Hump Day, Bump Day: Week 37

I'm reporting to you, once again, from Breech City. I can confirm that BBS is all kinds of comfortable and sticking his ground. This week has been a series of all sorts of fun activities, including acupuncture, moxibustion, headstands in the pool, vitamin B pills, inversions AND hanging out in the bathtub with an ice block on my stomach.

I never thought I'd be one of those people who had to resort to such measures.

And he still isn't turning! Start sending positive head down vibes my way everyone...

Who's ready to be dazzled by my beauty?

Musings on weekly photo: You're speechless right? The hotness has stolen your ability to think straight. It happens to me every time I look in the mirror. Just can't get enough, let me tell ya.
PS This is me being sarcastic.

Size of baby: Who knows? My acupuncturist has been calling him a "mysterious shrimp" because of how he likes to be curled up like, well, a shrimp. It's difficult to make out where he is most of the time (although the fetal heart monitor at today's doctor's appointment did show him to be hanging upright).

Movement: Yes, we get it. We've got a hellion on our hands. He refuses to sit still, yet won't move in the direction expected of him. We are screwed, friends.

Cravings: I'm making a special trip to the farmer's market this weekend just for tomatoes. Have you seen Bon Appetit's August cover? Be still my heart. And don't even get me started on the stone fruit that's been turning up.

Annoyance: That hideous slut heartburn continues to plague me. Be gone, wench!

Highlight of the week: The Dark Knight Rises at 8am on Sunday morning followed by a lovely lunch with some lovely ladies in Solana Beach. It was a good Sunday until...

Non-Highlight of the week: Organizing the bathroom on Sunday night was all sorts of hideous. HOWEVER, Netflix recently released Season 4 of Breaking Bad, so at least I was being kept entertained.

Fears: I'm not necessarily afraid, but a little weary of my nurse practitioner's reaction to my questions regarding a "gentle c-section."

Nursery: We're waiting on the rug to arrive from Overstock.com and we still need to buy a chair and ottoman. Aside from that, hanging up the artwork on the wall is all we have to do! Photos... maybe... next week?

Happy Hump Day, Bump Day everyone!

Hump Day, Bump Day: Week 36

Ok, ok, you got me. Hump Day was technically yesterday, and I'm a day late in getting this up. What can I say about the last 24 hours? A trip to the doctor confirmed BBS is still breech and while I'm staying positive, the fact that I accidentally discovered they had scheduled me for a c-section without even talking to me about it kind of sent me into a spiraling depression. Believe me when I say if I had written this yesterday, it'd be awfully morose. The gloom lasted about 6 hours, but was luckily assuaged by my favorite Childbirth Prep Class couple.

Their nickname is ScrunchMo (short for Scrunchie Moan). Yes, they were entertaining as hell. No, I won't be explaining why (because then I'd really be an asshole).

Onto the shockingly large photos...

Musings on weekly photo: HELLO neon orange. These pics get more and more painful to take as time goes on, but I hope my son appreciates them someday. I don't have many photos of my mom pregnant with me or my sister, so I figure maybe (just maybe?) it'll be a hoot to see how he progressed from point A to point human.

Size of baby: Ok, so this is all a guesstimate, but I'm thinking around the 6-6.5 pound mark and between 18 to 20 inches? I'm no pregnancy wizard, so this is based on my readings (for the record, I cannot WAIT to be done reading about babies and birth and pregnancy).

Movement: Baby Boy has been a mover and shaker from the get-go... I wish he would bust a move in the right direction though. I do like to envision him sitting like a contemplative Buddha, legs crossed with his head by my ribs. However, meditation is over, son... get thee south for the winter! 

 Cravings: The heat and humidity of this week have left me craving, you guessed it, water. Over the weekend, we celebrated Kyle's grandpa's 80th birthday, and his grandmother made him a carrot cake. The cake was good, but the cream cheese frosting was, how do I put it, heavenly. Serious heaven. I could eat an entire bowl of it right now.

