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Week 31 Milestones: Weight for baby is up to abuot 3lbs, 5oz. His eyes are beginning to track movement. My Journal: With all the excitement of Halloween, this past week and weekend have just flown by! My little "fairy princess" had fun Trick-or-Treating, and is enjoying her purple-streaked hair (yikes). We dressed "the baby" up as a pumpkin by putting a pumpkin on my belly. Which ended up being very appropriate because apparently my belly is slightly bigger than our pumpkin was this year! Harmony had to measure all sorts of things about her pumpkin for school (for her "pumpkin math" booklet),.and one of the exercises was to measure the circumfrence. Well, the pumpkin was 113cm and I beat it by another 2cm! It was very weird to look at the pumpkin and think about my belly being that huge (especially looking inside the pumpkin - definitely room for a tiny baby in there!). With Halloween over, this means that's it now November! And believe it or not, almost all of the things on my "To Do by the end of October" list have been accomplished! I went for one final trip to the mall last weekend and got the last presents I needed to buy for Paul, and picked up another one for Harmony. So all of my Christmas shopping is done (thank goodness, because the mall is getting worse and worse!). We also finished up all the important baby shopping. Sears was having their "Baby Days" sale, which only happens a couple times a year, so we picked up the last of the essentials that we need (and saved about $50 because of the sale!). Now Paul can go after Christmas to get all the little extras and things we don't need to have ready until after Avery is born, and we can leave all the "older baby" stuff until Spring, no rush. I also mailed off the hospital pre-registration papers this past week, and have already sent the cheque for our pre-natal course. Avery's things for the hospital are ready, right down to the sterilized soother and newly-washed socks and cap. My hospital bag is about half-packed, but many of the things can't be packed until the the last minute anyways (like my contact case and glasses). The birth plan is written, although I may make some changes after we've had our hospital info session and the pre-natal classes. So now I feel like the crazy schedule we have in November can feel free to arrive because I'll be ready for it now - and maybe in between Christmas and birthday portrait sessions, Harmony's and Paul's birthday parties, our prenatal classes, etc., I'll have a chance to have a few rests. I don't know if this is good news or bad news, but it does look like I got everything done "just in time". I have been slowing down gradually for the past month, and this weekend it feels like I really crossed over some threshold of what I am able to do. Everyday things are becoming more and more of an effort now, including getting up the stairs and even getting up off the couch sometimes! After the final baby shopping and Christmas shopping trips, I was just exhausted! I had to sit down quite a few times at the mall and found myself really uncomfortable all day. I also fear that the time has come for me to hang up my car keys except for essential trips. The experience of driving the car has switched over from being uncomfortable to being downright painful at times. Short trips aren't too bad (especially if the baby stays asleeps), but if I'm driving for more than 10 minutes, my belly gets very sore and Avery usually wakes up by then and starts to protest by poking and shoving in the too-cramped space. I tried to drive myself to a friend's house on Saturday night but just couldn't make it that far. I ended up calling Paul on my cell in tears telling him I was just coming home instead. Even being a passenger in the car isn't so fun anymore, especially for longer trips. So I'm just going to be staying close to home as much as possible now. Obviously I still have to bring myself to my Dr.s appointments and things like that (groceries may not be too bad either since the store is close by), but I'll try to leave most of the driving up to Paul from now on, or just stay at home completely. Test Results/Ultrasounds/Appointments: My 30 week appointment went well. Avery's heartbeat was fine (148, so almost the same as last time), and my blood pressure was also fine. I asked my OB a lot of questions related to the delivery and afterwards, like how soon I'll be able to hold the baby, etc. and it is looking good. The hospital tries to allow the parents to be with their newborn almost 100% of the time for the first 24 hours, so I'm really glad about that. This means either Paul or I will be able to be there for any of the tests and procedures they have to do. If I'm able to have a vaginal birth, I think pretty much everything is done right in the birthing room. For the C-section, they would have to take the baby from the OR to the nursery, but Paul would be able to be there the whole time. One thing that my OB told me really stuck in my head though... I had been assuming my chances of still being pregnant on the 29th were much better than having the baby early because of the averages of when women in general have their babies (5% on the duedate, 80% within 2 weeks on either side, etc.). But she told me that the fact that I went into labour with Harmony at 38 weeks actually increases the chances of going into labour that early with this baby. So it looks like my odds are actually 50/50 