(Almost) 33 week update

How big is baby? According to BabyCenter.com, a little over 4 pounds and more than 17 inches long!

Weight gain/loss: Had a doctor's appointment this morning! I have managed to gain 5.4 pounds in the last four weeks. Yeeps! Considering I had gained 12 pounds total at my last appointment, that 5+ pound gain is a 45 percent increase in my total weight gain, now that I'm up to 17+ pounds. Double yeeps! My doctor was standing right next to the scale when the nurse weighed me, and like a child, the first words out of my mouth when I saw the number on the scale were, "I don't like that!" (P.S. What is wrong with me??) So he laughed and said I was right on track. I said, "It doesn't bother you that I've increased my total weight gain almost 50 percent in the span of four weeks?" to which he replied that I was due for a growth spurt. Then I joked, "Maybe I need to give up my daily whole milk yogurt indulgence," and he sort of balked and said, "Oh yeah! There's a lot of butterfat in that!" Ha. So I guess it's back to reduced fat for me. Whoops. 

Sleep: All over the place! Some nights are fine, other nights are inexplicably restless. I had my worst night of this pregnancy on Saturday. No barfing or sickness or anything, I just could not get to sleep. I finally took a sleeping pill at 3 a.m. and fell asleep a little after 6 a.m. Brad took over Ford duty in the morning, and I slept until 9:30 a.m., which was nice, but still only about three hours of sleep. 

Movement: Getting really predictable in her movement patterns. Busy during the wee hours of the morning, for a few hours in the middle of the day, and again around 7 - 10 p.m. I'm guessing she's sleeping the rest of the time.

Symptoms: Nothing new! No more contractions since my last update, thank goodness. I'm hungrier in the mornings now, if that's a symptom!

Belly button: Top part is still out! No stretch marks or linea nigra this go around. I still have seven (or more!) weeks though! 

Food cravings: Nothing in particular! Brad's training for a race in mid-February, so we've been eating pretty healthy, including a lot of high protein meals. The Gaultneys are big-time carnivores these days.

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! No progress on the name front. My doctor asked me this morning if we had one yet (he asks me that at every appointment), and I told him no. He suggested, very seriously, Maxine, saying we could call her Maxi. Now, no offense to those of you with loved ones named Maxine, but Maxi is not on my shortlist of names. So I laughed and told him to keep thinking, and he said it's a great Latin name, not too common, sounds good with our last name... Then he checked the baby's heartrate, which was at 120 and on the low end of normal, which the old wives say means the baby is a boy. Dr. N said, "Nevermind, sounds more like a Maximus than a Maxine!"
What I miss? Not much! Again, just trying to exercise a lot of gratitude for our blessings, and remembering that all we have is just on loan from the Lord. Many friends are going through hardships, including illness and loss, and it's pretty-perspective changing to see those around you dealing with those kinds of valleys.  

What I'm looking forward to? Picking a name?? No, there's lots to look forward to! Getting the nursery together, the wedding of my best friend in less than two weeks (!!!), Tuesday date nights... All good things.

Big Brother: Just a love! He's really into ABCs right now... flash cards, foam bath letters, ABC books, his Sesame Street "Letter of the Month Club" video, but most of all his Leap Frog Fridge Phonics toy. I swear, he is teaching himself the letters and sounds of the alphabet through it. And he's 17 months old! So far he has nailed M, B, O, X, and J, and he gets other letters right occasionally (A, C, I...). I'm not pushing this at all, by the way. He'll point excitedly to signs and say the letter, run up to me with one of the letter fridge magnets and say, "M!" or whatever... It's just so sweet to see his enthusiasm for learning! He is still definitely testing boundaries... for example, one of the "no nos" in our house is climbing on the fireplace. So he'll put one foot up on the fireplace, check to see if we're watching, smile and say, "No no!" It's hard to know how to respond to that. I usually say, "That's right, Ford, climbing on the fireplace is a no no. Take your foot off the fireplace, please." And 60 percent of the time, he'll obey. But then there's about 40 percent of the time that he either keeps his foot there, or adds a hand to the fireplace as well, which necessitates parental intervention (most often, a hand spanking). I know these are very small "battles," but it's all part of the process of shepherding his heart toward a God-orientation! Just so much fun to be able to interact with him right now and know he's engaged and understanding what I'm saying.