Pregnancy Update: Week 31

Pregnancy: 31 weeks, 4 days

Weight Gain: -1lbs! Woo-hoo! I'm so proud of myself for this one. Baby girl is 4lbs now and I still haven't gained an ounce. Of course, I know weight fluctuates, but I was weighed right after lunch yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. I would love to gain nothing overall but I'm at least to the point now that I don't see how I can gain too much weight to lose quickly once she's here.

Sleep: Eh, who needs sleep anyway?! Just kidding. Overall, it isn't terrible and still average 6-7 hours a night. The problem is that's the average, which means I'm sleeping 9-10 hours one night and 4 the next. Oh well, I better get used to the 4 or less. I just look at it as my body getting me ready for a newborn again.

Gender: all girl!

Name: Lydia Alexandra, and it's sticking! No name changes here.

Feeling: happy, overwhelmed, ready, not ready, weepy, ecstatic (I would consider myself bi-polar if I didn't have the pregnancy hormones to blame!)

Health: Since my doctor put me in the loop about hypoglycemia, I am doing much better overall. I had a couple of days with low pain/hip pain but I wasn't surprised and other than that, I've been great. I can tell that I'm starting to get winded much easier but let's face the facts, my lungs are being majorly invaded at this point and aren't working at the maximum capacity. :)

Movement: Miss Lydia loves to dance, I may have my hands full with 2 tiny dancers soon! I love that she responds most when I sing and that she gives me a million little nudges a day to remind me that she's there.

Belly Button: still normal but firm - I wonder if this time it will pop out, I guess there isn't too much time left for it to make an appearance though.

Cravings: lemon cupcakes (again), steaks - otherwise, I've been loving lots of things: almonds, smoothies, all kinds of fruit, and peanut butter

Next Appointment: Wednesday, September 7th

intricate

I think that the world that we live in is so complex and so intricately designed. Chance really has nothing to do with it. I can think about each of my relationships and how they have effected me in small ways and big ways... how they've led me ever so delicately (sometimes with a nudge other times with a shove) into meeting someone else and the results are far-reaching in my life. I am a big believer in fate and God's incredible, intricate plan. He pursued me for 19 years. One of my favorite examples: I poured out my heart and soul about the most random of things on my Xanga many, many moons ago and my husband happened a glance at it, I saw that some random guy was looking at my page and happened a glance at his and then messaged him. We later discovered that we attended the same church, but how many times had we passed each other by without a word. We weren't doing it right, so God changed up our plan. I have meet people that have little impact on my life, that then introduce me in passing to another individual that eventually greatly influences it. I just don't believe that chance really exists. I love examining these intricate webs our lives weave. It's just another way for me to feel blessed and looked after, like even if I screw things up, God has some other not-so-obvious way to make things happen anyway. I know this was a fairly broad post, and I'm really not talking about anything specifically, I just like thinking about how people come in and out of your life and the way they shape it. And for that matter, I love knowing that He's loving me in this incredibly unique way. :)

bandwagon

Hubby and I jumped on the bandwagon and recently started reading The Five Love Languages. I realize this book has been around for a number of years, but there's still a bandwagon and so far, I feel that it has a lot of information. Before Dr. Chapman dives into the info about the languages, he addresses some interesting and thought-provoking points. He talks about the "in love" infatuation that happens to most couples in the beginning, which leads them to want to marry in the first place and he talks about how people develop their primary love language. (Side note: I'm special, because I'm bilingual, which can be seen as extra complex or easier to show love to because I "speak" two love languages.) Of course, like any good non-fiction book, I'm examining all this information carefully and thoughtfully. It's interesting to see how my relationship with my parents shaped me and I was a little surprised about my second love language. Also interestingly enough, the "in love" phase only lasts about two years, and then the hard work comes into place. I think that because I had a couple of relationships before Gary that lasted roughly that length of time, I wasn't completely infatuated and blind to his flaws. Yes, once we were married, I found more and I became less tolerate of others, but neither of us walked into marriage expecting the other to be perfect or expecting to always like each other for that matter. I'm kind of proud of us for not being as oblivious as the author says most people are and for knowing before we started this unique journey that no matter what, we would continue to fall in love, true love, forever. I'm sure I'll post more about this book later, because I think it's fascinating.

