Hello, Third Trimester!!!

I made it!  I'm in my final trimester of pregnancy, and oh-so-excited about getting this far!!!  Technically, if our baby needed to be delivered at this point, there would be a good chance of survival, which gives my high-alert nerves a little bit of relief.  Of course I want "Little Flippy" to stay put and continue to grow until May, but if s/he had to make an early appearance for some reason we would at least have a fighting chance.  For that reason, I celebrate reaching the third trimester!  Cue the streamers...

Since I missed last week's update due to our babymoon getaway, and because this mama-to-be is tired and behind in all of my life to-do lists, I'm going for efficiency and doing a combination entry tonight.  ;)

Source: The Bump

Source: The Bump

According to these guides from The Bump, our baby has grown several inches over the past 2 weeks, which explains the crazy-strong movements I've been feeling in there the past few days!  The maybe-not-so-little one has also likely gained at least a pound of weight, so I'm guessing we're in the 3.5 pound range, if not more, based on the slightly large measurement we saw in Week 27!  Yikes!!!  Grow, baby, grow!!!  {But please not too big that you have trouble making your grand entrance, if you know what I mean...}

My waist has grown a total of 7 inches and I've gained almost 22 pounds to date.  How's that for "not so little"?!  ;)

My nausea, which finally seemed to be on the mend for a few weeks, unfortunately seems to be coming back a bit stronger over the past several days.  Although I didn't get the full "second trimester break" where I felt great, energetic, glowing and all that other good stuff that lucky moms-to-be experience; I did get a little respite during the latter part of my second trimester from the constant nausea and puke burps that defined my first and most of my second trimesters, so that's something!  As long as the queasies don't come back as strong as they were during the first several months of my pregnancy, I think I can hang in there.

In terms of other symptoms:  I've been peeing like crazy, am feeling pretty physically tired a lot of the time, and have definitely been experiencing "placenta brain".  My normally quick-strided NY walk has slowed into a bit of a waddle and I can officially no longer see my feet if I look straight down!  I've had the occasional back twinge or sciatica pain, but I'm thankful {and surprised, considering I'm basically carrying a 20 pound bowling ball strapped to my tummy} that it hasn't been too bad thus far!  I also noticed this weekend that the skin above my belly button is starting to bulge out a bit -- I guess an "outtie" is in my near future!  My actual belly button is so funny-looking.... it's almost totally flat and looks like it was sewn shut!

In terms of exercise, I've been relying on my walk to/from work, but I really, really, really, really want to make time to use the stretching and prenatal exercise DVD my thoughtful hubby bought me back in November for my birthday.  That's my goal for this Sunday!  Walking up the 4 flights of stairs from my train to street level in the mornings on the way to work has gotten considerably harder over the past few weeks, but {knock on wood} I can still do it!

We currently have 14 overdue items on our pregnancy to-do list {which seems to be a permanent issue -- by the time we finally work to check one off, several more have appeared!}, but we will keep plugging away to make progress and eventually, things will either get done... or they won't!  ;)  Regardless of whether we have a doula, pediatrician, night nurse, newborn photographer, birth plan, or a name lined up -- this baby's going to make an appearance when he or she is ready!

Luckily for us, one thing we don't have to do before baby arrives is "throw some values together at the last minute".  {Click the link for a sarcastic/comedic read, courtesy of my hubby and The Onion.}  We thankfully already have some of those.  ;)

Third Trimester, I'm so glad you're here!!!

26 Weeks

Source: The Bump

Today is the last day of my 26th week being pregnant, which means I've been pregnant for 1/2 a year!!!  There was one point in time when I feared I'd never make it this far, and now that I have it's a little shocking that the time has flown by so quickly lately!  With just about 3 months to go, things are starting to get really real around here!

As Shep mentioned earlier this week, our little bambino has been up to some gymnastics in its little womb home.  Sunday night it felt as if the baby was taking a running leap and then body-slamming itself against my tummy.  That or having a private bowling match where s/he was getting all strikes.  I swear I felt multiple body parts hit the wall of my tummy at once, and we could actually see little bumps pushing out my sweater simultaneously!  The strength of the movements was a bit shocking to me to be honest, but knowing that the baby weighs around 2 pounds I guess it makes sense!  Not to mention that all the strong kicks and punches earlier this week were a bit ironic after a little scare we had toward the middle of last week when I felt decreased activity for a couple days and called my OB in a panic for a visit to check things out.  The doctor examined me, then hooked me up to the fetal monitor for 20 minutes to check the heart beat, and then gave me a quick ultrasound as well just to ensure all looked okay.  Well, there are certainly no shortage of movements this week!!

In other scary news, I had a fever this week that put my totally out of commission for more than a day.  It was 99.5 F, so not quite at the 100 degree threshold my OB would be concerned about but made me nervous nonetheless.  That is of course when I was actually conscious...  I spent all of Wednesday in bed, mostly sleeping, waking only to visit the loo and force myself to drink water to prevent dehydration.  I had no appetite, but otherwise no real symptoms -- no sore throat, no vomiting (except when I tried to swallow Tylenol for my fever), no aches and no more of an upset stomach than I normally have.  I had a slight headache with dizziness, but that's typically in pregnancy land.  I'm not really sure quite what I had going on, but thankfully I'm better now.

I have lost a pound or so this week, but that's probably due to not eating normal meals for 1-1.5 days, so I'm not too concerned, especially since I can feel baby moving and shaking in there!  I have noticed a small space re-forming between the top of my abdomen and my breasts, which is a relief.  My chest is not that big to begin with, so it's been very weird having my boobs basically resting on my stomach for the past 1-2 weeks.  I wonder if this means that my tummy is starting to drop?  Whatever is happening, I feel like it's now a little easier to breathe, so I'm going to take it as a good sign.  The only other new thing body-wise I have going on lately is the start of some serious back pains.  Not great but not surprising since I've never had super strong back muscles and I'm carrying around a lot of extra weight out front lately.  Luckily my hubby has been kind enough to give me some back rubs when things get really bad.  :)  And of course there's the still-present nausea, but that's definitely not new!

... On to Week 27!!!