34 weeks

How far along: 34 weeks  (5.29.10)

Total weight gain/loss: + 21.5 lbs

Maternity clothes?: it has been a major struggle this week.  i even called in late to work to work one day.  i was like eight or so minutes late already and just getting in my car so i called nora... "hey nora, have no fear, i'm on my way... i just couldn't find anything to fit this morning... see you in a few!"  good thing she is so understanding!  but seriously.  i have so so so many maternity clothes but i already have a long torso and with this kid going nowhere but out, all of these clothes are just making me look like gus gus again.  and since my jeans aren't zipping up these days, then i need things to be just that much longer.  since i'd called in late to work thursday morning i decided i would be more prepared for friday.  so i tried on clothes... for an hour.  i decided i could manage something for friday (which turned out to be a big pain and a lot of resituating and rearranging... i'll never attempt that outfit again) i realized that i'm semi doomed for the next six weeks.  the good news is that the weather is supposed to be sunny and warm this week so i can hopefully manage better with skirts and not have to deal with uncomfortable jeans and the bella band which is a pain.  now i know why i used the rubber band trick for as long as i did!  and chris took me shopping and i picked out a new shirt.  once again, it's not maternity but it might as well be.  i'm becoming a big fan of the miley cyrus clothing line!  the other miley cyrus shirt i have is from the beginning of the year and it is so super long and has been one of my favorite maternity shirts.  ha, who would've guessed?!?!

Stretch marks?: i think i have four coming out of my belly button... two on top and two on bottom.  but they aren't red like the ones on my sides... they're really really light pink as if they're old stretch marks.  i think they've even been there for a week or two but i just didn't know they  were stretch marks because they were so faint.  hmm, we'll have to see what those turn into.  i also had a dream or two this week about my postpartum body.  they weren't the first but they were still scary.  i really am frightened to see the mass of skin bunched up from my no longer super full belly.  and all of the painful looking red scarlike lines all over...  chris asks me all the time why i look at my stretch marks so much.  i think i'm just trying to go ahead and get used to them now!

Sleep: i've been sleeping on my back pretty much the entire pregnancy.  this is actually pretty ironic since i've been practicing sleeping on my side ever since we started getting pregnant.  i even really prefered sleeping on my side because i just really like to spoon.  well, now that i'm pregnant it's only comfortable to sleep on my back (glad my doctor gave me the okay) because whenever i try to sleep on my side, my hips hurt.  anyways, in my obsessive reading i read somewhere that sleeping and laying on your back encourages the baby to face your front, which is not ideal for delivery.  so i tried sleeping on my side.  big mistake.  i woke up at some super early am hour in such intense pain.  holy cow.. sitting up didn't help and neither did laying on my back.  i kid you not, i tried to go to sleep on my knees and elbows because it was the only position to take my baby off my hips and ease the pain.  well my semi prenatal downward dog didn't work for long because as soon as i started getting close to falling asleep, my arms would slip and i would end up on my belly/neck.  ugh.  it was bad.  i will stick to my back for now on... even as much as i miss spponing all night...  i think i'm totally fine with a little sppooning and then switching to my back!  good news though...this week i've had some pretty bizarre dreams but nothing too frightening.  one of my weirder dreams was wednesday night.  i was in the parking lot of our apartment building and there were a million kids (with their parents) playing and running around... all in the parking lot.  i had connor and elliot there and they were running around too.  then i looked at my little girl running around playing with elliot (who is 18 months old) and i thought it semi odd that at four days old, she was physically and developmentally equivalent to an 18 month old!  and then i rationed to myself... well, she was six weeks early afterall... she was obviously ready to come out and play!  ha.  ohhhh right, of course that makes sense even though my child was six weeks early and four days old!  anyways, i woke up and i just thought about how weird it all felt.  this kid is coming soon!

Best moment this week: spending time with my christopher.  he is just so sweet. 

Movement: she is definitely more cramped in there.  i feel her hands (i think) down low by my hip bones and i think it's her feet that are kicking me in the ribs.  but i still get stuff everywhere else too!  i think she's still doing big flips and turns because it seems like she's never in the same position longer than i am!  all the pregnancy books say movement slows down after 32 weeks but she has been getting continually more active.  i feel her more and more every day.  it's not slowing down one bit!  it is definitely getting more uncomfortable to walk though.  i feel semi stabbing (to a lesser degree) needle prick pains that i googled... google says it's her head rubbing against my cervix?  umm okay but it doesn't feel like rubbing to me!  oh well, it's really not too bad.  she's just getting fatter and heavier.  ha, we have that in common!

Food cravings:  sweets, skim milk, bran flakes, bacon (i haven't really indulged that one though), pineapple and when chris and i were watching celebrity apprentice online they showed a 15 second clip for wishbone salad dressing literally ten times during the show (why aren't internet commercials varied like on tv?  why do i have to watch the exact same commercial every time?) and i wanted it so bad.  don't worry, we picked some up at the store the next day and used it today when we cooked our salmon.  it was delicious!

Gender: GIRL!!!  have i mentioned how excited i am to have a girl?!?!

What I miss:  having clothes that fit... and that are comfortable and stay in place throughout the day.

Milestones: actually starting to get the third trimester experience!
Theme: the week of feeling the big, uncomfortable to walk/sleep/sit/bend over etc sensation everyone associates with pregnancy
Extra:  one of the mom's in connor's preschool class is due the same day i am.  she told me about how her older daughter the other day said "mommy, connor's nanny is NOT as fat as you are!" and "mommy, your bottom just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger!"  so i walk out of the classroom feeling the blessing of not having kids tell me how fat i am... literally three minutes later we're playing in the grassy area in front of the school when i little girl does a double take at my stomach and gets wide eyes.  "why are you so fat?!?!  what do you have in your tummy?!?!"  thank you little girl.  i now feel like i'm  eighty million pounds!  just kidding.  i thought it was funny.  of every single comment i've gotten so far only one has slightly offended me and i'm not quite sure why it did... someone gently poked my belly button through my dress and told me it looked painful and then went on about it looks like it would say ouch if it could talk.  i know she meant no offense.  she's always super nice, to me especially.  i just thought it was so random that i took offense at that!  oh well!  i'm over it!