28 weeks.... 7 months

Seven months! Seven has always been a good number for me. My first horse was named Seven, and he was so good to me, even as a 10 year old. Ever since then, I have had a slight OCD 'thing' with the number seven. It started when I got him. I would count everything, but in terms of seven. For example, if I was running up stairs, which there were 16 of in our house, I would count it as two sets of seven with the last being said as se-ven so that it stretched out over two steps. Weird, I totally know. 

I digress. Tomorrow, I will be 7 months pregnant, and I think that it will be a great month! I have a ton of things to look forward to, lets take a look:

• March 6th: Guinea Pigs day at our school, these days are always fun, and seem to fly by
• March 6th: Good friend's baby shower thrown by her team, pictures of the diaper cake I made her to come soon!
• March 7th: Field Day at our school, these days are a BLAST, they go by fast, and I usually have lots of parents take their kids home afterwards. Not that I want all my kids to go home all the time, but I do love me some impromptu time with a smaller class so that I can get some organizing and work done!
• March 8th: Doctor's Appointment- Tim is coming with me so that is always a plus, I am finally getting my glucose test, although starting yesterday I am paranoid that I have it, AND we get a growth ultrasound!
• March 10-18: SPRING BREAK... need I say more?
• March 21: Meeting with the woman from the school district who can better explain maternity leave options
• March 22: Hunter's and my first baby shower, thrown by my co-workers
• April 3: 3D ultrasound!!

You see? I have something almost every week! Hopefully the last week in March can be spent organizing and putting away gifts from the baby shower so I can be occupied, or maybe I will need some rest after a busy month!

So, I finally took a bare belly picture to compare my before belly to my current belly. I won't take another one of these until 40 weeks, but I thought it would be fun to do it now!

 Yowza. Every time I think my belly has not grown that much, I can just go ahead and pull up this picture!

Here are some plain 28 week pictures:

Here are the current pregnancy symptoms:

• Braxton Hicks- have gone down significantly this week, I think I had less than 10 good ones all week.
• Movement- I went through a few days where I really didn't feel him move all that much. Since week 19, I have felt kicks and punches to where it feels like my belly is twitching. This week, I only felt some pushing. I almost thought that they were Braxton Hicks, but the tightness and pressure was only on one side so I am assuming that he was just pushing. Either way, it was all very different from the previous seven weeks. I came home from work on Friday, with my fret level at an all-time high, and easily found his heartbeat. It is am amazing how much stronger it sounds than at 9 weeks, haha! Go figure! Friday night, I woke up for my nightly pee, and when I laid back down, he started kicking and rolling and has pretty much been going ever since. Little man knows just when his momma needs some reassurance! I am wondering if my being sick had anything to do with him being a little more restful?
• Rib pain- Ohhhhhh man. I didn't know what women were talking about when they talked about rib pain during pregnancy. He isn't kicking me there (very often), but they must be stretching to accommodate everything and I can surely feel it. I am also feeling hip pain, and pelvic bone pain, and I am thinking that the relaxin hormone is just pouring out full force! It's letting everything shift and move all over the place!
• Fatigue...... is back. I will be the first to admit that I have always loved me some naps, and am never really just bouncing off the walls with energy, but I can usually make it through the school day. Lately, I have been barely able to drive home with out feeling like I am going to pass out!
• Weight Gain/Belly Measurement: So far, I have gained a total of 12 pounds, and the belly measured 37 inches this morning. I am definitely gaining at a faster rate....
• Sickness- no more sickness, but I did manage to find, send, AND upload the picture of Tim's meal that almost made me lose it last week. Remember those baby octopi? Here they are in all their disgusting, jiggly, tentical-icious, full bodied glory:

There my be an extra  trip to the OB this week. I have been having cloudy urine for a few weeks, but no other signs of a UTI so I didn't really think anything of it. I actually just thought it was a pregnancy thing, but didn't want to hit up the internet too quickly. You always find the scariest stuff there once you start looking up symptoms! Friday, I had a few hours off and on of some lower back kidney pain, and my first thought was that they were real contractions rather than just Braxton Hicks, but the pain stopped and I forgot all about it. Saturday it started again, and I woke up Sunday with pain all day. I am going to call the doctor first thing tomorrow (Monday), and see what they suggest. Of course, it was hard to resist internet research, and apparently kidney infections during pregnancy are a big no-no, and need to get taken care of immediately! Hopefully, I am being paranoid and all is well.

We have also done some more work in the nursery, and  I am excited to share the progress!