We had amazing, amazing photos done by Joanna Willis. If you haven't seen them, hop over to her blog and take a looksie! She did such a fabulous job, especially considering it was only her second maternity shoot, AND she was working with a new camera. This one is one of my favorites:
The Belly: Obviously big. :) Though, baby has dropped way down into my pelvis, so I am feeling awesome now. I have more room to breathe, and don't feel so compacted! My belly is measuring about 2 weeks behind, which is the same as Annabelle. At my appointment yesterday, Ellen was feeling the baby and couldn't tell if he was head down or not. She had me feel what I assumed was his butt, and commented on how bony and "wiggly" it felt. I promptly began having a heart attack, and she ran out for the sono machine to take a look. Thankfully, this little man is just looooong and skinny. He is very head down (her comment was, "I can't believe you don't feel like you have a bowling ball between your legs!") and is very stretched out in there. I can tell...his feet sometimes feel like they are all the way into my side ribs!
I have been using belly butter since the day I found out I was pregnant, and I'm happy (so far) to say that I have yet to get a new stretch mark. I only got one when I was pregnant with Belle, just on my belly button piercing (ugh). That one is still there, obviously, and I haven't seen any new ones pop up. I'm hoping it stays like that! Not that stretch marks are bad (duh), I just want to avoid them if I can help it :)
Weight: This is the part of pregnancy that starts to get emotionally challenging, which is so stupid. Obviously we WANT to gain weight during pregnancy, and we WANT to see that number on the scale go up. I'm up about 25 pounds from my start, which is great! Being "conditioned," or whatever, to want to keep my weight down, I'm not going to lie and say I don't sort of freak out seeing higher numbers on the scale. It's so, so stupid. But it is what it is. I know I'm a healthy weight, and I know the baby is healthy and growing strong, and I know it's going to all come right off after he's born and starts nursing. For some reason it's just a mental challenge for me to get over.
Food Aversions/Cravings: Depends on the day. I've been really feeling grossed out by eating meat lately, which is bad news b/c I really do need to be getting more protein. Basically all I want to eat is fruit and frozen yogurt. I don't want veggies or meat, but I'm trying to force myself to get them. I'm just making doubly sure that I'm getting my vitamin to make up for my sad veggie eating lately :(
Feeling: Oh man. I'm all over the place. I'm pretty happy most of the time, but I have moments of panic, sadness, fear, and anxiety. It all mostly stems from feeling like this house is never, ever going to be "done," and also feeling super duper sad that Annabelle isn't going to be my only special kiddo anymore. Obviously we want this baby so badly and he is going to be SO loved. I just cannot imagine in my tiny little brain how I'm going to possibly love this child as much as I love Annabelle. And I don't want to think about ever making Annabelle sad, and I know she's going to be processing a lot of emotions, some negative, once this baby is born. She's so excited now, I just don't want her to ever feel like I'm not "choosing" her, if that makes sense. I don't want her to feel "less than" the baby. And I'm just really afraid that's going to happen. I know we will work it out and she'll be a great, loving big sister.
And, I'm also SO looking forward to not being pregnant. This pregnancy was much more difficult than Annabelle's. While I am so thankful that I am feeling really pretty great right now, it was mostly NOT feeling great. I'm just ready to have my body and my clothes feeling mostly back to normal.
Other: My to-do list is still a mile long, it seems. I keep reminding myself that none of it has to be done before he comes. It's all just fluffy stuff that will make me feel better. Cleaning out closets, getting some art work up on the baby's walls, finishing the organization of the front room/office area, deep cleaning, etc etc etc. It's all stuff that will just make me feel "good" before he is here. If he's on time, I may be able to get most of it done. If he's early, probably not :) We have finished painting and mostly reorganizing the upstairs bedrooms. We still need to paint the upstairs bathrooms at some point, but that doesn't have to be done right this minute. My biggest "projects" in the last week have been getting a baby mobile done, deep cleaning the kitchen, and cleaning out (I mean really cleaning out) the minivan. I'm hoping to finish washing and organizing the baby clothes today, and get some more cleaning and organizing done this weekend.
I've been preparing Annabelle for the baby's birth, in case she wants to be in the room when he's born. We've been reading lots of books about babies and birth, been watching birth videos on YouTube, and been practicing "yelling" together. :) She knows mommy is going to be working "REALLY HARD" to push the baby out, and proudly announced at Easter dinner that "Mommy is going to PUSH the baby out of her vagina!" lol. She's as ready as she could be. It's going to be entirely up to her whether or not she is there to see him be born, and my sister or our pastor's wife will be here to help out with her specifically. I hope that it all goes smoothly and she does get to see, but I will not be surprised at all if it gets too overwhelming for her and she needs to leave.
I suppose that's all for now. I can't believe we're going to get to meet this little guy in a few weeks! Eep!
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