Baby #2: Weeks 35 & 36

Week 35

I forget why I skipped the gym Tuesday morning, but maybe it was because I was already feeling a little rundown.  Halfway through my workday, I started to feel a little tickle in my throat and thought... am I getting sick?!  Yup.  I decided to work from home on Wednesday to take it easy and keep my germs to myself.  I didn't feel terrible, just had some phlegm hanging out behind my nose and felt kind blah.  Unfortunately Vienna woke up Thursday super snotty, so the two of us stayed home the rest of the week.  Dave was somehow spared!

Vienna fully recovered over the weekend but my cold is somehow still lingering almost 2 weeks later.  Despite feeling kind of crummy, I was able to be pretty productive when Robin took V for the day Saturday.  I finally took care of the task I had been avoiding for a while: scrubbing Vienna's closet, organizing the nursery closet, and moving her stuff over.  I did a bunch of laundry including all my nursing bras and tops, organized all the diapers and gift bags that were still in a big pile from the sprinkle, and kicked V's summer clothes out of her drawers and started a 2T storage bin.  We also finally hung some stuff on Vienna's walls.  And I started gathering stuff for my birth center bag and postpartum supplies.

Week 36

I had my 36 week appointment and it was uneventful and easy.  I did get swabbed for my Group B Strep test so I'll know the results for that next week.   GBS is a type of bacterial infection that occurs in 25% of healthy, adult women and would just mean some antibiotics during labor to protect the baby.  I was negative last time, so we'll see.  Otherwise my blood pressure was good, baby's heartbeat was normal, and I turned in some routine paperwork (a home visit worksheet, a hospital registration form just in case, and paperwork for baby's birth certificate).  I decided to delay my flu shot until next week since I was already feeling rundown from my never ending cold.

Otherwise most of the week was the worst.  It was just really stressful and exhausting and that's all I'm going to say about it.

On the bright side, my fairy godmother aka my MIL came over again and did more laundry, cleaned a bunch (including my bathrooms!), and helped with V.  And then my parents and Tom came over on Sunday bearing gifts of food, more laundry and bed making assistance, and helped us take care of a few more things on our to do list.  I'm feeling a lot more ready nesting wise.

We also attended two fun parties Saturday and Vienna had a blast!  The first was a second birthday party where I got to hang with some buddies from the gym and Vienna learned how to climb a ladder!

And the second was a Halloween party where Vienna was obsessed with her new ladder climbing skills and flying down the slide over and over!  We had tons of fun but mama was exhausted by the end.

I feel like everyone in my online bump group is sharing tips on how to get labor started asap or is eager to set an end date via induction... But I'm feeling totally opposite.  My due guess date isn't for another 3 weeks but in the back of my mind, based on the day I know I ovulated via tracking my temps, it could really be the 16th instead of the 12th.  I want the baby to keep developing and get all those final touches on the inside.  I still have random things I want to clean and organize.  I could be happy putting a few more meals in the freezer.

I guess I'm lucky because I'm feeling pretty good physically so that helps me not to be in a rush.  My feet and ankles aren't swollen (just my face lol), my back and pelvis are somehow feeling pretty good, and I'm actually still getting decent sleep.  Plus I'm not having any Braxton Hicks contractions or prodromal labor (or if I am, nothing that is occurring to me as such).  Don't get me wrong... being this pregnant is really hard!  And my bump is huge and definitely uncomfortable.  I just know everything is about to change and I'm really trying to soak up our last few weeks as a family of 3.

My Pregnancy: Week 36

 

Week 36 and I'm finally feeling pretty uncomfortable!  My ankles are swollen, my pelvis is aching, and rolling over in bed is super painful.  My one hip has been doing this weird popping thing that is new this week.  And my back aches when I walk.  I know I can't complain because my pregnancy has been relatively easy, but I think it's finally time to slow things down a bit... which is really hard for me as a person!

Thursday was my birthday and I was supposed to get up for CrossFit, but I stayed up kind of late Wednesday, my pelvis was feeling achy, and to be honest I didn't really want to ruin my cute hair from my photo shoot on Wednesday lol.  No regrets.  When I woke up Dave gave me some really cute gifts and a card from the baby.

Thursday night we drove down the shore for our last prebaby weekend away.  Friday we worked a few hours in the morning and then headed to the beach for a few cool cloudy hours.  Dave went out Friday night but I fell asleep on the couch right after dinner and then opted for some ice cream and Modern Family in bed.  Saturday it poured all day, which was perfect for hitting the bar and watching Penn State crush Akron in their season opener.  We had a ton of delicious seafood for dinner and then headed over to Dave's aunt and uncle's place for a rainy night in.  Sunday we got some decent beach weather and Sunday night I finally made it out.  We went to 3 of our favorite bars.  I sipped on iced coffee and a mocktail, stayed out till 1:30 am, and survived the mile walk home.  I sure felt like a trooper!  On Monday we had a perfect day at the beach.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we got there nice and early to meet up with Karisa and Frank, their kids, and a few of their other friends with their children.  We got a nice sneak preview at our future at the beach with toddlers running around and had a lot of fun with everybody.  We stayed at the beach for over 5 hours and said a sad goodbye to the beach for this season!  All weekend I kept thinking I should be taking pictures, but it was sort of nice not to worry about it and just enjoy being in the moment versus capturing it on my camera.  These were the only pics from the weekend.

On Wednesday I made it back to the gym!  The strength was 20 squats and I'm pretty sure weighted squats are what left my pelvis aching last week, so I decided to do something else.  My coach suggested I do some push presses, which was the strength from the day before, but I really wanted to snatch!  I did them in sets of 2 and just worked up to a heavy weight that still felt super easy.  I honestly can't believe I put up 85# so easily.

The WOD was every 3 mins x 5 of 40 double unders (I did 30 air squats), 10 calorie row, and 6 handstand push ups (I did incline push ups on a low racked barbell).  I finished every round with about 30 seconds to rest.  I got a great workout and woke up super sore the next day... nothing in my pelvis or belly, just regular CF muscle soreness in my chest from the push ups and my inner thighs from all those squats, which means I'm still getting stronger!  But it did make me realize that I probably don't want to be sore AT ALL for my birthing time... I need to go in feeling my best!

This week was pretty uneventful pregnancy wise:

• I slept like crap at the beach and I was thinking that this might be it for any good sleep, but once I got home to my own bed I slept a lot better.  I generally only get up once to pee, so that's not too bad at all.
• I finally started packing my hospital bag.  I've had my list done for a while but I actually started getting everything together.  I'll be finishing this over the weekend, so we're ready to go!
• My feet are sausages, it's not cute.

And finally what you've all been waiting for!  I really had no plans to do maternity photos, I think if I had intended to do them all along, we would've done them like a month ago... when my face wasn't so fat LOL.  But my friend Megan offered and I said what the heck, why not.  Valley Forge was an obvious choice for the location, we had perfect weather for the shoot, and we got some gorgeous photos!