26 Week Check In

… and we are officially in double digits!!  As of today, our due date is only 98 short days away.  We have made a lot of progress this past week.  We decided on a stroller and car seat (what a fiasco THAT was) and also the crib.  My mom offered to buy the car seat and stroller for us (she kinda loves me, I think) and Kevin and I ordered our crib last night.  I am so excited to start buying baby things and see our little one’s nursery come to life.

How Big Is Baby?
 

• A head of lettuce now!  Bigger every day!

Baby’s Development

• At week 26, baby may be interfering with my sleep, messing with my brain (forget much?), and even be giving me a stress headache or two. It’s normal to be experiencing some mild swelling, but around this week, it’s important to watch out for swelling severe or sudden -- it could be the sign of a dangerous condition called preeclampsia.

How Big Is Mommy?

•  My bump is growing!!  I can totally see it now!  :)

How Am I feeling?

• Physically:  Pretty good.  My back and neck have started aching at night and I wake up very stiff, but I’m sure that’s normal.  I am going to experiment with a few different pillows and hopefully find something that helps a little bit, but it’s really not super painful yet.
• Emotionally:  Well, aside from the fact that my OB made me feel like a fat cow… I am feeling great.  I feel a huge relief now that we have decided on some of the major baby purchases and have a few things already taken care of.  I am getting more excited by the day and can’t wait to have everything in the nursery set up and ready for show time.

Any new developments, milestones?  Anything new?

• I had my glucose test on Monday.  I had heard horror stories, but it really wasn’t bad at all.  The drink just tasted like sugary flat orange soda and getting blood drawn never really bothers me.  However, when I went in to see the OB, they weighed me and told me I had gained 9 pounds over the past month.  Now if you remember last month… they told me I needed to gain weight.  So I gained weight.  Well, the OB said “So I guess you took my eat lots of cake and ice cream advice to heart”… I wanted to crawl under the table and hide.  I was mortified.  And the worst part is… I don’t really feel like I gained 9 pounds and everyone I run into tells me how “tiny” I look for being 6 months pregnant.  Sigh… there is no middle ground I guess.  I know part of the problem is that the weather has still been quite cool (with the exception of Monday being 89 degrees) and I just haven’t been as active as usual.  I eat very healthy (salads and wraps) and actually have not eaten any ice cream in months because it makes me sick (fruit sorbets are another story)… so I don’t know what the deal is, but it was very upsetting to have my first “fat talk”.  She did say that overall, my weight gain is on the low end of average for this point in the pregnancy… but that I should aim to gain no more than 1-2 pounds per week.  Hopefully next month will be better.

 Love/Hate:

• Love:  Mocktails.  I have been making lots of new mocktails (non-alcoholic cocktails) and have come up with some delicious concoctions.
• Hate:  Feeling like a pork chop.  I know I am supposed to gain weight with a baby.  I don’t feel like I am overindulging, but having someone tell you to “slow it down a bit” stings.  I know there are many people who struggle with their weight on a daily basis and I am fortunate to have never had this issue before, but I can’t even begin to describe how shocked and hurt I was to have my doctor lecture me about my weight.  Never again.

Any upcoming developments, milestones?  What's next?

• Next doctor’s appointment is in 3 more weeks, so cruise control until then, I hope.  The next one will be the last of my regular monthly check ups.  After that, I will be 30 weeks along and the appointments will increase to every 2 weeks.  Getting closer.
• Also, we are patiently (ha!) waiting for the crib to arrive so we can continue working on the nursery.  I have decided on some quotes that I want to have made into prints to hang on the wall… now to just get those done.