28 weeks

I didn't forget - the baby was 28 weeks old yesterday. Here is what the size of this 7 month old fetus is (on the inside he's over 2 pounds and 15 inches!).

Tomorrow I am heading to Vegas! You can be sure I'll have my outfits posted when I get back. I've been getting heart burn just about everyday now so I made sure to pack my papaya enzyeme pills (they are a natural digestion aid....so I'm not popping the tums every day), and all the other Vegas esstentials (sequence, trashy magazines, flip flops, sunglasses).

Voila! One handmade hooter hider.

And you all doubted my skills...ok so it was mostly me that doubted my skills. I got the materials last night on my way home from yoga. It ended up costing me a little more than the $8 the tutorial quoted. Mostly because the aqua/bird material was $8 alone (it was not on sale, and since I am not on Joann's hit list, I did not have a coupon) but since I also wanted material for the back it upped the cost. However, I got the back material for $3 on sale (so it looks reversible....but it probably isn't really reversible because the corset boning in the front actually curves so you can look down and see your baby....at least this is what I assume it is for), and the boning, D rings, and thread (yep, had to get all the basics) brought it to a grand total of $17. So not quite the deal most people could do it for, but considering the original bebe au lait's cost $35 (and for just one side of material) it's still a bargain. Plus, I got to pick my own fabric which looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself (the pictures do not do it justice). And it only took a half of a day and a few quick online tutorials to get me re-acquainted with my sewing maching (luckily, my sewing machine is an old basic singer). I had to adapt the pattern quite a bit because I wanted to do it double sided (which involved sewing most of it inside out) but it had the added bonus of increasing my confidence in my sewing skills. I found some other fabric on sale that I loved so stay tuned....you may find some other projects popping up over the next couple of months...

Hooter Hiders

I have a lot of creative and crafty friends. I used to think that I was creative and crafty but I realized that the world has moved past my skills that led me to win a poster competition in the 4th grade. However, I have recently been motivated by all of the cool DIY projects that have been going around. Particularly, when I realized how much this baby stuff costs - and how easy (at least at first appearance) it would be to make it! So.....my first project is going to be a hooter hider (aka, a nursing cover). I really liked the "bebe au lait" style that a friend of mine sent me and then after a quick search found that someone went to the trouble of posting a tutorial on how to copy this exact style!

http://blisstree.com/live/free-pattern-to-sew-your-own-nursing-cover/comment-page-3/#comments

So, my plan is to try and hunt down the materials (I'm going to get fancy and try to do a reversible cover) and make it happen! If it doesn't work, you'll discreetly notice that the real babe au lait has made an appearance on my registry.

weddings, etc.

I've been meaning to write a blog about this for awhile and since I'm on my off week for photos (27 weeks today) I figured now is as good as time as any to tackle this one. Weddings. Because no matter what, in the course of your 10 months of pregnancy (yes, it's actually 10 months when you do the math. You're in your 9th month for approx 4 weeks so that's not really 9 months of pregnancy) something important is going to conflict. In my case it's weddings. Two of them actually. But I'm actually IN one of those. So this creates issues for both the pregnant bridesmaid, who has to worry about fitting into a non-maternity dress and how to make a basketball in her spanx look slimming, and the bride, who has been slaving over creating the perfect wedding for months and is less than thrilled at the prospect of you ruining her photos and ditching BM obligations (unless she realizes that if she stands next to you she'll look amazing). But I actually have had the experience of knowing brides who considered dis-asking someone to be in their wedding because of their pregnancy. And that was a FSIL. That didn't happen in my case but it does create some anxiety (and major alterations) all around. My bride actually has a wedding blog and dedicated a post to this issue (http://behindthegreenveil.blogspot.com/2010/05/everybodys-got-one.html).

