Baby #2 BUMP REPORT – 36 Weeks

PREGNANCY WEEK 36 – September 26, 2015

I had a reality check this week that there’s less than a month until this baby is coming. In truth, I think I’ve been in denial about the fact that this baby is coming soon, whether I’m ready or not. After a conversation with a friend, I decided to face reality and get with the program…I NEED TO BE READY! I have been logging hours nightly reading my Hypnobirthing book and trying to get myself mentally ready for an all natural birth. She made a good point–“Katy, you can’t read the book after you give birth…you have to read it and get ready BEFORE!” In addition to reading and mentally prepping myself, Eric has also started to regularly give me massages. He came up with the idea himself. He thought if he’s going to potentially give me a 10 hour massage while I labor, he should probably start conditioning his hands by starting now. What an AMAZING idea. Thanks, hunny! I agree. He massages my back while I sit and read. What a great way to prep for labor:) It’s all going to pay off.

The baby is around 19 inches and 6 pounds this week – the size of a watermelon. I had my 36 week appointment on Thursday and am measuring 37 cm, another 3 cm growth in the past 2 weeks. Wow. I believe it though. At my 36 week checkup in my first pregnancy, I was measuring 34-35 cm. So that’s a big difference in belly size compared to last time! When I look at the side by side comparison photo from then, I see a distinct difference. Let’s hope this baby isn’t a huge chunk. I am planning on a 100% natural birth, after all!

We still have yet to pre-register at the hospital or take a hospital tour. I plan to call about that and make those things happen very soon. Time is running out. We have done several birth classes already, and those will be finishing up this week.

I got 3-4 inches chopped off my hair and it’s still halfway down my back! But it feels refreshing to get a bit of a cut.

Last week I wrote about the hardwood floors. Well, that project has officially begun! As of today (Saturday night I am writing this), the entire front room is laid and the kitchen is started. We hope to have the kitchen complete by tomorrow. Then what will be left over the remaining weeks and weekends is the family room, hallway, bathroom and closets. I think we could get this done before my due date. On Friday I did a lot of help with the floors, but I also ended up getting light headed and having more Braxton Hicks contractions than usual. So I am planning to take it a bit easier so I don’t overdo it. Eric begged me NOT to go in to labor if at all possible. Here’s for hoping for a full-term baby!

My age: 29

How far along: 36 weeks

How big is baby: the size of a watermelon (19 inches and 6 pounds)

Gender: Girl

Events of this week: Several photography sessions, birth class, life group, chiropractor appointment, prenatal appointment, lots of photo editing, dentist appointment, installing hardwood floors, girls’ night at my house for my new MOPS table, had friends over for dinner, went to a baby shower.

Symptoms: Braxton Hicks, growing belly and minor aches.

Exercise/Activity: 4 days this week. Woo hoo! And let’s really call it 5 because the first day of laying hardwood floors was a lot of exercise.

Sleep: I’m not that comfortable anymore. But I still don’t get up much at night…maybe once a night. Not bad. I just feel uncomfortable though.

Maternity clothes:  Yes. Though I basically wear yoga pants that sit underneath my belly most days of the week paired with a maternity top.

Stretch marks: No. Using lotion like crazy and hoping for a stripe free pregnancy!

Belly Button: Out.

Food cravings: Eating healthier this week. Having cravings for greek yogurt with craisins as well as swiss cheese.

Food aversions: Nothing.

Movement: Very active.

Best Moment of the Week: Finding out some good news in my family!

Worst Moment of the Week: Winter fell face first into our brick fireplace one night. Thankfully she’s fine, but that shook me up!

What I’m looking forward to: Continued progress on hardwood floor installation! It’s looking SO BEAUTIFUL. I love these beautiful floors. Also looking forward to Friday night. My good friend is turning 30 and to celebrate, she m, I and one other friend are staying at a fancy hotel downtown and then having a spa day. What a treat! I’ll be 37 weeks getting a prenatal massage. That’ll be heavenly!

What I’m nervous about/praying for: A full term baby. Part of me feels like the baby is going to play a dirty trick on us by showing up early since we don’t want her to. Please stay in until at least 39 weeks. Thanks!

What I miss: Downtime. I don’t have any. At all.

Next appointment: Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 1:20 p.m.

