Waiting is the hardest part, especially
with a crowd. I keep reminding myself that I’m not even due
yet, let alone past due. I probably have a few more weeks. But
waiting is tough. I think my friend (due tomorrow) may be in
labor today. Is it petty to be jealous? I also worry a bit for
Lex because he’s gotten so mommy happy these past few days. He
likes other people, but only if he knows exactly where mommy
is. I don’t think he’s let Joyce or Barney read to him or
really do much with him the whole time, just wants mommy. I
think he knows something is going on. Not sure he fully
understands what, but he definitely senses some impending
something. I’m trying to balance showering him with attention
as much as possible before baby comes, while not making the
clingy-ness worse. Who knows the right way to do that. Oh well.
I’m pretty tired and cranky today so I think I’d best stop
posting my rambles to the world :)

One big difference between this pregnancy
and my first is the ability to feel the baby’s parts. It’s
amazing. With Lex, the midwives could feel big things like
head, butt, back, etc. But I could only ever feel a big, solid
lump. This time around, I can feel individual parts inside,
especially when baby is moving a lot. I don’t know exactly what
they are, but if I press on my belly I can feel something bump
under my fingers and go by, like baby just turned over and I
felt the arm pass by. Again, I’m never sure exactly what part
it is, but it’s pretty amazing to feel. Sometimes my belly just
feels lumpy (when the BH contractions are giving me a few
minutes of relief) and you can just poke around and feel little
hills and valleys in the belly. Very cool , in an alien inside
sort of way!

Had my 39wk checkup this morning. All is
good. Baby is strong, active, and measuring right on schedule.
She also said I’m 2cm dilated and “very soft.” Which doesn’t
mean a thing, really, since I went from 0cm to baby within 24
hours with Lex and some women stay several cm dilated for
weeks. I know a woman who is due just before me and she’s been
5cm dilated for several weeks now. But, the dilation does
explain the funky feelings I’ve been having lately. I keep
getting flurries of activity in my belly. I’ll get a real
strong BH contraction, baby will start doing flips (probably in
protest of the contraction!) and then I’ll get weird pinchy
feelings in my cervix. Then things will settle down again for
awhile. Soo… I guess that means we’re making progress :)
C’mon baby!

PS. Mom, there was
a toy phone in the waiting room and Lex kept picking it up and
saying “Hi Mema…” then going into a long conversation that I
couldn’t understand a word of :) Probably telling you all about
the lovely hospital waiting room.

Alan and I went to a three hour childbirth
refresher class last night. A few important takeaways:

1) High, tight, belly pains and Braxton-Hicks
= false labor; lower back pain and low-belly cramps = real
labor. Good to remember.

2) When I’m in
labor and start forgetting what I’m doing (Mom, remember that?
You: “What are we doing in this room?” Me: *shrug* “No idea.”)
When I get to that point, it’s time to get to the hospital
ASAP!

3) Lex did great with our
babysitter (Jan) right up until she mentioned the “b” word
(bedtime) then he had a complete meltdown. She said they had a
great time playing, reading, etc. and then he cried really hard
for an hour as she tried to get him in bed. She’s good though
and got him to sleep in his bed.

So now
we are refreshed and continue to wait :)

Here are a few more belly pics. Can it get
any bigger?? These are good pics because you can see the
stretch marks and all. :) I have lots of Braxton Hicks
contractions lately and in the past few days the belly has
started getting very achy and sore too… maybe too many
Cadbury mini-eggs ;) And I got the same belly button pain that
I had with Lex, though not as strong (yet). I just went back to
the old blog and saw that the midwives called it a mild uterian
hernia. Yipee! Like my online whining? Like my maternity yoga
pants? They are so comfy I might just wear them for the rest of
this pregnancy.

I’ve had requests for more belly pictures,
so I gave it a shot tonight. Alan isn’t home at the moment, so
these are self-portraits. Hope you like. As usual, the belly
feels much bigger than it looks in pictures!