In my case, I am actually really excited to be in this wedding (she is a wedding planner in the making so it's all fancy fancy. At least a DIY version of fancy fancy) and am planning on doing all of the wedding stuff. That's right. A trip to DC for the shower and night on the town 7 1/2 months in. And don't think I'm skimping on the shoes, I've got a good 2 inch heel planned to walk myself down the aisle on the big day. Am I crazy? Maybe. But it's just pregnancy people. It's just an extra 20 pounds or so, it's not like I'm actually carrying a screaming child down the aisle. But here's the thing, whenever I tell people I'm in the wedding, and the timing (technically I'll be almost 37 weeks, or 9 months, pregnant) I always get the wide-eyed silent stare down (translation: you are crazy). And then I say, well my DH will be there so if anything happens it's not a big deal. To which I get an even bigger stare down. It's just New Jersey, it's not like it's China (side note: I actually have a friend due the same time as me that is having a baby in China. Apparently when you give birth there you get 2 free nights accomodations and a champagne breakfast). Granted the bride wouldn't be thrilled if I had a baby during her wedding, but my point is that there's not a big risk to me going. There is no danger to me or the baby from being in an airplane (other than it being uncomfortable) and chances of me having a baby on the plane is nill to none. It's a direct flight that lasts 4 hours, hate to break it to you if this is news, but it takes much longer than that to have a baby. So I promise if I'm in labor, I won't get on the plane. But somehow this doesn't assure people. Either that or they think I'm crazy for risking having a baby in NJ (I haven't been there myself but it can't be that bad). To be honest, I am really dreading having a bunch of people clamoring to get down to the hospital before my water breaks so part of me would be secretly thrilled if we could run off and have a baby somewhere and then show him off later, once I'm showered and done screaming.

But the hardest part of all of this is that sadly, I have to admit that there are limitations that even I cannot will myself to overcome. This was illuminated very clearly to me over the course of planning my trip to Vegas next weekend for the bachelorette party for wedding #2 (the one that I am not in, and probably won't be able to make as it is 3 weeks after my due date and my doctor doesn't think it's a good idea to expose babies to insulated flying germ machines until after they are 4 weeks old. Longer for formula feed babies). The obvious limitation is alcohol (although I went out Friday night with some friends and met another fellow pregnant lady who told me she drinks a half of glass a wine a week. It sounded fine until I saw her with the wine in hand and I have to say that with the protruding belly it made me want to look away a little bit). Limitation #2 came when we all decided to share a room (2 queen-sized beds + 1 couch = 5 girls). I had to be the pain and ask not to be the one to sleep on the couch (it doesn't fold out and I already have major sleeping option limitations) and although they did accomodate they weren't super thrilled. Limitation #3 came when they wanted to go to the salon. No hot tubs, sauna's, steam rooms, for me. That's fine. I'll bring a book and stick my feet in a bucket of ice. The organizer of the bachelorette gave us a choice of 3 different salons. I was excited to see that 2 of them offered preggo massages, but in the end I was out-voted and so instead I had to opt for a "special" facial (special because apparently I can't put a bunch of stuff on my face like Retin-A & essential oils). Finally, limitation #4 came when they told me our big night out would involve dinnner at a AMAZING sushi place. For those of you that know me, this is the biggest limitation of them all. So in the end, will this bachelorette trip to Vegas be worth it? We'll see. But I am determined at the very least not to let other peoples negativity stop me from trying (and just wait until you see the outfits I have planned...words cannot describe a gold sequenced tank top stretched over an expectant tummy).

Do you really think you should be doing that?

My new pet peeve (you know, I have a lot of them) is the judgement you get from other people regarding what you should and shouldn't do. I know people love to have opinions about everything, including other people, but it is frustrating when it's pretty obvious that you know more than they do about what's going on these days with regards to safety during pregnancy (and there's a lot) that they can't trust that you will do what's best. For example, this past weekend my DH and I took a trip a few hours north to get out of the heat (at least that's why I was going, he'll probably tell you it's because he had two races) and I was really excited about going bike riding. We both bought bikes the week before (basic comfort/hybrid bikes from target and a yard sale) and I have been DYING to go bike riding. Of course biking in Arizona this time of year seems impossible (110 degrees and rising) but if you drive a few hours North you get the the relief of a whopping 30 degrees! It is beautiful. Plus there are trees. Not the things people around here call trees (which are more like twigs with some moss-stuff on it) but actual bark and leaves. And grass! Further, I've been wanting to buy bikes for the two of us to go bike riding together for a long time (I actually thought about getting it for us as a Christmas gift) so it seemed to be a perfect anniversary gift for each other (2 years on July 5th!). We live in a pretty rural neighborhood, so there are lots of places to go biking and it's paved but without traffic. But anyway, back to our trip this past weekend...

