Counting Sheep and Jelly Beans

This week hasn’t seen any big events but instead many small ones. Today marks 33 weeks (Foo Foo is now the size of a honeydew melon). And as my friend, Courtney said, “You could go anytime now, sister!” I hope it doesn’t happen too too early but I wouldn’t mind 1-2 weeks early. Most of my new mom friends were on time to about a week late. Foo Foo’s name could be Mary after all (jk as that violates Tony’s anti-alliteration laws).

Sugar cravings haven’t subsided this week except for Tuesday when I was able to stay away from all chocolate in the office. I’ve been visiting Michelle’s desk too and trying to pick out the margarita-flavored jelly beans. Hey, a girl can use all the help she can get!

Sleeping has actually been more comfortable this week as I gave into the extra pillow suggestions and stuffed it under my belly and along my left side. I’m having a hard time getting up in the morning and I’ve been going to bed even earlier than before. We’re talking in the 8:30pm time frame. If the Red Sox were in the World Series I would stay up but I’m not going to torture myself for crap TV.

Another thing I’ve learned is to not hold your pee. When you have to go, don’t wait. If you do, it can feel like you’re going to die. Not really, but it feels like a ton of pressure slamming down on your bladder. Not comfortable at all. Kegel exercises are meant to be done separately.

The more distinguished movements continue this week as the books say she weighs in at more than 4lbs. Last night while we were driving home I left a distinct arm (or leg) move across my entire belly. It was wild! I’m supposed to say “Foo Foo!” when that happens instead of gasping or saying something else so that Tony doesn’t think we’re about to get in a car accident. But yesterday I couldn’t help it. I definitely gasped out loud! The day continued to get more interesting as the hormonal tides shifted as Tony says and I cried my way through the evening news. War homecomings are happy and sad at the same time. Fallen soldier stories are the worst. This particular story had the grandfather - also a veteran - tear up and say that he swore he would never again cry over another fallen soldier. I lost it! Tony laughed at me. I was laughing too but through the tears.

I followed my Mom’s advice to help relax: take a bath. I always remember her taking baths. Apparently she took them when she was pregnant too, just with a carton of ice cream complete with whipped cream and nuts. Anyway, I told Tony I was going to take a bath (which I haven’t done yet in this house and honestly can't remember the last time I did) and he started laughing. He said I was going to look like an island with my belly popping out of the water. Nice, Tony. Real nice!

COMING UP:
Saturday - Brigham Tour
Wednesday - Breastfeeding Class
next Friday - 34wk Check-Up at the docs (hopefully this will include the H1N1 shot as I haven’t been able to get one yet)

Nice Shoes

Oh the joys of being obviously pregnant and not just a pudgeball. Now I get to listen to the compliments! There are the kind words about your pregnancy but then there are the “I love your shoes” or “you have such gorgeous hair.” Or, they could be sympathy comments in disguise. “You’re pregnant. You’re about to be huge. And I feel bad for you.” Haha jk. I do wonder though. A man at work this week pointed to my belly and asked if I was 6mo pregnant. I took that as a compliment since I’m a month and a ½ past that. And last night I went to an after work function and someone told me I was having a boy. I’m carrying everything in the front. What an awkward thing to say to a pregnant person when you think about it. And what are you going to say to me in say 4 more weeks when that isn’t the case?

Now that we’ve reached 30wks (today!), I’ve been noticing a lot of intense movement. Most of the “gymnastics” is on my right side (some further to the right than before) and in the upper middle area of my belly. Foo Foo is apparently a potassium junkie because she loves bananas! Does flips and summersaults anytime I eat one! Until this week, she has kept the most obvious activity to the morning and night. I know I’m more likely to feel her moving when I slow down and actually lay down at the end of the day. I definitely wasn’t relaxed today at work but could feel her moving bouncing around toward the end of the day. It could be the fact that she’s pushing the 3lb. mark now.

An added bonus to your expanding belly that you wouldn’t normally think about is how your underwear fits after your belly has grown to a certain size. It starts to roll your undies downward, making it feel like your bum is hanging out (which it likely is). A nice thought to add to the many other changes. I’ve also noticed my dwindling level of flexibility. I still do plenty of stretching at the gym and before bed but when it comes to unnecessary acts of bending over, I’m all set. This week I left a paper towel on the floor in the ladies room that I dropped (usually I’m the one picking those up, even ones dropped by others) because I just didn’t feel like bending over.

