Ramblings

My friend Stephanie (who I met in second grade) had her baby girl on Friday, May 27th! She was due two two weeks later but Harper entered the world fast at 8:30 am weighing 6 lbs, 8 oz which is an entire pound less than her two boys (who were both induced at 39 weeks) so that gives me hope, haha. . .except that Stephanie looks like she didn't gain a pound during her pregnancy. :p

I forgot to mention that my college friends (Kathy & Joel) found out they are in fact having a girl in October! (Which was my prediction) The last person left is Joe's nephew & wife who learned their actual due date is November 24, rather than sometime in December.

Is it just me or do people stare at you more when you're pregnant? It is getting weird when I go out in public because everyone stares at me! Pregnant women are not a rarity so I don't know what's the deal. I don't remember whether this happened with Logan or not.

Speaking of Logan, he tells me 20 times every single day (not exaggerating) that he likes me and I'm his best friend. It melts my heart, oh how I love that little guy!!!!

Every morning he asks if it's a school day and when Joe or I tell him that it's a mama day he says, "Yeay! I like mama days!" Of course he likes school days, too, but he never cheers for them like he does when he gets to stay home with me, so that makes me feel good.

He treats me so respectfully and like he's won the mom lottery, it makes me feel like he's going to treat women well as he grows up! :-)

He's getting to be more of a ham. Lately he's been singing "Old McDonald had a farm, and on this farm he had UNDERWEAR!" then he cracks up laughing like it's the funniest thing in the world.

Speaking of underwear, twice now Logan has decided he doesn't want to wear anything at all. Uh, mothers of three year old boys did not warn me. . .let's just say that I quickly realized that is NOT going to work even for a minute as he's now starting to, uh, discover. . .how things. . .work. So I've just told him that we keep our private parts covered and he seems fine with that information, lol.

It was cute when Joe picked him up from preschool last week Logan said to another little boy, "I have TWO teddy bears!" The little boy said, "TWO teddy bears?! Wow! Cool!" Aren't toddlers the cutest? :-)

I forgot to mention in my update last week that I had my final dentist appt. with my dentist, Dr. Gaspard, on 5/20. I am waiting to hear back from my college friend who lives in the same neighborhood that we'll be moving to, as to where she goes for her dentist and doctor.

She told me who her pediatrician is (Dr. Brian L. Waggoner who is 22 minutes away from our house), so now I have two different recommendations for a pediatrician which is good. (Dr. Jon G Van Roekel is the pediatrician for my high school friend's children, he is 10 minutes from our house.) Both are with the Mercy system.

My HS friend's OBGYN is OBGYN and Associates (9 minutes from our house) and she also recommended her pediatric dentist, Matthew Kubovich at Des Moines Pediatric Dental Center (10 minutes from our house). The non denominational church that my HS friend goes to is Point Of Grace, just 5 minutes from our house (which is good because I don't want to wait a real long time before getting Baby Girl dedicated -- we could become members and dedicate her at the same time). So I think I'm set! :-)

In other news, Joe and I are packing our "hospital suitcase" tonight so now I will have everything ready to go whenever I'm in labor! We're also going to try the heartbeat listener that I bought when I was pregnant with Logan (but it never worked -- I'll let you know if it does this time).

As of this week (32) I can't sleep on my stomach anymore. But I was able to for a full month longer than last time so that might have helped with my back pain this time. I know they say that everyone is only supposed to only sleep on your side because it's better for your back, but I can attest that the only times I've ever had back pain in my life (which was during my pregnancies) is when I was required to sleep on my side (I feel that my shoulders droop forward, causing my upper back to hurt). During this pregnancy - until now - I'd only had a few days of back pain in these 32 weeks compared to last time when I had it every single day from my fourth month on! Unfortunately, though, this week it's becoming non-stop :(

One thing I had this time that I never had while pregnant with Logan is a leg cramp! A few different times over the past week I've woken up in the morning with severe pain my right leg! I read on my old blog that is super common during pregnancy, although they don't know what causes it!

Speaking of my old blog, I've been refreshing my memory on the "how to avoid a posterior baby" tips (here's the link). I can't believe I'm now at the point when I need to start focusing on this. From 32 weeks on, the baby is getting prepared for delivery so this is when it all counts, eek! I tried to belly map the other day but it is just as hard for me during this pregnancy as my last to figure out what position the baby is in. I do know for sure that she's been head down for the past week-and-a-half because every day her kicks are at the top of my abdomen, so that's good. But I am also sure that she's either facing front or side front (as Logan always was). Definitely not toward my back, since her kicks and arm jabs are always to my front. So, in case my pelvis was indeed the cause for Logan's position, I'll do what I can this time to get this baby in the back-facing position!

