33 weeks

I am 33 Weeks as of Friday and have less than 50 days until the due date. I can't believe how fast it is coming. People keep telling me that soon I will be tired of being pregnant and want it to be over. I still have a little ways to go, but I am very happy to keep the baby inside where I don't have to worry about him.

The past week or so we have been keeping very busy finding a doula. A great website www.doulamatch.net was recommended to me. I figured that 3 would be a good number to interview so I emailed 3 doulas to start and all of them emailed me back to say that they were already booked or we were out of there coverage area. I emailed 3 more and only one of them was available. I decided to email 4 more expecting that some of them wouldn't work out. this time all of them were interested. So we got to meet 5 awesome doulas and we loved them all. I made fact sheets for each doula that had their pros and cons listed to help us make the decision . We ended up going with a woman named Jennifer who we both really liked and felt really comfortable with. Her website is www.bellytobabies.com and a link to a snippet on doula benefits is http://www.dona.org/mothers/why_use_a_doula.php for those of you who might not know what a doula does. Tomorrow we will start the process of interviewing pediatricians.

Lots of nesting still to do with the house, but the nursery is almost cleaned out. Just have to find a few more nooks and crannies to put all the stuff that used to be in that room. Then we can start the setting up and decorating which will be much more fun.

The 33 week report: Buddy is over 4 pounds and around 17 inches from head to toe. His skeleton is starting to harden and he is rapidly gaining weight. I am also rapidly gaining weight now that you mention it, but I am still comfortable.

Stephen Says: Buddy is moving around a lot now, and when Lauren asks me to feel her belly I don't have to wait for 5 minutes for something to happen anymore. He stretches a lot and moves around a ton, and I can't believe she deals with that all day long every day.

That's all to report for now.

I should have more done by now.

I am 32 weeks today. That means I only have 8 weeks left. We haven't knocked much off the to do list, but we have a bunch of doula interviews scheduled this coming week.

Buddy is moving around like crazy! He pretty much only stops moving for the five minutes following me telling someone to watch my belly. He is around 3 pounds 11 ounces and 16 inches long. He hiccups a lot and steps on my bladder all the time. Other things the baby spends his time doing is blinking, grabbing things, making faces, peeing and listening to all the noises around.

I have gained 15 pounds, but I can't remember my belly measurement. My blood pressure is good. I passed my glucose test. And my hemoglobins are carrying lots of iron and oxygen to the baby. All in all I am feeling great.

30 Weeks!

So here is what I'm a little uncomfortable with... In 30 weeks the baby grew from the size of a head of a pin to about 2 3/4 pounds. Now in about 10 weeks the baby is going to gain about 4 3/4 pounds. Umm? That seems a little silly. I think maybe I will try to spread it out over another 30 weeks. That will give me more time to get the house in order too.

I am feeling fantastic! I haven't had any recurrences of back pain in months thanks to sitting on my yoga ball at work. I have had pretty much the worst heartburn ever, but that is usually manageable by either taking papaya enzymes with my meals or tums after the meals. I also learned a trick on some bulletin board online. You lay on your left side and breath in deeply so that you open your chest and expand the area around your spine. It takes a couple of minutes but works like a charm . May very well be psychosomatic, but if it works it works. I just started feeling the baby hiccup which is fun except when I'm trying to fall back asleep after getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and get a snack.

We have another few weeks of baby classes to go. This week we talk about pain medication and the postpartum. After reading the assigned chapters about the risks and inconveniences of the epidural and other regular birth medications I am even more set on a natural birth. Hopefully I can pull it off! The postpartum chapter wasn't much more uplifting. The changes that happen in the weeks following labor are more terrifying then the changes that happen while you are pregnant. If you have had a baby you know all about it, if you haven't... trust me, you don't want to know! I told Stephen he may want to only read the sections on depression and family changes. The following weeks are breastfeeding and newborn care. I'll be sure to let you all know how Stephen does changing the diaper on a doll.

Things still on the list:

1. Finish purging the babies room of extraneous office and craft supplies.
2. Buy baby essentials. We are so very lucky to have friends who are very generous with the hand-me-downs so we may not need much at all.
3. Finish painting the ceiling in the kitchen (yes it has nothing to do with baby, but I still really want to get it done).
4. Find a doula.
5. Find a pediatrician. I guess some most hospitals won't let you leave unless you have your first appointment scheduled. We haven't really decided where we stand on the vaccine thing yet so we need to find one that is open minded.

Instead of doing any of these things on my day off I am going to go plant some seeds in the garden and mow the lawn. Everything else can wait until after opening night.


Here is a video of the baby moving around from my perspective. It's a little creepy but I'm trying to learn how to use the camera/software before the baby arrives.