Rachael's been following me around the house even more so lately. Wednesday morning she sniffed my belly and that night she tried to get up onto the bed in the middle of the night. She's been waking Tony at least once a night for the last week or more. Maybe she thinks I'm sick and I'm not going to be around for awhile.

The emotional instability continues this week. It's more controlled but still lingering. I'm not a crazy bitch or anything, just can't stop the tears once they start. Tony sent me a funny email about it this morning:

"So The Office is having an hour long episode where Jim and Pam are supposedly getting married. You are only allowed to watch it if you haven’t cried over something silly today. Otherwise, you might totally lose it during the show. Haha"

I got a good laugh at that. Tony has definitely sensed my emotional nuttiness lately and he came home early from school today to pick up the house and make dinner. What a guy!

Spilt Milk and a Painted Nursery

Our neighbors have commented that we’re never home on the weekends. We’re not. We’re nomads. We go somewhere every weekend. Well not this weekend. We stayed home the entire two days. And Foo Foo was awake and making her presence known the whole time! Her movements are much more pronounced than a slight kick or punch now (evident by watching my belly when she wakes up!).

My emotions are a little out of whack now too. Friday night, Tony accidentally spilt my milk in my lap and I started crying. OK, I bawled. Like it was the worst thing in the world. But I laughed too. I’m just crazy because I’m pregnant. But Tony had to calm me down and remind me that gasping for air in between fits was not good for the baby. I’ve also become clumsier (yes, hard to believe from the girl who spilt her milk every single night growing up). Saturday afternoon I spilt water all over the floor. I had soaked the pans from our egg/French toast breakfast, saw they were too full with soapy water and still attempted a balance act to the sink. I also chipped a large dinner plate while putting away the dishes Saturday night. We’ve had these dishes since we got married 7 years ago and nothing has happened to them. That’s because this is our first child.

Saturday afternoon we were planning our attack on Home Depot to start the nursery when Tony decided he was going to look through some of the books we got at our “friend” shower. He was looking at their size to figure out shelving but ended up opening them up and adding in funny phrases to some of the rhythms and short stories. He was really hysterical! So we went to Home Depot and picked out a sage color for the room, which Tony kept calling Peter the Rabbit’s carrot or something like that. The real name is Christopher Robin’s Swing. We also bought a bunch of child proof outlets, which cost about 500% more than the regular, cheesy ones we’ve used in the past. So after Tony does all the prep work and opens up the can of paint, he calls me up to the bedroom to look at the color. It’s much lighter and mint-colored than the swatch. They obviously mixed us the wrong color. Back to Home Depot. First-time homeowners/parents/renters, take notice: paints with a “medium base” dry darker than they appear in the can. The HD associate dried the sample for Tony and the color changed before his eyes. We were the dummies. hahah

Since we had bought eggs for a real Saturday morning breakfast, I had the ingredients I needed to bake Tony a cake. We started joking around about future Christmases and what we will tell our daughter to leave out for Santa Claus. Tony wants to tell her that Santa likes cake a few days old so that the chocolate frosting is a little crusty. No cookies and milk at the Musante household. It will be old yellow cake with chocolate frosting and beer. No, just kidding; we’ll stick with milk until she’s older! But while frosting his cake, I decided it would be a good idea to also frost a piece of toast for myself. Like chocolate frosting filled with sugar was close enough to Nutella so it would be fine. Sounds gross, but it was pretty delicious. Too sweet though, I threw half out.

One thing that was nice about staying home this weekend was sleeping in. We didn’t sleep late but we didn’t rush out of bed either. It was relaxing. Whenever Tony was still asleep, I just laid there and hung out with Foo Foo. She was always up. Tony said he heard me tell her to go back to bed in the middle of the night! Sunday morning, Tony tried to listen to her heartbeat but got punched in the ear instead.

Tony’s been painting the nursery for most of the day. It’s a small room but has three windows, a closet and a door so it’s not the easiest to prep and paint. It looks really really good though. We’re both happy with the color. I was sitting on the couch writing Thank You notes from the shower and Tony brought the camera down to show me he had written Foo-Foo on the wall. It was too funny. I went upstairs to see it and he painted two of our favorite names on the wall to compare: Jill and Carmella. He forgot the R in Carmella then spelt it with one L (totally acceptable too but I really like it with two Ls). We like both names equally and definitely won’t decide until she’s born. She could be named something completely different too. We’ll see!

This weekend I realized that I need to slow down. At 29wks, I can’t run around non-stop anymore. My stomach is sore due to stretching and the baby is very active. I would much rather be sitting or laying down when she decides to practice her river dancing. As Tony said, I’m learning a new speed in life: slowing down.