Weeks 27-31

27 Weeks (Sunday, May 3)

Size of baby: A rutabaga, 13.6-14.8 inches, 1.5-2.5 pounds

28 Weeks (Sunday, May 10)

Size of baby: An eggplant, 13.6-14.8 inches, 1.5-2.5 pounds

29 Weeks (Sunday, May 17)

Size of baby: An acorn squash, 15.2-16.7 inches, 2.5-3.8 pounds

30 Weeks (Sunday, May 24)

Size of baby: A cucumber, 15.2-16.7 inches, 2.5-3.8 pounds

31 Weeks (Sunday, May 31)

Size of baby: A pineapple, 15.2-16.7 inches, 2.5-3.8 pounds

Milestones: She's showing brain activity.  She's getting fatter and less wrinkly.  She's strong enough to grasp a finger.  Her irises can react to light, she can blink, and all five senses work now.  Her sleep now includes the REM phase which means she can dream.  She can now regulate her own body temperature.  

Baby Mobile

Our first craft for baby V's nursery is complete!  After finding that most baby mobiles in stores were $40-60 I decided DIY would be a good option.  I was inspired by this baby mobile on Pinterest that was previously sold on Etsy:

It seems like most baby mobiles on Etsy cost $80+.  At first I thought this was absolutely ridiculous, but after spending $30 on supplies and spending about 12 hours making this thing, I can definitely understand why someone would charge $80.  Suffice it to say, this was one of those crafts that took 10x longer than I had expected, and turned out to be a labor of love.  It was mostly fun, and we weren't in a rush so it was still worth it.

Supplies needed:
Yarn (We used some leftover gray wavy yarn from a previous project.)
Felt (Bought a yard and had plenty)
Various colors of calico fabric (Bought a yard of three different colors and had plenty)
Hot glue gun
Circular ring

Let me just take a moment to say finding a circular ring on which to affix the poms was incredibly difficult.  It was one of those things where you feel like it'll be so easy to go to the store and buy a metal/wooden/plastic 12" ring, but after going to Hobby Lobby and Home Depot without any luck we settled on buying some rubber tubing, shaping it into a circle, securing it with Duct Tape, and wrapping it in the pretty yarn.

I used a tutorial by Little Miss Mama to make the pom poms.  Basically, you cut a circle with the felt (we used a biscuit cutter to trace the circles) and cut out a billion circles from the calico fabric.  Seriously.  This took forever.  Then you glue the fabric onto the felt.  Just go to the link and it'll explain how to go about doing this.  Once your circles are complete you'll glue two together to create a ball/flower.  We made three small poms and three large poms and affixed them to the hoop with more yarn.

Robert got excited and decided to make four animals on a center ring: elephant, penguin, hippo, and giraffe.  Isn't he cute?

Complete!

The Seventh Appointment

We had our seventh prenatal appointment on Friday (28w5d).  Things are still going well!  It was a boring appointment where they just did the standard vitals, measuring, and a quick chat with the doctor.  The nurse taught me how to press on my stomach to tell how baby V is positioned and to identify body parts (head, butt, hands, and feet).  At the appointment her head was over on my right, and her legs and arms were stretched out toward my left side.  Her heart rate was faster than last time at 150 bpm.  I always go to the doctor and say something like, "I know this is probably completely normal, but..."  This week's was, "I know this is probably completely normal, but I've started getting so unbelievably hot, and it's especially bad at night."  Yep, normal.  She said pretty much all you can do is drink some water, and that it'll be even worse while breastfeeding.  Yay!  It doesn't help that I'm already hot natured to begin with.  Our friends JJ and Rachel are letting us borrow a window unit to use in our bedroom.  We have central heating and cooling, but it stays about 5-6 degrees warmer upstairs, and I'd been waking up sweating with a headache and just not sleeping that well.  The window unit has helped so much!  Other than that, I've started waking up throughout the night to go to the bathroom once or twice.  I think part of that is because I've gotten thirstier and tend to drink a lot of water right before I go to bed which really doesn't help things.

