Pay attention to the picture on the right. If you look carefully you’ll be able to see Alexis’s foot. It’s on MY right, above the hip bone. She keeps resting her feet in that corner of my belly, which makes it look kinda freak-ey!
STATS:
Her size: “By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You’re gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she’ll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.”
How far along: 32 WEEKS
Total weight gain: 160.8 lb (+0 lb gain. Not sure if this number is correct. Our scale broke this week and was showing funky numbers, so I haven’t been able to properly weigh myself. I wish I could say I broke it, because that would be funny, but it was hubby. So you can’t blame the heavy preggo woman for crushing the scale.)
Sleep: It’s been bearable. My sides hurt, I have to switch positions often and it doesn’t help that Alexis is transverse. When I lie on my side, I obviously press on her a bit and she kicks me in that side all night. Aaaahhh I cannot wait for the day that I’ll be able to sleep on my back and my stomach again 🙂
Maternity Clothes: All the time now. Dresses and maternity jeans and shirts- my favorite things to wear.
Food cravings: None really. Sometimes I crave a cake, simple yellow cake.
Food aversions: none
Symptoms I HAVE: This week has been relatively wonderful. I am still amazed at how well I feel right now. I hope it lasts for a long time. I never expected to feel this much better during the third trimester, considering how I spent the whole pregnancy feeling sick and tired. Staying relatively active (going for walks) has been helping me feel good. I’ve had almost no back pain, which I attribute to walks and exercising.
The only thing that’s a bugger is heartburn, of course. I almost don’t count it as a symptom anymore, because it is always present.
Doctor’s Appointment: December 8th
Movement: Alexis is still transverse as far as I can tell. I did inversions for a few days and she flipped, but then back to transverse the next day. I figured it’s not a good idea to continue “forcing” her to flip head down, since it seems like laying across my belly is more comfortable for her. I am worried that if she does too many twists, she might wrap her cord around her neck and I would much rather have a C-section for a transverse baby, than risk her suffocating during birth or worse, still in utero.
Belly Button: A total outie at this point. I still don’t have stretchmarks. The skin around my belly button is reddish and stretched, but it’s been that way for weeks. I diligently apply daily oils and drink as much water as I remember to.
Gender: GIRL!
Best moment of the week: Black Friday! I’d been waiting to buy most of the baby stuff still Black Friday and we spent THE WHOLE DAY on our computers ordering things and researching prices NON-STOP. I prefer shopping online rather than have to drive to retail stores and be subjected to their limited in-stock options and have to try things on and waste hours and hours that I could be spending doing something productive or fun. Luckily, I am one of those people who doesn’t need to see or touch, I do pretty good imagining from the product photo and description. I think years of experience ordering online helped. I would still go to stores just for fun when I have nothing to do ( which is rare), or with girlfriends, but I definitely prefer not wasting my time like that. Needless to say that I wasn’t going to go out to retail stores on Black Friday, into the madness that it can be. Other years, we’d go with friends and make a whole fun experience out of it, with dinner and a movie ( give me an excuse to stay up all night and I’m there). Or just figure out what specific items we need, go and grab those. Black Friday can be fun if you do it right or do it from the luxury of your chair 🙂 So we’ve spent the whole week getting package after package from UPS, Fedex and USPS, so both our living room, hallway and family room now resembles a very messy packing facility. I will be writing about the purchases, of course. What did you guys buy on Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
What I’m looking forward to:
Working on the nursery. It’s starting to look so cute. We hung the mobile and the shelves, the dresser is ready, we found the perfect recliner/glider. I just need to take pictures to share with you guys.
What I miss:
Being thin.
It’s funny how our mind gets used to things if we are given a chance. When I look at my photos from when I first got pregnant like the photo on the left ( I was about 5-6 weeks pregnant, so don’t mind the angry looking face, since I was sick as a dog), to me I look almost anorexic, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I was healthy and very fit, with a good body fat percentage ( mostly in my legs).
Right now, the new normal for me is the picture on the right. It seems almost unreal that I was ever anything but the picture on the right. I don’t REMEMBER not having a belly, not having big boobs, not having big thick legs, or cellulite (lol). My old self looks too skinny now. I have no doubt that I will be back there again and very shortly, but I wonder if I’ll look at it the same way…. Maybe after some time, once I’ve had a chance to forget that I ever looked differently.
you look so beautiful
You look great! Seeing your pregnancy pics gives me baby fever!! I miss my belly!