of making it to the Cesarean date! I'm actually pretty happy with that, since it was such a difficult decision to make, and now it kind of leaves the choice up to fate! Although it seems like even fate has chosen the timing of everything so far anyways: It made perfect sense to have a C-section booked, because it does seem to be the safest option for both Avery and I. So when it came down to considering those options, it's hard to say how much of a decision that truly was. Then as for the timing - it's not like we really "chose" the date either... I couldn't do it right at 38.5 weeks because of Christmas holidays. I wouldn't want to do it much later than the 29th (6 days before my due date!) because he would likely come on his own by then, which would defeat the purpose of the Cesarean. And I would not want to do it any earlier than the 38.5 weeks my OB recommends because I wouldn't want him to come out before he was ready. So fate has kind of selected the date as well! It would be so strange if he decided to come on his own on the 25th-28th, because it would mean that had we been pregnant at any other time of year, he would have already been born via C-section by that stage of the pregnancy since Christmas would not have interfered with the standard C-section at 38.5 weeks. So it seems as though things have just fallen into place in such a way that it really couldn't have happened any other way! I'm sure Paul and I will have one of our usual philosophical determinism vs. free will debates on the timing of Avery's birth. For now, we'll wait and see what fate decides! Physical: Well, I guess I had better get used to this new sleep pattern as well as all those aches and pains because they are here to stay and seem to be getting worse. We thought the time change might help with my waking up so early and not being able to get back to sleep, but now I am just waking up even earlier (2 or 3am). Instead of falling back asleep, I just kind of doze and drift for another few hours without really sleeping. My naptimes have been like this lately too - I've been able to "catnap" with some awareness of my surroundings and thought patterns without really being fully asleep. So the only real sleep I'm getting each night seems to be from 10pm to 2 or 3 am. I'm already becoming adjusted to being in a constant foggy state of sleep deprivation though, so maybe I will just be well-prepared for the newborn days (when I'll be getting even less solid sleep and relying more on those catnap-ish little rests in between feedings). Part of what's keeping me awake is just trying to get comfortable in bed. My hips have been really sore lately, and the back-aches are continuing. Avery seems to still be trying to get comfortable too, which is often uncomfortable for me! Poor little guy seems to be tossing and turning as much as I am at night, and rolling into different positions. He has also had the hiccups a lot this week, so I don't know how comfy those are for him either! I think we're both starting to feel like space is a premium right now and we're trying to cope with that as best we can! Weight Gain/Food: Well, I am up my what I'd hoped would be my total weight gain - 20lbs. But with only 8 weeks or less to go, I haven't been too upset. Although I've heard that you can expect to gain a pound per week in the last couple months of pregnancy, I'm hoping to be on the lower end of that average and maybe only get up to a 25lb gain. I know I tried (and am trying) my best, and that the weight I have gained has been pretty healthy (okay, except maybe for the Halloween candy I've been eating this week), so I'm okay with having hit the big 20. The not-so-great news in this section is that with driving getting so difficult, I will have to stop going to prenatal aquafit earlier than expected. It was great exercise and was helping keep my weight gain at a slow and steady pace, but I just can't get behind the wheel for driving out to the pool every week - especially the drive back since I'm already tired after the 45 minutes in the pool! So hopefully the little walks I take will be enough exercise to keep things stable and not have my weight shoot right up all of a sudden. Emotional: If there weren't a ton of pregnancy hormones affecting my emotional state, I'd really be wondering what was wrong with me! Anything can set me off these days, and then I'll just be in tears! I saw my first Christmas commercial last night and just start bawling, even through my laughter. The laughing was because it was a Canadian Tire commercial, for goodness sake! I mean, sure, a sappy Hallmark commercial setting me off, I could understand, but Canadian Tire? Sheesh. And of course the driving thing has had me very depressed - I missed out on seeing my friends because I just couldn't "make it" that far. Then just worrying about all the things I would miss out on and places I wouldn't be able to go had me really depressed over the weekend. Of course Paul is trying to make me feel better by telling me it's okay because he's there to drive my places, but he knows I hate the whole "other people looking after me" thing - I'm usually the one looking after everyone else. So it has been kind of upsetting for me to realize that there's a lot of things I can't do right now, and won't be able to do for quite a few months, and that I have to start letting other people help out a little (which is something I'm really not used to!).
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