30 Weeks...

It's Friday, which means that we are another week closer to Nublette's arrival. Wow! It's kind of funny, actually, because I remember visiting our friends that had a baby a month ago when SHE was 30 weeks pregnant. At the time, that seemed so far off, and I wasn't even showing yet!

The big baby stuff from this week was our natural childbirth class, which we went to on Tuesday night - ended up postponing the regular class until September, and had a perfectly lovely, rainy Saturday with friends instead :) The class actually made me feel a LOT better about a LOT of things - mostly the sorts of options you have during labor, like being able to eat (lightly), not have an IV, only 15 minutes of fetal monitoring every hour, etc. Those are all things that help labor along, while the opposite - ice chips only, IVs, constant monitoring, etc (all required if you have an epidural) - can really make it tougher, since IVs and monitoring generally mean you're confined to the bed (which can slow labor and make it more painful), and it just seems like a full-body physical activity like labor could use a little more caloric fuel than ice chips provide :) Brookwood also just got birthing balls and squat bars a few months ago (also great if you're wanting a natural birth), so that was great to know that they are available.

Brent and I actually had a lot of fun with the relaxation and breathing exercises, even though they felt kind of corny to be doing them when i wasn't in labor. The nurse who was teaching it would probably say we had a little too much fun, lol :) She gave us clothespins to put on our earlobes (which really didn't hurt) to give us some sort of painful distraction to use during the exercises, and mentioned that you could also use ice cubes to practice at home. Now, this was something I could get my mind around. When I was little, I lived in deadly fear of my yearly checkup and finger pricking (yes, I recognize the irony of a person who used to be afraid of getting her finger pricked opting for natural childbirth, but that's a whole other discussion), so sometimes I would "practice" by biting my finger periodically for weeks beforehand (which surely hurt more than the finger stick!) So practicing relaxed breathing while holding an ice cube is actually right up my alley. And while surely it is nothing like labor, I do think that the practice of staying calm when you're uncomfortable is probably very helpful.

I think the best part of the class was just knowing that Brent and I are in this together. Labor and delivery will be the same as anything else tough we've been through - as long as we don't quit and stay relaxed and let God handle it, I know everything will turn out fine, though I'm learning not to have an expectation for what "fine" means. I am also grateful that I am married to a man who is so funny and relaxed and knows how to make me laugh, as I'm confident that that will be a GREAT help when things get hard.

Guess that's it for the week!

29 Weeks...

Well, the fabled third-trimester exhaustion may be rearing its ugly head now :) I've been super tired the past few days, even though (I think) I'm sleeping pretty well, eating the same stuff, exercising, etc. Hopefully it's just a passing thing, but I'm determined not to let it slow me down too much these last few months! I'm definitely moving slower in general, though, and have taken on the pregnancy "waddle." Something about how my weight sits on my ever-widening joints just makes me waddle naturally. I think I can almost feel my hips spreading as we speak!

Unless the doctor's office forgot to call me or something, it appears that I passed my glucose tolerance test - YAY! They only call if there is a problem, apparently. It was not so bad. The drink tasted like a thick, syrupy Sunkist and I felt pretty good during the hour that we had to wait. Since I took it so late in the afternoon they wouldn't have had the results until Thursday, but they did also tell me on Wed afternoon that I'm not anemic (fairly common at this point in pregnancy), so that's great news too. Everything else looked good - I measured about 29 weeks, so right on track for "my" due date, and about a week ahead of the official doctor due date. Since the ultrasound measured her a week ahead too, that makes a lot of sense. I'm predicting that she will come on Election Day!

We're taking the day-long prepared childbirth class tomorrow, so a little information overload I'm sure, but it will be nice to go ahead and get it out of the way. I'm especially interested to see the actual L&D area, nursery, etc, and hear about how all that works. The natural childbirth class will be Tuesday night, so it's "school time" for the Shepherds this week!

Take this pink ribbon off my eyes...

It truly is amazing how people try to treat pregnant women as if they are china dolls who will break in the slightest wind.  As I've gotten bigger, people seem more and more concerned with my health and not wanting me to work too hard. I'm sure if I rode buses, people would be trying to give me their seats. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the concern and respect that these things imply!  But I think there is an unspoken rule in our society that pregnant women must be catered to at all moments.  We are told to rest as much as possible, demand foot rubs from our husbands every day as a "reward" of sorts from carrying their children, and turn up our noses when someone smokes within a 1-mile radius of our tender tummies.  I've gotten a vibe a number of times, especially from Brent's male (and often unmarried) friends, that they are shocked that he does not cater to me hand and foot.  The few times someone has actually said something, I usually respond, "I'm pregnant, not dead!"  I often had people tell me that I was a "trooper" for going out on the town with our friends, when everyone is having a grand time drinking and I'm double-fisting my Shirley Temple and water :)  It surprises people that I would rather go out and have the best time I can than play the "pregnancy card" and make us both stay home.  And that surprises me.