Comparison…big difference!

Baby Girl #2 36 Week Pic:

Baby #2 BUMP REPORT – 35 Weeks

PREGNANCY WEEK 35 – September 19, 2015

Now that it’s Tuesday and I’m closer to 36 weeks than 35, I am only a month away from my due date. YIKES! Lots to do between now and then. Eric and I are starting to feel a bit of pressure to get done all that we have on our plates over the next month before she arrives. We agreed that we are both feeling like we can’t even focus on a baby coming soon because we have too much that has to happen before she makes her grand arrival into our family. Baby girl, please wait! Please don’t come early. This week she is approximately 18.5 inches and 5.5 pounds.

We are in the midst of tearing apart our house…it’s kind of a disaster. Carpet has been ripped out and the kitchen tile got busted out over the weekend. Starting on Friday we begin installing hardwood floors. The entire main level of the house will be hardwoods once we are finished. It was a combo of carpet, tile and linoleum floors. It’s going to be a lot of work and very time consuming to install the new floors. We would like to have the project finished, or at least mostly finished, before the baby is born! That might be a big undertaking to reach that deadline goal! We did hardwoods in our old house, but that was quite a bit smaller square footage than this house. So that’s Eric’s big thing on his agenda that is making him feel a bit of pressure with my looming due date.

My pressure is getting all of my photography clients done between now and then (my due date). I’ve been non-stop busy with photography whether it’s shooting or editing. Over the weekend I had two newborn sessions and 1 family session alone! Newborn sessions take 3-4 hours each (plus drive time and setup/teardown). Regular sessions take about an hour. Editing each photoshoot takes me approximately 3-4 hour each. In the span of 7 days (Saturday to Saturday of this past week), I did SEVEN photo sessions! SEVEN! Three of those being newborn sessions. Wow. So if you can imagine, I am eating, sleeping and dreaming photography these days. I actually do DREAM about photography most nights. I stress and think I’m forgetting something. I’m loving this because it’s helpful for me to build up my portfolio and experience. I’m trying to squeeze in all of these sessions before my baby comes. I probably won’t ever be THIS busy again…so I keep reminding myself this is just a short season for a few weeks where I get to be super busy doing something that I really love.

In the midst of our busy season of life, we have now attended two birth classes at the hospital. We both didn’t feel like we learned anything new, but it was good to help us focus on what’s coming. It got us in the right mindset. It was also good to practice some labor positions. I still have a ways to go in finishing my Hypnobirthing book…I should try to get a move on reading that so it’s finished before I’m due.

My age: 29

How far along: 35 weeks

How big is baby: the size of a honeydew melon (18.5 inches and 5.5 pounds)

Gender: Girl

Events of this week: Lots. I can’t even think straight.

Symptoms: Some “annoying” pregnancy symptoms–not going into detail on that, but thankfully the midwife got me a prescription that is helping that lovely issue. My belly is MASSIVE. It’s growing like crazy.

Exercise/Activity: Got in 3 days of exercise, one of those being a nice fall outdoor stroller run with one of my mom friends. Feeling great in the workout department, though I am definitely doing less and slowing down a bit when it comes to how much I’m doing.

Sleep: Good. I am having dreams that stress me out though. Like my photography dreams. And one night I dreamt that we euthanized both of our pets (dog and cat). Am I feeling overwhelmed?? Maybe my dreams are a reflection of my true reality.

Maternity clothes:  Yes. In fact, some of them no longer cover my belly!

Stretch marks: No.

Belly Button: Out.

Food cravings: Ehhh…I ate sweets a few times too many in the past week. I’ve been doing so good at eating sweets only once a week. Need to get back on that habit. Between birthday cake, shower cupcakes, etc….I had a few too many!

Food aversions: Eating a full meal.

Movement: Very active.

Best Moment of the Week: Meeting my friend’s baby girl in the NICU. She went into preterm labor at 30 weeks after her water broke. She was able to keep the baby in for four days before the baby was born. She’s only 3 1/2 pounds but doing SO GREAT! I was even able to hold her for a while when I visited! She wasn’t due until November 20th, wow.

Worst Moment of the Week: Can’t think of anything.

What I’m looking forward to: Getting a lot of progress done on my photography. Once these busy few weeks are over, I’ll miss the craziness. Also SO EXCITED about starting the installation of the hardwood floors.

