34 Weeks!

Randy and I both agree that something has happened over the past week or so and all of a sudden I'm so much bigger. He likes to say that my belly looks like a torpedo when I'm walking around and that I look like a buddha when I'm sitting down. Luckily I don't take offense to either of those. There's no doubt that little Blake is growing right along in there. He's weighing almost 5 pounds now. My 34 week appointment was on Monday and the heartbeat sounded great. I'll go in 2 more weeks at week 36 and then every week after that to see how things are progressing. Hopefully nothing will be progressing until week 40. We want him to come as close to his due date as possible so that his birthday is not too close to Christmas.

Even after our childbirth class I wasn't really that nervous about the delivery. We didn't watch any crazy videos and they told us what to expect from labor, where to go, who to call, etc. I only got one "Is she kidding? I can't do that." look from Randy when they talked about labor and how the father could watch the birth. So all was good...and then a couple of nights later I was looking through this magazine they gave us that has pictures and descriptions of each month of pregnancy. I'm flipping through, flipping through, and I get to month 9. Big mistake! There was a picture of a woman lying down, spread eagle, giving birth with just the baby's head sticking out! To hear all of these things about the birth was one thing but to get a visual was a completely different thing! I don't know what scared me more - that there was a baby coming out of her or that she was lying there exposed for everyone in the room to see! I know women do it every day and somehow I will too but still, I regret looking at that magazine. And thank God for epidurals! Oh, and I immediately told Randy not to look at that magazine.

32 Weeks!

It's now December and I can officially say that we're going to have a baby next month! Woo hoo! 32 weeks already! Time is starting to go faster, in part I think because of the holidays and just being a busier time of year. We decorated the house for Christmas this week. Randy had to put up the outside Christmas lights by himself and get all of the boxes down from the attic by himself. Definitely not easy but he never complained. Such a good husband. Well, I say that, and then there's this....I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and, in all seriousness, he told me I could get him some noise cancelling headphones so he could watch TV while the baby was crying. If you know him, you know this is a typical Randy comment - just saying whatever comes to mind and not really thinking it through...like that this might possibly imply that he wouldn't be actually trying to help calm the baby but that he'd just be sitting on the couch watching TV. So of course I give him a look and he realizes he better fix this so he grins real big and says that it would be for me too, we could trade off. I don't really know what to think of this....

The baby is weighing in at almost 4 pounds now. I can't believe his weight will still almost double in the next 8 weeks. I already feel so huge! I don't know where he's going to go! He gets the hiccups almost every day or so which is kind of funny to think about his little body pulsing in there. He's still moving a lot but they say that will slow down some as he runs out of room. I wish I knew what the bulge in my stomach was at times. Sometimes one little area will stick out and I don't know if it's an elbow, a shoulder, a foot? I'm still enjoying his little kicks and punches, although I must admit there's been a couple that have been less than fun. My doctor said no more sleeping on my back unless there's a pillow under my hip so I'm finding it harder to sleep now since I can only rotate from one side to the other. I also keep having dreams that I'm running or ice skating (where does that come from?) or that I'm back in drill team. Walks with Cooper are better than nothing but I think I just really miss a good workout on the elliptical...or even just being able to hop up out of a chair to go get something. Only 7 1/2 weeks or so left though and then he'll be here! Our all-day childbirth class is tomorrow so that should help us learn what we're in for!