34 Weeks: Tipping the Scales

Well, hell, I’ll just start off with the big news of the week—I somehow managed to gain FIVE POUNDS in the two weeks since my last appointment. I have never, in all the appointments involved with my two (successful) pregnancies, gained that much weight in such a short period of time.

Whoops.

The funny thing is that I don’t really know WHY. It’s not like I’ve suddenly taken to eating a lot more than is typical for me. I’ve found myself wondering if it’s “true” weight gain or if I was just caught on a bad day this time (retaining water or something?). You better believe that now I’m curious and will be weighing myself at home over the next few days to see if it goes back down at all. I just have to know!

I’m trying to relax a little and chalk it up to the fact that I had a little catching up to do since I lost a decent chunk of weight while I was in the hospital for appendicitis during the second trimester. And hello, I’m also trying to put it into perspective—the 5-pound gain puts me up to a total of 21 lbs. gained so far this pregnancy, which is within perfectly normal range. In fact, it puts me within a pound or two of where I was at this point in my pregnancy with Nora. So I’m not going there, believe me. I’m not all, “GOD, I’M HUGE” or anything like that. But weight gain during pregnancy is different for everyone and this has just never been my experience until now. And who knows, it very well may even out in the end. It was just a little bit of a shock. I hate the scale!

Weight gain aside, the belly itself is still measuring small. After seeing the scale, I half expected to see a big growth spurt on the part of my uterus, too, but no. I’m measuring 31 cm (only up from 29.75 cm two weeks ago). Whatever—my doctor seems pretty “over it” at this point since we had the growth ultrasound that showed the baby’s growth to be right on track, fluid levels to be normal, good blood flow from the placenta, etc.

My blood pressure is also still looking good. It was 107/78 today. Starting to pay more attention to those numbers now since this was around the time in my pregnancy with Nora when my blood pressure started “creeping up,” which went unnoticed by me until my doctor called it to my attention to it at 38 weeks. At that time, I was diagnosed with “late-gestation hypertension,” which didn’t end up causing me any real problems, but was leading to my doctor planning induction shortly before my due date. Thankfully, I went into labor with Nora on my own before that ever had to happen. I’ll be curious to see if I follow the same pattern this time or if the blood pressure remains a non-issue.

I have another doctor’s appointment in two weeks, at which point I will begin going EVERY WEEK! Crazy.

So that’s the state of my size and my health. :) At home, we’re working on getting ourselves prepared for this baby. Michael and I took a trip up to IKEA last week to buy some new furniture for Nora’s room so we could move the dresser (which matches the crib) into the baby’s room. The painting in the nursery is done, so Michael got it all cleaned out and we put together the crib in there. Want to talk about something making the impending arrival of this baby feel more real? It was seeing that crib ready and waiting. Wow.

There’s still a lot to do before this baby’s arrival. The room is still mostly bare so there is some decorating in order, and we want to get the closet doors installed. We have some shopping to do, too—just a few things that we need new for this baby. We have to dig a bunch of baby stuff out of the basement and do some laundry.

I’ve excitedly begun purchasing cloth diapers to help build up the stash again. I ordered a few newborn all-in-ones last week and when they arrived in the mail, I just about died from the cuteness. SO TINY. I can’t believe I’m going to have a baby that small to fit into those diapers. Freaking adorable.

We haven’t taken any maternity photos this time—we DIYed them last time!—and I don’t know what we’re going to do. I really wanted to have someone take them for us this time around since I’d like some nice ones including Nora (and she’s so hard to photograph right now!), but I don’t think it’s going to happen. We are replacing our furnace and central air conditioner next week which is a big investment, so we’ve been trying to pinch pennies in other areas. Getting professional newborn/family photos is a must come the baby’s birth, so I may just have to sacrifice maternity photos. Blah.

There’s a lot to do, and time is running out. And that means that time is about to start flying.