What I’m nervous about/praying for: All of the stress on our plates.

What I miss: Watching TV, having time for a nap, being lazy. LOL

Next appointment: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 4:20 p.m.

Comparison shot:

35 Weeks preggo:

Baby #2 BUMP REPORT – 34 Weeks

PREGNANCY WEEK 34 – September 12, 2015

Why do pregnant women have to be so hormonal? I am normally a very level headed, non-emotional woman…but lately I have been all over the place. These hormones are so annoying. The main thing that I’ve noticed is that I am super irritable and get really annoyed at things easily. Little things make me want to snap! I hate that. Because I’m 8 months pregnant, I know that is the reason why I feel so irritable and cranky…but man, I wish I wouldn’t feel like that. Praying for my poor family at times, they take the brunt of it!

At my prenatal appointment on Thursday the midwife was super sweet and included Winter in a few things. She held her and allowed her to place the dopplar on my belly to listen the heartbeat. She also had Winter “measure” my belly. Of course she re-measured herself for a good accurate reading. Two weeks ago I was measuring 31 cm, but suddenly I jumped to 34 cm. I believe it. 3 cm in two weeks seems about right for how I feel! At the appointment we talked about birth and how it’s drawing near. At my next appointment I will start seeing the midwives for weekly visits…wow. This is happening!

Maternity photos got taken on Friday. I love how so many of them turned out! I will share a separate post with some of the photos. Winter wasn’t the best at cooperating, but with the bribery of cookies, she at least looked at the camera. Here are just a few teaser photos. I love them!

Photography continues to go great! I did a few more sessions this week and have many more coming up next week. I am so in love with this new hobby/business venture! It is just what I’ve always wanted to do. One of the maternity shoots I did last weekend just gave birth to her baby this weekend. Good thing we didn’t wait any longer on her photo session!

Soon I will finish the nursery and finally put up some pictures of it! I worked on a wall art project this week that was very tedious but turned out SO CUTE! The nursery is navy and hot pink. There’s nothing store bought in that room…pretty much I’ve handmade everything. I love putting my personal touches of love into her room. It makes it so special! Soon I will take pictures. It’s almost ready.

My dear friend threw me a baby sprinkle party this weekend. It was so much fun to get together with friends to celebrate this baby’s upcoming arrival. We played a couple of fun games, ate yummy food, and opened gifts. Ashley is so creative, she used my US Weekly magazine announcement for this pregnancy as inspiration for one of the games. She placed a sticker on each of our backs with a celebrity mom name. We had to ask questions to try to guess which celebrity mom we were. That was lots of fun! My sticker was Kate Hudson. Others included Kim Kardashian, Shakira, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Gwen Stefani, etc. For gifts I really didn’t want much as I have most everything we need…but I was SO GRATEFUL for all of the diapers and wipes we received at the sprinkle! Having two in diapers will be fun:) So I am thankful to have a bunch of newborn and size 1 diapers now.

A few friends couldn’t make it to the sprinkle…because they were busy being in labor and having babies! 🙂 I guess that’s a good excuse. One friend had her baby yesterday and one who was in labor yesterday had hers today. Another friend is a week overdue and didn’t feel up to coming. Can’t blame her! Lots of babies are being born.

Reminder of our pregnancy announcement back around May 1st:

Group picture at the baby sprinkle:

My age: 29

How far along: 34 weeks

How big is baby: the size of a cantaloupe (18 inches and 5 pounds)

Gender: Girl

Events of this week: Spent a few unscheduled down-time days with Winter, went to the chiropractor, had a prenatal appointment, took maternity our photos, babysat, went to my baby sprinkle, went to church, did several photoshoots.

Symptoms: Hormonal, grouchy, cranky, more emotional, stiff when I first stand up from sitting or lying down, leaking bits of colostrum (this has been going on for about a month now), needing naps by afternoon.

Exercise/Activity: I exercised 4 days this past week. Still feeling pretty good while running, though I’m not running very far distances. I like that I have the comfort of my own home to use my treadmill so I don’t have to deal with hills, stroller, weather, etc. I’m lifting weights a lot, doing especially a lot of squats, lunges, etc. I know those will be beneficial come labor time.

