32 weeks!

32 weeks and I've officially gotten to the uncomfortable part of this pregnancy. I thought I'd have another month or so before this point, but, well, Baby Rhody's going to do what Baby Rhody wants to do.

People at work have been telling me that I've popped. Again. How many times can a woman pop? I honestly think they are crazy, but, hey, that's just me.

As for the how I'm feeling? Well, sleep is pretty awful, but I can handle that. The worst is the pain that's developed in my pelvis over the past week. If I stand or walk too much these days, I get shooting pains through my pelvic bone. And then I feel swollen down there on and off. Yeah, I'll be sure to mention this to my midwife this week, but I'm not sure she can do much about it. I was afraid for a moment that the pain was because Baby Rhody had dropped, but I can tell from this picture this is definitely not the case!

I have been meaning to do a few more updates, but I've just been too tired. How's that for a lame excuse? I don't know if this week will be much better. The in-laws are coming for Easter, and we have tons of preparations to be done!

31 weeks!

31 weeks! Look at Baby Rhody go! And look at how awesome my new camera is, lol. You can tell my walls are olive and not gray.

I am really starting to feel like a whale, and I'm worried what the next 9 (or 11!) weeks will bring! I do love it. People are stopping me to ask me all the time when I'm due!

Sleep is starting to get harder and harder. I have started to take showers at night just to get my body relaxed for bed. I do find that it helps somewhat, but I'm getting tired enough where I don't even realize how often I'm waking up at night--just that I'm still tired in the mornings.

I did buy a new bra this week, but it doesn't fit exactly, so I might return it. I got 2 nursing bras from target (XXL!) and I think I might just rely on those until my milk comes in. My belly is coming up so high that I can't even figure out what my band size will be, so there's no sense in spending a lot of money for bras that won't fit in 2-3 months.

2 days, 2 appointments

Yesterday after work, I had my 30-week check-up with my midwife. Things are still going well. I've gained 4 pounds since 2 weeks ago, for a total of 20 pounds on their scale.

Our doula came with us, just be involved a little more, and our midwife was so happy to see her. My doula actually goes to my practice as well, so she knows all of the doctors and midwives there, which is great. Funny thing: for some reason there was a mix-up and I was scheduled to see one of the OBs, even though I'd made the appointment with my midwife. My midwife saw us walking by and was like, "I'll take you! Don't worry about it!"

Baby Rhody was again measuring 3 cm ahead by fundal height, and my midwife, while not concerned, said that if I'm still measuring ahead after the next 2 appointments, she might want to do an ultrasound just to see what's going on. I did tell her I was concerned that I didn't want to be pushed into an induction or C-section for a "large" baby, since Mr. Rhody and I were both on the larger side and born vaginally. She assured me that the current studies show that inductions for large size usually fail anyway, and they would only suggest that I have a Cesarean if Baby Rhody is looking to be 11 pounds or more. Phew! That made me feel so much better!

The midwife did say that the doctors in the practice really want me to go off of the Lovenox or they might start to consider me high risk. Apparently, the doctors are starting to get a little anxious about me doing something outside of the norm. After talking to Mr. Rhody and thinking about it, I am okay going off at this point.

Which brings me to my appointment this morning with the high-risk doctor. I told her that the doctors wanted me off the Lovenox. She asked if I was comfortable with that, and I said that I was. We had previously discussed that no one knew how the Lovenox worked, but the fact that I took it up to this point means the baby was able to develop the best placenta and the best attachment to my uterus. One of the big concerns with this mutation is that, if baby's not getting enough nutrition, he/she may end up small. I definitely am not having that problem!

I do plan to continue to take the baby aspirin up until 35 weeks (here's to hoping the doctor's don't freak out about that) and restart after delivery, but I think the Lovenox has done its job.

Now here's to hoping the doctors know more about this mutation by the time we starting thinking about Baby Rhody 2.0!

30 weeks!!!

30 weeks! This is another one of those milestones I never thought I'd make it to. I can't believe this pregnancy is 75% over, and that we'll get to meet Baby Rhody in 10 weeks (give or take)!

As yesterday's post demonstrated, Mr. Rhody and I were busy this weekend. We're starting to get really into the baby prep now, though I'm trying to not get too ahead of ourselves. I still haven't put anything away in the nursery. Maybe next weekend I'll start, but I want to wait a few more weeks to start washing everything. I think I'll do that right before Easter, so that when Mr. Rhody's parents come and visit, I can show off what we've got so far!

In other exciting news, I finally gave in and ordered us a new camera. We ended up getting a Panasonic Lumix, which will double as a video camera. That's very important for when Baby Rhody gets here!

In how I'm feeling, sleep is a struggle, though I am tired. I just toss and turn a lot. I also get up to pee several times per night. My back pain is continuing. I have promised myself that I can finally start ordering new bras in 2 more weeks, at 32 weeks. I am very much looking forward to that, and I hope it will help with the back pain.

