Thursday, June 30, 2016

Week 29

Well, this week you get another slightly early blog post, this time because I'm going to be gone all weekend and figured if I didn't write everything down now, you wouldn't hear from me until Monday or Tuesday. And considering how busy NEXT week is supposed to be... well I don't know but it's possible two whole weeks of pregnancy blog would go missing, and we can't have that!

So, here we are, week 29 almost wrapped up in a pretty bow, and week 30 about to start. Holy crap, where has the time gone? Speck will be here in 11 weeks!! (Well, 9 to 13 weeks really, but damn people, that's crazy!)

I have a feeling most of the third trimester is going to fly by, especially because we have a seriously busy summer schedule. Then I expect the last couple weeks before Speck arrives will drag by in the way that only a combination of impatience to meet a new human and the discomfort of feeling like a bloated and rotting whale corpse can account for. At least, that's what I've read. We shall see.

Meanwhile. Let's stick to the present. Enjoy the hell out of the now people, it's the only thing we can be sure of. So, what things do I need to tell you about week 29? Let's see first up, some good stuff.

I RAN 4 out of the past 7 days! And I may yet go for another run today too. Now, keep in mind when I say run here, I mean super slow running around a simple grass field, and the only thing that keeps it from being jogging is my posture and stride. In fact, just to make sure that I don't jog, I'm taking my shoes off and running barefoot around this field. The idea being that running barefoot will keep my weight forward, keep me on the balls of my feet and keep me from doing the up and down bouncing involved in jogging. And why would I want to avoid jogging you ask? Well, aside from the fact that it's supposed to be worse for your whole body and especially your joints, it also causes Speck to put WAAAAYYYY too much pressure on my bladder. So a running stride, even if slowed to a practical crawl, is vastly preferable to me. So there you go. RUNNING! Slow and only for between 1 to 1.5 miles at the moment, but still. Running. It feels so good to run again at all, I will take it. And, as I'm sneaking it into the middle of my 4km dog walk, I am sure to get a decent warm up and cool down each time. Ok. I've probably gone on about this way longer than most people are interested in, I'm just so happy about it that I can't stop telling people. It's like regaining a tiny piece of pre-pregnant me and it feels really good.

Moving on.

Acquisitions! Well, I have been avoiding buying many baby things, as I may have mentioned, but I have received one awesome gift from my mom which I will talk about in a second, and yesterday I bought some pregnancy things. The pregnancy things yesterday were no big deal, just some more athletic pants I can run in that aren't too hot, and an exercise ball for posture, baby positioning, and labor. My doula informs me that sitting on a exercise ball in the last trimester can help ensure Speck is in the right place come b-day, and I am all for that. Plus they're supposed to be damned handy things to have in labor (so much so that the birth center has a whole stack of them just waiting for use) and I hope to labor at home for as long as possible before heading to either the birth center or the hospital, so it'll be nice to have one here. Not to mention it's a nice comfortable alternative to my standing desk that still allows me to work at a pleasant angle relative to my computer but doesn't require me to sit in a chair for hours on end (something my preggo body is decidedly against). I've only had it for a day so far, but my verdict is (as I sit on it to type this blog entry) that if you have a desk job, are pregnant, and have become increasingly uncomfortable in your chair, this might be the solution for you. Might not be though. Keep in mind there's no back support, you have to do that part yourself (which is good for you, helps maintain posture and make your back stronger etc.... unless your back is already messed up, in which case it might not be good for you, please consult your doctor, don't take my random ass anecdotal evidence as science).


This was the best I could do for a selfie that included the exercise ball. It's the grey blob in the middle there. But this is totally me right now. Rocking the ball and working at my laptop. 

Here's a shot demonstrating what a nice height the laptop is for my neck and arms. Well, it sort of demonstrates that... mostly it demonstrates how messy my work space is. Hi, Mom! ;-)

So anyway, that was the main pregnancy related thing I got. The other things were just big, flowy, light colored, long sleeved shirts to wear while being out in the sun all day and needing perhaps more coverage than mere sunscreen can provide. Not to mention, providing a bit of extra mosquito protection as I am reluctant to use DEET products while carrying Speck. So, if a thin flowy shirt will help reduce the amount of mosquito repellent I need to use, I will happily wear one. 

The REALLY AWESOME THING that my mom got me as a gift (despite my protest that gifts, and new things are not really what we're doing this pregnancy--but she's allowed to ignore me on this because she's my mom--no one else get any ideas) is THIS:


If you're wondering what that is, it's a diaper bag. The world's coolest diaper bag, to be specific. 

Don't believe me... check it out!

It's lined with water proof lining that can easily be hosed out or wiped down without damaging the bag. It also keeps rain out when you're trying to keep your diaper supply dry.

