(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.

Forgot to mention!

I forgot to share some news in my last post! Not really news, but an update worth sharing, I guess. I am an official "ultrasound volunteer" at a community college downtown, and I've gone in a couple of times to get scanned by ultrasound techs-in-training. So I went when I was 30 weeks + 5 days and got a peek at the sweetest little baby! When I say peek, I really mean peek... She was covering her face with BOTH HANDS, as if she were playing peek-a-boo. It was frustrating for all of us, because we were using the 4D technology, and everyone wanted to see her face, but she was being COMPLETELY camera shy! Ford was born with a sucking blister on his wrist... He had literally sucked on his wrist so often and furiously in utero that he gave himself a blister. I wonder if baby girl will end up sucking on her hands or wrist too, since she clearly likes them in front of her face!

So the two pieces of info that I gleaned from the last ultrasound were this:

• She has hair! I could clearly see wisps of hair on the back of her head. Hooray! 
• She is measuring more or less right on track, but her head is about a week ahead of her body. Ha! This should be no surprise, as anyone who followed my pregnancy with Ford may remember he has had a giant head from the start. And he still has a bulbous (95th percentile +) head. And Brad and I have huge heads.

That's it for tonight! Guess we'll know what she looks like soon enough... Less than two months, if she decides to come on/before her due date. Ahhh! 

32 Week Update

How big is baby? According to BabyCenter.com, almost 4 pounds and 17 inches! That is probably more than half her birth weight, and just 2 or 3 inches to go until she's at her likely length. Crazytown.

Weight gain/loss: My next doctor's appointment is a week from tomorrow, but I'm guessing I'm up a couple of pounds since I last weighed. So maybe 14 or 15 total pounds gained?  

Sleep: As with the last time I updated, sleep is still unpredictable! I've been taking diphenhydramine HCl (Benadryl) if I can tell it's going to be a rough night. I've had a few nights recently when I'll wake up at 3 a.m. and just not be able to turn my brain off and go back to sleep (miserable). I should be grateful that it's not discomfort that's keeping me up, but I still chalk it up to pregnancy, because my mind is racing with things I need/want to do, projects I want to take on, thinking of meals I should make/freeze, etc. Then I'll have a random night like last night, where I fell asleep at 10:30 and slept like a ROCK until 6:30, no Benadryl required. That was nice! 

Movement: Still kicking and punching often. Earlier I think I had written that she was just as busy as Ford in utero, but I take that back. She's chilled out a ton. Ford was like a wildcat in a potato sack the whole time he was incubating. This one has strong, frequent movements, but not constant. 

Symptoms: Oh, you know. Still leg discomfort due to the weird circulation issues. Then here's something weird. I don't think I have ever felt a Braxton Hicks contraction (lucky me!), but I'm pretty sure I had some REAL contractions yesterday. I was one contraction away from calling my doctor on the way to the hospital! We go on family walks as often as we can -- daily when the weather is nice. We were taking advantage of the gorgeous weekend weather, walking around our neighborhood with Ford in the stroller. Then in an uncanny series of events, we found ourselves with a runaway stroller, and Ford (who was tightly strapped in, praise the Lord!), ended up hitting the curb HARD with his forehead, with the weight of the stroller crashing down on him. It was just a wild accident, and HORRIFYING to watch. He is fine now, but has a little goose egg on his forehead. About 10 minutes after the accident, back at the house, I felt a really strong, super painful (couldn't talk through it) contraction that lasted at least a minute. It was enough to really worry Brad, though in the moment I was thinking it must just be my first BH contraction. Google, however, assured me that BH contractions aren't supposed to be that painful, so I went to lie down just in case. Then, about 10 minutes later, another REALLY strong and painful contraction. And then another one 10 minutes after that! Brad was trying to convince me to go to Baylor to get checked out, so I told him if I had one more contraction before 5:30, I'd at least call my doctor's office. Fortunately, I haven't had another contraction. I think it ended up being just triggered by the stress of seeing Ford fall like that. I'm honestly not worried about it at this point and just planning to take it easy and low-stress until Baby Girl is fully baked!

Belly button: Top part is out, bottom part is in. Such a weird little belly button. I realized this week that I don't have linea nigra like I did with Ford. Wonder why?? Pregnancy is so weird and random.

