2/16/12

Week 34

I'm actually 33 weeks in this photo... I wasn't intending to pose, just staring down in awe and my husband said "I've got to get a picture of that!" and tada! The belly photo we've all been waiting for.

So I found this page that takes your due date and then shows a table of the odds of going into labor each week and day! The fact that I went searching for this tells you something I suppose... Curious? Check. Eager? Check. Hoping I'm not going to be way overdue? Check.

How I'm feeling physically:
  • Slowing down. Not capable of as much as before. Evenings are for resting and chilling out.
  • Swelling in my hands, feet and ankles have appeared and I'm a little nervous. Is it too early for this? I've stopped wearing the wedding ring and I bought a new pair of flip flops, in case that's all I'm going to be wearing in the last month.
  • Continued nightly back and hip pain. And apparently I'm snoring like a lumberjack now. Have you ever been sleeping and heard yourself snoring? A loud rhythmic snore? And you didn't wake up - you were asleep and yet conscious of yourself snoring? Yeah. That's never happened to me before. Until now. So embarrassing. 
How I'm feeling emotionally:
  • There are still puh-lenty of things to be done to get ready, and yet in some ways, there's not a lot to be done except wait. Sometimes I feel like I'm obsessing on small details, researching things and reading Babble or Baby Center, etc. I'm feeling impatient and eager. But sometimes I need to take a step back and just read a book, watch a movie, bake something - take a break.
  • I am so envious of those women who say they've never felt more attractive and womanly than during pregnancy. I suspect many of them were skinny little twinkles to begin with. As for me and my broad german-hipped self, I'm feeling unattractive and generally smooshy these days. Longing to feel pretty and unencumbered by water weight. Oh Gosh. I hope some of this is water weight. Eek.

Highlights:
  • A baby shower this past weekend! So special. Yellow and blue and green. Adorable rubber duckies floating in the sea of blue punch I couldn't drink enough of. I was so grateful special family members were able to be there. A wee bit overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and the new baby things that are filling the nursery.
  • Over the last few weeks I finally got the nerve to take the tags off items and wash them and put things in dresser drawers. Wow. This is weird. Wow. There's going to be a real life baby in this room soon.
  • Taking the hospital tour. I felt teary and this surprised me. Not sad, just so emotional, so overwhelmed. So weird. I think I'm ready for birth, and then I think omigosh, I'm not ready!
  • I put together the crib! Here's how it went down. First, picture me assembling a crib alone on Sunday night while watching Downton Abbey in my living room. Only a crib could seduce my attention away from Mary and Matthew's plaintive glances. I made one mistake on the crib and had to backtrack, but then I had it all together again. 
  • But THEN I had to scrape the horrid "warning" stickers off the crib. Which took forever. Ikea should be sued for those bloody legal stickers. 
  • Now, picture a pleased as punch pregnant woman pushing her crib down the hall towards the nursery. Now, picture the look on my face when I realize it is too wide, in any possible conflagration to fit through the doorway. Crap. I push it back down the hall, too tired to fix it until the next night, whilst watching The Bachelor, I disassemble it, put it into the nursery, and reassemble it again. 
  • Later, my husband (smugly) asks me if I have learned my lesson - that it is better to go slow and do it properly the first time. I'd like to say I have, but in the end it's all about persistence and getting it done any which way! What I should have said was "Yes, I learned my lesson. I should have made you assemble the crib." But I was too impatient to wait.

4 comments:

  1. Love that belly!!!

    I think I started to swell up around week 34. Definitely couldn't wear my wedding rings.
    Hip pain is the WORST! And the snoring...UGH!
    No one tells you those things are going to happen!

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  2. Hi Valerie! I'm a new reader of your blog and just wanted to say hello. Love the picture of you and the belly. I'm currently over my due date by 6 days so I can relate to the excitement and all the lovely symptoms of pregnancy! Hip pain really IS the worst! :)

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  3. I love pregnant bellies!!! so touchable!!! hee hee. wishing you lots of luck xxxxxx

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