Pregnancy Update // 33 Weeks
I finally have admitted defeat. Instead of trying to catch up on my missing weeks I am jumping right back in where I’m at. Time has been speeding by so quickly that I quite literally had to check my pregnancy app just to see how many weeks along I am!
So much has happened since I’ve properly updated you all, my friends. Let’s lay this out:
House projects
Master Bedroom
Last I left you I was finishing up our master bedroom (flooring and wood slat wall). It turned out so lovely and it’s been very nice to have our bedroom back together and have a space to escape to throughout the continued chaos.
Rainbow Room
Next came Remi and Aramis’ room. It was a wonderfully shocking week that began with Miles helping me rip up all the carpet and basically completing all the demo in a single day! That Monday morning I walked into her room, which was still half full of her things, and the overwhelm swept over me. I started bawling right there (thanks, hormones!). My sweet eldest came in and asked what was wrong, so I expressed how overwhelmed I felt and how it was getting so much harder to carry things up and down stairs and to bend down and how little energy I was feeling. He immediately began taking over all the things and really stepping up in a way that left me impressed and grateful.
By the end of the week we had ripped everything out, painted all the walls, including a giant rainbow in one corner, and had laid down all the underlayment and flooring for the bedroom. There were definitely some moments of overwhelm throughout the week, accompanied by plenty of tears, but it was overall an incredibly humbling and rewarding week.
Boy’s Bedroom
This is where things began to stall. While visiting for my baby shower, my awesome friend, Beth, helped me empty out the boy’s room (including disassembling their old bunk bed!). That Monday I began the same process of ripping out carpet, demo work, and adding screws to the subfloor. Unfortunately, during this process we discovered that part of one of the exterior walls showed evidence of mold, which was then revealed to be caused by rot in the walls. One of our rain gutters ends at this part of the house outside and the water had been pooling up and seeping into the wall. Portions of the wood framing was rotting. At this point we had to take a break and put everything on hold for our babymoon. We are now in the process of trying to get our neighbor, who is a contractor, to come take a look and let us know what we need to do to fix this. Meanwhile, of course, all painting and flooring is on hold. I pray the damage isn’t very complicated or expensive to fix.
Baby Shower
My baby shower was so lovely!!! Thank you to all my lovely friends and family who came together to contribute their time and food and resources to make it so special. It was beautiful and enjoyable. And to all my sweet guests for the amazing gifts! I felt very blessed by all of it. My friend, Beth, came into town to help and attend which made for an extra fun weekend. I was spoiled by our time together and wished we could spend so many more days like the ones we had.
Babymoon in Lake Tahoe
Honestly this deserves it’s own post, but I’m afraid I’ll never end up writing one (cause that’s how I be).
Earlier in the pregnancy I began longing for a semi-adventurous vacation before we found ourselves once again in young baby/toddler stage of life. I had grand imaginings early on and dreamt up so many different ideas of where we could go and how we could make it work. There was some question about whether Steven could manage to get away from work and still have any time to take off when the baby is born (we considered a solo trip for myself), but I really wanted us to be able to get away together.
I am soooo grateful that this trip worked out. We ended up booking everything a bit later than I would have liked and there were expenses we hadn’t considered. But in the end it was just so wonderful. It was everything we needed. Relaxing, beautiful, full of loved ones, enriching, and tinged with just enough adventure.
Some highlights
- We had a maternity session in/on Lake Tahoe which is like a dream come true. I am ashamed to say I don’t think I have ever paid someone to take my photos. It was such a treat!!! My sister hooked me up with the very talented Heidi Peinthor, who really made the whole experience magical. It was by far the pinnacle of the trip for me. The water was a perfect temperature, the lighting was out of this world, and there was virtually no one else on the beach that morning (during an otherwise very busy time of year for Tahoe). Heidi made it so relaxing and fun and I enjoyed every bit of it!!!
- Getting time to just be with my husband. We really haven’t had such solid time alone in a long time. It was so enjoyable to simply wander around with my best friend. We laughed (mostly about the poor state of my brain lately), we sat in silence and stared at the horizon many times, together we fell in love with the lake and the mountains and the pines all over again.
- We got to spend our first day and a half with my friend, Chantel and her husband and got to attend Sunday morning services with her church at Frenchman Lake during a retreat they were having. It was so sweet to gather with other believers in such a beautiful place with people I love. It was beautiful and healing.
- I got to see and photograph my sister and her growing family! I got to meet a nephew and niece who I hadn’t seen in person yet and take pictures of everyone’s happy faces.
- I got to see my aunt and uncle and explore the lake from their boat and have dinner with my aunt and cousin and catch up. Our family has a lot of history in Lake Tahoe and it always warms me up to return there and experience deeply cerebral memories from my very early childhood and from the years when we’ve visited growing up.
- We re-visited some of our favorites spots and found new ones.
- The notable lack of humidity (now that’s I’m back in Kansas I’m thinking this needs to be closer to the top of the list)
Nesting
Now that we’re back home and the weeks are whirling by, I am feeling allllll the pressure to get things ready for baby. I have a lot to do in the next month+.
- The kids start school this week and are all attending different schools, which complicates things quite a bit for me. I’m hoping we’ll get a handle on the weird schedules and all the prep and that things will smooth out quickly.
- I have 2 sessions to edit, many small design projects for people, and lots of work to do on our Crimson Cord magazine. I’m hoping that with the kids in school I’ll be able to knock some of this out quickly, but it’s a lot.
- We’re at quite a stand still with the flooring upstairs. Hopefully we’ll get the rot taken care of quickly and be able to finish the boys room soon. We also need to do some work in the guest/kids’ bathroom which feels overwhelming. I would really love to have the entire upstairs finished by the time baby comes but I’m worried it may not happen.
