I'm Too Lazy To Give This A Proper Title

I am now 30 weeks pregnant. This is my 30 week belly.



Let's compare to my 27 week belly:



I swear I'm not any bigger than I was three weeks ago. Of course, I only just gained back the weight that I lost when I had the flu (plus a few pounds extra).

I can just hardly believe that I only have 10 weeks left. It seems so soon, and I'm so not ready! Also I'm very aware of how small I am for how far along I am. I hope this means I have a small (but healthy) baby. My mother-in-law just loves to remind me how big my husband was when he was born, and how many stitches she got because of his big head.

My mom told me both her babies were tiny and perfectly healthy. I know which advice I'm going with. (Advice is totally not the right word, but I can't think of a better one. Pregnancy brain.)

I'm experiencing plenty of breathlessness these days. I try to sit up straight at work, or put my arms over my head for a minute or two. And if anyone is watching me closely, they'll see me tug at my bra many times during the day. And I no longer care if someone sees me. I just need to breathe! My mom told me to get a tiny little fan. But I'm pretty sure they're hand held, and I need both my hands to enter orders.

So, just like heartburn, I will try and put up with it as best I can until this baby comes out. I've heard plenty of women say that they miss being pregnant, and right now, I do not understand. What I can understand is having a hard time getting used to not feeling someone move around inside of you. But miss being pregnant? Not possible.

I've been doing plenty of reading lately. It may not come as a surprise that it's all pregnancy and childbirth related, but I haven't read much of anything is SO LONG.

Also, I think we're finally going to take a childbirth class! We've been looking into different ones, and it just seems like none of them are working out. Well, there was an opening for one that just started recently, and it was highly recommended by my midwife. But after doing some research on the woman, the class, and the book she uses, I refused to go to that one.

I'm going to be completely honest: she and her methods weird me out to the max. I know she offers a lot of great information for natural childbirth, but she goes into a lot of other stuff that I'm not comfortable with. For example, on her blog, she featured artwork from her last birth class that she taught. She asks every woman to draw a picture of themselves in labor or giving birth, as a way to get in touch with their inner birth warrior goddess. I'm not even joking. This is a part of the class.

She's really into art, poetry, and feeling connected to "our earth mother." As someone who believes in one God who created the heavens and the earth, and His Son Jesus who died for our sins, I would not find her class helpful at all. I would rather take a class at the hospital (which would be geared more toward hospital births) than take her class. I'm not sure why my midwife recommended it.

But we are taking a class, one that I think will be very helpful, and not weird. It's a private class, because her public class is at the same time as my husband's community college classes. She will be coming to our house for three two-hour sessions, and she will also give us DVD's to watch on our own time. Which means that my friend will (hopefully) get to watch them with us. I'm glad, because I want her to feel as ready as possible (as she is planning on being here for my labor).

I also bought two books that are geared specifically towards doulas (or birth coaches) and I gave one to her. I'm reading the other one, and then we will compare notes. I'm loving my book already (even though it's technically not for me). I'm finding it extremely informative and helpful. Since it's such a thick book, and my husband is already so busy, I've decided I'm going to highlight the parts that I feel are important for him to read, so that he doesn't have to go through the entire thing.

I think I will also use the information from both books to make cue cards for all of us, so that we'll having quick reference material when I'm in labor. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will forget everything I read when labor hits. We'll all be too excited and nervous.

I know I talk of nothing else these days, but it's kind of hard not to. I think about it 24/7. It's by far the biggest thing happening in my life right now. But there are other things happening too.

Like....my husband is taking a couple of classes to finish up his transfer degree. Then he will start classes as a Junior at the University. He's going for Kineisiology and Exercise Science, as he feels this will help him become a better CrossFit coach, and it will definitely help with his full time job in the fish oil industry. He hates being this busy, but he's really absorbing everything he's learning thus far, and after he gets home from his classes, he explains to me what he learned as he applies it to life. Most of the time it goes over my head, but it makes me happy to see that he really does understand it!

He also just got back from a business trip to California. Yeah, he's pretty much the luckiest guy in the world. His company paid for him to go to California for the weekend, plus paid him for working during the weekend. I won't get into the details, but needless to say, HE LOVED IT. He misses it already. Three days there and he's ruined for Washington, or any other place. He would seriously love to live there.

And I must be crazy for not wanting to live there. I think, for me, it's the fact that we don't know anyone there. I already left my all my family and friends once (in Manitoba). I don't want to leave my family and friends again. Also, it's so hot there! Sure, it can get kind of depressing with all the rain and lack of sun in the winter. But the temperatures are never too warm or too cold. And we have mountains. But if it's his dream, and God's will, of course I will go.

In other news, I think I caught a cold. I noticed this morning that my throat hurt, and I was kind of dragging all day. I actually left work an hour early, because I had pretty much stopped being useful. I've been resting (but not sleeping) all afternoon and evening, and I don't know if I feel a whole lot better, but I definitely don't feel worse. I'm just going to be careful that I don't push myself.

And yes, I'm drinking tea with lemon and honey. I feel like I've had more tea in the past couple of months than I have in the past 25 years. I'm almost sick of tea, but it helps, so I drink it.

Speaking of work, my job is going well. I received very high praises from my supervisor. She can't believe how well I'm doing, considering I haven't been doing order entry for that long. So that felt really good hear. Not that I doubted myself. But it's always nice to have someone appreciate your work.

We've been working hard at the backlog that builds up every year before Thanksgiving, and it finally feels like we're getting it under control. Just a couple of weeks ago, our bins were bulging with order forms, and now I can easily see us getting to the point where we'll have almost nothing to do for a while! And then it will pick up again, and then it will get really crazy, but by that time, I'll be at home with my new baby. I'm so glad I don't have to be there for another insane summer. It's just so stressful.

Oh, I forgot to write up there with all the other pregnancy symptoms that our Little One has really discovered my ribcage. It doesn't hurt really bad, but it's definitely uncomfortable. Also, the baby's movements feel different now that s/he is getting bigger and bigger. A lot of things feel kind of funny, or not nice. The baby can really put the pressure on in lots of different places, and it often doesn't feel good. I still can't decipher head from bum from feet from hands, but I like to think I have an idea.

And I'm trying to not be worried about my size or slow weight gain. I don't understand how women at this stage can just eat and eat and eat. My stomach doesn't have any room for tons of food! If anything, my appetite is smaller than ever. A combination of heartburn and lack of room often have me wishing that I didn't have to eat at all. But I do have to eat, so I try. Kind of reminds me of my first trimester...

But I find that I'm up at night more and more with heartburn or an upset stomach. Combined with need to pee all the time, and sleep is definitely not what it used to be. Even with my calcium-magnesium supplement. (Which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone and everyone. It helps with any muscle or joint pain, and it helps you sleep. If you don't have heartburn and a bladder the size of a walnut and a baby who loves to party at night.)

Speaking of Cal-Mag, I haven't taken mine yet, and bedtime is only an hour away. So I'll end with this: Art sent me flowers at work on Friday, because "I've been such a trooper, carrying our baby around for 30 weeks and I deserve them."