baby bump: 29 weeks

How far along:  29 weeks.

Size of baby:  Acorn squash.

Maternity clothes:  I feel pretty great about the one day, one store, one purchase maternity shopping that I did back in September.  Between the two pairs of jeans I got ("skinny" and boot cut), countless short sleeve and long sleeve v-necks, a few dressy shirts, and two sweaters, I think I did a pretty good job.  I'm still able to squeeze fit into my work out pants/capris for exercise which is nice. 

Weight gain:  Why do I put this question on here every week?  Yes, I've gained 20 pounds or so.  I'm right on track and I need to be happy about these 20 pounds!  

Sleep:  My sleeping positions aren't very different than my non-pregnant sleep positions.  I do miss sleeping on my stomach though. 

Exercise:  Yes. 

Best WORST moment(s) of the week:  It just wasn't the greatest week in the books.  I took the 1 hour gestational diabetes test on Wednesday and failed.  Womp, womp.  I got really bothered and upset about it.  I know it's common for people to fail the 1 hour test but pass the 3 hour test but it still made me obsess over my "failure".  When the nurse called to tell me I failed, her tone seemed like I had just failed at my entire pregnancy thus far.  "Well, your blood sugar was a little hiiiiigh.  She might ask you to watch your carbs and sugars".  Then I began thinking about my diet.  I've had ice cream like 3 times and try and stay away from junk food.  My typical daily diet consists of mixed berry smoothies made with plain greek yogurt, whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter, greek yogurt and almonds for lunch with apples, clementines, and carrots, and then dinner plus a huge dark green salad.  Where else could I possibly cut?  (Minus the occasional weekend splurge).  So basically I worried about that the rest of the week and was paranoid about everything I ate.  

Ehren went out of town Friday after work  and the next morning I was at the hospital before 6 a.m. to do my stupid fasting 3 hour gestational diabetes test.  I just wanted to get it over with so I could eat again.  After consuming what seemed like a concentrated Sprite and getting blood drawn 4 times, I was done.  But could they tell me my results?  No, of course not.  I would have to obsess wait until Monday to find out.  I looked like a heroine addict with bruised antecubital fossas.  By the way, I'm still not sure if I passed or not. 

Movement:  Feeling her move was the best part of the week.  Despite being an emotional wreck because of other things going on during the week, she reminded me that all of this testing and worrying is just to make sure she will be okay.  She's pretty good at keeping me in check. 

Cravings:  Thinking I could never have carbs or sugars again made me crave… carbs and sugars.  But I still behaved and ate pretty well. 

Belly button in or out:  I just hope it goes back in someday...

Wedding ring on or off:  Occasionally my hands get a little swollen but washing them in cold water usually helps.  Otherwise, I take my ring off as soon as I get home so that it doesn't bother me. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  It's so funny to read on message boards and pregnancy websites about the drinks you have to consume in 5 minutes for the GD test.  Reading all those women complain about how horrible and nasty they are started to make me worry that I wouldn't be able to get them down without throwing up.  Mind you, I've been lucky and haven't had any aversions or morning sickness like most women have.  Honestly?  The one hour drink tasted like fruit punch with a hint of cough syrup - not bad.  The three hour drink tasted like Sprite that sat out and evaporated leading to concentrated lemon-lime pop - still not bad.  I mean, I wouldn't drink any of these drinks for fun but they weren't anything to write home about.  Wait, does blogging count as "writing home"?

What I miss:  Carbs.  Just kidding. 

What I am looking forward to:  Finding out my results (pass or fail) so I can move on with my life.  That and going to our 3D ultrasound on Monday!  I hope she cooperates so we can see her face. 

What I am not looking forward to:  Playing the waiting game. 

Labor signs:  I have contractions here and there but they aren't labor signs.  My uterus is just practicing.  It is a weird feeling though when all of a sudden I have "abs of steel" (I guess more like uterus of steel) and I have no control over it.  I guess that just means this little girl is already taking over my life whether I like it or not. 

Symptoms:  Every emotional symptom happened this week.  

Nursery:  Trim and walls are painted!

Emotions:  Just like she kicks me when I start worrying and stressing, on Monday she's going to remind us that she really is in my belly (and is really going to make an appearance in March) when we see her face on the ultrasound screen.  And then of course when she's really here, she will be reminding us every 5-10 minutes by crying and pooping and eating and burping and making our lives miserable joyous.  :)

Week in review:

I hope our child has our dog's eating habits as opposed to mine when I was little.  Cozy loves all things healthy.  When we're eating dinner we'll give him edamame, kale chips, baby carrots, bits of apples, etc.  He practically begs for these nutritious foods like they are hot dogs.  One time I had a Cheeto (a craving… don't judge) and I tossed him one.  He inspected it, sniffed it, licked it and then looked at me like, "what the hell is this processed, hydrogenated, neon orange crap?"  Lesson learned: if a dog wouldn't eat it, I probably shouldn't be eating it.  

Anyway, at 11 o'clock at night one night, I decided I needed an apple.  Cozy cozied right up to me to guarantee a few bites.  See how he's trying to give me a shoulder rub to persuade me?  

We started painting our stairs (more on that in a later post) and we had to paint every other stair.  The paint we used requires 16 hours between coats and then 3-5 days before setting anything on it  - as in our feet and Cozy's.  Since Cozy exceeds my lifting "restriction" Ehren had to be the one to carry him up and down the stairs every morning and night.  Cozy was so confused.  (Pardon Ehren's thigh, it was 6 in the morning and I made him get out of bed to start working on projects he just rolled out of bed).  I don't know if I've ever laughed this hard, this early in the morning. 

For Christmas I got my mom a scone baking pan and a scone cook book.  She had my sister and me over for scones and addressing baby shower invitations on Sunday morning.  

Blueberry scones… a hit!

I've got my own Dooms Day Prepping going on at my house.  We are using our Home Depot gift cards we got for Christmas to buy a deep freezer.  I plan on hoarding making lots of dinners so that when we're exhausted and hungry, we won't have to wonder "what's for dinner?" in a hypoglycemic rage.  What?  Don't you have those?

That's a lot of meat. 

Ehren made little pouches for star anise and cloves for one of the crock pot recipes.  It looked like he was doing arts and crafts. 

The polar vortex came to visit so we just set the food out on the deck to freeze. 

Cozy brought his friends (Kermie and Marbles) up to the nursery and then looked at me like, "Oh, you're painting... again?"

We went to the dog park which was either muddy or icy depending on where you were walking.  For some reason Cozy was rolling in the snow like it was a dead animal.  There was no dead animal.  Except for the 2 foot long dead squirrel he came out of the woods with in his mouth.  He looked so proud. 

See what I mean about the mud? 

Bath time!