(ALMOST!) 36 week update

Just under 36 weeks in this photo. Apparently I wear this sweater a lot!

How big is baby? Y'all! Baby is only about a week away from being FULL TERM! As my doctor reminded me at my 34-week appointment, if I go into labor now, they aren't going to try to stop it. Whhaaaat? BabyCenter says baby is about 6 lbs and more than 18.5 inches long. Cra-to-the-zy. I do not know how the weeks have flown by like this!

Weight gain/loss: At my last doctor's appointment, I had put on a little over two pounds in two weeks, which I know is right on track for this stage of pregnancy. So I believe I'm JUST under 20 pounds total gained during this pregnancy. My goal at the outset was to keep it below 30, so with just four to six weeks left, I think (?!?!) I should be okay!  

Sleep: Oh, goodness. Well. In short, it's fine. I am taking a sleeping pill (just Benadryl) every night now, otherwise I wake up at 3 a.m. and am unable to go back to sleep. Even though Benadryl is supposed to be harmless and non-habit-forming, I don't like having to to take medicine while pregnant, especially not nightly. And Benadryl can decrease milk supply after the baby is here, so I made sure with my doctor that it wouldn't affect anything now, even though I'm taking it in late pregnancy. So I'm sleeping without waking from about 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, which is soooo nice. But since we're on the topic of sleep, I have to share a Ford story. I was able to find a reasonably priced hotel room less than 24 hours before Brad's big marathon in Austin last weekend... Brad had planned to stay with my brother since hotel rooms had been $400+ per night, due to the long weekend, Valentine's Day and the marathon... but we lucked out, and Ford and I packed and piled into the car with only about an hour to go before Brad was leaving! SUPER last-minute. I was conscious of Brad having to get a really good night of sleep before his race, and Ford is a very noisy sleeper. I asked the front desk when we checked in if they had any suites available. The answer, predictably, was "no," so we resigned ourselves to a night of sleeping in the same room as Ford. He does fine sleeping in new places, but he's just noisy! The hotel put a real crib in our room, not a pack n play, and Ford was NOT a fan. He saw it and just started saying, "No. No no. No no no." That was our first clue that this was going to be an interesting night. We all went to bed at the same time, about 8:30 p.m., and Ford just kept popping his head up in the dark room and saying "Mama! Dada!" very gleefully and playfully. He knew we were there even though we were completely silent! After about 30 minutes of that, we heard a giant "THUD!" then wailing. We scrambled to flip on the lights and saw Ford splayed out on his belly, about four feet away from the crib (which was on the lowest-to-the-floor setting!!!), narrowly missing a couch and a coffee table. I can only assume that he somehow perched himself atop the rail and flying-squirreled his little body out of the crib. Wild man. He was totally fine and happy once I picked him up off the floor, thank God. So he slept in our bed the rest of the night, which hasn't happened since he was probably four weeks old (and even then, he was in a co-sleeper attached to our bed, not in the bed itself). Somehow he managed to kick me and Brad BOTH all night long. I must have slept a couple of hours, but I don't know when or how. Poor Brad hardly slept at all, yet he still managed to get a super fast time in his half marathon, placing in about the top 8 percent of runners! But ohhhh my Fordly. Such a wildebeest. 

Movement: Feeling like it's late in the game... Movements are less dramatic. Rather than kicks and punches, it's lots of nudges and little tiny squirms. She likes to push downward really hard... Yeeowch!

Symptoms: Nothing very interesting or new. Feeling pretty good for ~36 weeks.

Belly button: Top part is still out!And I'm not even trying to tape it down anymore. Haha.

Food cravings: Oh goodness, no real cravings, but I have lost my nesting urge to the point where I would eat out for every meal if I could, rather than fix something myself. And when I do make food, which is actually fairly often since I've been helping Brad eat well for his race, I just don't want it for some reason. I'd rather eat Chicken McNuggets than homemade beef brisket or flounder in Cajun veggie sauce. Maybe it's a weird aversion because I've seen the protein raw? I really can't put my finger on it. I am just eating a lot of fruit, crackers and cheese, almond butter and jelly sandwiches, and frozen packaged food. 

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! Still no name. Honest.
What I miss? I feel like I have definitely reached the HUGE stage of pregnancy. I am getting a little self conscious about how big I am. Mostly it's frustrating to have to squeeze when walking between a chair and a wall at a restaurant, for example, and picking toys up off the floor has become more cumbersome. Not much longer before I start to shrink, though. Yay!   

What I'm looking forward to? So much! I mentioned I have lost the nesting urge, which is unfortunate since the nursery is only about halfway done, and the half that is done is purely aesthetic. Closet still needs to get in order, which will be interesting. I'm looking forward to having all of that stuff ready. I mentioned in my last update that I'm looking forward to the wedding of my BFF, Michelle. She is officially married off now! I had so much fun at her wedding... it was such a joyful, Spirit-filled night. Here are a few photos from the reception.

Big Brother: My sweet boy, so entertaining and curious. He's turning into a really big ham. He loves to smile for pictures, dance in public whenever he hears music, wave and say "hi" to everyone he sees... He's also struggling with processing frustration well. Lots of screaming and throwing toys or flailing limbs when something doesn't go as he wishes. We've also had a handful of very public meltdowns over the last couple of weeks. I'm wrestling with how to discipline him well and keep my pride in check. That is, not getting frustrated because he's embarrassing me, but instead working on training him because God demands that he obeys his parents, and that the state of his heart is more important than the raised eyebrow of the grandmother down the grocery aisle from us. One little mom-brag, if you'll indulge me: today he "read" most of Hop on Pop to me! Not the whole thing (he didn't say stuff like "Will is up hill still" or "I sent him out of the tent"), but he would say "Pup Cup," "House Mouse," "Wet Get" and everything on the right pages! Yay for literacy! ;)