Some fun photos!

I thought it would be fun to add some "extra" photos of my pregnant friends and I, etc.

 This is my friend Aslan and I after our pedicures! She is 29 weeks and I am 25 weeks. Her little Sammy is due at the end of July! Aslan and I were both caregivers for Dorothy, though our families go "way back". Being pregnant together has been tons of fun.

Outie belly button!

One of my coworkers brought her 6-week old kitten Turtle to visit at work. People told me my belly looked HUGE in this picture. ;)

This is probably one of my all-time favorite photos. Apparently at Bible study there is a STRONG emphasis on being fruitful and multiplying! Our only non-pregnant friend, Heather, served as photographer. ;)

Ryn is 25 weeks, I am 29 weeks, Amanda is 27 weeks and Stacy is 37 weeks, scheduled to be induced two weeks from when this picture was taken! (I had apparently worn the wrong color that day since you can't really see my belly in front of the window.) As a little side note we are all having girls except for Stacy. :)

28 weeks

At the very beginning of week 28 we were nearly in a car accident (some guy left room for a truck to pull out of a parking lot but the truck apparently didn't deem it necessary to be able to SEE before he turned left across two lanes of traffic, nearly running into us head on). I was driving and had to SLAM on the brakes to avoid hitting the guy. Jordan yelled from the back seat, "HEY! You need to watch where you're going! There is a PREGNANT LADY in this car!!" The crazy adrenaline rush and sudden braking caused my stomach to tighten up and be very sore and uncomfortable for about a day and a half afterwards.

I've started making MUCH more frequent bathroom trips. No more of this two or three times a day at work business! I switched my water bottle from a jug with a straw (causing me to "sip" water all day but not DRINK enough) to a Nalgene bottle with an open top. This has really been helping and I can usually get my two liters down by evening (though I still have to try).

It's been a couple of weeks since I was able to comfortably put on a pair of socks and I can no longer cross my legs while sitting, unless I'm leaning back (like on a couch). Baby also does not like it when I cross my legs and enjoys sticking her foot under my right ribs (super comfortable).

This week I was much more tired and could feel my belly going through a bit of a growth spurt because it was extremely tight and itchy. I wore a support belt to work every day this week and that helped me be less exhausted by mid-morning. One problem I'm having at work is mid-back pain. I think it has to do with the setup of my desk but it has become quite uncomfortable. (I am literally counting down the days I have left at work.)

I continue to crave milk! I also eat a TON of cheese and have been eating ice cream (new favorite: Starbucks Caramel Mochiato) almost every day. The cheese is excellent in the mornings at giving me a little boost of protein. I've been trying to eat peanut butter (often on an English muffin), yogurt (often Greek) and cheese for breakfast almost every day. I notice a huge difference in the way I feel if I can get that protein on board first thing.

My most frustrating symptom this week has been acid reflux. There are days when it is quite painful and I am not a fan! Taking papaya enzymes has helped a little with this. Next on my list of things to try is an over-the-counter medicine.

I have been HOT this week. I overheat very easily and rarely wear a hoodie or sweater at work anymore. I prefer to sleep with the window open and often don't put covers on until the wee hours of the morning.

Baby is EXTREMELY active now! She moves a lot all the time and sometimes even keeps me awake for long periods at night.

(Note for myself: my nipples have started leaking this week.)

27 weeks

I've been trying really hard to slow down this week and take it easy more. I was SO exhausted after the wedding and actually had a really pathetic week at work (it was a 4 day work week with Memorial day and I only worked TWO days).

I also struggled quite a bit with hypoglycemia this week and that sent me home from work one morning (after I vomited 4 times, luckily making it TO the bathroom, though that was as far as I got). I was shaky, jittery and HOT as could be. My blood pressure was normal (I'm always on the low end of normal anyway) and my pulse seemed really high, but it turns out it was normal too and I had just forgotten that your pulse is higher when you're pregnant because you're pumping so much extra blood. Once I got home and ate the right things I started to feel much better. I'm now trying to pack tons of protein into my breakfasts along with my regular fruit and yogurt.

Also, I no longer eat strawberries for the time being...

I have been watching my belly for stretch marks (totally cannot see the underside of it anymore) and haven't come across any yet, but I was surprised to see several on my breasts this week. Guess I hadn't been looking for THOSE!

I've developed quite a lovely case of acid reflux. I got lots of tips on things to do (and not do) to help control that and so far the most helpful has been to take papaya enzymes. One of my cousins had some leftover from her pregnancy (she had her baby in April) and brought them over for me. Bonus: they're delicious! (I also heard the celery is really good at helping with that so I'm packing some with peanut butter in my lunch this week.)

My mom and I did a mini "practice" photo shoot this week because she wants to take some maternity photos in a month or two. I decided to wear my red Converse sneakers to match the red t-shirt I had on and had totally forgotten that I had not tied a pair of shoes in about two weeks. Holy moly, that was a workout! It should not be that hard to put on a pair of shoes. ;)

My belly button is very much an outie now, no question about it. I'll try to post a picture of it through my shirt sometime soon. It makes me laugh.

One random thing that happened this week:
I was walking down the hall at work and a lady waiting for the elevator was really staring intently at my stomach. I thought that was sort of strange since I definitely did not know this woman. She finally looked up at my face and asked me, "Are you having a baby girl?"
Um, yes.......

I took a video of my stomach this week so I'm posting it here for fun. Watch right around the :09, :19 and :39 second marks to see Peyton jumping around. Watch just to the right of the center (kind of between the folds in my shirt). It's kind of subtle in the video, but it still makes me laugh.

26 weeks

I grew again this week. People noticed.