It comes with this super awesome folding change pad that is both stylish and functional. (Note the binky holder in the corner there. That's a neoprene pouch sized just for pacifiers.)

Unfolded you can see the two mesh pouches for holding clean diapers as well as the see through watertight pocket for dirty ones. The bright teal area is baby change land--also covered in a totally fluid resistant (yeah we won't pretend that's gonna be water) coating for easy clean up.

Change pad tucks away nicely and despite my inability to hold the bag open and take a picture at the same time, the bag is large and full of lots of useful pockets.


Timbuk2 makes amazing products, I have a few things made by them and they are all in mint condition despite being years old. I have a laptop bag of theirs that is 9 years old and still perfect. Not even a single zipper has broken. I looked into a lot of diaper bags and backpacks, and this one was the one I wanted most. I personally was not interested in any of the frilly designs on other bags, and I hate hand bags, or shoulder straps that can't be worn across the chest. Timbuk2 makes awesome messenger bags and this is basically a large messenger bag with a few adaptations specifically for diaper related issues. In the meantime it just looks awesome (in my opinion).  

Corey was skeptical at first, and I don't know if he would have gone for it if mom hadn't gone ahead and gotten it for us, but funnily enough on the day it arrived he met up with a friend on his way home who is a dad and whose opinion Corey holds pretty high. This dad friend mentioned that it was worth it to buy a diaper bag that rocked because you spend so much damned time with the thing. I think that sold Corey on it more than anything I could have said and when I showed it to him he seemed impressed. 

THANKS MOM!!! (And anonymous dad friend.)

So those are all my recent acquisitions. Let's see what else do you need to know?

Oh right. I had another midwife appointment this week. This time to actually have a real appointment instead of just meet the midwife and talk and get to know each other. It was lovely because we went over all of my files in detail in order to make sure she had everything and just to make sure I had all the details I wanted. What was particularly fabulous about this was that she took the time to go over my 20 week ultrasound results with me. Something my doctor (or rather the resident I meet with instead of my doctor) had flat out refused to do. Which I get, I mean it's time consuming to go over that kind of report and my results were all "normal" so I understand why she couldn't take the time. But, really this is a big part of why I wanted midwifery care to begin with. Being pregnant may not be medically a big deal, especially to people whose job it is to make sick people healthy again, but it's a big damned deal to me. I've never done it before and I like to know what's going on with my body, and I like to know all the details about how Speck is doing. So it was great to have my midwife go through all of the measurements the U/S tech had taken of Speck and show them to me on a measuring tape so I could get a great visual of just how big (or tiny) Speck is (or was 9 weeks ago). So cool! Also, at the time of the U/S I had normal amounts of amniotic fluid, a nicely closed cervix, and a posterior placenta that was not in any way blocking my cervix. All of which is good. Yay details!

The update from the latest appointment was that my fundal height was measuring right on time 28cm (I was 28 weeks and 3 days at my appointment). Funny thing; as my midwife was trying to measure where the top of my uterus was she exclaimed, twice, "you have very strong abs." Which just made me chuckle, because, yeah, I keep thinking that's why my bump is so small even though my fundal height is perfectly normal. Speck is measuring just fine, but my abs are keeping everything crammed in tight. Don't know if that's a good thing or not, but it's what I've got. 

Meanwhile my bp was still nice and low (the low side of normal that is) and Speck's heart rate was not only normal but on par with all previous heart rate measurements so far. Speck is consistent like that. 

*multi-hour time lapse*

Speck took me down for a two hour nap and by the time I woke up Corey was home and it was time to make dinner and take the dog for a walk. So, that all happened in between that last paragraph and this one. 

That's a thing. Speck is back to taking me down for naps even though I am generally feeling pretty energetic. However, I have noticed that I'm not up for all night hangs as I once was. We had guests over the weekend and we had plans to go out both Friday and Saturday night. I managed to stay out to somewhat respectable hours both nights, but on Friday night after a few hours of dancing I was exhausted and barely managed to stay awake until our 1am departure time. Meanwhile, on Saturday night a few hours of talking to new people wiped me out and I left the party at 11pm. 

The only new thing this week seems to be that Speck is moving a lot, and the movements can be pretty huge. I have had moments of being distracted from working on the laptop by seeing a shark circling out of the corner of my eye. That's no shark though, it's the protohuman inside of me doing barrel rolls again. I suppose this has been a slow build over weeks, but it seemed particularly marked this week. 

Alright, I think that covers this week. We're off for a long weekend in the northern part of the province and I will return to the land of interwebs late on Sunday. Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend. Here are two shots of the belly to hold you over til next week.


I added a forward facing one so you can check out my slowly darkening linea nigra. I think it's awesome. 

One of these days I'll get Corey to take a proper belly shot again, but at least we have these mirror selfies in the meantime. Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July everyone! (Or just a random weekend in July if you're not from the northern two countries in north america.)




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