29 week update

Whoops! Has it really been three weeks since I posted? I expected to have lots of down time in Boerne over the holidays, but with desserts to be made, friends and family to be visited, and babies to be chased -- not to mention a wee one with a stomach bug that delayed our travel plans -- it has been Crazytown over here. Apologies for the delay!

 

How big is baby? My weekly BabyCenter.com email tells me Baby Girl is 15 inches long and 2.5 pounds! I also learned this week that her head is "growing rapidly" at this stage of pregnancy. Super news. We Gaultneys have large-headed babies as it is, so I will thank her to just take her time on that head growth thing! Ford's head circumference has been 95 percentile or above from the start!

Weight gain/loss: Okay, not so fun answering this question this week! I don't know the answer -- it has been more than five weeks since my last doctor visit (doc took a little time off for the holidays) -- but it can't be good. I ate so much over Christmas. The perils of staying at Nancy Thorne's house! I had one day where literally all I ate was chocolate and cheese. My bump is very bumpy lately! I will try to get a pic tonight or tomorrow and post it.  

Sleep: Totally unpredictable. Some nights I sleep like a rock, and other nights Baby Girl's kicking keeps me up for hours and hours. If I take a Benadryl I sleep pretty hard, but I don't want to make a habit of that. I do think I'm getting sleepier now that I'm in the third trimester. Not like "Omigosh, I have to take a nap RIGHT NOW," but like, "I could see myself going to bed at 9:30 tonight." Haha. 

Movement: Busy as can be! She's getting strong. I love feeling her kicks and punches and spazzes, even though sometimes they interfere with my ability to sleep. I remember missing feeling Ford's kicks once he was born. Is that weird? It's just a sweet part of pregnancy, I think.

Symptoms: Still soreness in my ugly, veiny right leg, but compression stockings (hot mom alert!) help. Dry skin for the last couple of weeks, although that may be due as much to the weather as to my hormones. And I'm just moving slower now that the belly is getting LARGE. But overall, I have VERY LITTLE to complain about! 

Belly button: The top little nub part is OUT! It's been an outtie since I was, I don't know, 15 weeks? Before I was even really showing. It popped way early with Ford too. I have had to tape it down a couple of times when I've worn tighter shirts. It's so distracting!

Food cravings: Nothing really strange. I did overindulge in my share of sweets/fatty foods over the holidays (see above re: 24 hours o' chocolate and cheese), so I'm trying to break that cycle. I'm certainly not always successful, but I made my own yogurt (!!!) the other day, and it is DELICIOUS with a little swizzle of honey and some homemade Paleo Apple Pie Granola, so that has become my go-to sweet treat. We did get In-N-Out the other day because the Animal Style fries were calling my name. Not sure I can file that under cravings, since I will never ever ever turn down an Animal Style fry. Just don't talk to me about the calories.

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! Name TBD, for those of you who were wondering. We were going to name her Kathleen Elizabeth, which is a huge family name on my side (there are four or five women with that name over the last few generations), then come up with a nickname off of Elizabeth, but we are totally stumped. Any time we'd find a nickname we liked, we made the mistake of telling someone who made no attempts to conceal how much they did not care for that name, or knew a person who got teased because of that name, etc. As much as I hate to admit how impressionable I am, those comments made ME like the name less. So we are back to the drawing board. We may end up with Kathleen Elizabeth as her name, or we may choose something totally different. But Brad and I have agreed to keep our cards close to the vest from here on out.
What I miss? Clothes shopping this week. I'm not a big shopper anyway, but ever since my non-maternity clothes got stolen out of our storage unit (did I tell you all about that?), I have wanted to start replenishing my wardrobe. It just doesn't make sense until I'm back to my normal size. I did get a bunch of gift cards for Christmas, and I look forward to shopping in late spring or summer!

What I'm looking forward to? Somehow this week the fact that we are going to be parents to a little GIRL became more real. My friend Katy had her second baby, Khloe, last week, and holding that angel at the hospital just made me so eager to hold my own little sweetheart! I'm also wanting to work on the nursery, although that will have to wait until our house sells and we buy another one, or we take our house off the market (we have a short term listing -- only until the end of this month). 

Big Brother: He has cooled down on the tantrums a bit since the last time I posted. He still has his moments, but he is my Number One Fan these days, which makes us synch up a little better right now. I love running errands with him or taking him on mommy/Ford dates, because he charms the heck out of everyone he sees. Seriously, his toothy, goofy smiles, his giant waves and enthusiastic exclamations of "HI!" to random strangers seem to make him very popular. And of course that makes me SO proud. He is also saying an insane number of words -- I have lost count. All in all, Brad and I are endlessly entertained by the little nugget. We're really trying to help him understand that there's going to be a baby at our house, we're going to get to keep the baby, he's going to be a big brother and that's an important job... We read books about babies, being a big brother, we point out babies when we are running errands and ask if he would like a baby... but I am pretty sure it's all lost on him. He does love babies, but I just don't think that there's a great way to prepare a 17-month-old for this type of gigantic life change. If you have any suggestions, I am open to them!

Doctor's appointment tomorrow... Hopefully I will be able to update then!