Annoyance: There's really only one way to describe what it feels like to get up in the middle of the night now. Imagine you're in an alley, and you stumble upon the world's most disgruntled midget (little person, for the politically correct readers). Said smaller human takes his anger out on you by forcefully punching you over and over again at his eye level (i.e. your nether regions). It is a strange thing to hobble to the bathroom like you've been attacked, granted, only from the waist down.

Highlight of the week: Baby shower numero tres was an amazing good time! I still can't get over how blessed I've been to have these celebrations for Mr. Man. He is one truly loved cookie, let me tell you. Lindsay, Micaela, Chris and Caity, if you're reading this, thank you so much for all your hard work and effort; I will never forget it. I'll be posting some pics tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Non-Highlight of the week: Accidentally finding out about my scheduled c-section totally threw me. Of course, it also lit a fire within me to go balls to the wall agro on getting him flipped. And flip he will!

Fears: None to speak of this week... honest!

Nursery: Almost done! Can you believe it? Checking things off my list like an actual grown-up, hoozah!

Additional Notes: At the end of the day, I'm going to get to meet my son in the next 5 weeks; it could even be as soon as 3 (it could even be tomorrow, truly). And I'm so, so, so excited.

Happy Hump Day, Bump Day everyone! 

Hump Day, Bump Day: Week 35

I can remember this countdown point before Kyle and I got married. Someone told me that the six weeks leading up to your wedding are called "the vortex" because no matter how much time you think you have, it goes by incredibly quickly.

Similar to sand falling through a sieve, maybe?

Either way, whenever I can start to visualize upcoming weekends, I know the event I'm looking towards is closer than I may have originally thought. So goes it with Baby Boy's arrival. With our last baby shower this Sunday (and, of course, I'm over the moon excited for it!), I feel like the tick tock, tick tock, will become deafening until the alarm sounds.

The alarm being his debut, naturally.

Onto the photos?

Musings on weekly photo: From waking up this morning to right now, I have donned four different shirts. Four! It is officially summer in San Diego and the weather, it appears, has agreed to keep up his hot end of the bargain. So much for all my hoping that it was going to be a cool summer like two years ago. Due to the muggy heat, my gray maternity tank top and leggings is what you get... sorry for the lack of originality.

Size of baby: According to all the guessin' experts, he's at least 5.5 pounds and between 18.5 and 20 inches. That's a legit baby right there. Truthfully, I only have a week and a half until I'm considered "full term," which means, gulp, I really am about to have my boy one day soon.

Movement: I won't go on and on about him being breech like I did last week, but he has been moving a ton per usual, so maybe (MAYBE?!) he's doing his "Turn, Baby, Turn" dance. Or his "Dance, Magic, Dance" dance. Who's to say?

Cravings: Cravings? Glad you asked, friends! Last week, I managed to buy the world's worst watermelon from Trader Joe's. It was a let down, because TJ's usually manages to offer decent goods (although, granted, their produce is often lacking a tad). Though it was truly inedible, I didn't want it to go to waste, so I blended that sucker up in the Vitamix and strained out the pulp. It offered enough juice to fill a pitcher and the fun doesn't stop there, folks! I created a delicious mocktail: into a pint sized mason jar, squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon, then fill it with 2/3 watermelon juice and 1/3 Hansen's Mandarin Lime soda. Holy refreshing, it is damn good!

Annoyance:  Over the course of the last week, a somewhat older lady has moved in with our neighbors (there's a good chance she's in her forties and has spent way too much time in the sun). They're on the stranger side themselves but manageable, and while I don't think she's there to stay, she gets up to some weird stuff. Case in point, she sold all her furniture during a "fire sale" she hosted over the weekend, and everything that didn't sell is now, naturally, strewn about our shared corridor, including a wooden box that makes it very difficult for me to do laundry. To paint a picture, she walks around in cutoff jeans, bikini tops and let us not forget her straw cowboy hat, loudly talking on her phone about NOTHING to god knows who, at all hours. We've had a few conversations and my favorite thus far includes her detailed telling of all three of the births her daughter has had. Good times.