Food cravings: Nothing to speak of this week. I am trying to stay away from diet soda after the Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry bender, so I'm drinking lots of sparkling water with lemon or a splash of orange juice. In one sitting, I ate a bunch of Texas Trash that my grandmother made for me. I think I'm preferring salty stuff lately, though a recent visit by MeeMee (my mom) means I have lots of delicious sweets to enjoy! And enjoying them I am! 

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! Still stumped on the name. I actually thought we had one nailed, but Brad told me yesterday he's rethinking it. Ahhh. She will eventually have a name! Sidenote, there are a LOT of initials that are pretty horrible with the last initial G. I was liking one name and realized the initials would spell VAG! Nooooooooooo.
What I miss? Not much! Just focusing on being grateful. 

What I'm looking forward to? Knowing what will happen with our house. We've had a TON of showings over the last nine weeks that it's been on the market, but still no contracts. We've even had lots of second showings, and a couple of people say our house is at the top of their list, but they want to keep looking. I want to be able to start organizing Ford and Baby Girl's shared closet, really getting going on the nursery (sewing some bedding, moving the printer, scanner and router into the closet, and the like), and even rearranging or replacing some of the furniture in our den. There's just no point until I know if the house is selling or not. Listing ends Jan. 31, so we'll see!

Big Brother: Such a sweetheart these days. He definitely has his dramatic toddler moments, but ohhh, how I am just cherishing him at this sweet, brief stage of his childhood. He is loving playing with his cars and stuffed animals (really using his imagination!!!), reading books, ABC-related activities (ABC magnets, bath toys, books, flash cards, the ABC song) and he's fanatical over anything Elmo. He is crazy friendly, waving and saying "hi" to every other person we see in the grocery store. He's showing lots of signs of being ready for potty training, but at 17 months, I think he's just too young. And his world is about to change with a new sibling, so I don't want to rock the boat. I love how verbal he's becoming, so I can start to understand how he sees the world. One morning last week, he was following me around the house as I was getting ready for the day, and he stopped cold in his tracks right outside our hall bath. He held his hands up and started clutching at the air, saying his word for "stars," which sounds a lot like "taws." I was stumped for a minute, trying to figure out what he was doing... then I realized that the light streaming through the bathroom window was illuminating the multitude of little dust particles floating in the air. My sweet baby boy was looking at the dust and thinking they were little stars! OH, how I wanted to scoop that precious little life up and hold him tight! Still don't think he has any idea that we're going to add to our family in a couple of months, but he is starting to respond a little more when we talk to him about it. If we say, "Ford, do you want a little sister?" he'll say, "Baby?" and if Brad says, "Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" Ford will squeal, "Belly button!" and try to lift up my shirt (ha).

Doctor's appointment a week from tomorrow. Every two weeks from now on!!!!

Random Updates

Me at 29 weeks and some change. Now I think I'm 30 weeks.

Random updates tonight! Thanks to friends like SIL Brittney and Alicia for reminding me to blog! I need you guys to keep the encouragement coming or it will never happen. 

Health
I wasn't able to update after my doctor's appointment last Thursday! Baby seems to be doing great, based on the measurements and her heartbeat. Just a very quick appointment. My weight gain for this pregnancy is 12 pounds (a gain of four pounds since my previous appointment in November), which is SO much less than it was with Ford at this point, but somehow I still feel bigger. And slower. I think Baby Girl must be lying funny inside. At church tonight, whatever she was doing was HURTING me! My legs are really killing me these days too. Well, most days, anyway. Besides the big spider vein on my right calf, I now have what I think are the beginnings of a tiny varicose vein on the back of my left knee. BOOOO. Ugly and painful. And this is despite wearing compression stockings every single day.

I hope I don't sound too negative! I'm grateful to be in very good health, and especially grateful that baby seems to be growing well. There's just some weird circulation things going on, with ugly and painful results that will keep me out of skirts and dresses for longer than I want. But in the scheme of things, if that's what it takes to grow a healthy girl, then so be it! 

Nursery
When we found out we were expecting, the nursery thing all seemed so simple. We'd transition Ford to a bed, use his crib for new baby, then have new baby and Ford share a room. Then it became abundantly clear that Ford's crib is as much a necessary cage as it is a place to sleep. Homeboy would never sleep if we didn't have a crib. He literally piles all of his blankets and lovies into a corner of his crib and tries to MacGuyver his way out. And I just can't handle him getting out of bed 10 times a night when we have a newborn. Plus, 19 months (the age he will be when baby is due) is on the young side for sleeping in a "big boy bed," although it has certainly been done!

