October 3, 2017

36 Weeks - Let the Count Down Begin

Pictured 34 weeks Pregnant 
Today I am 36 weeks. In some ways time has flown, in others it feels like I have been pregnant forever. I am not having that get this baby out of me spurt quite yet, more of a savoring these last moments and nerves about how different our lives are going to be very soon. That being said this is no fairytale either. I'm hardly sleeping, my feet are swelling constantly (especially in the heat!!), my thirst and hunger have gone up a notch, and my skin is barely holding on. Somedays I feel like baby is just going to rip through the front of me. I literally sneezed the other night and my belly button tore, yes tore. I have not a single stretch mark from M, but this time around I have earned some stripes and I have a belly button badge to top it off. Robert told me, what can you expect when you were as big as you were with Marilyn months ago, ugh why does he have to be so literal and right!?!

The nursery is finally ready! Despite everyones advice to keep it, the twin bed is gone and instantly transformed that room into my favorite one in the house. It makes me so happy how spacious and clean it is. Makes the rest of the house seem like a bomb went off. I am feeling totally overwhelmed by stuff and filling box after box to donate, give away or sell at the second hand shop. I am reading "the joy of living with less" and it is totally inspiring me to get rid of stuff I have been holding on for no reason. It feels amazing, but it means that our house is constantly in disarray with piles to be sorted. It is making my better half very uncomfortable. So glad I married a clean man :) I would like to find a bookshelf and a crib skirt but nothing else, maybe a real bed frame for M too. Everyone keeps trying to buy me gifts but PLEASE DONT. We really don't NEED anything. We saved nearly everything from Marilyn so we are set for baby gear.

I am still craving cheese, milk, bananas and peanut butter, and eating my fair share of ice cream. I figure if I am going to get big eating healthy I might as well indulge a little. I am concerned with the feet swelling so much, hopefully its just to heat, so I do try to maintain a very healthy diet. I am not exercising enough, I was SO much more fit with M. I get contractions when I go for a real walk and its hard to keep up with a speedy four year old. I feel stressed out and that isn't the way it should go. Though I know in the back of my mind I should be heading around the neighborhood instead of sitting here writing this. But I haven't written nearly anything this time around....feeling major guilt. I mostly fall asleep when I get to the computer at night, lets be real when I pick up anything at night I fall asleep and these peaceful mornings are few and far between.

I have a doctor's appt today so we shall see what she says. Hoping we are going to get the green light to go to Yosemite for Robert's brother's wedding. I did a spa day with the bride to be on Sunday and it got me really excited about the trip, I don't want to miss out. I got to soak in a bath full of warm milk and it was heavenly, just heavenly. I wouldn't sign up for another prenatal massage - my body went numb in so many places. But I'd love to take one of those baths everyday! Baby loved it too! Add a clawfoot tub to my list of must haves for our next home!

XOXO
Celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary in the city. 

Robert has caught what feels like a million pictures of me asleep with projects. Here I am passed out with my knitting looking like a beached whale. This is two days ago. I'm attempting to knit a baby vest. Can you say ginormous?

August 12, 2017

Round 2: Each Pregnancy is Unique

Marilyn & I on Mothers Day

Well here it is, the post you have all been asking for, yes I am at it again. Pregnant the second time around and in the thick of it at 28 weeks. It took us forever to get pregnant this time, with Marilyn we felt as if we were ordering a pizza. Yes, hello, I would like a baby, please extra curls. Bam great pregnancy, great delivery, great baby. This time there was so much trying I wanted nothing to do with my husband and finally when I said I wanted to take some time off, we get pregnant. This pregnancy is going well but not quite as well as the first. I am trying not to be negative, there is sooooooo much negativity from pregnant women some times. Its not bad its just different, my body is different, my life around the pregnancy is different. But I am happy being pregnant and at this point am in no hurry for this baby to come out although we are all excited to meet him/her.

We are again having a surprise. We all (especially Marilyn) think its a boy. But then again I was CONVINCED M was a boy so its probably a girl. Sonogram pics look a lot like M, they seem to have the same profile, which is a good one ;) I am due on Halloween, so late October early November. When we told our parents we attached the sonogram pic to a packet of pumpkin seeds with a note that said Gerrans Pumpkin set to Ripen 10.31.17. My mom planted the seeds and she has a couple huge vines with little pumpkins on them, so sweet.

I have a new doctor who is very much more relaxed than my first. Which is nice, I think I feel more relaxed and less obsessive as a result. However being "relaxed" is not really what I need this second time around. I feel like I need a swift kick to get me moving most days. For instance I gained twice the weight I was supposed to in the last month. Double the weight my friends!! I am actually the weight I was at 40 weeks with M, except I still have a ways to go. Oh my, how can I get any bigger??? I am eating more, there is certainly a meal between breakfast and lunch and sometimes another after dinner if I stay up too late, but I don't feel like I am eating a ton more than usual or even as much as I did with M. I still get those desperate moments when you feel like you might eat your hand if you can't get something in your mouth stat. I certainly have not been indulging to make it worth this double weight talk I'll let you know, I wish I was! I am craving cheese, eggs, salami chips, milk, tomatoes, and melons. SOOOO different to M.

My doctor thinks I should try to be careful this next round, but honestly its not the food. Its my body. I am huge, huge! When I feel kicks they are in the lower left and upper right, at the same time, I don't remember anything like that with M. I also don't fit in any of my clothes even some of my maternity things are too small. My belly button has popped and my belly resembles that of one of those past their prime men on a Hawaiian beach in a speedo, you know the ones that really shouldn't be wearing one but totally flaunt it. I'll never forget my first trip to Hawaii when I was in second grade, I def asked my mom if men actually could have babies in their belly after that sight, and now I look in the mirror and see that man in the zebra print speedo. Why why do they do that? I am all belly, mostly I'm not too swollen anywhere else, occasionally my feet and calves. And oh is it a low big belly that totally shakes like a bowl full of jelly when I laugh. Its quite entertaining. The looks of pity or disbelief when I tell people I am due on Halloween and not next week are not as entertaining.

We are getting the nursery together tomorrow, hoping everything will fit and desperately going to miss that extra guest bedroom closet. I need a big piece of furniture to store those things, these 1950s homes and their little closets and our lack of garage makes us really feel it this time around. We really need another bedroom. Where is my Mom going to stay when she visits? Everyone keeps offering their guest bedrooms, but hello that doesn't help! We want her here to preform her grandma dance while we hit snooze or now chase Marilyn I guess. We are lucky to have a home really, but oh how she will hate to sleep on the sofa......will she even come?? First world problems for sure.

Whats your guess??? Boy or girl????

Me eating thirds and hiding from the camera. This has been the pregnancy of terrible candid photos taking by my adoring husband. 

How we told our parents :) 

Baby's profile