Highlight of the week: This was such a productive week, y'all. The nursery looks like a nursery. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries! Kyle and I have been working our booties off and it's to the point now where I can actually imagine our son in his room. Which is exciting and surreal in the biggest way.

Non-Highlight of the week: The anxiety I've been feeling over him being breech has been a little difficult to manage at times, but ain't no thang; it'll work itself out. I can just feel him being cooperative!

Fears: Similar to my first trimester, my emotions have been all over the board with the third. It makes me a little afraid for me (and Kyle) in regards to postpartum hormones. Mainly, I fear for Kyle.

Nursery: I may actually be rolling out a tour of his nursery in the coming weeks! I should have taken some "before" pictures when it was our bedroom, but c'est la vie.

Additional Notes: In addition, we had our first hypnobirthing class last night which was an informative and surprisingly enjoyable evening. More on that down the road. 

Happy Hump Day, Bump Day everyone!

Hump Day, Bump Day: Week 34

This is technically a day late, but not a buck short, and while I toyed around with the idea of posting yesterday, I couldn't muster up the energy. Yes, we've entered THAT territory, friends. However, Kyle and I finally got a jump start on organizing, cleaning and sorting, and while the looks of our house would suggest otherwise, I can assure you, we spent the majority of the day neck deep in stuff, things and more things and stuff.

Onto the photos (luckily for you, we're meeting friends for dinner tonight, so I won't be entertaining you with "Elizabeth's Cracked-out Pregnancy Ensembles" today).

  
Musings on weekly photo:  I kept these photos on the "closer" side so you wouldn't be forced to stare at all the things around my feet. You know how organization goes: it can only get worse before it gets better. It does certainly look like I'm storing a watermelon in my shirt.

Size of baby: We had our 34 week ultrasound on Tuesday, and it confirmed Senor Bébé is 5 pounds. The doctor estimated his weight will be around 7.5 pounds at birth, but I still feel like he'll at least hit numero ocho.

Movement: The ultrasound brought something unexpected to light: BBS is breech. What the hell, BBS?! When I was at my last appointment, he was head down and my doctor said, "The odds of him moving are slim to none." SLIM to NONE. Of course, he does have Sutherland blood coursing through his veins, so going rogue and flipping the bird to authority doesn't come as that much of a shock. At this point, I am thinking head down happy thoughts and hoping it all works itself out. 

Cravings: Water, water and more water. My feet have yet to swell up like balloons and I thank my friend, Agua, for that little awesome bit. 

Annoyance: I would be lying if I said the whole breech thing wasn't the biggest annoyance of all. I'm having some anxiety about it, though I'm trying to remain as calm as possible. Moving around has also become a bit of a pain; they aren't kidding when they say you really slow down in the last month (or month and a half if you're me, I suppose). If you were to see me walking down the street right now you'd first think, "What is she wearing?!" and then you'd think, "That is the biggest duck I ever did see." The waddling is out of control, friends.

Highlight of the week: My safari themed baby shower in northern California was such a good time! I wish you could have seen the cake my Aunt Margie whipped up, or the diaper cake my Aunt Judy put together (those are two crafty sisters, let me tell you)! I love visiting with my family, and since my chances to do so are few and far between, it's nice to be able to spend time with them, especially during this incredible time in my life. Also, staying at an awesome house in Calistoga with my husband, sister and two of my best friends wasn't shabby. 

Non-Highlight of the week: Breech baby, breech baby.

Fears: Starting to sound like a broken record: that he won't flip and I'll have to have a cesarean.

Nursery: We spent all of Fourth of July organizing and cleaning house (as I mentioned before), and though it looks like we've been burgled, I can assure you, it was a major step in the right direction!

Additional Notes: We may have not had the most relaxing Independence Day, but we did cook up some delicious eats: barbecued baby back ribs, grilled corn with garlic butter, kale chips, macaroni & cheese and strawberries with vanilla bean whipped cream. DELICIOUS and the perfect midweek treat.

Happy Hump Day, Bump Day everyone!