Week 34: Sinuses, Cantaloupe, and CHEESECAKE

Ugh, unfortunately, I have come down with a sinus infection. I know it's pretty common to get sick during pregnancy because your immune system is working double overtime, but the finish line was RIGHT THERE! Oh well, it has forced me to take it easy which has been difficult for me until now.

Baby P is the size of a cantaloupe.  She is approximately 4.75 pounds and 18 inches.  Most people don't understand that this is an estimate based on websites like Babycenter.com and Whattoexpect.com. Even the Doc really can't tell what her weight is unless we were to have an ultrasound. And we won't have an ultrasound unless he suspects something isn't right.

I'm starting to feel like there's a beach ball stuffed under my shirt.... it's even starting to have the resemblance of a beach ball with its firm appearance and sheen from me keeping her nice and lubed up!

Best part of the week: Christmas, of course!!

Wedding rings: what do you know? They are still loose! So crazy.  I would love to say I don't think I'm retaining water, but I sure think my second chin and chipmunk cheeks are starting to show it.

Pain: I'm just getting sore all over.  Braxton Hicks are getting rather uncomfortable and have upped in frequency.

Movement:  I've read that movement subsides near the end because they have no space in there. Well, Lil Princess has no problem making space for herself. When she moves, she really moves!

And I think we need to distinguish the difference between her movement and my movement.  Because I have become rather immobile myself.

Exercise: With the holidays and now coming down with something, I haven't been able to do much of anything to raise my heart rate... and I'm DYING to!

Cravings: I caved. We were in the Publix bakery and I said I just had to have something.  So we make our way over to the cooler box where the cheesecake is stored.  But I just couldn't feel OK about spending $5 on 1 piece of cheesecake.  So what's Kevin's solution?? Oh, just get a whole mini New York-style cheesecake (which was $8 something). Makes this Momma feel all happy to make a financially sound decision (and more cheesecake ;-).

Before I even sliced a piece for myself, I went ahead and cut it into pieces and froze half of it in individual pieces.To keep my cravings from getting the best of me, of course. ;-)

Looking forward to: New Years and my cousin's wedding on Satruday!  This week we also plan to have the hospital bags packed and ready to go! EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!

The final Christmas as a couple

As I sit to reminisce on the wonderful festivities that filled our Christmas season, I continue to procrastinate on the inevitable packing of the bag for that ever fateful day. Doc said to go ahead and have the bags packed by the first of the year.... 2 days left til then, and so far I've put a stick of deoderant in my cosmetic bag. I think I'm timid to pack because the realization that it is literally right around the corner is just too much for me to handle!

Anyway, back to Christmas.

Kevin and I attended Christmas Eve service with my grandparents. I wish we attended church more often, but I think it's so important to remember why we celebrate Christmas. It's not about the tree, the decorations, the gifts. Especially with the madness that has become holiday shopping, I think too many people forget to stop and reflect on why we are able to have such a wonderful holiday to celebrate.

Once we got home, Kevin started on the smoked ham for Christmas breakfast, all while It's a Wonderful Life played on the TV and I sipped on Warm Vanilla Milk.  This baby was basted for the first several hours and then cooked slowly in the smoker overnight.  It was delicious, and the perfect complement to a full Christmas morning spread. I didn't get a picture of it beautifully plated, but here it is getting its flavor in the cooker:

I reiterated time and time again that this would likely be the last Christmas that Kevin and I get to "sleep in" for another 20 years. Well, magically with no alarm clocks we were still up well before 7am. I believe it was Kevin who set this off because of his masterpiece in the smoker. So much for sleeping in.

Christmas breakfast at my grandparents was wonderful as always (though this is the first year we've done breakfast instead of lunch).  The family gathers to open up our stockings filled with silly gifts before sitting down to eat.  Strangely, this year I had no problem being the first in line to get food ;-).

My grandparents :-)

G'pa breaking it down with the dancing hat

After breakfast, my immediate family went back to open up gifts at my parents' house.  Baby P isn't even here yet and she already had several gifts under the tree with her "name" on it (name being Baby-to-be, that is).

