100 days to go...

There are only 100 days left in my first pregnancy. When people ask when the baby is due, I always say "the end of April, which means early May." However, the fact that my ticker says I only have 100 days left is putting me into nesting overdrive! 100 days left and so far this is where I stand:

Weight Gain: 27 lbs. This means I've outgrown nearly all the maternity clothes given to me and finally had to purchase some of my own in my 25th week. All the clothes given to me were previously worn by a mother who gained 33 lbs in her first pregnancy and 27 in her second... this is why I'm busting out of them so soon. Holy moly. Thank goodness another friend brought me some clothes today :) They should help get me through the next 3.5 months.

Stretch marks: I never thought about stretch marks taking over my inner thighs, but alas, there is a colony marching up and down my legs. This baffles me. I knew they crawled up the boobs and belly, but legs? I've always had a few on my legs from growing a little too fast as a kid... but now they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. It seemed to happen overnight. I'm not even going to try to do something about them right now. As for my belly, I do have a couple starting at the bottom. This is because I have become horribly lazy when it comes to applying my magic lotion. My fault. Oh well. What's a girl to do?

The Nursery: Zoey's room decor + bedding came in on January 12 and it's above and beyond what it looked like on the internet. It's brighter and just completely warms my heart. Today, the paint colors were picked out. We're going with a light yellow and a green accent wall. Operation Nursery will begin shortly... I'm hoping on the 23rd. I'm itching to actually open her furniture and get it set up. I'm ready to take all the gifts from my first shower out of the gift bags and put them in their places. I'm ready to walk into her nursery and feel extra anticipation for her arrival as I watch everything come together...

Pains: Zoey is consistently sitting on my sciatic nerve, and lately it feels like she's literally dancing on it. I feel like a foot is going to fall through my cervix any second now. She's obviously moved into a foot-down position. It's the weirdest feeling and I'm ready for her to correct herself. All her movement is downtown and I don't like how it feels. I wonder what she is thinking right now... is she more comfortable? Mommy sure isn't.

I can't believe I'm less than 3 weeks from my 3rd trimester and just 3.5 months from giving birth. It seems like just yesterday I saw those 2 pink lines in the bathroom at work. Tuesday, January 19, is the glucose tolerance test and another ultrasound to check on the placenta previa. With as much downtown action going on, surely the placenta has moved into it's proper place... only time will tell.

The next 100 days are going to include a lot of preparation and OCD-ness. I look forward to seeing what happens...

Zoey Elizabeth

Obviously I have a lot to share with you all. :) My 18 week ultrasound revealed that I have a healthy little girl growing in my uterus. It's hard to believe that between then and now she's grown to be from the size of a sweet potato to the size of a cantaloupe. Where does she even have room to grow?! I know that with her growth, I'm starting to feel her more more often. I noticed that the stronger movement is at the top of my belly and now I know why.

Placenta Previa. It sounds a lot scarier than it is, but basically, the placenta is at the bottom of my uterus, covering the cervix. You cannot deliver the placenta first. So either it has to move, or I'll end up having a c-section, which I don't want. Usually it moves, so I'll just get a few more ultrasounds to check for the movement. That is the good part. :) So anyway, the reason her movement isn't as strong at the bottom is because of the extra padding. I do feel her a lot more, but Glenn won't be able to for a while... hopefully that will change soon. I think he's itching to be more involved in the pregnancy and experience our baby girl.

My sciatic nerve pain has finally gotten easier! If it wasn't for that cuddle pillow, I'd be in some major trouble. I've just been extra careful lately, and I honestly don't have a choice because the belly is getting bigger and harder... which means it's more difficult to move around. Standing up is already a task... I worry and hope I don't end up gaining 70 lbs like my mom did with me... so far I'm at 21. My goal was to keep it below 40... I have a feeling I'll say goodbye to that goal soon.

Stretch marks? Not a single one. :) I hope I'm not speaking too soon... but I'm always on the lookout for the creepy crawlies, just waiting for one to show it's ugly face. I lotion up regularly and remind myself to stay hydrated and that I have good genes. Mom never had any, so maybe I won't either. :)

I'm ecstatic that we have a daughter on the way. I would have been just as ecstatic if it was a boy though. I'm more happy that I finally have something to plan for... up to now we haven't actually purchased a single thing for the baby. I'm approaching my first baby shower (December 19) and we're all registered at Babies R Us. We'll register at Target sometime soon... my next shower isn't until early March. We're very excited and as soon as the holidays are behind us, we're going to start on her nursery... I can't wait to show you guys what we have planned. She's going to have the coolest chick pad in Robertson County.

Say "HI!" to Zoey Elizabeth...

Learning to take it easy...

This is not easy for me. Taking it easy feels like pure laziness to me and so far I haven't done any of it. I've always been told that when pregnant you can't lift heavy things and you can't do as much as you once could because your body is more prone to sciatic nerve pain, among other things. Lately, I haven't been able to so much as wrap a Christmas gift or swiffer my floor without feeling like someone stuck a paring knife in my lower spine. The heaviest thing I've lifted lately is a 2 year old at church. I at least pay attention to what I lift... but just living every day life... I had no idea how many hings can cause back pain.

I recently purchased a cuddle pillow to help with such pains when trying to sleep at night. Overall, it works great. Last night, however... I think I finally did myself in. I sat in the floor and literally wrapped two... yes, two presents... I got up off the floor and with every step I took, I felt like I was going to collapse. So I lost a lot of sleep last night... and today I'm not any better. I am wearing a sticky heating pad to help, but I feel like I need to wrap my butt and legs in one just so I can function. To add to the nerve pain, I have a large cyst on my right ovary that is giving me more trouble than I could have imagined. I guess even in pregnancy, PCOS never ends...

I don't want to come off as complaining because I am very thankful that I even have a baby growing inside me to cause all this pain. I'll take it! It's just hard. I'm used to doing a lot, not sitting around. I thought it'd be easy to relax, but I'm too stir crazy and OCD. Now that I am approaching the half-way mark in the pregnancy, it's time to slow down a little. I admit it. I've done a few things I shouldn't have since being pregnant... the biggest no-no recently was when I ran out of the house (yes, ran) down the street after the dogs when they ninja'd their way out of the fence again. I wrestled them one-by-one back to the house... try being 5'1" and 5 months pregnant wrestling a 102 lb Great Pyrenees back to your house... when there are other dogs around distracting him from behaving... it's not easy. It was a bad move. Very bad move. I won't be doing it again.

I'm learning to take it easy and I hope I have learned my lesson enough to just stop trying to do everything like normal. We'll see...