Another major pregnancy milestone...

I almost forgot...I found my first stretch marks about a week ago. As some may know, K and I found out that we were expecting during my family reunion in June. One of the great things about that was being able to grill all of the women in my family about their pregnancy experiences. I was thrilled to discover that NONE of them had ever gotten stretch marks during pregnancy, and as I've been reading genetics plays the biggest role in whether or not you'll get them, no matter how much cocoa butter lotion you slather on your growing belly. "Great," I thought, "I might not get them either!"

But...I have a rather large scar on my lower abdomen from an emergency appendectomy when I was 15, and scar tissue just doesn't stretch like regular skin does. So now I have a small but angry-looking red stretch mark radiating up from the inner end of my scar. I also found a few more in...ahem...other areas.

This is the most minor of possible complaints, but I thought it was worth mentioning. She's definitely well worth it!

A shower funny, and 32 week update

At my shower, Robin and Garrett gave us a cute little stuffed doggie toy that looks just like their dog, Butterbean. As soon as I took it out of its box, Mr. Pickles, the Hamiltons' chihuahua, started barking and growling at it! He must have thought it was a real dog. The funniest part was when I set the toy dog on its side in a more submissive position, Mr. Pickles calmed down and came over to sniff it. We were all laughing to the point of tears. Quick thinking Sarah captured it all on video, which I now present to you for your viewing pleasure!



Also, today marks the beginning of week 32, which also happens to be the beginning of month 8. Holy cow, that means I'm 8 months pregnant! I had a checkup with my OB on Monday and she confirmed that everything is proceeding along just fine, and she believes the baby is in a head down position based on feeling my belly. She'll do a quick ultrasound at my 36 week appointment to confirm.

Speaking of ultrasounds, we've decided to get a 3-d ultrasound. I went back and forth on this a lot since it is an unnecessary procedure, but in the end I feel that I may regret not doing it and that it will be a really neat thing to share with baby ZoKay when she's a bit older. And I have to admit that I'm dying of curiosity to get another peek at her! Our appointment is at 5:30 this afternoon and if we get good shots I will definitely post them here.

Here's the outside view as of yesterday:



And according to BabyCenter.com:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Baby shower in Oregon!

I had the most wonderful time at my baby shower last Saturday, graciously hosted by Sarah and her parents, Adeline, and my mom at Sarah's parents' house. I was blown away by everyone's generosity, and my heart was truly warmed by the love everyone already has for this little girl. I put together a little slideshow to share the photos...I hope you enjoy it!

Looks like I missed a week...

Oops! Well at least I can blame it on the holidays. Without further ado, here was baby ZoKay last week (30 weeks):



Fast forward to this week (week 31), we've apparently run out of single-veggie solutions. According to Babycenter.com:

This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. She weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side, and her arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath her skin. She's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.



Speaking of healthy, I officially do NOT have Gestational Diabetes...hooray! Though finding out was quite unpleasant. Who asks a pregnant woman to fast while they poke her repeatedly with needles, anyway? And as for me, here I am as of Tuesday:

"Nursery" progress!

We finally got a chance to put together the crib and dresser/changer over the weekend! And can I just say how much I love them? They're much nicer in person than they looked from the website, and the quality seems great. I didn't know that the crib had a drop-side AND teething guards, although now I see that both are listed right in the online description. I had also forgotten that we ordered them in the cherry color, which is very pretty in person and matches our bed almost perfectly. We've had them for almost 2 months but hadn't even opened the boxes, so these were all nice surprises. Here are some photos:

Kailen being silly:

















Pitsie checking out construction progress:


Pretty toile drawer liners I added (really just a roll of nice wrapping paper attached to the drawer bottoms with spray adhesive):


























Putting the last drawer in place and the last screw on the crib:














Voila! The finished product:

Just an FYI...

..."Hi, chubby" is NOT the proper way to greet a pregnant woman (or anyone for that matter)! I don't think I look particularly chubby these days, and if I did, said chubbiness certainly wouldn't be up for discussion or OK to comment on. I don't get why some people think it's okay to openly pass judgment on pregnant women's sizes when they most certainly wouldn't say the same things to a non-pregnant person. And equating pregnancy with obesity? I really don't get that one.

In fact, this is probably the first time in my entire life that I haven't had any negative body image issues to deal with. I'm amazed at what my body is doing, all on its own - building a whole human being, from scratch! When I'm out and about and I see another pregnant woman, I grin and think to myself "you are AMAZING!"

I have so much respect for my body right now that there's simply no place for self consciousness. When I look in the mirror I feel nothing but a sense of awe!

Goodbye back pain!

I had two appointments with a chiropractor this week and for the first time in recent memory, I woke up without ANY back pain over the weekend! Hopefully it will last, but if not, now I know what to do - go see Dr. Moss! I was her last appointment today, and apparently she just loves giving massages so she kept me an hour longer than my actual appointment time and, after a few minutes of adjusting my sacrum which has been pulled way out of alignment, gave me the most amazing massage I've ever had. It was wonderful. Thank you Dr. Moss! She also told me that she plans to give me another massage as close as possible to my due date, and that if I'm interested, she can do a few tricks to help my labor start.

On a not-so-good note, I failed my 1-hour glucose test by 3 points so now I need to have the 3-hour test to rule out gestational diabetes. I'm sure I don't have GD and that failing the test was due to what I had eaten beforehand (an apple and a grapefruit), so it's a bummer to have to go back. Especially since the 3-hour test involves having my blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours.

Here I am at 29 weeks:



















And as for baby Zokay:

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain. To meet her increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because her bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.