After taking a much needed nap at home, we headed back to my parents' house for Dad's famous homemade pizza. Everyone looks forward to his pizza every year.  It never fails to please the crowd.  I unfortunately am a dum-dum and did not get any pictures of his pizza. But, here's a few pics from before din-din.

Sister-in-law, Momma, & Gramma

My brother Brett

You know this guy.

It was a wonderful holiday, but I was EXHAUSTED! We missed my oldest brother, his wife, and their 2 kids, but were able to celebrate Christmas with them when they came the weekend following Christmas. Being wiped out from the celebrating, I didn't get any pics over the weekend either :-(. But watching my niece and nephew open gifts was such a treat, their faces were priceless. It was a wonderful several days celebrating the season!

Week 33: Slow & steady... wins the race, I hope!

This week, Baby P is finally the size of a normal darn fruit: a Pineapple!! Sources say she can range anywhere in the 4-5 pound range.  At our most recent appointment, her heart rate was at 135.  She also decided to steal the show and did some back flips and somersaults for Kevin and Doc.

I'm getting more and more unimpressed with my photogenicity (is that even a word?). Or I'm caring less and less what I look like.  I will say that I spent a good 2-3 hours having an emotional breakdown before this picture was taken.  Her nursery is coming together and we have all of the "big" stuff we may (or may not) need, but I still feel so unprepared.  Most of our family and friends that have had babies live elsewhere, so Kevin and I are honestly flying super blind into this parenthood thing.  Let me put it this way, I've never changed a diaper. But none of this was bothering me until I've recently found myself having several "oh sh*t, we don't have ANY of [this]" or "ummm, we're supposed to have [that]?" moments. Like we're talking standard things like mittens and hats. And every time I cross something off our Master Baby List I seem to add 2-3 more things because they "dawned" on me or were mentioned to me in passing. Yes, we will survive because there is a Target right up the road for emergencies, I just want her homecoming as calm and easy as possible.

Energy:  What energy?  I've been crashing halfway through the day almost daily.  And my backpain is just pervasive.  I can never get comfortable. And I am all around slowing down. Getting up, sitting down, laying down, rolling over, walking, it is all in slow motion.

Movement: She still gets the hiccups a good 3-4 times a day. The last couple of appointments we've heard her head is in position where it should be. I can't believe how low it already is, I would have never guessed until Doc pointed it out to us.

Weight: Strangely at my last appointment, I LOST a pound! WTF. It freaked me out a bit, but Doc said not to worry. One single pound can be a matter of water weight.

Exercise: My desire and motivation has plummeted, but I still think it's important to remain active.  We take the Pups out almost every morning, and I'll sometimes go back out to walk or put on the prenatal exercise DVD.

Cravings:  Again, nothing specific, but overall, I've been craving some serious chocolate. And it surely doesn't help that my Mom and I baked Christmas cookies today!!! It was one of the toughest things I've done all pregnancy: having all of that cookie dough around me.  But I survived until they came out baked.

I didn't even get a picture of the finished product!! But, here's some during the chaos. My mom and I have 2 very different baking techniques. This is hers :-).

Looking forward to:  Christmas... duh! This will likely be the last Christmas we get to sleep in for a good 15-20+ years, so I think we'll take it as easy and slow as we can.

Rewind: Telling Gramma K

So I realized in all of my early posts about surprising family members with our pregnancy that I forgot to tell one of my faves: telling Gramma K. Flashing back to the first trimester (MAN DOES THAT FEEL LIKE FOREVER AGO!)

Playing scrabble was one of our favorite pastimes with Gramma K.  My [middle] brother and I always used to look forward to school nights when she could come over and play Scrabble. Unfortunately, life has gotten busy since becoming an "adult" and we don't get to play nearly as often as we would like (i.e. at all). So setting up a night to play just seemed too perfect to not be a cute way to tell her.

Before the game, we were eating dinner and my dad had a major slip. He was discussing his concern over the dogs possibly picking up avocados off the ground that had been bitten by squirrels, especially now that I'm pregnant.  I gave The Glare. His eyes widened with a "Fuuuudgeee" reaction (ya know, the one from A Christmas Story).  Luckily, Gramma just hadn't been tuned into the conversation even though she was in the same room so it just slid right passed her.