My sister got married!!!! You can't see my belly in this picture but I love it and thought I should post it. :)

When Stacy got married in March I wore the dress I had originally planned, even though it wasn't a maternity dress. I had thought it might still be ok in May and even tried it on a couple of weeks before the wedding and still thought it might be ok. But the week of the wedding when I tried it on again it became QUITE obvious that there was no way in heck that I would be wearing that dress. Luckily (oh, thank God) one of Stacy's bridesmaids had been 6 months pregnant and had said that I could borrow her dress if I needed to (Stacy and Kendra chose the same color for their bridesmaids). I did pin it quite a bit because it was too loose but it ended up being perfect and it was so nice to be able to breathe! The day ended up being pretty warm (ok, not that warm, just warm to a pregnant woman) so I was glad for the extra room and the flowy fabric.

One of my favorite quotes from Kendra's wedding day came from my mom's cousin Linda. When I went over to say hi she exclaimed, "You look great! Your face isn't even puffy!" This totally cracked me up. :)

I still have swollen feet and fingers, mostly in the evenings. They're not super bad, just kind of uncomfortable. I did take my wedding ring off this week because it was getting much more difficult to do so. I'm wearing my "backup" ring (a band with our three birthstones in it) for the time being because it's a half size bigger. I'm sure in a few weeks as the summer heats up that will be coming off, too!

The baby turned towards the end of this week, making one day really uncomfortable because of the way she was positioned. Every time I stood up I would wince at her pressing on my various organs. I noticed her kicking much lower, too. (Up until now she mostly kicked me on my right side.) Thankfully by the next day she had turned again (though not back to her original position).

One day this week we were talking about the pregnancy and Jordan asked me, "So... what point are you at now?" I asked what he meant and he said, "How many weeks?" I told him 26 and he thought and said, "Hmm. When we went to OMSI you were 24." He's exactly right, too. We had gone to the display with all the babies (for those of you who don't know, they have actual fetuses displayed up to somewhere around 30 or 32 weeks gestation) and I had showed him what point our baby was at. It was incredibly fascinating to see this display and see just how much our baby looks like a BABY. Steve was born at around 26 weeks so this was really eye opening as well. I'm surprised at how much Jordan is following along with the pregnancy, since I don't talk to him directly about it as much as I do with Steve. He picks up on a lot!

(As a "note to self" part of this post I'm adding in that I developed a yeast infection this week. Sorry, TMI I know, but this is my journal! :)

25 weeks

This has been the most emotional week thus far. EVERYTHING makes me cry.

Seriously. Everything.

And if I'm crying about something and I finally get myself under control and the tiniest little thing happens (one day it was finding sugar ants in the kitchen) I will LOSE IT all over again. My poor husband... He's so good at hugging me and letting me cry.

Jordan felt the baby kick this week! It was a really big kick and his response was, "Haha, WOAH!" I have tried to have him feel before and the baby has always stopped moving when he puts his hand on my belly (maybe it has something to do with the fact that his hands always feel like ice cubes) so it was pretty fun for him to be able to feel her.

My feet are still swelling, especially in the evenings. I bought a pair of slip-on tennis shoes this week because bending over to tie my shoes in the morning is becoming next to impossible! It's been really nice to be able to slip my shoes off while sitting at my desk at work. I had forgotten that our foot rests have little nubs on them, which feels awesome on my sock feet. :)

24 weeks

I'm still getting leg cramps this week - boo. I do think the calcium/magnesium is helping, as well as doing leg stretches before bed each night. But the supplements also caused swelling in my fingers and toes (not something I'm a fan of!) so I've started taking it every other day instead of every day (this seems to be helping).

I've had lots of people commenting this week that I'm small for being 6 months pregnant. I've been telling them that I'm BARELY 6 months so give me some time. Sheesh, people sure are opinionated! Some days I'll hear from a couple of people that I'm small and a couple of people that I'm looking bigger and I've decided that's like telling someone, "Wow, your hair sure is black!" or "My, your face is round". I mean, really. I will never understand why it's ok to share your every opinion with a pregnant lady when you wouldn't normally say something like that to just anyone. Luckily I'm not super sensitive about things like that!

My mom got to feel the baby move this week! Peyton was doing her acrobats (she does them most when I'm laying down or sitting kind of reclined onto my left side) and Mom was able to feel, which she thought was pretty cool. She sent a picture of her hand on my stomach to my sister, getting the response, "Sooooo jealous!"

My weight gain had started out pretty slow (I was always several pounds behind the low number in the "normal" range) but it started picking up recently. Now I'm right in the normal range, and I hope to stay there! Steve loves to guess my weight whenever we go in for an appointment. It's kind of eerie how close he comes to the correct number (even adding in the decimal place) since I don't often tell him my weight off of our scale at home!

One of my good friends had her baby shower this week and the activity was decorating onesies for her little man. (I'm totally stealing this idea for my own shower because it's soooo much better than awkward baby shower games!) She is naming her little guy Sam so I made this onesie for him. I was so proud of it and she told me that her husband LOVED it. :)

23 weeks

We have a very active baby! She kicks all the time, all day long. A lot of the time I can only feel her movements from the inside but in the evenings it's much more noticeable and strong. She definitely has wake and sleep patterns but some days it sure seems like she's awake more than asleep! :)

I started getting really bad leg cramps this week. :/ They have me "jumping" out of bed (no easy feat with all my pillows) to walk them off and they are PAINFUL. I've been eating bananas every day and I had several people suggest calcium/magnesium supplements so I've started taking those as well. Still trying to increase my water intake! (It's a never ending goal.)