:

The top one is 22 weeks, and the bottom is 23 weeks. As you can see, it really popped out in a week. 24 week picture will be coming in a couple of days.

22 Weeks and New Doctor

My Kaiser appointment went well, I really liked the doc. She was very thorough and attentive, and fit us in at the end of her rotation since we were an hour late. We got lost on the way there and then couldn't find parking and it was super busy. She gave me a whole rundown of how my care would proceed for the weeks to come, what would be done in my next appointments. She asked Shawn and I a bunch of questions about our family medical history and so on, we listened to the baby again, and she answered all my questions. Right away I had a better feeling from her than I ever had from Farney. Even the medical assistants were so nice and helpful when scheduling my next appointments. I have an appointment coming up dedicated solely to having a nurse give me a rundown of questions about medical history and so on. A whole appointment dedicated to that. I can't even remember when/what Farney asked me about my medical history. My big ultrasound appointment is on Wednesday at 8am, when the radiology tech will do all the anatomy measurements and so on, and confirm the baby's gender.

Dr. Hayes also measured my tummy and said my belly size was right on target for where it should be, and told me about some other genetic tests that I might like to do (which Farney never mentioned, despite his two long speeches about how common miscarriage was in the beginning on the pregnancy -- he was awfully lax about some important tests and procedures later on).

When we were listening to the baby, we kept hearing these little pops on the doppler machine -- baby was kicking at the wand where it was pressing on her(him) in my tummy. Hehe, silly baby.

Confirmation of gender and other interesting news to come on Wednesday.

22 Weeks:

A Jolly Xmas Day

I have an appointment with my new Kaiser doc on Monday, December 6th, at 10am. I got a female doctor, but after looking at her profile it looks like she's a resident and not a full fledged doc yet. Which is cool with me, her profile looks like she's a cool lady, and one of the questions I've written down for her is whether or not a doc will be shadowing her and so on.

Baby has been kicking more and more these days, a lot at night and in the morning, but lately I've also been feeling kicks after eating, which I've heard is what they do. Of course, I've also been getting heartburn on a pretty regular basis during the day. It doesn't really matter what I eat, it gives me heartburn anyway. But it's not super bad heartburn, so I just chug water and deal with it.

I got a cute new journal last night, and I'm going to use it as my pregnancy journal. I got the idea from a friend of mine who said she had used one, and kept records of questions she wanted to ask the doc, random thoughts, and so on. The one I got is super cute, it has little rainbow colored dolls all over it, like those Russian nesting dolls. Shawn and I also went to the bookstore and Walgreens tonight and got more xmas stuff -- garland for the tree, two new music cds, and some towels and pot holders for the kitchen. Walgreens had all kinds of xmas stuff for cheap, so I didn't feel bad, we didn't even spend $20 there and got a bunch of cute stuff. I got a new stocking, too, red and knitted. And I officially have one present under my tree, and another one that needs to be wrapped. Yay, Christmas!!

Finally, my stomach feels huge tonight. I took a picture of it, just to document, cause it feels more ginormous than usual.

New Pics

Finally got the picture from 19 weeks loaded, as well as the 20 week picture from today. I had to pull up the picture from 15 weeks, just about when we started taking pictures, to convince myself that I'm actually getting bigger. It's such a small change from week to week, and I'm so anxious to get a preggo belly. Ha,  yeah, I say that now, until I can't tie my own shoes anymore. That's where flats come in!

19 weeks:

20 weeks:

Myself Again Today

18w5d

My weekly email from the Baby Center website contained the following update:

Hello, Katie!
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. The hair on her scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.

Don't be fooled by the use of gender in their email, they alternate every week. I haven't plugged in any information to the website that I'm not sharing with you! I get those updates every week, in theory on my weekly markers, but the dates I first put in were a little off. So it thinks I'm at 19 weeks, but I know that's not until Friday. Fridays are my week markers. I suppose at some point I could start thinking in terms of months, but weeks are easier to keep track of. Pic of baby at it's true age, 18w5d:

I'll post the 19 weeks image on Friday.

Some news this morning -- I am finally feeling like myself again. Though I had a moment or two of tummy-turning this morning, that was more due to being hungry than being nauseous. I was tired when I woke up, but not bone-tired. It seems I'm finally getting used to sleeping on my side because my hips didn't bother me all night, until about 6am, when the cats were waking me up anyway. So I was rested and able to get up in time to make toast, feed cats, dress, email myself something that I needed at work today, put make-up on, AND leave the house on time. Of course, my hair is still a disaster, but that's not really anything new.

Also, I made contact with a gal from Bananas, Inc., last night, which is a daycare referral service in the East Bay. She's going to be sending me some info on in-home day cares in Alameda. I'm really more comfortable with in-home care rather than a Montessori or something like that. My next step is to start checking out pediatricians. 

Belly Love

I can't help but post up this picture from last night. It's probably my favorite so far. You know how some pics of yourself you like, or are just sort of okay, and then there are those few that you just love so much you want to blow up and hang over your mantle? This is one of those. So indulge me.

I definitely had tacos for dinner last night. I don't feel guilty at all, since I haven't indulged in them in weeks. And my weight gain is progressing pretty much right on course. My morning sickness has mostly gone away, although I still feel sort of queasy when I first wake up in the morning. However, it's not usually bad enough to cause the puking any more.

I'm in serious need of new maternity clothes. It's becoming very difficult to dress for work in the morning. I think a trip to Target is in order. I'd like to get some nice sweater dresses to wear with leggings. Or maybe just a belly band so I can keep wearing my old jeans. But even those are getting a bit snug in the booty...hehe.

Speaking of which, I should probably do my pilates tonight. Can't let this weight gain get out of hand!