31 Week Bumpdate

WEEK 31

Baby is the size of asparagus!

                 

almost missed my 31 week bumpdate!  time is flying...

I am 32 weeks tomorrow and next week is jam-packed so this might be the last post before my baby shower in a few weeks!

I know I promised pictures of the nursery but it's a mess right now!  kind of like our life.  we have been living out of our suitcases for almost 3 weeks now...it is getting so old!  our moving truck didn't arrive until a week after us so we spent the time clearing out and painting the nursery (so glad we did too because knowing it's painted and done is the only thing keeping me sane!)  but after our stuff arrived, we weren't able to fully move in because Sean and Kara decided to make a surprise trip out to visit before the start of their next semester!  so that put them in Sean's room and us on a mattress in the nursery (since we had already moved all the furniture out in order to paint and set up the crib).

we had a great time with Sean and Kara, can't wait to live close to them someday!  wonder if Kara and I will ever be pregnant at the same time?  that would be so cool!  or if sissy and I will ever be pregnant at the same time!?!  I really really hope so!!!  I mean, she isn't married yet but if she got married in like 4 years and then had a baby in 2 years, it's definitely possible!  we want 4 children and are planning on spacing them a few years apart, so if everything goes according to plan I will be pregnant with our last when I'm 33 and sissy will be 24...hmm, hey it could happen!

but I digress...so Sean and Kara left this morning and we finally moved our furniture into Sean's old room!  I'm not even sure if I mentioned that we are going to be living at my parents for the time being to have all the help we can get with the baby and save for a home so we can go straight from here to our own house!  no more apartment life for us :)  with my sister leaving in June, my parents will have their huge house all to themselves (leaving my mom alone for weeks at a time whenever my dad travels) so needless to say she is thrilled to have us.  also she might be just a liiittle obsessed with the baby!  we have the whole upstairs to ourselves and are thrilled to have a washer and dryer in the house (the things people take for granted!), a swimming pool, and be able to take my favorite dog in the whole wide world on walks whenever we want!  Xela is the sweeeetest!

so the latest in pregnancy news...the exhaustion is back!  I am so tired all the time and feel like I could sleep all day long.  maybe because we've been so busy and there is so much still to do and we haven't even started unpacking and just thinking of it all makes me exhasuted!  I dream of May when we might actually be all settled in!  all I want is a few weeks of daily living with no more projects or boxes or organizing (even though I love organizing!) because I want to re-gain all the energy I can for the baby!

a part of me is terrified for how life will change with a baby.  I've been learning about some of my friends' experiences and how the first few months were the hardest times of their life, so many people I know suffered from ppd and I'm just so nervous about how it's all going to affect me.  also, starting to get really worried about labor.  what do contractions feel like?  how will I handle the pain?  what if something goes wrong?

but that's just me...worry, worry, worry about every little thing instead of just enjoying the moment and being pregnant and getting ready for this new adventure in life!  I'm hoping it will be easier to enjoy it once everything is less chaotic around here.

still no stretch marks but I have had some leaking!  just a few drops of colostrum?  I think that's what it's called and it's only happened a couple of times but I'm always totally freaked out!

other than that, things are still progressing normally.  I am now seeing my doctor every two weeks...on the agenda for this week:

tour the hospital

prenatal appointment

my first breastfeeding class!

buy more nursery furniture (dresser, nightstand, bookshelf, and storage baskets)

unpack!

car inspection & registration

maternity photo shoot!

let's hope it all gets done!

30 weeks & memories

WEEK 30

Baby is the size of a cabbage!

I almost skipped blogging about 30 weeks since it has been one of the busiest weeks of my whole pregnancy but that's probably a good reason for me to write about it!  so, we officially moved to Houston, Texas!  I arrived last week and Mark drove down over the weekend all by himself, poor thing!  I felt so bad for not driving with him but he insisted I fly out...we wouldn't have gotten here nearly as fast because we would have had to stop every few hours so I could use the bathroom!  also, I get carsick and it has become worse since being pregnant so that drive would not have been fun at all.

at first we just felt like we were on vacation, especially since Mark hasn't started his job yet.  his old boss is continuing to pay him his salary through July so he has a whole two months of paternity leave!   don't think he hasn't been working though...he has been working SO hard on the nursery this week!  we are transforming my old bedroom (well the room where they stored all my old stuff since I've never lived at home in this house) into the nursery and it has been so much work!

this week has been a trip down memory lane...underneath my bed were hundreds and hundreds of letters, cards, pictures and mementos from my childhood (like kindergarten through high-school!)  you would not believe the junk that still exists from my past!  so many journals, yearbooks, old friendship notebooks, and "secret treasures" I saved...

Turner & Checkers...my animal pet koosh balls that I would actually leave with my best friend Sarah to take care of when I went on vacation!  she once threw them a sleepover party (with her pet koosh ball Fletcher), complete with confetti and party favors to take home! hahahaha!

one of many pictures and notes from my best friend Sarah!  this was for our beach party we had in her room where we made a music video to "barbie girl"...I was Ken.  good times!

what was I wearing???

can you find me and my best cuz Marci?