After bringing up the marvelous idea to play a game of Scrabble, we had to make it seem normal.  I say this because Kevin isn't much of a Scrabble player. Likely because my family is pretty darn good. Instead of losing, why not just refuse to play instead?? [Insert Kevin's rebuttal here]. So we were actually concerned that him wanting to play may tip Gramma K off. But since my brother and I affirm that Gramma K likes to 'set up' the player that goes immediately after her in Scrabble, this game we said we would agree to letting Kevin have that coveted position and that he was allowed to go first. Another flag diverted by treating Kevin like a child. Haha!

This all worked into our scheme, as my mom, Kevin, and I had already pulled the letters we needed to make this happen earlier in the day. Luckily Gramma needed a restroom break before the game began, so it just looked like we pulled our letters while she stepped away.

Kevin: W-H-E-R-E

Mom: H-A-V-I-N-G

Me: A B-A-B-Y

Gramma's turn

This was the most logical sequence we could think of, so that HAVING could link to a letter in WERE in some way (so we needed to add the H).

I was surprised Gramma didn't take second notice that my dad was hanging around, saying he had to witness this epic game of Scrabble (because Dad hates playing too!).

Kevin played WHERE, 30 points.  Off to a nice start.
Mom played HAVING 26 points.

Then I got a bit nervous. My turn!

In order to get A BABY to stand out and to get Gramma to stop to think about it, I placed the letters away from HAVING and separated.  I hadn't thought about the placement on the board, because as soon as I put them down and told Gramma to read it aloud, she read, verbatim:

"A, double letter score, baby"

Yes, she read aloud the letter score spot that fell between A and BABY. HAHA.

It then took my mom and I and a bit of encouragement to read Kevin's word, mom's word, then mine. There were a few tries before you saw it hit her. She read it aloud and had the exact same reaction I told Kevin she would have earlier that day.  A loud shrill followed by tears.

Luckily in the weeks prior Gramma had not recognized any of the times I opted out of wine or swapped Sparkling Apple Cider (pictured in my discrete dark wine glass).

I was so happy it worked out the way it did, and we were able to talk Kevin into playing a real game with us after this (which, no need to brag, I DOMINATED).

This picture includes my dad and the Father's Day gift bottle of wine and "tag" that we surprised them with weeks earlier (you can read how I told them here).

It was a great night, a great way to surprise, and of course, a great game of Scrabble.

Hometown Baby Shower

My baby shower was an incredibly special event. I will admit that I did help out with planning decorations, etc. (because I WANTED to!), but majority of the shower could not have been done without these fine ladies, my mom and grandmothers.

It was awesome to have so many people travel from out of town for the day and to see relatives that we typically do not get to see except for special events like this. Though I must say I was most impressed with my friend Ashley who traveled SIX hours from Tallahassee just her and her 1-year-old.

The food was delicious (I mentioned the BLT potato salad in my Week 31 post), the company was wonderful, the games were fun.  The only thing that could have cooperated a bit more was the weather! The theme was Pink and Silver snowflakes and, well, it wasn't exactly reflected in the 80 degree temperature.  Granted most thought it was pleasant, this 30 week pregnant body needed fans!

I was lucky enough to have Kevin arrive not too far into gift opening, which was funner than I anticipated! There were so many wonderful and special gifts, we were in awe. 

As a side note, I must say, I am so incredibly lucky.  Kevin is such a great sport with all things baby. Much more so than a typical "guy."  And for both of us anticipating a boy to come first, he is 110% all about our Lil Princess. I'm so excited to have my best friend to share this with!

Overall it was a wonderful day filled with some great memories. Kevin, Baby Pickett, and I are extremely lucky to have so many loved ones that are just excited for her arrival as we are!

Week 32: I've got no clever tagline here...

