31 weeks - 217 days

Is this why oranges/orange juice has been so delicious?

Time Left: 7-9 weeks (SINGLE DIGITS!)
                  49-63 days

Size of Baby:  
weight = 3.3 pounds
length = 16 inches
Food comparison ------}

Harper: She is getting ready to head into a growth spurt so says Baby Center.  Goodie, goodie.  I wonder if that's why I have been starving lately.  I usually make it through the day very nicely on: oatmeal, banana, yogurt, soup/veggies, and an orange.  The past two days I have been on the verge of begging for change to get something out of the vending machine.  Time to pack more snacks.

• She turns her head from side to side
• Her limbs are starting to fatten up

She also moves around a lot more now.  My favorite part about her getting bigger in there is that I can now locate her at any point in time by gently pushing on my belly.  She seems to hang out under my boobs and on either side.  I can't tell exactly what I'm feeling as far as body parts, but it's definitely her.

The Gym: Did not go to the gym AGAIN this week.  I officially suck.


Weight Gain:  starting weight = 140 lbs.
                         current weight = 167 lbs.
                         total weight gain = 27 lbs.
My Body:

• Cankles - I NEVER thought a day would come where I would have grown myself a pair of cankles, but apparently that day decided to be on Monday.  Mondays and Fridays are pretty slow for me until about noon so I sit in my office and do various math things throughout the morning.  This Monday morning I decided to work on my Portaportal (website where you can post links, etc) so that I could share it with the teams I work with.  After about an hour I started to notice that my shoes were feeling a little tight.  Noticing that really sucked because I have already had to go up a 1/2 shoe size (from 8.5 to 9) and now they were tight!?  WTF?  As I undid the straps I saw that they had left indents on both of my feet because my feet were trying to Staypuff Marshmallow Man out of my shoes.  I did include a lovely shot of my 'monkey toes' as Bryan calls them and you may say, "Jessica, those aren't quite cankles." But my friends... to me they might as well be.  So here I sit with my shoes off and my feet propped up on a chair thankful that I'm not in a classroom with kids all day long.Swollen feet feel very weird.  They aren't in pain, but they feel uncomfortable.  I almost think that they could float if I put them in the bathtub; like the bottom of a hover craft or something. I'm just thankful that, as of right now, I can still see the bones in my ankles.  Fingers crossed.
• Back Pain - Sitting or standing too long.  It starts in my lower back and works its way up if I don't change positions or stretch.  By the end of the day I'm guaranteed to have some kind of radiating back pain.  Prenatal massage anyone?
• Knee Pain - This is a new one.  Bending over and/or squatting is becoming more and more of a challenge.  Not because I can't get up after I'm down, but because I have instant knee pain.  Both knees at the same time, in the same place; right above the kneecap.  I am kicking myself for not doing more strength training with my cardio.  I have no idea if that would have helped at all, but I guess now I'll never know.  I guess it's not too late to start if I could ever get myself to the gym.  New goal?

       

The Nursery: Last Thursday I came home to a surprise!  Bryan had started working on the nursery again. We bought an orchid plant about a week ago to put in there.  Hopefully those are easy to take care of because plants and I do not get along very well.  He also bought and put up a cherry blossom wall decal; you know us and our attempts at zen-ness.  Harper's name letters also got a coat of primer to get started as we decide whether to paint her name pink or purple.  Bryan also painted the shelves in the closet.  That was a few weeks ago but I forgot to post a picture.

Childbirth Class #3:  Let me start by saying never go out to eat before any kind of class.  Today I got my first full paycheck in a year.  Last summer when I quit my job and was looking for another one in my area Bryan made a deal with me that when I got a job and my first paycheck came in we'd go to the new Mexican restaurant Abuelo's.  We never go out for Mexican because there is virtually nothing 'healthy' to choose from and being the good little Weight Watcher that I am, always opted to go somewhere else when we'd go to eat.  Needless to say, I have been looking forward to going to Abuelo's for a really long time.  Well, first paycheck was today so we headed out earlier than usual for baby class so that I could finally have my celebratory dinner at Abuelo's.  IT WAS AMAZING!  The only downside to going to a Mexican restaurant 7 months pregnant is that I had to watch EVERYONE around me as they enjoyed jumbo margaritas.  Frozen, on the rocks, premium, happy hour, and even a frozen margarita with a Corona tipped upside down inside of it -- my eyes practically bugged out of my head.  I must have one post baby.

Long story not so short is: when you're not getting much beauty sleep at night, work all day, don't take a nap, and have a two-hour childbirth class to go to at night do not go eat delicious Mexican food.  It's like Thanksgiving.  May as well just put on your fat pants and take a nap afterward.  We know for next time.

Baby class was... eh... tonight.  I was immediately turned off when we walked in and saw this sign one the door "Please come in quietly and start talking to your babies".  Sigh.  We can't bring ourselves to talk to her when we're alone at home so I'm for damn sure not going to be talking to her in public amongst a bunch of strangers.  Preparing for labor has gone away from the old-fashioned Lamaze "he, he, hoo" breathing to a lot of visualizing and focusing; mental.  So we were supposed to "talk" to our babies telepathically.  Sigh again.  Close your eyes, relax, and then ask your baby a question and wait for him/her to answer you.  What is this the Dog Whisperer?  Sorry, baby whisperer?  Apparently we were supposed to imagine our babies talking back to us from the womb.  Triple sigh and moving on.
Here are some short, quick highlights:

• Learned 3 different types of calming breathing to do during labor (and practiced them)
• Learned about different types of medications we could have during labor (ie. epidural)
• Watched a video clip of how the cervix dilates, which was fine because it was animated up until the point where they flashed over to a live birth and we were all horrified as we watched a baby's head poke through (didn't see the full birth thank God) and THEN they showed the same woman deliver the placenta.  Let's just say that I wasn't the only one in class scarred for life.
• Got to see how the heart monitor bands will be placed on us and got to see a print out of baby's heart rate during contractions (so we could see what both look like).

Honestly, we were pretty zoned out this class.  It didn't seem super interesting and our nurse would have talked all night if we'd have let her.   I think we're talking more about medication and actually getting into the brunt of labor next week.  I have a feeling that I will not be able to avoid the full birthing video much longer.  It's presence is looming over me.  She gave us a list of items that we may want to pack in our hospital bag and told us to get started on it.  Last class we're supposed to bring it in so that we can do more role playing (goodie).  Problem here is that a lot of the stuff that I want to put in my hospital bag I use daily/weekly.  I can't just put stuff in there waiting for two months to go by and I don't want to go out and buy stuff just for the hospital bag.  Decisions, decisions...

Kale laying on my belly :)