Pregnancy Update: Week 29

Pregnancy: 29 weeks, 4 days

Weight Gain: I'm back at my pre-pregnancy weight, which means I gained 3lbs in 3 weeks but still none overall. I really hope I don't gain a pound a week until she gets here, but even if I do, that's only a total of 12 for the whole pregnancy, which I can live with. And the good news: Dr. Brody estimates her to be about 2.5lbs already, so it's pretty much all baby girl!

Sleep: Some nights I sleep great, but often I have crazy dreams that wake me (not scary, just random or weird) and I'm still having trouble falling asleep a few nights a week, but things aren't terrible and I'm still getting lots of rest overall.

Gender: girl, and she wasn't shy about it on her ultrasound today either

Names: Our lovely little girl will be named Lydia Alexandra, to carry on the alliterative tradition we started with Lucy and in memory of the incredible dearly departed Nana Graves. 

Feeling: happy, anxious, excited, hopeful

Health: The good news is that I passed my 3-hour glucose test with flying colors. For that matter, this pregnancy I am in quite the opposite predicament from my experience with Lucy, I am now hypoglycemic. So, praise the Lord, there is a reason for my fatigue. I was advised that I need to be eating every 2-3 hours to keep myself at a normal blood sugar level, which will also help my overall energy levels. When I was told that my iron levels were great and that I couldn't be anemic, I was still not convinced that the only reason I was so worn out all the time was merely pregnancy and chasing a toddler, so I'm glad to know something else was going on. And this is definitely something I needed to address pregnancy or not, because though I probably overeat to some extend, my biggest weight problem is a SLOW metabolism. I would often not eat breakfast and half the time forget lunch too, so my body is used to being in starvation mode.

Movement: Baby Lydia is much like her big sister and does flips and kicks and all kinds of craziness inside my uterus. Dr. Brody told me to start counting her kicks for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening, to ensure that she's moving enough, he wants 10 at each of these times. Tonight's 10 kicks took baby girl all of 10 minutes to accomplish. She's very strong and mobile. :)

Belly Button: normal but definitely firm

Cravings: A nice random array: One night I wanted a huge bowl of black beans, another afternoon I asked Gary to stop on his way home to buy Lydia some Oreos (because it really is all her :)), and still another evening brought a craving for queso dip, which to be fair, is something that always sounds pretty awesome to me.

Next Appointment: The every-two-weeks-appointments are beginning, so August 25th it is.

making life easier

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my new goal of making my life easier in any way I can. I was finally able to win the baby-name battle (which to be fair, wasn't much of a battle, more of an on-going/entirely too long discussion), and baby girl #2 will be Lydia. I'm happy about it and hubby was a true gentleman about the whole endeavor. And I do not use the word endeavor lightly, it was a real journey trying to find the perfect name. Because even if my new philosophy is to make my life easier, the truth is I am really known for my ridiculous tendencies for making everything harder than it needs to be. Anyway, back to how I'm making life easier.... I've been considering what we'll do for dinners once the new baby is hear and so I set out to find tasty, gluten-free meals that could be made and frozen, to carry us through at least a few weeks of "new baby adjustment." We both got really tired of eating nearly every meal out the last time around and it got expensive fast. So with my pre-planning, I've found this whole new world of cooking once a month and freezing everything, from breakfast to dinner, to be cooked as simply as pulling a frozen pizza out and popping it in the oven. And the best part, THEY ARE ALL GLUTEN-FREE! So my poor husband won't be having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for weeks on end and we won't spend any ungodly amount of money on dinners out. I will admit, at least one night a week, regardless of my menu and planning, we wind up eating left overs or simply going out to make life easier. Unfortunately, this doesn't work with the way we want our budget to, so I always feel terrible about it and get grumpy, not truly making my life any easier at all. So, I'm planning now to adopt this not only for Lydia's arrival, but from now on. Because I want to see how things go, I'm planning to do this at first in two-week intervals instead of any entire month, and I'm hoping everything turns out well. We've already been making smoothies and freezing them, which we've loved, especially with all the wonderful fresh summer fruits. Wish me luck! I really want to make this work and make it a way of life for us and I think I can do it well. Here's to finding more "making life easier" phenomenon!