34 Weeks!

Today's date: Wednesday, June 8, 2011

How far along: 34 weeks(8.5 months...whoa!)

Sex: Girl...or so our doctors said!

Maternity clothes: Basically, whatever is comfortable!  Yoga pants, tanks and running shoes these days.

Sleep: I've been sleeping on the couch for the past week because it gets way too hot upstairs for me to handle.  I miss my bed but would rather be cool at this point

Best moment(s) of the week:  Brad and I finally got to spend a weekend at home (in Pittsburgh)!  I feel like I've been in Michigan every other week/end and haven't been able to get anything done at our house.  So, Brad was able to tackle a lot of the finishing touches on the kitchen, while I caught up on basic household things (laundry, vacuuming, tidying up, etc).  I even got ambitious and busted out some interior wall paint to touch up some random marks on the walls throughout the first floor.  It felt good to be productive!

 
Movement:  I haven't been feeling her as much in the past two days as I had been.  A friend told me once that while she was pregnant she noticed that she would feel her baby move a lot for a week or so and then she wouldn't feel her as much for a couple days and attributed that to her uterus growing, and thus the baby having more room.  So, that's what I write it off as, so I don't worry myself too much.

Food cravings/aversions: There's still nothing that I crave or despise BUT I figured out what caused me such unpleasant acid reflux a couple weekends ago in Grand Rapids...Italian sausage!  It was on the pizza I ate the first night I ever experienced AR.  I didn't have it again until we got home, I cooked some pasta with Italian sausage in it, and had AR again that night.  So...no more sausage for me for 6 weeks :)

Morning sickness: Nada.

Symptoms:  My lower extremities are sore/tired pretty much all the time.  When I stand up from sitting, I feel like a 95 year old lady.  Is this normal!?  

Labor signs:  I'm not really sure.  I feel like I've had some really faint Braxton Hicks contractions but who knows.

Belly button in or out:  The top half is pretty much sticking out and if I wear a tight shirt, you can see it poking out.  ha!

What I miss: Sleeping on my back and stomach...in my own bed, in my bedroom, in frigid winter temperatures!

What I'm looking forward to: We're on the go again.  We head back to MI today after work for two weddings on the same day.  Both of our best friends just happen to be getting married on Saturday and we're both in each of them.  Luckily, both weddings are in West Michigan (Grand Rapids and Holland) so we we won't be too far from each other in case anything exciting happens (which I'm sure it won't).  I'm looking forward to Molly's big day...she's been waiting 8 or 9 years for this day!

Size and growth of our baby: Baby now weighs as much as a CANTALOUPE (I can't believe I'm in the large melon stages)!

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.