34 Weeks - Pregnancy Update

20 Weeks

34 Weeks

It is kind of amazing what can happen in 14 weeks isn't it? :) I think that was the last time that I will be able to wear that shirt it is so tight!  So if I went into labor today, they wouldn't give me any drugs to stop it according to my doctor.  My baby wouldn't have any long-term problems at this point.  Which is awesome!

It really is so much fun being pregnant.  My pregnancy has been really quite easy, and I feel so blessed for that.  It is great that I can keep working and bringing home the bacon, and that there haven't been any serious complications.

The best part about being pregnant is feeling my baby move. She is getting so strong!  I love it. Her movements are so constant, and totally distort the shape of my stomach in alien ways.  Its funny :)  Also, I don't know if I have mentioned this on my blog yet, but our little girl clearly doesn't have any hearing problems.  She startles when I turn on the vaccumm, and when I get in the shower she gets really active.  I think she can hear the water hitting my belly :) And last night during the BYU game she started kicking when Brad and I were screaming with excitement!

Pregnancy is definitely not all peachy though. I do have a lot of kind of odd symptoms.  I have pretty bad pain in the middle of my back when I sit for over an hour (I sit for 8 - 9  hours a day at work so it is kind of constant for most of my day) that comes from my mild scoliosis and one leg being longer than the other. I have started working standing up at my computer at work which makes me look a little funny and draws even more attention to the fact that I am pregnant.  People have been so nice to me though.  Seriously, I have had two different men go and get me a fan from their own desks without me asking when I am having hot flashes. And people ask me all the time how I am doing. It is really sweet.  

The other symptoms include really strong Braxton Hicks contractions that give me a stomach ache. And they are kind of frequent sometimes - as in several in an hour. One night a few weeks ago, I was having regular Braxton Hicks contractions every 7 mins for six hours even though I was laying down etc.  At one point they were every two minutes.  I was so freaked out I felt like I was having a panic attack.  Yes, I did call my doctor, and after he told me to guzzle a ton of water he said that if I couldn't sleep through them I should come in to the hospital.  I was able to fall asleep - I think the water helped.  At my doctor's appointment two days later, he decided to do a culture of my cervix to see if I was going to go into labor in the next two weeks.  It came back negative which was great obviously.  So I happily went to St. George that day for a baby shower! (More on that later).

I also had a day when I felt exactly like I have when I was on my period.  Cramps, leg aches, all of my muscles felt sore, I was moody, etc.  Since that time, my Braxton Hicks feel a bit lower and a bit more like period cramps.  Lets just say that I think my body is doing an excellent job of practicing for the real thing.

I also get Braxton Hicks when my bladder is really full.  But I also get them if I don't drink enough water.  It is a catch 22 that can sometimes be difficult to manage. 

So the nursery is getting really close to being done, and we have installed the car seat in our car now, so as soon as I buy a few more things, we are going to have all the essentials ready! We are getting more and more excited for her to come!

Book Reviews

Thoughts on some of the books I have read in the last little while:

Brain Rules for Baby was my favorite.  Written by a developmental molecular biologist who knows a lot about brain development, this book could have been a snooze, but it was actually the perfect combination of heartwarming, informative and funny.  And somehow the book is still just a synopsis of current and methodologically sound research about brain development and how it should apply to parenting. I couldn't recommend this one more.










Lost in Shangri-La was also a good one.  Thanks Adam, for giving this book to Brad. I promptly stole it from him and gobbled it up.  A synopsis of the book would be that it is the true story of the self-proclaimed greatest rescue mission during World War II. And if you think that you wouldn't be interested in a book about war or wouldn't be able to keep up because your history lessons went in one ear and out the other, I think that they mentioned things about WWII a total of three times during the entire book.  But basically some people survive a plane wreck only to be stranded in Papua New Guinea and have no way of getting out.  And they are surrounded by a primitive, warring/sometimes canabalistic people who have been completely undisturbed by other civilizations/people since pretty much the beginning of time.  If that sounds like a discouraging book, know that I laughed out loud quite frequently during my reading.  The author finds a lot of humor in the people he was writing about.





The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was gripping.  Oh my did it have a hold on me!  I had to read the plot summary on Wikipedia to keep myself from staying up all night reading. Also I am glad that I did that because then I knew what I was getting myself into. I recommend doing so.  It is an uber gritty book, and I had to skip parts to get through it, but the main reason that I liked it was that it made me think.  It also made me feel empowered.  The main character is not a victim in any sense of the word, although she would have legitimate cause to be if she wanted to act like one. It was liberating to look at life through the eyes of someone so unconventional and strong. Pretty much horrendous things happen but they don't traumatize her, so they didn't traumatize me.  It was interesting because normally I am a very sensitive person. Disclaimer: I am not recommending this book to everyone, and it would definitely be rated R if books had ratings just fyi.  I won't go into my philosophies on morality and entertainment here to justify why I read a rated R book, but I think I have good reasons. I will discuss them with you if you want more details - just ask.  Also, I will say that I don't plan on finishing the series.  Still glad I read this one though.







The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program was a quick read - approximately 1.5 hrs. But it works for my sister, so I am definitely hoping that it will do the same for me and my baby! And it makes a whole lot of sense.  And what parent doesn't want to their baby to get as much sleep as their little growing brains and bodies need?







This one is way more opinionated than it looks.  I was expecting an encyclopedia-type reference book, and it sort of is, but the couple who wrote it put their opinions in WAY too often for my taste.  And their opinions aren't based on scientific fact at all.  Which bothers me.  But I will say that it is still helpful and has tons of good information.  And the fact that they fight so hard for attachment parenting is good, because even though it sounds completely impossible to do 100%, attachment parenting seems to ask parents to be as unselfish as they can possibly be.