I am mostly just excited that the end is in sight!

Nursery furniture!

So we had a busy weekend! We spent all day yesterday ironing and hanging curtains and rolling out the new rug that we bought at Target. Today, the furniture was delivered, and we put the crib together. The room on the small side, so I had some worries about how everything was going to fit, but I think it fits perfectly! I am still debating if we have room to fit a glider in the room, but we'll see!

I do still want to make tie-backs for the brown curtains, but that's a project for another week! No decorating yet, but that's to come as well!

Also, we spent a lot of this weekend putting together our cloth wipes. They are double-sided with one side (the print) flannel and plain white terrycloth on the other side. It took a little while to measure and stitch them all, but we ended up with 32! I think it's a great start to our stash!

29 weeks!

29 weeks! I realized this morning when I was getting dressed that I was wearing the same outfit as I wore last Monday. Oh, well, it makes for better comparison pics, right? I think this might be the last day for the black shirt, as it's not really doing much for me anymore. I am planning to hit Kohl's this weekend to buy another shirt or two to carry me to the end.

So, 29 weeks. Some days I feel like I'm so far along and we really need to hurry to get the rest of the baby things. Other days, I feel like we are never going to get to meet Baby Rhody!

As of this weekend, the "construction phase" of the nursery is finally done! Mr. Rhody called today and scheduled delivery of the furniture for Sunday! I'm so excited! We also went shopping this weekend and picked out a rug and curtains for the nursery. I can't wait to see how it all looks together--and part of me is a little afraid it's not going to match!

On the "how I'm feeling" front, Baby Rhody seems to have moved so that my back pain is not as bad as it was before, thank goodness. Instead, I have little feet that are in my ribs that make bending over near impossible. I'll take the feet in ribs over the back pain though. Other than that, my appetite seems to be waning. All I have wanted to eat over the past few days is ice cream, fruit, and juice. Sometimes cereal is appealing

Other items of note: my belly button has not completely popped, though it seems to be getting shallower and shallower. It was really deep to start with, so even being able to see the bottom is weird. Sleep is becoming more and more difficult. I did manage to bathe both of the dogs yesterday, but I think it may have led to my sore tailbone and gluteals all day today. Still trying to stay active, but it's becoming harder and harder.

I love Craigslist!

Soon after I last updated on Baby Rhody's gear, I found a post on Craigslist for 14 barely-used BumGenius one-sized diapers (with regular and newborn liners) and a diaper sprayer at what I considered to be a reasonable price. This woman lives an hour away from us, but, luckily, we were headed out of town that weekend and passing right by her house! We stopped by and picked up the diapers, that were in excellent condition, getting my stash up to 18 diapers, which make a rather colorful picture!

She was missing about 3 regular inserts (the longer ones in the picture), but had some extra newborn inserts. Everything was in such great condition, and I had been wanting the diaper sprayer (it hooks up to the toilet to rinse off the poop), so it was still a great deal. Also, she threw in the carrying bag (dark blue, left, in the picture) and a roll of Kushies diaper liners, which you can use inside the diaper as a flushable insert when the child is older.

The same weekend, I told Mr. Rhody I was interested in making some wipes ourselves as well. When cloth diapering, it doesn't make a lot of sense to use disposable wipes because then you have extra to throw away. I haven't found much in the way of wipes, so I thought we'd check out JoAnne Fabrics to see what we could find there. After a lot of indecision, we decided to go with flannel on one side (the cute pattern on the right) with terrycloth on the opposite side. They are washed now and need to be ironed before I can begin stitching.

I had been looking all over the place for an appropriately-sized plastic container to hold the wipes, and I found one on one of my weekly trips to Aldi! That place seems to always know exactly what I need, when I need it, like the 4-foot stuffed elephant we got for the nursery!

Today, I ordered a bag of Charlie's Soap to go with all of my diapers. I wanted a powdered soap that didn't have any additives that would work in our front-loader, and we settled on Charlie's Soap after reading tons of reviews. I hope it comes soon so that I can try it out on our clothes!

It feels so good to get a lot of the "necessities" out of the way! At least I know Baby Rhody's bum will be taken care of!

Pediatrician, check!

I am a bit behind on posting, but I wanted to record our pediatrician visits, and share how we chose the one we are going with.

I did have 2 litmus questions I asked each pediatrician: what they thought about a delayed vaccination schedule (not a no-vaccination, just spacing the vaccinations) and when / how they preferred to introduce baby's first foods. Other than that, we were just trying to get a feeling for the offices.

Pediatrician #1's office is literally around the block from our house. They are in a converted home that seems very nice. He is a solo practicioner. We were able to get in and get an appointment right away, which we later found out is pretty standard. He and his staff are very accomodating, and if you call and say you want to come in, they will make time for you. He talked to us for a very long time, and, by the time we left, his waiting room was more than packed. As for my litmus question, he didn't seem to like the delayed vaccination schedule and started lecturing me on the importance of vaccinations; when I corrected him that I was just talked about spacing, he basically told me I could do whatever I wanted, but there was no reason for it. I don't remember his response to baby's first foods.