- I want to get the house as clean and tidy as I can despite the fact that all the boys’ things are still displaced from their room and there are still tools everywhere. I have a giant pile of carpet and trim we need to bring to the transfer station and the whole house desperately needs a very deep clean!
- I still haven’t had a chance to fully sort through all the baby gifts and all my old baby clothes. This is the true nesting that I’m itching to do! I’ve been slowly chipping away at some of it, it’s just a lot.
Overall, I am feeling the pressure of all the things that need to be done. I am hopeful at times, helpless at times (lots of times), plus I’m feeling very hormonal and easily discouraged lately. I am very physically tired these days and lack the energy to do things even when I feel motivated. I’ve taken a nap every day since our return from Tahoe! I have a narrow window of energy in the morning but feel very tired by the end of the day.
I suppose just pray for me, that the glimmers of motivation and excitement can outshine the discouragement. <3
Fun/Cheesy Update Survey
Baby’s Size | Small pineapple or chihuahua
Sleep | Most nights I wake up 3-5 times to use the bathroom and each time hits me like a tiny shock as I ease out of bed onto my swollen feet and try to grab my water bottle with my numb hands for a sip or two. I waddle to the bathroom and try not to wake up too much, waddle back to the bed and switch sides as I settle back into bed and hope I make it more than an hour before it happens again.
Clothes | Ha! I kind of remember when I cared what I looked like. Now that many of my tried and true options are growing tighter or leading to unpleasant chub rub, I have a faithful few items that I go to for comfort. As long as I appear half decent in public I consider that a win. If you see stains on my chest/belly or sweat marks on my booty, I give you permission to flash an amused smile and just know that I know I look a special kind of something and love me anyway. Lol.
I have been contemplating what it might be like after baby is born when the weather turns colder and my body isn’t a percolator. Along with that I’ve also been dreaming of giant sweaters.
Cravings | Some of the fan favorites from the last several months that have made to to the craving hall of fame: cherries, watermelon, peaches, slushes/blended coffees, cucumber avocado rolls, rice krispy treats, ICE CREAM. Some other front runners (new and old): roast beef sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls, Panera Toasted Frontega Chicken (with mods), root beer, Taco Bell, Arby’s, yogurt, peanut butter & banana toast, oh and this delicious orange zucchini bread my friend Bri made me. Yum!
Food Aversions | BBQ, really heavy/saucy meat, certain kinds of fried chicken/chicken nuggets (so far this includes most frozen nuggets like the dino nuggies my kids eat from Sam’s Club lol, as well as Popeyes nuggets).
Symptoms | Braxton hicks! I’ve had a ton lately and they’re very strong, accompanied by weird nerve pain in my back and sometimes with heart palpitations. Basically they feel like they’re happening in my whole body. I’ve been short of breath which is understandable since there’s more pressure on my lungs and all that. Very swollen, I especially don’t like it when my hands feel extra swollen. Heart burn (I actually haven’t had a lot of that in previous pregnancies, but I’ve dealt with it on some level almost this whole pregnancy so far). I’ve been Weepy/emotional/hormonal… like crying out of the blue like a crazy person. Baby brain! Oh, it’s so bad. It can be funny, but mostly it’s annoying. So so tired.
I feel it’s only fair here to say that I’m used to having many complaints in pregnancy and I try to take them in stride. But also there are some pains I have not been experiencing as much this time and I’m very grateful. Because baby seems to be sitting high, I haven’t had as much hip and pelvic pain which I’m very grateful for! With Miles I remember buying belly belt supports pretty early on in the pregnancy for this reason and with Finn I saw a chiro for the hip issues. But this time it hasn’t really come up.
Doctor’s Appointment | At my last appointment (Friday) everything looked great! My next appointment is about a week and a half away, then I’ll go to weekly appointments including sonos! Kind of crazy!
Weight | This is funny. I was all excited a couple appointments ago because I had gained half as much weight as usual!!! Only to realize later that day that it was my first appointment since going to every 2 weeks instead of every 4. So I gained just as much as usual. Which has been a steady trend. At my appointment last week I was 224. Which is about 54 lbs overall from my pre-pregnancy weight. It seems like so much but it’s really not very different from my other pregnancies (I just started at a higher weight). I think the most I’ve gained was in the 63-67 range with Miles but I started 20 lbs down in comparison.
I’m just embracing the chins at this point (I could do without the chub rub, though)
Movement | Still the most beautiful part of this experience. I get so giddy and excited when I feel him kicking and hiccupping and sliding around. I just adore it.
Gender | Since I use this category as a chance to update about all baby anticipation things here are some cute things that have come up. Remi has been so cute hugging and kissing “the baby” and asking me in the silliest voice if she can “TOUCH YOUR BELLLUH” and then she squishes it adorably. I also think she’s feeling those “I’m not going to be the baby much longer” feels so we’ve been cuddling alot and trying to squeeze in those mommy/Remi moments.
I’ve been imagining what Aramis will look like and be like and getting so excited!
Best moment of the week | Really it’s more like month, right? I’m going to go with my maternity session. Everything just came together and resulted in an amazing experience.
What I miss | My normal house/living room without all the construction mess and total chaos. I even miss the way I was soooo prepared before Remi was born. I deep cleaned everything that time. I wish I could do that now but my body doesn’t feel up to it.
What I’m looking forward to | Meeting my baby. Having all (or at least most) of my list done and being able to just soak it all in. Wearing giant sweaters and embracing the fall season. Sleeping on my stomach. Hopefully not having weird phlegm and heartburn. Oh, and the month or so that the kids are all in school before baby comes (ha!).
Curious? Here are my updates from my first pregnancies for this week…
Miles: Baby Bump | 33 Weeks
Finn: Belly Day | 33 Weeks
Remi: Belly Day // Thirty-Three Weeks