33 and 34 weeks!

Do you see the title? Only 6 more weeks until Hunter is due and I am in disbelief that the time has flown by so quickly! Of course, he can come early or late, I am selfishly hoping that he comes a little early because I am just so ready to meet our little man, but my very first prediction was that he is going to be super comfy in there and come late! 

My doctor thinks that he will come early if I choose to go back to work, and she is SHOCKED that I want to go back! I told her, "I am bored, so bored; want/need the paychecks; want to be able to say good-bye to my kids if I have to leave again; and if I can get one more good week in at work to clean out cabinets for the poor souls who are going to clean up my room for the summer, I'll be happy"..... She thinks that the activity is what put me into pre-term labor, so I have been thinking of little ways to be a tiny bit less active during the day. Teaching kindergarten is NOT sitting behind a desk. It is a day full of 15 minute increments; when the kids are working independently I am around the room checking on progress, up and down kneeling because my students are 3 feet tall, walking to various places around the school all day means a pretty good trek (kinder is in the very back of the school)... it is more physical that one may tend to think! Don't get me wrong, I know that I'm not stacking boxes, but I am definitely moving all day!!

So tomorrow I will be 34 weeks, which is technically eight and a half months along, but don't tell people that because then they think I am going to pop in the next two weeks! I still have 6 weeks, people!! By the time I am back at work, I will be 35 weeks, and just a couple weeks shy of full-term!

Things have started to change a little now that I have reached an all time high (weight-wise). Here is what is going on with Hunter and I:

• I have not gained any weight these past two weeks, wahoo!! My belly also is STILL measuring 39 inches, but I know that it depends on his position. When the doctor measures the fundal height it is right on track every week. So far, I have only gained 16 pound with this pregnancy, and I am hoping to keep under 20 for the entire pregnancy. Cross your fingers!

• I have heart burn pretty much all day. Straight up water gives me heartburn. No fun! I have gone through countless bottles of Tums, and need to have them with me at all times! I wish I could think of a better way to explain it, but it seems to be a volcanic eruption of heartburn when I have it. It literally shoots up my esophagus and will wake me up with a jolt!

• I have to pee almost once every thirty minutes during the day, and about 3 times at night. The other night I woke up to go, by the time I got comfortable enough in bed to try to sleep, I had to go again.

• Still no stretch marks.... another time I am going to ask you to cross your fingers for me that I can make it to the end! I have been using a variety of things on my belly, mostly just what I have laying around. At first, I was serious and bought MammaMio belly butter stuff specifically for pregnancy stretch marks, yada yada, then I ran out, but had just purchased Shea Butter from Bath Junkie and used that religiously every day until that ran out a few weeks ago. I had some Cocoa Butter, but truly cannot stand that smell so changed it up after a few days. Now I am using baby oil, and have been surprised to find that the itching is pretty much all gone, my skin doesn't seem so pink/irritated/stretched looking, and my skin doesn't feel oily all day like I predicted it would!

• Sleeping is not really comparable to before.... I am on bed rest, so I get in at least one really good nap a day. I can also sleep in because I am not expected at work, so if I wake up for a while in the middle of the night, it doesn't bother me like it did before. Prior to bed rest, I would wake up, not be able to sleep, and then worry about it so much that I for sure couldn't sleep. Now, if I can't fall back asleep, I will try for about thirty minutes then get up and watch a recorded show, eat something, read, etc. and after a couple of hours I am ready for bed again!

• My sense of smell is at an all time high, and along with that come waves of nausea. I haven't thrown up yet, but one night my husband, sister-in-law, and her husband decided to cook some crawfish. I don't eat them, think they are disgusting, and can't stand to look at them when people are eating them in large quantities....like that night. I am allowed to do one 'thing' a day, so this day I chose to sit at my sister-in-law's house while they all ate crawfish. Before they were cooked, we walked over to the cooler and we all peered inside because apparently these were massive crawfish. As soon as the cooler lid was lifted, I got this overwhelming fish smell and almost fell over trying to get away from it. Everyone else? Sicking their head in the cooler to try to figure out what I was smelling.... and they still said that they couldn't smell a hint of fishiness. Watching them get eaten is what brought on the nausea...

• Hunter should weigh about 5 pounds. Crazy. Some full term babies are born at that size! I got the steroid shots so his lungs would have been more mature if he had been born this week. Since he wasn't, I have heard that the shot only works for about a week, but now that we are close to 35 weeks, his lungs should be able to do what they need on their own if her were to be born. 

• He doesn't like bed rest any more than I do. He rolls around all day long. Not kidding.... All. Day. Long. My belly looks like the ocean, with his movements making it roll around in waves of motion. I don't get many little kicks anymore, I get him sticking out his feet for about 10 seconds at a time and then you can slowly see that section sink back down. Last night at a dinner table with about 10 people, someone asked if he was kicking. I said, "Yes, actually he has been moving all night", all 20 eyes stared at my belly for about minute in awe of it rolling around. I like that they were able to see it because lots of times, Hunter will move and by the time I say something to someone who has been wanting to see/feel him kick, he will get settled in. They were surprised to hear that he does that ALL DAY. When was working, I think that he was getting rocked to sleep. Now that I am inactive pretty much all day, he is probably more bored! I also think that it is just one more way that he is like his dad.... impatient and incapable of sitting still!

I think that is pretty much it! I went to the doctor on Friday, we are doing weekly appointments since my pre-term labor scare, and everything is going as it should! The only thing left I have to be tested for is Group B Strep, which I originally thought was a blood test so I was NOT looking forward to that. Now that I know it is not a blood test and I know what really goes on.... I am looking forward to it even less. All for Hunter, right?