35 Weeks*

How Far Along: 35 Weeks*
Size of Baby: A Honeydew Melon
Weight Gain: 24 pounds

Movement: Oh goodness. This child has already inherited her father’s inability to sit still for long. I can feel her dancing and squirming all day long, especially first thing in the morning and just before I go to sleep at night.

…except for last Friday when she decided to have a dance party. At midnight. I was exhausted and crawled into bed at 10:30 with a movie. Within an hour I was dozing lightly before I was jolted awake by a wicked bout of heartburn and a little Elaine Benes dancing inside me. I’m pretty sure that she got her days mixed up and was just ready to party for New Years, in any case she danced away until almost 2:30 when I was able to pass out.

She still has the hiccups all the time. Usually it’s like clockwork at 7pm, though she also sometimes decides to go crazy and hiccup first thing in the morning too.  It feels like I have a little pulse against my skin, and I can see my belly shake each time she has one.

Cravings: Tonight I needed pizza. I came downstairs to make dinner, looked through every cupboard we have and couldn’t find a single thing that appealed to me. So, I made dinner for the Hubster then went out and bought myself a pizza.

(The poor Hubster felt so bad that he couldn’t go pick it up for me, but he’s a bit stranded right now. He injured his driving foot, which means no crazy pregnancy craving errand runs for him for a few days!)

Food Aversions: Tonight it felt like everything. Absolutely nothing appealed to me.

Symptoms: Still heartburn. It has been my one consistent struggle throughout this pregnancy, and these days I feel like I am more sensitive than ever. Last night it was so bad that I wanted to rip my throat out… but I just ate a tablespoon of cool whip instead and that seemed to do the trick for a while.

I’ve learned that I sleep better if I fall asleep with a movie on. I was having a really hard time falling asleep every night as each time I’d turn off the light my mind would begin to whirl with the billion things I have to get done in the next 5 weeks. The past few nights I’ve put on a movie, set my TV to “sleep mode” and just watch until I pass out. I fall asleep in half the time and wake up feeling so much more rested!

I am still without stretch marks, but sadly my poor feet are starting to become a little swollen. I actually didn’t even notice–I was sitting on the bed on Saturday morning without my house shoes on, and the Hubster walked in, looked at my feet and thought I was dying.

(He didn’t know that swollen feet are just another pregnancy symptom. He’s cute.)

After I whipped out my pregnancy bible and showed him the section on swelling he felt much better, and I feel like the swelling has gone down a bit since then. I’m trying to rest more and kick my feet up as often as I can, though that will become increasingly difficult as I go back to work on Monday.

Lastly, I can’t see the bottom of my belly. It’s quite sad–I sometimes have to change my shirt 2 – 3 times a day as I forget that my belly enters a space before I do, and I constantly get things all over myself as I clean and cook. *sigh*

Belly Button Watch: It’s still in there!

Baby Prep: Right now I’m prepping our bedroom for the wee-bean’s arrival. As her room is not ready yet, she’ll be sleeping in a bassinet in our bedroom, so I’m organizing and making space for her in there.

Tomorrow is also my day to go out and get everything I need to put together my hospital bag. As I know that the next few weeks will be insane with work, I want to have everything ready to go now so I won’t be worrying about it.

Contraction Watch: Still nothing!

Things I’m Thinking About: I worry about my job… a lot. I feel incredibly conflicted because I am so grateful to have this amazing opportunity, but at the same time I worry that I didn’t really think things through enough when I accepted the job. I’m really worried that I’ve taken on too much and I won’t be able to balance everything I’ll need to in the next three and a half weeks, or that she’ll come early and I’ll have to leave my department in the same situation they were in when I came in. I know that I can’t control what happens and I just need to take each day at a time, it’s just… hard. I’m trying to do what’s best for me and for her, but I also love my job. I don’t know what the answer is, or what I’m even trying to say exactly, but it’s just something that is constantly swirling around in my head.

Tomorrow I will be 9 months pregnant and we’ll be just a month away from the wee-bean’s due date. Holy crap.

I feel… unprepared. There’s still so much that we need to do.

Sometimes life is just a little overwhelming, you know?