I had my 33 week check-up this morning. It
was a long morning. We started at the dentist for an 8:45 appt
(all good there), then to the hospital to pre-register for the
delivery, then up to see the midwives for an 11:40 appt. Lex
was perfect, but definitely exhausted by the end and he was
asleep pretty quick when we got in the car to come home.

As anyone reading this probably knows, I’m
seeing the midwife team at the hospital. There are five or six
of them and you’re supposed to see all of them throughout your
prental care, with the idea being that you’ll be comfortable
with whomever is on call the day you deliver. They do the same
thing with the doctors. This is apparently common. Didn’t work
so well with Lex since I saw four of them and never met the
woman who ended up delivering him. Quite honestly though, it
doesn’t matter much in the heat of the moment. Anyway, I say
all of this to say that one drawback to this method is that
there is the potential for conflicting information and mixed
messages. On the plus side, you can get a second opinion just
by asking the same question at your next appointment (different
midwife).

For example, last time I was
there I asked if there was any correlation between when you
deliver your first baby and your second. Since Lex came 8 days
late I was wondering if I’d be more or less likely to deliver
this next one late as well… or no relation at all. The
midwife last time told me that you tend to deliver around the
same time, so if baby 1 is late, odds are good baby 2 will be
late as well. Maybe not as late, but late. Of course, this is
all just odds and nothing is for sure… but that’s all I was
looking for. I mentioned this at today’s appointment and
today’s midwife told me there is absolutely no correlation
there at all. So even though I delivered Lex 8 days late, my
chances are equally good to deliver 8 days early this time…
or late… or who knows. She said that there is no way to even
begin to guess when the baby may come. Both sounded equally
confident though, so how do you know who to believe? I guess
I’ll go with today’s opinion because… well, why not?
Gah!

Also, and this doesn’t surprise me
at all, the midwife last time did some bad math and my weight
gain was actually 23lbs, not 13lbs. I was surprised by 13 and I
think 23 is more accurate to how I feel these days. Now I’m up
to 27lbs (but in my defense, most of my appts are at 8:30am and
this one was at 11:40am and I didn’t take my winter boots
off!). I need to start being more careful though because
loosing the weight is much harder than I ever expected.

Baby is also measuring big this time around. I
guess this isn’t a problem now (perhaps just a recent growth
spurt), but if baby continues measuring big over the next few
check-ups, we may need to go in for another ultrasound. She
said most likely I’m just carrying a bigger baby than Lex…
which also matches well with how I feel these days. Hell, half
the time I’m carrying a bigger baby *and* Lex!!

I think my belly dropped yesterday. Sounds
weird, I know, but it’s perfectly normal. Baby feels much lower
and is no longer in my rib cage. Ahhh… I can breathe again
:)

It occurred to me tonight that I haven’t
taken any belly pictures this pregnancy. Guess the novelty of
showing the world my big ol’ belly wore off the first time
around :) But, since I keep telling you all how huge it is,
here is proof. I hope I can handle 8 more weeks of
growth…

It does make a great seat for Lex
though…

And for comparison, here is a
picture of the belly (with Lex inside) at 30 weeks last time
around. Definitely bigger this time, don’t you think? Must be
the weakened stomach muscles. My abs of steel (hehehe) are no
longer…

We’re coming into the final stretch of
this pregnancy now… just a few more months to go :) I like
being pregnant though. Have I mentioned that? It’s especially
neat now that baby is very active and Alan and I can both feel
good kicks. I’ve also started taking a prenatal yoga class,
which is a good way to stretch and whatever, but also a nice
hour and a half each week to remind myself that I’m pregnant.
The instructor started the first class with a few minutes of
breathing and thinking about the baby. I never get that kind of
time at home! Always thinking about the big baby who’s tackling
me, jumping on me, or begging for a book. Lex, that is, not
Alan ;) So once a week I get to relax, stretch with other
pregnant mommies, and think about this new little bundle of joy
who will soon be joining our happy family. It’s nice.

There are, of course, aches and pains and I’m
gaining way too much weight (Alan dug out the scale the other
day — sad, sad day), but overall I like being
pregnant!