Looking lovely, lady! Still considering cloth diapers?
Definitely. Already ordered a bunch! 1 from each company to see what works and what doesn’t.
I’d way rather buy online then go to the stores!! I’ve gotten all my Christmas shopping done already and almost all of it was online. Your boobs are quite a bit bigger now compared to the first picture! ; ) A girlfriend of mine who has a similiar body structure got super skinny right away but her boobs stayed huge. She looked a little anorexic for awhile but we just weren’t used to her being that skinny. ; )
Gorgeous — this week’s picture is stunning! You have the pregnant mama glow!
We didn’t do Black Friday but just bought a ton of stuff last night off Amazon.com and Harry and David for Christmas presents, and as new online shopper I have to agree – it’s so much faster and easier than driving to the mall! (And more enjoyable!)
You are looking so pretty!
I still have hope to see the nursery=)
Oh man, I can’t tell you amazing it felt to sleep on my back the night after my daughter was born. Well, I don’t think I have to tell you 🙂 Have you had any massages during your pregnancy? Those prenatal tables with the hole in the middle for your belly are pretty great, just to give yourself a break from lying on your side all the time.
I’m afraid to go for a prenatal massage because then you won’t drag me out of it and I’ll spend all my money getting massages 🙂 seriously. So while I feel good, I’m trying to avoid getting a massage until I have to. No point in teasing myself 🙂 lol
I think you look more beautiful than ever – I hope that I’ll be nearly as beautiful in my third trimester….ya know, when that happens.
Oh I’m sure you will!!! 🙂
You look beautiful!
I have to comment about the sleeping on your stomach thing. I was SO looking forward to that after my pregnancies and then got met with the realization that I’d still have to wait a while. If you breastfeed, sleeping on your stomach is SO painful and can even make you leak with the pressure. It sucks. It took at least 6 months till I could do it. 🙁
Also, you should treat yourself to at least one pre-natal massage! Someone gave me a gift cert. for a massage for after the baby and I ran into the same issue with being on my stomach/boobs. I was in so much pain but too embarrassed to say anything b/c the masseuse was a male. So I suffered through it and it sucked. So do it now! 🙂
Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy. I really enjoy your blog.
Oh that makes sense! But I’ll take sleeping on back too! Anything but my sides 🙂 And yes to the prenatal massage. I’m just waiting until I start hurting ( my back and muscles) to get it. No reason to waste precious massage right now, when I’m feeling relatively good.
Haha, I have the same thought about your left pic – “Wow she’s soooooooo skinny there!” 🙂
I’m sure you’ll be as skinny as before in no time! Muscle memory and all this stuff, + your strong abs will help 🙂
I loooove receiving parcels and opening them and checking out all the purchases 🙂
You look great! I read your comments on how you forgot how is it to feel skinny …
I look at my 8week bump photo when I thought: it’s so big! And I laugh, cause when I look at my 18 weeks belly now, it friking huuuge! Ha ha How is it gonna be at 32 weeks?
You look gorgeous! I remember in my third trimester, looking at one of my wedding pictures (which was less than a year before that) and asking Eli, “am I ever going to have a waistline again?”
You will. And by the way, about the boobs,..mine grew MORE after having her, which I didn’t think was possible. They are gi-freakin-gantic now. I miss wearing cute bras and not huge ones held together with snappy things for easy nursing. 🙂 Buh-bye Victoria’s Secret!
I can’t WAIT to see nursery pictures! That was my absolute favorite part of pregnancy. 🙂
Looking great Lena! I remember I was so depressed at the end of my pregnancy about my looks. I am a fitness instructor so I always looked all muscles, and at the end of my pregnancy I gained no less than 60 pounds. But now I am almost back to normal, except muscles are gone because I can’t work out as much. But I know I’ll get there.
Got myself a new winter jacket online on cyber Monday. What did you get???
You are so dang beautiful – definitely have that “pregnant-woman-glow” going on. Can I just say for the ump-teenth time that I have LOVED hearing this pregnancy story? Even your rants. Especially your rants. When the time comes that Scott & I decide to have our first, I’ll definitely be gobbling up all the pregnancy-literature I can, but I already know that you (& your blog) is going to be one of my most valuable resources.
Love you, and getting more & more excited to meet Alexis!!