I have a TON of embarrassing, hilarious pictures of Marci and me wearing prom dresses ten sizes too big, dressed up in clown makeup, posing in pajamas at my grandma's house, and complete photo albums that would just humiliate the both of us if I posted them.  I also have about 100 letters from her starting when we were old enough to learn how to write all the way through high-school!  spent a day re-reading them...

my beautiful mother!

things not pictured: my Lance Bass puppet and bobble head (HA!), my Mary-Kate and Ashley fan club kit, TONS of my old clothes including flared jeans, shirts with my name on them, ridiculous dance costumes and middle school prom dresses!  I am so ocd when it comes to organizing (even clearing out junk) so of course I had to go through every little thing and read every letter and card (I was this close to going back and re-reading all my old journals but instead just flipped through them, what a laugh!) and decide what to keep, give away and throw away.  the whole process took me about a week!

after we cleared out all the junk, Mark took apart the bed and moved all the furniture into the garage.  then he spent two days removing the wallpaper and found out there is dark brown paint underneath!  we are painting the nursery a soft gray so we were worried the brown would show through but Mark researched it and it will be fine if we paint it with a white paint + primer.  so Mark spent another day painting two coats of primer.

the only part I've been able to help with so far (besides clearing out the junk) is picking the paint color!  at first I had my heart set on this color by benjamin moore...

isn't it gorgeous?!  also we are getting those shelves and that pouf!

but then we found out the only benjamin moore is in downtown houston (toto, we're not in LA anymore...) so we narrowed it down to these three colors by glidden...

and the winner?!

stay tuned for after pictures coming next week!

also I realize that this post had nothing to do with the pregnancy but honestly nothing has really changed!  and if they have, I've been too busy to notice!  I don't even remember I'm pregnant these days, haha, except I spend all my time preparing for the baby to come so I guess I haven't really forgotten.

oh yeah and my new doctor is amazing and bumped up my due date to June 8!  time is flying!!!

Easter weekend & 29 weeks!

WEEK 29

Baby is the size of a pineapple!

let's see, what's new with the babe...movement has become insane.  whenever baby is awake, my stomach wiggles around visibly from the outside.  it never fails to amaze me.  I always stop what I'm doing and stare for awhile.  whenever the movements are really strong and persistent, I feel like baby is asking for playtime and a song!  my favorite moment of each day...I rest my hand on my belly and baby immediately bumps up into it.  I know it's not on accident because if I move my hand an inch or two, baby follows along, wanting to be right up close to me!  then I have a routine of songs I sing...return to pooh corner, you'll be in my heart, a dream is a wish, maybe (from annie) and sometimes if I finish and baby bumps my hand some more, I'll just go through all my disney princess songs I do at princess parties!  boy or girl, this baby is going to loooove disney princesses because mama is a disney princess every weekend :)

p.s. will I ever be that skinny again?!

my belly button has POPPED!  I can push it back in but when baby awakes and pushes up, pop it goes.  everyone tells me it will go back in so I guess this is just part of pregnancy territory.  at least I haven't gotten stretch marks!

so let's talk braxton hicks.  what are they exactly?  I used to think I was getting them starting a month ago but now I'm not so sure that was them because of a few super painful contractions I've had over the past week.  it's like my stomach tightening so hard it radiates to my back and I have to stop whatever I'm doing and just try to breathe.  the last time it happened I had to yell for mark because it was so painful I didn't know what to do.  I started crying and he gently laid me down on my side and massaged my back until it went away.  boy if those are just bh contractions, what is the real thing going to be like?

it's weird that I'm not as terrified of labor as I used to be before I got pregnant.  I'm more just excited and anxious for the baby and I know that's the only way to get it out!  plus I'm planning on getting an epidural and any pain medication they offer me so hopefully I can endure the contractions until then!

I've gotten a few pregnancy comments from strangers but not nearly as many as I thought I'd get.  one time our landlady saw me as I was getting the mail and she's like, "is that a baby?" and I said, "yes, due in June!" and she goes, "awww!"  another time walking down to the garage, an old man walked into the building and just says to me, "soon?" and I'm like, "yup, a few more months!"

but then other times, especially when I wear tunics that don't hug my bump, I don't think people realize I'm pregnant!  like at the airport when I had to stand on the bus and hold my luggage because the luggage rack was full and no one offered me their seat!  umm, isn't that supposed to be a pregnancy perk?  I seriously think they don't realize because when I look at myself in the mirror and I'm wearing something loose fitting, I just look like a bigger person.  anyone who knows me would think I've gained 20 pounds (which, I have, HA!) but people who don't know me would just think I'm an average american who is not that skinny!

I'm sure eventually everyone will be able to tell no matter what I'm wearing, right???  do you think I'll get this big?

poor mama!  her baby must be in there sideways or something...

Easter weekend was my last weekend in LA.  we made it a good one.  we spent it in Palos Verdes and soaked up this beautiful view...

and went on a walk that ended with us randomly stopping to watch a high school girls' lacrosse game!

I've never been much of a beach person but suddenly knowing we were going to be nowhere near the ocean made me realize how much I'm going to miss it...

another thing I'm going to miss...family dinners with the Rawlings!

I made the fruit platter ;)

wish I had taken more pictures...everything was delicious!  we had lamb chops, tilapia, salmon, baby potatoes, hot cross buns and fruits and veggies for days with the most scrumptious homemade dips that have no recipe, a la remi!

I wish I had taken pictures of the easter egg hunt we made for Jake and Sam.  we highly underestimated Sam's ability to find eggs...he is 14 months old and found our hardest eggs for Jake!  we had to re-hide them really hard for Jake!  I miss them so much already!

and finally...for april fools I posted this photo with the caption, "baby came early!"

Mark with our precious baby niece Faye...she is 4 now!

it got over 100 likes and I'm not sure everyone knew it was a joke!  I mistakenly thought people would remember my due date and know that a baby born at 29 weeks would not look like this but clearly people didn't realize.  one of my friends texted me like, "this must be a crazy time, do you still need help moving tonight?"  oh man, well at least I know everyone will be very happy when baby Rawlings finally does arrive!  we can't wait!