31 Weeks!

Every week is going by faster and I'm starting to feel the pinch of how much I want to get done before this baby makes its way into our life. This past weekend we finished the shuffling of our belongings from the old apartment, storage, and a garage sale - it feels SO good to have that done. And really, Grant did 99.9% of the moving because I'm basically useless in that arena these days. He worked hard and I very much appreciate it! The focus now will be to spend the next month traveling on weekends and working on the nursery/baby stuff during the week. I'm VERY excited to work on baby stuff and have been searching for lots of grey/yellow nursery inspiration on pinterest. 

I continue to feel great most of the time. I had a few weeks relief from peeing myself, but it came back full force this past week. Good times there. If nothing else, its always a good laugh. One thing I've noticed especially bad the past few days is just a deep fatigue in my legs - I guess from carrying my heavy self around? They ache when I climb the stairs in the house and BURN if I try to walk up hill. My feet are also pretty swollen and sore most mornings when I wake up. Its nothing unmanageable though. 

I had a midwife appointment last Wednesday and Grant was able to come. It was nice to get to check in together. He hasn't spend much time with the midwives so I'm looking forward to him coming to more appointments. I gained 4 or 5 pounds last month so they were good with that - bringing my current total weight gain to around 24lbs. I also asked them to check if baby is head down and they said he is! I SO hope he stays down there - a breech baby isn't what I'm lookin' for in my first birth. Otherwise, everything was great at the appointment and now I will start seeing them every two weeks until 36 weeks when I'll start going once a week. 

The email I got this morning states that baby is OVER 16 inches long and around 3.3lbs! WOW! Getting big in there. I can feel every little movement now and I love it. I'm starting to get to the point where I can make out little parts and can tell if baby is awake because there is near constant motion. We were at dinner with friends last night and they asked if baby ever get hiccups. I said, no, not really. Then, of course, while I was working on my hypnobabies thing this morning he had a set of them that lasted 10 or 15 minutes. I was having SUCH a hard time staying relaxed because it was so funny to feel the constant, rhythmic movement. Speaking of hypnobabies - that is still going well. I like it more and more everyday. Its not as weird as I thought it would be - really it is just a way to teach yourself to relax and use that relaxation to move away from the discomforts of labor. I like feeling like I'm working on preparing for baby everyday, but it is time consuming. Mondays I spend an hour or two doing the weekly reading and then everyday there is two 30 minute tracks you have to listen to. One requires full relaxation and attention and the other you can listen to while falling asleep or doing other things. In addition you are to spend a few minutes at 5 other times throughout the day practicing your relaxation. Its just a few minutes each time, but its taking that time to slow down and do it that I find hard. I'll keep you all updated on how it helps me through labor. 

So in the past few weeks Grant's love for the belly has magnified 100 times. He LOVES it. Can't stop touching it and says he is going to miss it so much when its gone. My reply? Just keep getting me pregnant! (we have an ongoing debate about how large the Simmons brood should ultimately be...) It is a very fun time in the pregnancy where I'm big and get lots of attention because of hte belly, but am still feeling good. I can tell that this may be brief since baby is growing FAST, so I'm trying to soak it up as much as I can. 

What else? Grant and I are still in talks about the antidepressant. Good news is that all negative effects that have come up in the literature are attributed to first trimester use. Its a tough call! We have to discuss the effects both now and, if I were to continue it after baby is born, how much may get into breast milk. And the bottom line is that we have no idea or data on what long term effects our kid may encounter from exposure to the drug. We are just trying really hard to make the most informed decision we can while keeping both baby's and my health in mind.