Pediatrician #2 was an office of 2 doctors and one nurse practicitioner. This office is physically not too far, but, unfortunately, not as easy to get to as I'd hoped. I'd say it's 10-15 minutes away, with traffic. It was in an old Victorian home. We only got to meet with one of the doctors, even though we were supposed to meet with both because of snow. The doctor seemed very laid back. He was not concerned with delaying vaccinations, as long as we got them all, and said we could do whatever we wanted for baby's first foods, as rice cereal is apparently a US thing. He pointed out that in other cultures they have other traditional first foods. I really liked that the nurse practicitioner would be there all the time and she would also help with a lot of breastfeeding issues, though she wasn't a LC.

Pediatrician #3 was the furthest from us and an office of 8-9 doctors all working together. 3 of the doctors in this practice had been suggested to us, and I just picked one at random when asked who I wanted to meet with, since we only got to meet with one. The office, while furthest, took about the same amount of time as #2 to get to because it was mostly highway. It's in a newer medical complex, the same which I had been to previously when I met with the neurologist. I pretty much fell for the doctor that we met with, who answered all of my questions with, "Well the current literature says ...." We had a great talk about how starting children on rice cereal is just starting to be linked to the high rates of diabetes in this country, and how some are proposing to start babies on lean meats instead. We also talked about how medicine has changed through time, and we can't assume we have all of the answers today any more than we did a few years ago. As for vaccination, he recommends the current schedule, but he also has patients that don't vaccinate; his position is he'd rather offer them some healthcare rather than push them outside the system. My main concern with this office was the size and the fact that most of the calls are handled by nurses; I pointed out to Mr. Rhody that, except for the solo-practioner first practice, this is the case most places.

So after some conversation, we decided to go with practice #3. I really liked the researched approach to medicine and the fact that he is open to new ideas and willing to discuss things. It sounds like he works closely with the 2 other doctors in the practice who were also recommended to us, so we'll have some good backups if he is not available.

We told our midwife we're going with him at our appointment this week, so we are official now! I was surprised we don't need to do more than that, but someone from the office will come visit us on rounds and then we'll have our first appointment within 2 days of that!

28w check-up and no more dancing

I had a midwife appointment today. I'm now on the every-2-week schedule, though the appointments themselves haven't really changed. I'm up 3 lbs from 2 weeks ago, for a total of 16 lbs so far. My midwife seems to think this is at the low end of the range, but she's not concerned. She measured my fundal height to be 30 cm, which is +2 cm. She was unconcered with that as well, and unconcerned that I was +3 cm 2 weeks ago. She just said, "It's just an estimate. It doesn't really mean anything."

I love my midwife. I really hope she's on call when I go into labor. She's just so laid back.

In other news, Mr. Rhody and I attended our last dance lesson for a while yesterday. We have been taking lessons for nearly two years, having started in preparation for our wedding and continuing because we enjoyed it. It was a great time for us to connect, and a great way to just have fun together. We had to stop because our schedules are getting too hectic, I'm getting too tired, and my belly was getting in the way. It's bittersweet, since I know we are stopping for a good reason, and we are commited to going back once we are settled in with Baby Rhody!

28 weeks!

Look at me! 28 weeks! And look at that belly! Thank goodness for all of my Old Navy tank tops, which are allowing me to stretch the life of my shirts.

So this past week was very busy at work, which is great because it meant the week went very quickly. Unfortunately, it also has me very tired, and now I'm starting to wonder if this fatigue is going to stick around as that third trimester fatigue or if I just need more sleep. I suppose only time will tell!

Otherwise, my back has been killing me by the end of most days. I think this means I need to get on buying new bras, though I was hoping to wait another month until I was closer and could buy just one more set of bras. Really, the only thing that seems to help is my going to bed. I love our Tempurpedic mattress.

In wonderful news, things are moving forward on the other people front. I have written shortly before about how unenthusiastic my family and Mr. Rhody's family seem to be, though I've tried not to dwell on it. Well, Mr. Rhody and I debated long and hard and finally decided to ask our neighbors to be Baby Rhody's Godparents over my brother and sister. We asked this weekend and they were so honored! They told us they had never been Godparents before, and they are very excited. So my mother and brother and SIL might be upset, but I'm glad we've chosen people that will be great role models and will really take an active interest in our child's life.

Also, in similar news, my best friend emailed me today to ask if I'd mind if she threw a little shower for me in RI. She knows about my drama with my mother over this and she was the MOH in my wedding, so she knows how crazy my mother can get. I'm so excited and so honored. Even if it's just 5 local people, I will know that they are there because they are excited for Baby Rhody's arrival, not because they feel obligated to be there (like the extended family my mother would have invited). I'm so excited!