This week, Baby P is the size of a "large" Jicama.  Yes, a Hicama. We went in search of one at Publix, but even they didn't have one! Kevin and I are perplexed as I have never eaten jicama (at least not to my knowledge), but we didn't want her being a different species of squash yet again this week.  She's just under or around 4 pounds, and could put on roughly 0.5 pound a week from here on out.

Needless to say, Kevin's interpretation of a jicama can be construed in a variety of ways. I was thinking a bulb of garlic, you pervert.  Either way, it is not a flattering vegetable (or fruit?!).

Best part of this week:  Finding Baby's dresser! I feel like I have to write a separate post about this because it was just too awesome to not share the full story. So you'll likely see that coming soon.

Oh, and I have officially started using my belly as a coffee table.  How convenient!

Movement:  I swear this Baby likes to grab onto my ribs with her toes.  It doesn't hurt, but it's awkward.  She is just moving NON-stop. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it. Every movement is so special and exciting to me, no matter where I am or what I'm doing or how uncomfortable it may be.

Wedding rings:  You guessed it, still loose!

Sleep:  BLAH!!!! @#(V&$!*^#

Cravings: This Baby just loves her some Moe's.  Especially that Moe's queso.  I was over the moon at the beginning of pregnancy finding out that it was pasteurized.  It feels like a "healthy" fast food alternative. Other than Moe's I have only had fast food maybe twice, and it was while we were travelling so there wasn't much of a choice.  Just nothing like that sounds remotely appetizing to me. Thank goodness.

Looking forward to:  Our Maternity photo shoot!!!  It didn't seem like we were going to be able to pull it off, but we found a very talented photographer for a very reasonable price.

Our humble Christmas tree

This week has been super busy, finally starting to wash baby clothes and organize our new gadgets from the Baby Shower.  Luckily we got our Christmas tree earlier last week, and I'm so happy we got a winner.

The shape is perfect, the branches are firm and stiff, and it smells GLORIOUS. Much better than last year's tree, which was flimsy, had no smell, and started shedding as soon as we put it up. If I had anything to say, I'd wish it was a bit taller.... but we've made that mistake before and gotten one that was too tall so we made sure to avert that situation.  I always enjoy decorating the tree, but my back started hurting so I needed Kevin's assistance more this year.

Hanging one of my baby ornaments

Here's one of my favorite ornaments on the tree, from our Honeymoon 2010

Though I know next year we'll have plenty of Baby's 1sts to adorn the tree that will probably be my "favorite" :-). I cannot wait to start family traditions with the little one.

Our tree in all of its Glory

How can you not love this time of year? We're having a mini- cool front right now so I can actually open the windows and enjoy some "cold" weather! Yay!

Week 31, single digit weeks to go

This week Baby P is the size of a coconut.  She is weighing in a little over 3 pounds.  While she's about the length she will be when she is born, this is when she'll start to add on her fat! And I'm starting to feel it!

Best moment of the week: My Baby Shower! Duh! It was so special.  I was pretty nervous about the event, having all of those eyes staring at you open presents.  The idea of it (showers, in general) just seems so conceited to me. Nevertheless, Baby Pickett was indeed showered with all sorts of necessities.  Oohs and Aahs abound.  But I will get into that in further detail with pictures to come!

Movement:  Mainly jabs and what I would describe as thumps. She no longer looks "graceful" in there. My right rib cage is actually sore, as if someone had kicked me in the ribs...... wait a second!! ;-)

Pain: My back is perpetually hurting. Especially at the end of the day. My sciatica pain is on and off. Luckily, I haven't felt it too much the last few days.

Wedding Rings: Can you believe it? They are still loose! I guess I'm lucky to be able to wear my rings through most of my pregnancy because I feel so naked without them.

Sleep: Is it possible for me to say it feels like it's just getting worse and worse?  I guess it's my body trying to prep me for the sleepless nights ahead because laying down to take a nap has become almost inevitable.  I feel like a zombie mid- to late- afternoon everyday.

Other Oddities:  Pregnancy books will tell you that you can have change in the pigment of your skin due to hormones.  Luckily I haven't had them in places that they say are common (on your face!), but I just noticed this morning that I have a dark spot on my underarm.  It's so bizarre. They say it goes away after pregnancy. It doesn't bother me, and who knows how long it's been there anyway?!