Granted, I went through a phase early in my pregnancy when I wanted to be treated like a princess and adored by everyone for the miracle of life growing inside my belly.  Who wouldn't?  But I've come to realize that treating myself like an accident waiting to happen, or enjoying it when others treat me that way, does nothing to mature me as a woman.  Sure, there will probably come a time, not too long from now, when certain things simply harder for me to do, and I may need some extra help.  But a slower, less active final month or so doesn't mean that I am helpless now.  As the weeks have worn on, I've shifted from wanting to be treated as "special" to pushing myself to take on challenges, however small.  

And I'm aware that I've had a really easy pregnancy, so maybe this is all too easy for me to say.  But, I'm no longer sure that an easy pregnancy is the great blessing I've been saying it is, even though I'm incredibly grateful for it.  I might have learned more during these past 6 months had I been sick as a dog!  I've come to see more and more that the greatest blessings come in the most painful of wrappings -- which is just one of many reasons I am praying for the opportunity to have a natural childbirth come November.  I can't control what will happen, but I'm hopeful that I will have the chance to face one of the greatest challenges there is, and to experience the great blessing that I know lies in walking through that challenge with God.

This is all to say that while I think pregnant women should certainly take care of themselves, I also think that this attitude of catering to our every need really does us a disservice.  The very concept of having time to be catered to must be a fairly new one; certainly pioneer men couldn't be expected to be giving footrubs to their pregnant wives on the Oregon Trail.  When simple survival took everything a couple had, there was no time for putting feet up on the couch (and no couch to begin with!)  While we look back at those more "difficult" times as primitive, something not to be returned to, I wonder if our easy lives are really the great blessing they seem.  Are we exchanging great spiritual and emotional blessings for fleeting physical ones?

28 weeks...

Time just continues to roll on past! I am still feeling great and am so thankful for that.

Not much to report, other than that we have a baby doc appt on Wednesday. They will be checking my blood glucose level to screen for gestational diabetes. It's kind of a big test because if you fail it then you have to take a 3-hour test, which I hear is not only really unpleasant, but also can label you with gestational diabetes ~ which also means they'll be on the watch for the baby being "too big" or whatever (and all the more likely to push an induction/c-section). If I have it I have it, but I seriously doubt that I do. I know what it feels like to have blood sugar swings and I have adjusted how I eat (lots of protein, frequent small meals) so that this basically never happens anymore. So, I'm pretty confident going into the test. Not sure what else they do at this appointment, but I think we may start going every 2 weeks after this one. Time will really fly then!

27 weeks down...and third trimester?

Today marks the beginning of week 28, and according to some sources that means I am in my 3rd trimester, which is when things really start to roll! More doctor visits, more baby movement, bigger belly, registering, showers, and of course, Auburn football, lol :) Still more unbelievable each week!

I've been a ravenous beast lately, which is pretty unusual for me - it's strange to feel like I can't get full even when I do eat. But I figure that Nublette is having a growth spurt, so I'm just trying to keep exercising and eating decently and hoping for the best - though I've definitely been eating twice what I normally would the past few days!

Brent got to feel Nublette kick last night, which was really fun! Totally by accident, and she was doing some sort of crazy movement that could have been a somersault and jumping jack all at the same time. I like to think that she was just anxious for her Daddy to feel her and was saying "here, i am kicking with all my might, Daddy!"

Finally, we got to visit some friends and their new baby in the hospital last Friday, which was fun and a little nerve-wracking for both of us all at the same time. So hard to believe that we will have a teeny tiny baby like that in just 3 months! But they were both doing great and their daughter is absolutely gorgeous. Congrats to Dave and Lori!

Recent Pics!

It's been awhile since I posted any pics to the blog, though I've been catching them up on Facebook. Here are a few from the past few weeks:

21 weeks (ok, not so recent) - lol i look silly in this pic but the good 21-week one won't show up right-side up, for some reason.

between 26 and 27 weeks - almost beginning of 3rd trimester!