Third Trimester

I'm 34 weeks and wondering how many more I have left! If baby comes at early-term (38 wks) that's 4 more, full-term (40 wks) means 6 more, and late like August (41+ wks) gives me almost 8 weeks. It's crazy not knowing if I'm going to go into labor, or have to be induced again. I'm feeling pretty good, and am hoping I have closer to 8 weeks left. I still have a lot to do!

I wanted to do "one last trip of 3" where we'd just spend a night in a nearby hotel and go do a waterpark. We were supposed to go this weekend, but Doug got in a car accident the day before our babymoon. We thought our car was just dinged doors, but there is major frame damage. So instead this weekend he is flying to Florida to get a (hopefully) no to low rust vehicle.

To Do Before Baby List:

- I've been buying girl's clothes from the Salvation Army, but have to wash everything. And find a place to store them! She'll be in our room for awhile, but sharing August's dresser/closet until we move them into the bigger room. So that leave me with not much storage space for her stuff. This has been a major stressor.

- Buy newborn diapers. I bought a couple girl-colored cloth diaper covers, but I figured we'll probably do disposables for the first 6 weeks for easy- sake.

- Make freezer meals.

- We have a Natural Birth Workshop class coming up in 2 weeks, so it'd be nice to still be pregnant before the class!

- Finish knitting her bunny hat

- Pack the hospital bag

- Because of my work weekends and that class, the next free weekend we'd have for our getaway is 4 weeks away, I'm really hoping we can go do that. And just soak in the last time of individual attention for August!

- A so special cousin of mine who also went through a heartbreaking divorce has found love again, and there is an engagement party to meet her fiance end of March so I want to go to that.

- Just looking at the calendar it'd be nice if she was here for Easter which could happen if she were 1 week late, but not 2. But I'd pretty much like to go as long as possible, which also would extend my time off work further which would be great as there are already weddings and graduation parties and family visit plans in the works.

So, 34 weeks and I'm happy to report baby and I are still doing well.

yowza!

Pounds gained: about 19, looking at my last tracker I'm 3lbs heavier and about 1.5 inches wider than I was with August at this same stage.

Cravings: Fruit! And when I'm at work I constantly have a cup of that hospital ice in my hands to crunch on, much to the annoyance of my co-workers unfortunately. But thankfully they let me do it without banning me to the back hall computer, haha.

Sleep: Pretty ok. I do notice instead of just rolling over I have to pretty much wake up and heave myself over, but go right back to sleep. And either one night-time potty break, or sometimes none!

Exercise: Still doing good. I'm pretty much still doing my same exact strength videos or walking on the incline treadmill as I work my way through Blacklist. I've not been doing my videos with a lot of jumping around. But still occasionally doing Barre videos too.

At work the other day I was taking care of an OB/GYN patient and a doctor came to take care of her. After we were talking about her plan of care, he started chatting with me about my pregnancy and offered me a free 4d ultrasound. I hadn't planned on doing one, but then I thought, well this might be my last baby, and hey it's free, so yesterday we went and got to see baby girl.

She's already head down and was sleeping with her hands over her face.... awwwwww....

So they rolled me around and then she was waking up and gave us some good pics

The tech said she thought she looked like August :) and is guessing around 5# 6 ounces so far. Yikes, if babies gain 0.5lbs a week that could put her at almost 9lbs total. Which August was 8# 10 ounces, but it'd be nicer to have a tad smaller baby!

That precious little face. I'm so thankful for this blessing of a healthy baby, healthy pregnancy, and praying for a smooth and safe delivery!

play area mini update

So for August's 2nd birthday my mother-in-law got him 2 little kid sized plastic chairs. No table, just the chairs. I had wanted to eventually get a little kid sized craft table, but was holding off because I didn't want my house more cluttered. Anyway, the chairs arrived.

And he loved them. He would drag them around, and up to my coffee table, 'mama, sit down!' 'dadda, sit down!' Very cute.

However, my dad made me this coffee table and I've already been so depressed about how easily it has become covered in scratches so quickly. (What the heck- I thought walnut was supposed to be one of the strongest woods?!?) So I did not want it to become any more scratched. And also I hate gaudy bright colored plastic furniture, so I sold those couple chairs on facebook and bought a nice wood kids table with 2 matching chairs.

Helping daddy put it together.

I don't really have a "before" picture, but that little shelf that has junk baskets (tape and batteries, etc) was where the table is now and there was just that blanket crate and lamp where it is now. So it actually fits in pretty well.

Doug's been getting weekly books from the library near his work and was just having them everywhere in the house, so I got a little $6 bin from TJ Maxx and made a stencil.

And now here's his little nook.

Maybe eventually I'll put up a couple little floating corner shelves, but no rush now.

Doug's parents have been on vacation so I'm sure they'll notice their chairs are gone. I feel kinda bad, but I also feel like I should be allowed to have things I like in my house and not things I don't. And this just works better. I like that this living room area is kind of a 'play area' and the other living room can stay more toy-free/grown up space. When you have a small house these things are important!

Babymoon #2!

As much as I want passport stamps, the time in which we could still fly (before 34 wks) was a limiting factor, as was Doug's Zika fear. My mom agreed to watch August, but for a max of 4 days, so we needed to stay somewhere close too. So a co-worker of his had recommended Gulf Shores, Alabama. We did a little research, it looked nice on the gulf of Mexico, would be warmer than it is here, and places to walk, explore, without being super touristy. So we booked it!

First stop was lunch in Pensacola after we landed, to my joy, they had a Tijuana Flats there so I was able to get these DELICIOUS cookie dough flautas. Mmmm.

Then we drove the hour down to the Gulf Shores. This first day was the sunniest and warmest and we spent the rest of the day outside walking a long the beach and on this boardwalk through a nature preserve.

Our airbnb was so cute, and I love love loved that it was right on the water.

these built-in bunk beds made me wish August was with us!

We had dinner somewhere and watched the sunset.

The next day was overcast and actually a little on the cold side. We went to the little zoo in the city and paid a couple extra bucks for the kangaroo and lemur encounters.

This zoo also made me wish August was with us! The city was super family-friendly.

Doug ate a bacon cheeseburger on donut buns. Then we went to this other place so I could eat something non-donut, haha

We got smoothies a couple times from this place, and liked the fresh ingredients. The floor in this place was astro turf and it had games and just a fun, laid-back feel with good food.

Took another walk on another little nature loop, checked out an arcade Doug had read about, talked with August and mom & dad on the phone, and spent the night in relaxing with some HGTV and other cable shows that we never get to see as we don't have cable.

Our last day was just partly cloudy and warmer so that was good luck for us!

Did my BSF homework to the sound of crashing waves.

Then we headed to Bon Secour Wildlife Preserve and went on a long dune walk that eventually led out to the gulf.

We went to Lulu's for lunch (the daughter of Jimmy Buffet) and while we were there we noticed all these people dressed up and they were having a 'vow renewal' event outside! Doug is always talking about wanting to renew our vows, and since it was happening right outside, we did it! So that was kinda fun.

After that we had read about a place where you can design your own ice-cream and then they blast it with liquid nitrogen to freeze it. Anyone who knows me can pretty much guess designing my own ice cream is like a dream come true, so we had to go there.

Anyway, turns out the flavors and mix-ins were not really what I was hoping, so it was a let-down.

Of course I still ate it, but my dream of creating my own icecream continues...

Another long walk on the beach.

One last sunset.

We had a nicer dinner, then home, relaxing, packed up our things, and in the morning headed home. We were happy to see our boy (who didn't even miss us at all) but it was good to see him and be home. I really loved the Gulf Shores and hope to be back someday!