35 Weeks (basically!)

Time for a quick, quick, quick update on all things Baby Annabelle Grace!

As of today, I am 34 weeks and 4 days pregnant.  I’ll officially be 35 weeks along on Monday.  HARD TO BELIEVE, and so exciting all the same!  This baby could show up in four to five weeks- and I still feel like she’ll get here sooner rather than later- I’ve felt that way since the beginning.

This third trimester has most certainly been the most difficult for me!  Not because I am physically miserable by any means- quite frankly I still have a pretty perfect pregnancy, according to my own body.  I still don’t get very hot, my weight gain is right at 16 pounds total- and it is ALLLLLLLLLL in this baby and in my belly. (quite literally!)  I am still working out and doing Pure Barre like four times a week, and still only modify somewhat- ab work is getting a little difficult due to the bowling ball inside of me, but that’s to be expected.  I have a small amount of lower back pain, a TINY bit of swelling in my hands and feet, and a SMALL amount of fatigue.  So small that I took my first nap EVER since knowing Will a few weeks ago, and it was only 15 minutes…. no repeats since then!  The most recent “belly picture” I have is from about 33 weeks with my sister-in-law, Jennifer, who is also pregnant- about 7-10 days behind us!

GESTATIONAL DIABETES however, has just really been a downer!  I started out on such a positive note- thankful to have just made it so far in a pregnancy, and I still am.  However, weeks ago, I didn’t realize how hard it would truly be to maintain such a strict diet.  By eating properly and exercising- the goal is to hopefully avoid any medicine or insulin.  If I am able to keep my blood sugar numbers lower, than any risk to the baby is also smaller.  I haven’t cheated ONCE.  I have exercised the appropriate amount, and journaled all my food intake to make sure I hit the right numbers for protein, fat, and carbs.  So far I have been able to avoid the insulin, but every week it gets so much harder to keep my numbers in check.  Apparently it gets harder the bigger the baby gets…….  Which in turn makes me even MORE frustrated.  At least if I was eating junk food, not working out, or gaining a tremendous amount of weight, I would feel like I “earned” diabetes…..but I’ve done none of the above.  All I want is REAL ice cream!!!!!! It also becomes frustrating because if you’ve ever miscarried- you start to feel guilty about being upset about any little set-back in a viable pregnancy.  You have an inside argument that you aren’t “allowed” to be upset about these things- which I know is just silly- but it doesn’t stop those feelings from creeping in!  Any how, moral of the story- my rant is over, and I’m still luckily able to avoid insulin- so that’s a plus.

Oh- and because I can’t just cheat or eat fun things- I have to really pay attention to when I can eat certain things, what I can eat, and how they affect my blood sugar.  (Oh- and finding ways to work in enough carbs to not mess it up either…) SO, the best thing I have discovered I can somehow eat is the Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad from Panera, with a baguette as my side.  Pretty sure everyone else is tired of having to eat at Panera- but it’s seriously the only thing I actually like having/getting to eat over and over….because there are a lot of repetitive meals with gestational diabetes!

Now- on to the actual doctor appointment update!  The fun part!  We went today and FINALLY got another ultrasound- the one thing I can thank diabetes for!  However, we learned that this dear baby inside of me potentially weighs 6 POUNDS, 3 OUNCES!  Um, hello- that is infant- sized for some full-term babies- and this one in me still has 4-5 weeks to go! That is almost HALF of the weight I have gained period from this pregnancy!  She also has a longer thigh bone, so she could potentially be a taller baby!  Have you met Will and I?  Or our families?!  None of us are tall…so that’s funny!  Her belly is definitely a little rotund as well.  She was not a fan of having her picture taken today- but our awesome ultrasound tech- Kelly, was still able to get us some good pictures!

Those are not holes in her head, or weird skin places- she had her face squished up next to the placenta, which makes it hard for the camera to get a good angle to actually show everything!

At this appointment we also learned that she is breech- meaning her head is under my ribs.  Ideally she should already be flipped over, with her feet in my ribs.  We’ve got like a 1-2 weeks window where is would still be easiest for her to really flip on her own.  That’s even still about 50/50 odds that she will.  After that she may or may not flip before her due date.  On the bright side, I am good to go with amniotic fluid, which does make it easier for her to flip, but on the downside, she is a little bigger than most babies at this week, so that could be making it harder.

Our doctor told us to look up “versions”  which is basically where he would use his hands to try to flip her over from the outside of my tummy.  This is done in a hospital setting as it does come with its own set of risks.  Will and I have read about it a little, and I’m still not sold on the idea yet.  I’m not huge fan of the idea of a c-section, but will do what I need to to get this baby here as safely as possibly.  At our next appointment we should actually get to hear more of his perspective on the whole topic- which is what I prefer more any how.

Oh- in one of my previous posts I mentioned we had our maternity pictures taken, and posted one we had gotten.  I’ve since posted the others on Facebook- but in case you can’t see that- here are a few of them!  (They were taken around the 30th week mark, by Kati Mallory Photo and Design)

The nursery is also basically done!  We have even installed our carseat into the car and my hospital bag is ready to go!  We are currently on our way to Ludington, Michigan for our last family vacation with Will’s family before Annabelle gets here.  Because I’m so much farther along we do have to stop a lot more, so we turned the trip in to a two day trip and are spending the night before we finish our drive tomorrow!  I’ll definitely do a post soon about both of our family trips once we get back from this one!