26 Weeks and the beginning of December

Here I am at 26 weeks, 3 days.  

I think I am starting to look pretty big!  I had gained 22 pounds around this time, I think.  I am in the normal range, but at the high end.  I sorta wish it was a bit less, but I know I've been eating tons of sweets, so it's my own fault!  Oh well!  It's the holidays, and as long as my doctor isn't worried, neither am I.  I didn't mention in my last post that the baby is really starting to move a lot now.  Some days I swear it is trying to climb out my belly button.  I am not really uncomfortable yet, but it is definitely weird!  It swims all over, kicks my bladder, my ribs, and everything in between.  It's fun to feel, especially now that I can sort of pick up its patterns.  It is very active at bedtime, of course.  Steve cracks up at how much it gets moving sometimes!  And for some reason, when I take baths, it goes nuts too.  It's fun to lay there, relax, and just watch my belly move all over the place.

December 9th marked the beginning of my third trimester.  Apparently the baby is now the size of a head of cauliflower.  Weird analogy to me, but whatever.  The baby is about 2 lbs, and is 15 inches long.  Craziness!  And it seems that that week all hell broke lose.  I sneezed and lost control of my bladder (it was only like 2 drops, but ew!  I was praying that part would skip me!), my back was killing me, I began to waddle, my hips began to ache at night from sleeping on my side and I just feel generally huge all of a sudden.  But even still, I don't have much to complain about.

Steve's birthday was December 11th, so that was a fun weekend.  We went to Gino's with the fam on Friday night for some yummy Italian food and good wine.  Then Saturday we woke up and I made Steve pancakes and we went to the gym (which I am now obsessed with).  Then he worked on some computer stuff while I baked about 50 cupcakes and straightened the house up.  We had some friends over on Saturday night to watch the UFC fight and then played poker after.  It was a good night.  Then Sunday I shopped while Steve hung around the house.  Then we went to SIP, which is a wine tasting place on Kanan on the way to the beach.  Cool atmosphere, good music, and we got food from my fave, Blue Table.  It was a really nice weekend, and I think Steve had a nice birthday.  He hates getting older, but I keep reminding him that this is going to be a great year for him!

24 Weeks and the rest of November

November 18th marked 24 weeks pregnant.  I am not doing my usual update, because I am too behind and it would take way too long to catch up on where the baby is at developmentally.  I will do a real update for my 28 week post.  But here I am at 24 weeks, 1 day pregnant.  I think that it was at this point that I started to feel pretty tired again.

About 5 minutes after taking this picture, I left for the airport, to go visit Vanessa for the weekend.  I took Friday off, so I flew up Friday morning and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  As soon as Vanessa picked me up, she handed me a folded up shiny paper, that I have become all too familiar with.  It was an ultrasound!  Turns out, she is pregnant too!  She was waiting to tell me until I came up there.  She always does this, and it makes me crazy.  I found out she was pregnant at my bachelorette party, about a week after she found out.  And I found out she was engaged about a full MONTH after Patrick proposed, because she mailed me a bridesmaid book to surprise me, and it kept getting lost.  Anyway, it was a great surprise, but I can't believe she didn't tell me sooner.  She is due June 18th I think, so only about 3 months after me!  

We spent the weekend eating and shopping.  Mostly me eating, since she is miserably nauseous.  She helped me with my registry, which was great, since I don't really know what we will need.  I also had a great time hanging with Emma.  She followed me everywhere I went.  She wanted to play with me, have me read to her, sit with me.  She even waited outside the bathroom door, every time I went, to make sure I wouldn't leave.  It was pretty cute.  I got some Christmas shopping done, and did some relaxing.  It was really nice.

The next week was Thanksgiving.  We had it at our house again, with my parents and brother, Steve's parents, my cousin Lin, and our friends, Jeff and Nisha.  I had a meltdown and luckily my mom and Tina helped me and forgave me when I was a be-otch to them.  Dinner was fantastic as usual, and everyone was a huge help.  I had made a lot of things the day before, so that really helped too.  Although, by the end of the night, my feet and back were killing me, and I was done.  That was when my backaches started, which lasted a couple of weeks.  Here's our yummy turkey...

The rest of the weekend was spent with Steve putting up the outside Christmas lights, me shopping for decorations and presents, and finally, decorating the house.  We didn't get the tree up till Sunday night because we were too tired.  Steve had a genius idea this year....we got a dog gate thingie to keep the cats from killing the tree and presents.  And it works!  The tree is still in one piece, and I haven't had a single meltdown over them ruining it!  You can kinda see it here.

On a baby note...I had my glucose tolerance test the week of Thanksgiving, and I passed.  Which means that I don't have and probably won't get gestational diabetes.  The test really wasn't all that bad.  Then the next week I had another check up with my OB, and she says that I am doing great.  It's funny cuz at the beginning, every appt was so exciting.  And now, it's like a routine.  Check in, pee in a cup, get weighed, see dr, she finds the heartbeat on the Doppler, asks if I have any questions, and then tells me whatever is "next" on the agenda, as far as tests/milestones go.  It takes about 15 min.  So funny.  I still love going and hearing that I am doing well, but it's almost mundane at this point.  I think it'll get fun again soon since we are nearing the end!