Sleep: Decent. Dreams are waking me up a lot and stressing me out. I have trouble hoisting my body from one side to another.

Maternity clothes:  Yes.

Stretch marks: No.

Belly Button: Out.

Food cravings: Ehhh…granola bars this week kind of.

Food aversions: Eating a full meal.

Movement: Very active.

Best Moment of the Week: Baby sprinkle celebration with friends!

Worst Moment of the Week: There was an evening where Winter was being cranky and I responded with “hormonal crazy pregnant lady” level of crankiness. I let myself get super frustrated and said some things I regret and can’t take back. Thankfully she is too little to understand, but it has taken me several days to forgive myself for letting my hormones and anger get the best of me. The struggle is real with these hormones, seriously!

What I’m looking forward to: Meeting the new babies that were born this weekend. So many new babies expected, and suddenly they are being born!

What I’m nervous about/praying for: My attitude. I let hormones and grouchiness get the best of me, and I know that’s not fun for anyone.

What I miss: Being myself (i.e. not so cranky, lol!)

Next appointment: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 4:20 p.m.

Comparison with first pregnancy:

34 Weeks with baby #2:

Baby #2 BUMP REPORT – 33 Weeks

PREGNANCY WEEK 33 – September 6, 2015

Happy Labor Day Weekend! We have Eric’s parents in town the past several days visiting us. It has been fun to watch them with Winter. She really enjoys her grandparents.

My life is suddenly very busy with photography. For years I’ve loved photography, but it’s only been recently that I decided to finally make a jump and start taking pictures and make it a thing. I have a 50 mm lens on my Nikon dSLR camera that I am IN LOVE WITH….I have been doing a lot of photoshoots recently, but I counted last night and I have NINETEEN more shoots between now and when I’m due. NINETEEN!! Whoa! I am busy these next few weeks. Plus, I’d like to squeeze a time in to get my own maternity photos taken in there too. Hoping to do that soon. I love photography because it’s such an art and I like capturing memories for families. I especially am enjoying newborn photography as it’s so precious to capture pictures of these tiny little infants. I have 4 newborn shoots lined up in the next few weeks…just waiting on each of them to be born! I’m loving all of these photoshoots…but man am I busy all of the sudden!

Thankfully I have been getting better sleep this week. Yay. Very grateful for this change because I was feeling pretty ragged on the days I wasn’t getting very good sleep. Hopefully this trend continues of better sleep.

Next week we start our birth classes at the hospital. We have 4 sessions over the course of 4 weeks. Two are childbirth classes, one is a baby care class and one is a breastfeeding class. Though I’ve been through all of this before, I feel that it would be good to freshen up on all of these subjects.

Here’s a look at my belly growth in the past 5 weeks:

My age: 29

How far along: 33 weeks

How big is baby: the size of a durian (17.5 inches and 4.5 pounds)

Gender: Girl

Events of this week: Had a girls’ night, did a photoshoot, went to the chiropractor, spent time with the in-laws, went up to the mountains for a BBQ with family, went to Tiny Town, had the first MOPS meeting of the new year.

Symptoms: Feeling really great still. Having a bit more fatigue and the need to take naps during the afternoon. My insomnia and sleep issues seem to have cleared up this week, thankfully. I’m seeing the chiropractor weekly which is keeping my aches and pains at bay. Having occasional heartburn. My belly aches after a while if I don’t have good back support.

Exercise/Activity: Only 3 days this week because of the holiday weekend and having guests in town.

Sleep: Good! Back to solid sleeping.

Maternity clothes:  Yes.

Stretch marks: No.

Belly Button: Out.

Food cravings: Still not able to eat a lot at once. I run out of room.

Food aversions: Eating a full meal.

Movement: Busy, busy baby in there.

Best Moment of the Week: Watching Winter have such a fun time with Eric’s parents (Papa and Nana). She loves them.

Worst Moment of the Week: None.

What I’m looking forward to: My baby sprinkle next weekend! My good friend Ashley is throwing it and I’m looking forward to celebrating with my friends.

What I’m nervous about/praying for: Nothing.

What I miss: Being able to move around more easily.

Next appointment: Thursday, Sept. 10 at 4:00 p.m.

Comparison Shot:

33 Week Bump: