Week 27 Update

Long time no talk.  Things have been hectic around here!  We’ve had full weekends and busy season is picking up at work.  I had plans a couple weeks ago for a “99 bottles of milk on the wall” post where I told you that it was only 99 days until the baby was due.  But I really couldn’t come up with anything else for the body of the post, and I couldn’t just have a clever title.  I also have future plans for some “nursery DIY” posts.  The nursery is coming together quite nicely, if I do say so myself, and we’ve done quite a bit of the work/decorations ourselves.  I’m excited to share!  Until I get my act together and get those drafted (and actually take nice pictures rather than iphone photos), here’s a weekly (monthly in my case) update to hold us over.

How far along:  27 weeks 3 days

Size of baby:  A rutabaga (don’t know what a rutabaga looks like?  Neither did I.  The baby should be about 14 inches long and roughly 2 lbs at this point)

Total weight gain:  15 lbs (8 of which were gained in December alone).  The holidays were good to me, really good to me.  So I’ve been trying to make healthier food and exercise choices in the new year.

Symptoms:  Week 26 was a dizzy week.  Every afternoon without fail, the room would be spinning.  It was very weird.  I checked with the doc, and he said no concerns, just another fun pregnancy symptom.  This week has been characterized by intense back and rib discomfort.  Focused on the right side, on the same horizontal plane, below my shoulder blade in the back and lower ribs in the front.  There is seemingly no comfortable seated position to ease the pain, which is unfortunate since I spend the majority of my day sitting at a desk.  Laying down and standing up feel great, however!  So I paced around my parent’s house on Tuesday night while we celebrated my mom’s birthday, and I stood through our entire lunch at Which Wich yesterday with Tom :) 

Cravings:  Sweets still.  Although that really isn’t pregnancy specific for me.  I’ve always craved sweets!  I just give in to the temptation more now.  Last night, I mashed up Thin Mints in Maggie Moos better batter ice cream, wish a splash of Blue Bell chocolate brownie ice cream.  Can I get three cheers for Girl Scout cookie season!?

Sleep:  Pretty good.  Occasional tossing and turning, the usual nightly restroom break.  But I won’t complain for now, I hear it’s only going to get worse over the next 3 months (2 months and 29 days to be precise).  And downhill from there once baby is born!

Movement:  Our little cheerleader is a mover and shaker!  As she’s getting bigger, I feel her movements much more often.  Sometimes I wonder if she ever sleeps.  Oh and the hiccups.  Poor chick, she gets them all the time!  I personally HATE the hiccups, so I feel terrible when she gets them.  And equally as annoyed as I’m sure she is when they keep us both up at night!

Gender:  It’s a girl!

Name:  Madelyn Grace (aka Maddie).  Side note, it’s funny, everyone else (family, friends, coworkers) seem to call her by her name now.  But more often than not, I still refer to her as “the baby”.  As excited as I was to decide on a name, I don’t do a very good job of using it yet!

Style:  Maternity clothes.  But I’m not complaining, they comfortable, and I think they’re cute!  I have a lot of pre-pregnancy blousy tops that I thought would look awesome at some point during my pregnancy, but somehow I missed that week, because they’re all too tight now.  Or too short.  That’s a major issue.  Can’t have this little belly exposed to the world!

Nursery:  Still a work in progress, but moving along quite nicely.  And I am loving it!  Pink, green, polka dots, birds, it’s everything I love :)  I hope she’ll love it too.  Here’s a sneak peak:

Best moment of the week:  We had the best weekend last weekend!  On Saturday, we had a 3D ultrasound, and our moms joined us!  Maddie was such a little cutie, all curled up in a ball.  The sonographer kept saying, “she’s all hands and feet!”  It was true, her hands and her feet were all up in her face.  In fact, she really wouldn’t move her hands away from her face the entire time.  And for a little while she was holding her foot up there by her head too, hanging on to her big toe!  I just have to say, technology is so cool.  What a treat it was to get a sneak peek at the little munchkin in my belly.  And then, on Sunday, I had a baby shower!  The girls did such a wonderful job putting it on.  It sounds like everyone pitched in with decorations, food, and games.  And it turned out so perfectly!  I had a wonderful time, and we are so grateful for all of the gifts we received!  Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound and the shower:

Worst moment of the week:  When I realized my linea nigra  (dark pigment line that forms down a pregnant belly) is starting to show.  Which, in itself, isn’t all that terrible.  I know it will eventually fade away.  But, it’s crooked!  At first I was horrified, but now I just have to laugh a little at the belly button stretched to its limits and the crooked line zig-zagging across it.

Tuesday marked exactly 3 months until our due date, and we just can’t wait!  Everything is [almost] ready for her, and we’re so excited to bring her home!  Now if we can just get through these next few months of tax busy season….

Wish us luck! :)