30 weeks and pregnancy thoughts

30 Weeks

30 weeks and 4 days.

It was far too cold to take the belly picture outside this week. Thus, we are moving them indoors to the nursery. What happened to our 60 degree winter days? Thankful for my extra layers this winter, but still dreading the ice and snow they are calling for this week. 

Baby Size: cucumber or butternut squash. Roughly 17 inches and 3.1lbs. We go to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully will get a better idea of how big he actually is. 

Movement: all the time! I am sure I have mentioned this before but this is hands down my favorite part of being pregnant. I absolutely love feeling him move inside of me. It is something that can't be explained until you experience it. I also love that this little daddy's boy responds with lots of kicks and jabs to Jared playing the guitar and rapping his favorite Notorious rhymes.  These boys are going to have so much fun together. 

Cravings: still loving my sweets! I swear I could eat just dessert and be one happy mama. However, our birth class instructor scared me to death and said we are in the most important stage of development, the brain. So it is even more important to eat healthy, nutrient-rich and brain building foods (aka everything baby and I don't like). I balance my broccoli with cookies. It is a win-win. 

Symptoms: starting to get lower back pain frequently but changing positions usually helps with that. The newest and possibly the most uncomfortable symptom yet is this pelvic pain. I feel like I took a 4 hour spin class. Other than that I continue to feel great and sleep soundly.  

Thoughts/Feelings: I love being pregnant! Honestly, I do. It is seriously amazing! I know that I have been really fortunate to have an "easy" pregnancy [I don't like saying this because every woman and mother are different and will have different experiences]. I remember telling someone around 18 weeks how great I was feeling. They scoffed and said, "wait, until 30 plus weeks honey, you won't be singing the same tune." I beg to differ. 

Pregnancy is the coolest and most wonderful thing I have ever done. I would take the back acne, hourly bathroom trips, swollen ankles, heavy breathing/snoring, waddling in place of walking, forgetting I can only bend down so far, not ever seeing my toes, congestion, rolly-polly maneuver to get out bed and off the couch, pregnancy brain, dessert cravings, weight gain, anxiety, crying for no apparent reason, bottomless pit of a stomach, and the ever so lovely gas, a thousand times over. Because the feelings I have had throughout this outweigh all the negative/not so attractive things about being pregnant. 

I have loved watching my stomach grow, seeing my body change to accomodate this new life inside of me, feeling our baby boy move and wiggle, falling more in love with my husband as he falls more in love with our unborn child, feeling and hearing his giddiness everytime he feels the baby move, prepping for birth of our son with Jared, daydreaming about what he will look like, hearing that precious heartbeat at every doctor visit, knowing that our lives will never be the same again, and so much more to love about this season of life.

It makes me sad that I only have a short time left in my first pregnancy. I will never get to experience these "firsts" again. But I am so excited for what is to come, the challenges, victoires, and changes that will rock our world. I would do this all over in a heartbeat.  

27, 28, 29 surprise!

27 Weeks

Baby size: rutabaga! I had never seen one of these before or really noticed them before. But while in the grocery store with my mom I picked one up. That's when it became very surreal how big our little one has grown. No wonder those kicks and jabs are feeling stronger than ever.

Week Recap: phew, this was by far the roughest week for me and it was not pregnancy related. We woke up on Christmas morning to fly home to be with my family, but I had the worst pain on the right side of my face and my tooth felt like it was being stabbed. We made it to my mom's house and enjoyed opening gifts and eating (of course) but I still felt like death. I slept most of the day and the whole thing is really a blur. The next morning I woke up with a swollen right side of my face. Well, 3 hours at urgent care, a call to my OB, a sinus infection diagnosis and a trip to the pharmacy later I was on hooked up on antibiotics and baby-safe pain medication. It took a nearly a week to recover which meant spending New Year's Eve and Day in bed. Oh the joys of a pregnant immune system.

28 Weeks

Woohoo, hello third trimester!! We hit 28 weeks on New Year's Day. I could not think of better way to welcome 2016 than hitting this pregnancy milestone :) Bonus, we now get to say, "we get to meet Baby Rice this year!" aka, less than twelve weeks (insert shocked emjoi face).

Baby Size: he is as big as an eggplant. Fun fact, eggplant is my least favorite vegetable. 

Weight Gain: I had my doctors appointment this week where I got to meet the dreaded scale. I am up 27.5 pounds total! Phew, yes, still embracing the weight gain. 

Doctor Appointment Update: this was the one I was not looking forward to at all, the glucose test. I was worried all those frostys and cookies would catch up with me. Luckily though I do not have gestaional diabetes! The cut off is 139 and I was 79 (yay)! Baby Boy's heartbeat was 150 and doctor says we are growing great! I still feel wonerful and beyond thankful to continue to have a positive experience. Now we start going for visits every 2 weeks. 

Best Moment This Week: there are two of course. 

Jared and I went to our first child brith class. Of course I loved it but I think Jared is a little skeptical about it. The first class was introductions, a really quick "this is what happens in birth," and some relaxation techniques. I like the teacher a lot. I am excited to see what she can share with us about the birth experience and our options during the delivery process. I will also enjoy seeing all these dads squirm everrytime the teacher mentions details about birth. 

My favorite part of this week was celebrating Jared's 30th birthday. In true Jared fashion he requested nothing fancy. He just wanted a relaxing night of wings and to watch the NC State basketball game. That is exactly what we did.  

After dinner we opened gifts. I got him a universal remote, new pair of sunglasses and a mandolin. He was by far most excited about the mandolin. He had mentioned it a few months back and all I could picture was him playing our sweet boy tunes. I knew he had to have one :)

Of course, chocolate mousse cake followed presents. A very low key 30th birthday for my sweet man. Well, at least so he thought...

29 Weeks:

SURPRISE!!! 

The Saturday after Jared's actual birthday I threw him a surprise 30th birthday party at the bar that we used to go to all the time in college, East Village. This place holds a lot of memories for us. We even took some engagement pictures there. I knew this was the perfect location for such an eventful occasion. 

Wonderful friends from near and far came to help us celebrate The Jared turning 30. He was so surprised to see so many people there for him. He is a humble man ;)

I made these party props that were all these different pictures of Jared making his crazy faces. They were so much fun to play with and have in pictures. Plus, I can't lie, I love seeing at his cute face everywhere! 

He broke down the party into top three favorite moments: 1. the surprise and all those people that were there, 2. the fact it was at East Village and, 3. the ice cream cake. Thank you so much to all our family and friends (not all pictured) that made this surprise possible and helped celebrate my favorite person! He claims this was the best birthday ever. He deserrves it :) 

Most Looking Forward To: this week has just begun, but I am most looking forward to our second child birth class, ripping up the carpets in the bedrooms upstairs (especially the soon to be nursery), laying new floors, and picking a paint color. Yeah, it is going to be a long one.