Other than that, we talked about pain management options during labor and delivery.  I really want to try to do it without an epidural.  Honestly, it's been pretty frustrating how discouraging people are when I say that's my goal.  I'm not saying I'm ruling it out 100%, but I also feel like God created women for childbirth and my body can handle it.  That makes sense, right?  I guess I've just been hearing all of these horror stories like, "Yeah, I wanted to have a natural birth and after 48 hours of labor I had a c-section"  Or, "Good luck with that!"  I feel like I've also heard the other extremes.  You know, like delivering 15 minutes after getting to the hospital and not even having time for the option of an epidural.  Where are the stories of an 8 hour labor that was painful but survivable?

At this point I'm not scheduled to have any additional ultrasounds or tests other than the Group B Strep test during the last couple of weeks of pregnancy, so most of the appointments will be fairly routine.  We're excited to take a couple of pregnancy and newborn classes in June!  We're also excited to celebrate baby V with two baby showers this month.  We'll be taking a trip to Alabama in about a week to visit Robert's dad's side of the family and to have a family BBQ/shower, and the day after we get back from that we'll have a hometown shower with all of my lifelong friends and family friends.  I can't wait for baby to meet all of these friends and family members!

The Sixth Appointment and a Very Full Weekend

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have been very busy and very fun!  We started off Friday with my sixth prenatal appointment.  The scheduler had told us to set aside two hours for this appointment, and it ended up taking two and a half hours.  I started out with chugging 10 ounces of Glucola.  I had been a bit concerned about having to get it down in five minutes, because drinking liquids quickly has been an issue during all of my pregnancy, but it wasn't an issue this time.  Then they had Robert and me just sit in the waiting room for an hour while my body processed the drink.  Thankfully, we had brought books to read, but it was still pretty boring.  I had another ultrasound, and everything looks great!  Her heart rate was 138 bpm, she looks healthy, and the fluid levels and placenta are both good.  I feel like this ultrasound picture gave us a really good view of her little lips, chin, and nose, and she's so stinking cute!

A tech came to draw my blood, and, per usual, it was a negative experience.  Having my blood drawn is always very unenjoyable, and this time it was coupled with a technician with a very thick accent that I couldn't understand, so it wasn't very relaxing.  She didn't have any success on my left arm and left me with a nice bruise.  She proceeded to my right arm and had success after a bit.  Now I just have to wait until Monday for the results.  The goal is for the glucose level to be under 140.  If that's the case then everything is a-okay.  If not, then I'll go in again, drink more Glucola, and have my blood drawn once an hour for three hours to test for gestational diabetes.  I obviously don't want to have gestational diabetes, but I also really really really don't want to have my blood drawn three times in one day.

We went back out to the waiting room and started to get quite antsy.  At this point we had already been there for an hour and fifteen minutes, and then the nurse came out to updated the estimated wait time for 30 minutes for Dr. Graves.  They kept on calling in people who had gotten there way after me, but we finally got called back.  Blood pressure was good.  The actually appointment with the doctor lasted less than five minutes, and then the nurse came back again to give me a TDAP vaccine.  This was my last monthly appointment, and now I'll go in every two weeks for the next eight weeks or so.

We went straight from the doctor to the zoo to meet up with my dad for a picnic and a walk through the zoo.  The weather all weekend was so perfect!

Finally, on Friday night I hosted the college girls book study.  We've been going through The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst.

On Saturday morning I squeezed in about two hours of work.  For the last 13 weeks I've been working part-time from home for Insite Solutions, the company where I worked full-time in NC.  I had been working on the launch of the new website which launched about four weeks ago.  During those nine weeks I got in about 20-30 hours a week, and since the launch it's died down quite a bit, but I've still been working on various tasks for about 10 hours a week which has been nice.  After working for a bit, I went to our church's spring tea.  It was beautifully decorated, the food was delicious, and I enjoyed our time together.

About 30 minutes after getting home from the tea Robert and I hopped in the car with Lori and Brian and we headed to Table Rock Lake.  I'm pretty sure I had never done anything there before, but it was really pretty.  Like I said, it was pretty much 80 degrees and sunny all weekend.

The party continued today with a lunch for new members and prospective members at church.  It's exciting to see new families joining and wanting to get involved!  Robert and I sneaked out after Robert spoke about student ministry so we could get to the youth pool party.  I even got to swim after discovering that my swimsuit still fits.  Ha!  The water was very refreshing!  I came home and promptly began my Sunday afternoon nap. :)  Robert has more energy than me and is now watching Age of Ultron with half a dozen of the youth guys.