32 Week Update

32 WEEKS

Hopefully only six weeks from today we will be holding our precious little lady!! (Yes, I am still shooting for the 24th of April!) Everything is progressing beautifully. At our appointment yesterday, a medical student did the initial check-up. It was probably the most entertaining check-up I have had. First, she measured my tummy- measuring right on track at 32 weeks. Then, it was time to check Lorelei's heartbeat. She found her position right away but she had a difficult time checking the heartbeat because Lorelei kept running away from her. It felt like she was doing head-spins. We were laughing so hard because she had to move about four different times until we could hear a good, clear heartbeat. Her heart rate was at 152. She said, "Man, she is one active little girl." I just started laughing, "You have no idea!" After she cleaned the jelly off my tummy, Lorelei decided to show off a bit more and did a flip and gave a good hard kick. So, of course, my whole belly bounced and rolled. The medical student just stared at my tummy and put her hand where Lorelei had kicked, "Whoa! I think she just kicked you. That was weird!" We just sat there laughing. The medical student was very young and you could tell she was new into the field, so I am guessing she has never experienced a very active baby yet. Made my day!
I was proud of myself at this check-up. I only gained two pounds in two weeks! (That is the expected weight gain at this point in pregnancy. I will be gaining about a pound a week until Lorelei comes.) This was such a big deal for me because the month before I gained eight pounds, that is four pounds of extra weight! Ugh. When the doctor discussed this with me I was embarrassed. I felt like the Michelin Man. It was a very difficult emotional obstacle to get over. In high school, the highest I ever weighed was 105lbs. Being close to 5'7'' this was extremely underweight. Finally, after high school was over and I wasn't so active in sports anymore, I gained some weight and weighed about 115lbs. This is still underweight for my height. So, technically, I was underweight when I became pregnant. My philosophy is that the few extra pounds I gained was actually healthy for me. But, the doctors didn't seem to care or take that into consideration. So, for the past two weeks and I have been crazy obsessed with food. I check the calorie count. I try different methods to eat less. These past two weeks have been awful. I mentally beat myself up. I've never had to experience anything like this before. I never had to worry about gaining weight. Something I noticed about my body though is that if I don't eat bad food all the time I won't have excessive weight gain. This made me very pleased and has since let me relax a bit, which is definitely needed at this point in my pregnancy. I am very much looking forward to the day when I can work out again though!! Everything else is going well. Lorelei is definitely growing and is taking up more space. My mom said my tummy has dropped and I definitely notice it. It is also starting to grow to more of a torpedo shape. I am feeling more weighed down and I am gradually slowing down. Even though I am a secretary and just sit at work, it is actually becoming uncomfortable to sit for nine hours. Then, a couple Saturdays a month I have volleyball tournaments. Those are getting pretty tough because I stand all day. Luckily, I have been doing a lot better with drinking water so I am not as swollen as I was a few weeks ago. I bought a big water jug and I make sure I finish that before I go home from work. I am quite proud of myself because drinking water has always been a challenge for me. I have been experiencing quite a few BH contractions. That is a good sign! My body is practicing for when the real moment is going to happen. Experiencing the contractions is kind of scary though. They aren't scary because I am in pain, it is because they occur often. I mentioned this to the doctor and of course she didn't seem concerned. All she told me to do is pay attention to them, if I have six contractions in an hour to go to the hospital. Whoa. Her saying that made everything seem more real.  
I am actually going to have a baby.


The nursery is coming along! My dad brought over the crib on Saturday so Paedn and I spent most of Sunday in the nursery organizing and planning. I love how involved Paedn is in the pregnancy and the prepping for our lady. He has been a great support this whole time. I think he even may be more excited for our lady to get here than I am. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go register for baby items with me. My mom gladly tagged along though! It was a kind of disheartening experience. Target only had about two isles of baby items and Walmart didn't have a scanner to register in store. So, at lot of my registering happened online. Just kind of sad because I remember when Paedn and I went registering for our wedding and we were overwhelmed with what we needed to register for. I just assumed it would have been the same thing. I was excited to look at all the baby stuff.




At 32 weeks Lorelei is close to 4 pounds and is almost 17 inches long. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair! Well, hopefully she has hair! She is as big as a sack of potatoes!