So then I thought, "Okay, two cribs in one nursery. That will actually be really cute." Then Brad reminded me of how Ford was up literally every hour for the first couple of months of his life, then every two or three hours, and finally sleep trained by seven months. And despite the occasional night terrors, Ford is actually a pretty amazing night sleeper now. We don't really want to rock the boat by making him share a room with a screaming newbie. Soooo... I'm converting our guest room/office/craft room into a nursery. While I hate to lose such a multipurpose space, there are only so many rooms in our house, and she will need her own space -- at least for a while.

I'm approaching this so much differently than I did with Ford -- for whom I did moodboards, went furniture shopping, tested paint colors, brought home fabric swatches -- I want it to be a nice room for her, and something I can love and be proud of, but I don't want to spend much money or time (refinishing furniture, etc.) on a space that may be an office/craft room again in six to 12 months. So I'm not painting (although I think a large-scale wallpapered or stenciled wall would be amazeballs), and I'm not even really changing around the stuff on the walls. I am changing out the curtain, moving the desk out (we have a built-in in the living room that will work for a laptop desk), moving the printer, scanner, router, etc. into the closet, and adding a crib with some cute/sweet linens. But that's more or less all I'm going to do. I'm even leaving our futon in there, since I figure it may actually come in handy for me. She and Ford will have to share a closet (since the current office closet is full of necessary office supplies and linens), but fortunately the closets in this house are HUGE, so I'm not tooooo worried about it (famous last words??).

Weirdly lit picture of Baby Girl's curtain, a jury-rigged IKEA Emmie roll shade with coral ribbon trim added and new ties.

Full disclosure, our house is actually on the market now -- since mid-November -- but our listing only goes until January 31 (exactly 2.5 months). We have had a TON of showings, and 100% of the feedback we are getting is enormously positive and along the lines of, "Buyers loved the home!" "This is currently our #1 choice," and "Clients are very interested," yet we haven't had a single offer. My guess is that we're just priced out of the neighborhood. It's easily the most updated home in our neighborhood, so most people have the option of buying our updated, move-in-ready home, or spending $30k less and buying one that has 1960s shag carpet and wallpaper, then updating it as they choose (if they wish). Brad and I are completely at peace with the house NOT selling, if it goes that way. We've just been praying that God will give us confidence in whatever happens. There are a ton of reasons to love staying here, and this house has been a tremendous blessing to us!

Nesting
I don't want to go on and on about how superwomany I feel right now, but I am on a "creating" bender right now. Sewing, cooking, cleaning, baking... Pregnancy turns me CRAZY when it comes to Martha Stewart-esque enterprises. In just the last week I have made a large pouf from scratch, a baby girl headband, hemmed and patched clothes that have been waiting for hems and patches for a good year, made homemade yogurt and granola, made coconut cream pie "Lara balls," made freezer meals and paleo/primal-friendly meals almost every night, made a curtain for baby girl's room, cooked homemade play dough, cleaned and organized closets, boxed up more toys and books for our toy rotation, cleaned the house every single day (part of that has to do with the house being on the market), taken Ford on lots of fun outings... and that's not even all of it. And I'm still working part-time, albeit not a ton. When I'm in my third trimester, I'm basically the person I WANT to be every single day of my life, productivity-wise.

Pouf in Baby Girl's nursery colors, gray and coral

Milestones
I put on my first maternity jeans of this pregnancy yesterday! I just reached a point where I was getting tired of all my low-rise jeans and thought I was starting to look dumpy. I was getting ready and realized, "You know what? You will look more put-together in your maternity jeans." And so I put them on and there was much rejoicing. But the belly band thing keeps rolling down and causing my pants to drop, so that's an unfortunate look. I just have to keep hiking them up. I will say this: American Apparel leggings have become my best friend.

After my next doctor's appointment, I will start going every other week! It's hard to believe. Everything is flying by so fast. And there's a lot to look forward to between now and then, including the wedding of my best friend, visits to Dallas by dear family, a half marathon (BRAD, not me!), Valentine's Day... and then so much to anticipate around Baby Girl's "birthday" too, including my brother Brett's birthday (March 23), my grandmother's birthday (March 26), our "meet-iversary" (March 21) and our "engage-iversary" (March 24).

That's it for tonight! Thanks for hanging on with such a random bunch of updates!

Poor baby Ford unknowingly trying on his sister's homemade headband, which he called "hat."

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!