29 Weeks

11 weeks or 77 days to go, oh my!

I had an OB visit a couple of days ago and all is good.  It was the standard urine, weight, blood pressure, belly measurement and heartbeat doppler (170 bpm).  I asked about my swollen ankles and she said it was completely normal and nothing to worry about since both ankles were the same size and my blood pressure was low.  I asked if there was anything I could take for the heartburn as it has become almost unbearable.  My esophagus feels like it's on fire for most of the day.  She gave me a script for an acid blocker, it's 1 pill/day.  After 1 dose, I am completely free of heartburn, what a relief!  I was told to start kick counts.  After dinner and sitting down to chill, I have to count 6 kicks within an hour.  Definitely no problem there as I can get to 6 in a couple of minutes.  If I don't get to 6, I have to drink something sweet, lay on my left side and count 6 kicks again. If I don't make it to 6 again, I have to call the doctor as it's the first sign that maybe something is wrong.  I now have OB appt every 2 weeks.

A trip to the chiro helped my back pain significantly.  He said my hip area was locked up pretty bad causing the pain.  Hopefully a couple more visits will get me walking upright again.

I have a new pg induced symptom.  This may be TMI, but for anyone that knows me or has read my blog for awhile, you know by now that I'm quite the open book.  Kerry and I were finishing up our shower (we have a double shower, and no this is not leading to any hanky panky type of TMI).  As I was rinsing the soap off my nether regions, I felt a fluid filled sac protruding externally.  The panic that came over my face was as if I had seen a ghost.  I stood there frozen, practically unable to speak.  Kerry kept asking me what was wrong, all I could get out was that I felt something very disturbing and I needed to get out of the shower.  I rinsed off as fast as I could as I was sure my bag of waters was bulging out.  Kerry stopped me and insisted on looking.  I bet it was quite the sight with him down on his hands and knees looking between my legs.  He said it's ok honey, it's further back, it's not coming from your lady bit.  I just kept asking, are you sure?  It rattled me bad and I just wanted to get out of there and see for myself.

As I was about to get out, with both arms raised putting a towel over my head, Kerry stopped me.  He said you're not going anywhere until you shave those pits!  Yes, I admit it, I've neglected the pits.  I told him I didn't care and just wanted out.  He said oh no, you look like a lumberjack and he proceeded to shoot shaving cream on both pits.  LOL!  This lightened the mood and I started calming down some.

I got out of the shower and bent over in front of the wall mirror to see what the heck that fluid filled sac was.  Kerry was right, it was further back and was on my butt.  It didn't hurt at all, so I guess that's why I never noticed it.  I said to Kerry as I was bent over, can you see that???  He said, how can I not???  I asked him to exam it as it looked like it was going to burst. He had me bend over and spread em'.  I could see him intently examining it as I watched between my legs.  I was belly laughing uncontrollably through the whole thing and dang near lost it when he touched it.  I stood up and was laughing harder than I have in my entire life.  My belly was shaking, the tears were rolling down my face and then I proceeded to throw up in the sink.  My first puke episode this entire pg, not from morning sickness, but from laughing too hard.  But it didn't end there, then I started choking while continuing to laugh hysterically.  I crossed my legs and exclaimed oh no as the pee started to dribble down my leg.  Kerry grabbed the nearest wash cloth and wiped me down before it hit the floor.

So that's the story of my very first hemorrhoid!  Oh the joys of the 3rd tri!  We looked up hemorrhoids on the internet and found this to be very common in pg due to increased blood volume, decreased circulation and the increasing weight of the uterus.  It was described as a cluster of purple grapes protruding from the anus on one website, what a lovely description, and the photos that went with them, oh my!  I felt much better after seeing those disturbing photos and content with my 1 measly grape.  It went away by the next day and hasn't come back since, though I won't hold my breath.  It's now a running joke, at my expense, as Kerry talks about my blowout or calls me baboon butt.  LOL!

I attempted to put on my pre-pg jeans with my belly belt the other day, no go!  I could get them on unzipped, but couldn't move afterwards.  Since the weather was really nice, I decided to get out my maternity capri jeans that I bought from a friend at 4w.  Well, they didn't fit as well as they did at 4w.  I decided to make it work and headed to church.  I ran into a friend as I was walking in.  She said, oh look at you, you're starting to waddle, how cute!  I had to tell her it was because my pants were too tight.  Oh well, I only paid a $1 for them and I guess I got a $1 use out of them.  With the hot weather coming up, I'm going to have to buy myself a new pair, in a size for my enlarged baboon butt!

I think I've been experiencing my first braxton hicks.  My books state that this would be starting and is totally normal and considered practice contractions.  I feel a slight crampy sensation and my belly gets really hard.  Had quite a few yesterday but none today.

This week's belly:

Nursery update:

We ordered the glider/ottoman:

In this fabric:

We then matched our neutral wall paint to this fabric.

1st coat of neutral paint done (notice how easily tall dude reaches the top of the 8ft ceiling):

2nd coat of neutral paint done:

The 4 paint colors for the stripes have been selected:

Crown and chair rail moulding have been purchased.  We still have to cut, paint, install and caulk it all.

I made a toss pillow for the glider.  I still have to sew on the giraffe applique I made, but here it is so far:

Our pack n' play arrived and I really like it, but OMGosh, it's huge!

I think this model should be called the setup n' stay.  It's too big to even fit through the door and you have to remove the diaper changing station, bassinet and electronic gadget before it will even breakdown in order to "pack" it up and move it to a different room or take it to say, grandma's!  Good thing my plans for this were to stay in the bedroom.  I'm going to have to rearrange some bedroom furniture now.  What's 1 more item on my 2 page honey do list, right!

I rec'd a box of baby clothes from Hawii from my SIL.  Thanks Sheree!  His closet is now busting at the seams!  He officially has more clothes that me.  I need my nursery furniture to arrive soon so I can utilize some drawer space.

To answer a few commenter's questions:  Yes, we will be incorporating giraffes in the theme, you'll see! No, we're not any closer to picking out a name.  We've been calling him a few of our names on our maybe list just to see if we like them.  We hope to have a name picked out before he's born.  How did I learn to sew or become crafty?  Well, I'm self-taught and honestly, I'm really not that great at it and definitely don't enjoy it as a hobby.  It's the frugalness and pickiness in me that drives me to go to the extent of making my own items.  Like my mom commented; "OMG, who makes their own sheets?"  LOL

Tomorrow we start our childbirth classes!  Gonna go get some education on how to get this little human out of me.  Hopefully it will be easier than what it took to get him in me!