Weight: I'm up 3 pounds from 2 weeks ago! Yikes!  Totaling 17 pounds since Day 1.

Cravings: I was incredibly happy that my Grandma made her BLT Potato Salad for the shower last weekend.... OMG.  It is heaven.  I am obsessed.  I may go get some right now just talking about it.

Looking forward to:  some cooler weather.  I know it's not baby related, but playing Christmas music while it's 80 degrees outside makes it super difficult to get into the spirit.

Week Look Back-- 10, 20, 30

So now that we're in the home stretch, I wanted to take a look and see where we've been!

While I've definitely felt slower and more tired, seeing my belly in the mirror or in a picture feels incredibly surreal.  There's no way that belly is attached to me! But I'll tell you what, I absolutely love it.  I love my Baby Bump. I am always rubbing it, and Baby P and I are always poking each other back and forth. I honestly foresee myself being one of those that will really miss it when it's gone.... ok, getting a little emotional, back to the Look Back!

This is just ridiculous to me.  When did my belly get this big? I say that as people repeatedly tell me how small my belly is, but that thing is huge to me!

It's so funny looking back at Week 10 and 20.  I was clearly MISERABLE in the first trimester (Week 10).  I just look tired and I can almost see "nauseous" written on my forehead.

Then I reminisce about the 2nd trimester (Week 20). Ahh those were the good old days.  I looked and felt like myself (though, don't ask Kevin... I'm sure he'd attest to my insanity). I wish I had planned ahead for this 3rd trimester exhaustion because I totally would have completed the nursery back then.

Then we're back to tired, lazy looking, no make-up Elyse... but at least she looks like she has an excuse as opposed to Week 10!

This sure has been a journey so far, and the pregnancy part is only (ALREADY) 3/4 of the way complete.  Followed by, The Big Event (L&D), and then that thing called The Rest of My Life.

Week 30 - I think it just hit me

Baby P is the size of a Head of Cabbage this week. She is approximately 3 pounds and roughly 15 inches long. Apparently from here on out she can gain up to a half a pound a week..... yikes! Maybe this is where I start getting jitters about squeezing her through my vagina!

There is so much wrong with this picture, my face, my hair, the lighting, the crooked frame... I'd prefer to do it over again. But I can't take back a couple of days of belly growth!!

Best moment of the week:  Thanksgiving!  It was a pretty long day with 2 Thanksgiving dinners, but I really enjoyed spending some quality time with some of my girl cousins... my 10-year-old cousin had her hand glued to my belly for a good hour feeling Baby go crazy in there. But I think everyone got their fair share of Belly Rubbing that wanted it! :-)

Cousins

Oh, and we worked some serious Black Friday magic (online, of course) and took care of a few necessities from the registry. Baby Steps (pun intended).

Movement: We've been lucky that Baby P has been relatively cooperative when family and friends want to feel her. It's always awkward when someone sticks their hand on your belly for the first time and nothing happens.  Luckily, most times I've encouraged someone to feel because she was moving they were able to feel her. She does some serious flopping around in there when she's super active so it's not tough to miss.

Fear this week: Not being ready for her. And I think it hit me because of the big 3-0.  I feel so behind with everything. Between the nursery and researching L&D and what to actually do with a newborn, I'm a bit overwhelmed.

Pain: In the last week I have been getting indigestion regularly after any "main" course. I've never really known what this sensation was until now.  I had to describe it to Kevin and he was like, Yup, Indigestion!. Fabulous.

Sleep: Getting worse.  Someone made the comment to me to enjoy sleep while I still had it..... well, I lost it SEVERAL months ago.  Up to pee 3-4 times a night, wide awake rolling back and forth occurs at least 7-8 times.  And that's just in my waking memory!

Looking forward to: My Baby Shower!! I've been helping my mom with decorating ideas, and my Grandma is making a few of my faves, so I'm SUPER SUPER excited for Saturday to get here. And, of course, to see some of my favorite people in the whole world!