Although I now understand it wasn't the position so much as the size of my pelvis that caused the shoulder dystocia so I'm going to start cooling it on going out to eat and will try to eat less now that her size is getting up there. (From now on most of my weight is going straight to the baby.) I'm at 30 lbs gained. Lately we've been frequenting too many restaurants! One night recently we went to Hector's (one of the top Mexican restaurants here, but it was only our third time because we've never been that excited about it). Then another night we went to a different Mexican restaurant that we'd never tried before, Azteca, and it was super good. When we were in Iowa May 21-22 we ate at a Mexican restaurant in Ankeny and Wendy's (in addition to Chic Fil A which I blogged about). On another night in Omaha we went to The China Buffet, and another time recently I got ice cream from Maggie Moo's! I don't think I'd eaten there since I was pregnant with Logan...sooooo yummy. Last weekend we ate out, too, which I will blog about when I do our update next time.

Needless to say, I'm uncomfortable now. It's still better than when I was pregnant with Logan and could never sleep through the night, though. Back then it was a regular occurrence to sit in front of the TV during the middle of the night because I was so uncomfortable for the entire 37 weeks. This pregnancy I've only gotten up a total of 5 times but, just like the back pain, I can tell it's becoming more regular now. And, on days that I go to the zoo, I'm aware that I'm definitely not my pre-pregnant self. That afternoon when we went with the group when Sara, John, and Max were visiting, both Sara and Darin (Lisa's husband) helped me push Logan's stroller.

As of this week I'm at the point where standing and walking are super exhausting, but sitting and lying down are painful (now that the baby is into my rib cage). I totally forgot that's how it was with Logan, too -- but now I remember saying "What am I supposed to do if I can't stand, walk, sit, or lay down?!"

On the bright side, a month ago I felt my brain return (I blogged about having pregnancy brain during my second trimester) so that has been nice. She also had hiccups recently which was really cute since it'd been quite awhile (and they came from really low in my pelvis so that was another way I could tell she was head down).

I have gotten two stretch marks on my stomach. :( I only got one with Logan and it appeared during my final week of pregnancy, but as of last week there are two more RIGHT by the old one. It seems weird to me -- wouldn't I be more likely to get them the FIRST time that my stomach stretched instead of the second? SIGH.

Did you hear that Jessica Alba is doing hypnobirthing for her upcoming labor? She was pregnant with her three year old the same time that I was pregnant with Logan, and now we're due with our seconds near each other again. (I sound like I'm talking about a friend, LOL, and not a movie star.)

Remember how I said awhile back that I hoped Logan wouldn't let the cat out of the bag about his sister's name? Well he did to both grandmothers! :( So now my mom and Joe's mom knows. At least they both said they like it :p

On another subject, Joe joked that we're moving back to the land of casinos and strip clubs. It's true, in Nebraska they are illegal but not in Iowa.

Since today's post was just ramblings, I'll do my update next time. In conclusion, my show Pregnant In Heels had its final episode last week. So did American Idol. I didn't blog about AI this year as I have the past, even though this season started off as my favorite ever. I thought the talent was remarkable, as usually you can tell right away who is going to win and it's just a matter of weeding them down week after week -- but this year started off with them all equal, and with the new judges, it was entertaining each week. This was the first year ever that I could not pick a favorite. . .and I never did have one.

But, I'm not sure what happened. Around the same time that Pia got kicked off, everything got boring! The last few weeks contained no "wow" moments and the judges got boring as well! I had thought I'd be fine with whoever won, but when James got kicked off (as #4), I realized I had no desire to watch the final episodes. I had planned to watch the finale but they had it last Tues (all year long the AI days were Wed & Thurs) so I missed it, and then only caught the last 10 min of the winner being announced on Wed. I was fine with it being Scotty, as he definitely has an amazing voice and is super talented, but I'm not a country person so I just nodded and then went back to my business. Not sure what to watch now. . .will probably be renting lots of Netflix DVDs once the baby is born and my life revolves around breastfeeding!

Here are the posts I wrote during this point of my pregnancy with Logan:

Deciding On Baby's Baptism/Dedication

For Me, Third Trimester Is The Best