Once we got to the cabin we were staying at (my DH's whole family was there to watch the racing) people learned about the different things that I can and can't eat. And people are always surprised (so am I for that matter) about how many things are "unsafe". I mean, a lot has changed in a few years and if you're not up on the research (and why would you be, there's plenty of other more fascinating things going on in the world) than this would be news to you. So they learned that I can't eat cold cut meats, runny eggs, the good cheeses, honey, meat that isn't cooked through all the way, and alcohol (ok, they knew about that one). You would think that knowing I am careful about all of these things that I would be careful about being safe. But I still got lots of comments. Ranging from "make sure you don't fall!" to "in my day we weren't allowed to go bike riding" (well in your day you thought aids was transmitted through skin-to-skin contact). To clarify, we weren't biking up a mountain or anything. We went to a park and drove around a flat, paved, bike/walking path. I think I have high heels that are more dangerous than that. I mean, hello?!, I used to ride in triathlons. It's not like I wanted to go learn HOW to ride a bike! So some advice (see, we all have our opinions, but mine's in a blog so it's ok), don't ask a pregnant lady if she should be doing whatever it is she's doing (exceptions can be made for binge drinking and scuba diving). It can be overwhelming with all of the things that we can't do so give us some credit when we want to do something we CAN do.

26 weeks

Ok so I'm a few days past 26 weeks but this photo was taken at 26 weeks. I had some minor computer virus issues which slowed me down but I am back in business! And decided to make it more interesting and post some nude pics. Well nude belly pics that is. That way you can track my tattoo growth and stretch marks (none so far but I hear it's inevitable). I actually just bought this new stretch mark cream (love shopping online at Sephora's!) and the reviews swear by it so we'll see. In any case, who doesn't love lotion? And your belly does get really itchy all the time which is weird (I don't like to think about that it's probably because it's stretching out).

As you can see, I have officially entered into the 3rd trimester! And like clockwork, some of those pesky third trimester symptoms started to show up (just when I thought pregnancy was easy and all those other women were a bunch of complainers). The most annoying is the heartburn. I guess I never had this before because I have never experienced anything like this. And it pretty much happens anytime but especially at night. Last night I had to prop myself on 4 pillows just to keep the burning down (I didn't know it actually felt like burning, turns out, it does). The other new fun thing is these searing calve cramps. I also never had this before. Foot cramps, sure, and the odd leg cramp here or there while doing yoga, but nothing feels quite like the waking-up morning stretch followed by an immense stabbing sensation in your calf. And since I never had this before, I had no idea how to stretch it out (didn't stretching it just cause the stabbing pain?). Since the baby is getting bigger all the time he's starting to crowd out other organs (which makes sense for the heartburn, not so much for the leg cramps) which also includes my lungs. I actually fainted once (luckily I was sitting the whole time. Well sitting, then passed out flat, then sitting again) but other than that I just feel really light headed/short of breath sometimes. But not all the time. It's weird, I guess he just lays on my lungs once in awhile, and then rolls over to my stomach. Today, when I was laying on my back (not totally flat, you're not really supposed to do that) I actually saw him kicking my stomach and my stomach moving up and down. It is seriously like there's a little alien in there. If I didn't know I was pregnant (which I don't know how you couldn't at this point, although some people claim they don't) it would be seriously freaky to watch your stomach move like that. But other than that, I still feel pretty good. I'm getting less "you look so good" comments and more "you look pregnant" comments but that is fine with me. I mean, you have to get big at some point (actually in my prenatal yoga class this week I saw a girl who was 32 weeks pregnant who was SO skinny and not looking pregnant at all. At first I thought it was her loose tank top but then when she did the poses I saw her bare belly and it was barely sticking out. I couldn't stop stealing glances at her in the mirror but then I didn't want her to think I was a baby snatcher or something so I had to make myself look away). In 2 1/2 weeks we'll be getting another ultrasound (reeking the benefits of being low-risk but going to a high-risk facility) to see more detailed structures of the baby (check his heart, lungs, etc.). Very glad because my DH can go this time, and also it'll be fun to see the baby again! I mean, I think they pretty well look the same at this point but it'll still be cool to see him moving around in there.