baby bear - Week 33

...when it comes to babies in bellies there is one "B" word that never soothes mamas. That's finding out in your third trimester that little baby is Breech. She's getting bigger and more cramped, and as each day passes, the likeliness of her turning dwindles. With my abnormal uterus, I was aware that it would come with a risk of either promoting a preterm labor (which absolutely doesn't seem to be the case anymore) or the baby wouldn't turn head down because of her slightly cramped quarters (or because 4% of babies are breech). 

So now it's game time. 
I have basically 3-4 weeks to try and get baby bear to a nice head down positioning. Or I'll have to hear about the "C" word again, which is heartbreaking, so let's focus on what we can do. My Doula recommended a few things including: acupuncture, chiropractic techniques, swimming (and handstands in the water!), walking, inversions, yoga, and reading and rereading spinningbabies.com.

WikiHow - how to turn a breech baby

Today I started with a nice 30 seconds inversion (knees on couch, hands and elbows on floor) trying to release tension in my belly, followed by cat/cow movements on my hands and knees. I also am trying to get in calf and hip flexor stretches every time I'm up and walking around. I ordered two prenatal yoga DVDs and the daily essentials video this morning and this weekend we'll go to the beach and swim around. I want to be doing a yoga session 3-6x a week (more than my usual once!).

With this new focus, I really want to set my baby up for the best opportunity to get out of her comfy spot and into a more birth friendly position! 

Wish me luck!

PS - I've been reading Ashlee's experience with a breech baby and it makes me feel not so alone and distraught over the news.

stamps and lists

It's like my favorite things... making to do lists and stamps!

Find it for $15 at asensiblehabit on Etsy

swelling feet

I hope this is just a summer thing with pregnancy. Because now I plan to just have winter babies.

By the end of the day my feet and hands are swelled... my feet are just getting ridiculous. 

I've decided to devote a whole page in baby's memory book to a montage of my swelled feet and the places we've gone. 

baby bear - week 29

Hello third trimester, I can't believe we've made it this far.

I have a feeling you're going to make me pay for the easiness of the first 6 months. The no throwing up, the no food aversions, the ability to still work out.... I enjoyed that.

But now, I've spent more nights tossing and turning than the whole first 6 months combined.
One night I spent a few hours sitting up in bed just to stop the nausea, my hips are starting to hurt when I walk fast and for a long distance... and even more so when I sleep on my side. Oh, the side sleeping pain. I'm even using my pillow between my knees and ankles to no relief. 


But this week also had a lot of amazing to it, too.

• Ben felt baby move for the first time, and every day since I call him over when I feel her starting to dance. One time he even said, "okay baby, move if you love me" - and she moved and danced and he just about felt like the king of the world. I don't think baby will stop amazing us anytime soon.
• We also started looking at getting a doula for our birth and postpartum care. At first I thought only getting the postpartum care would work for us, as I'm pretty confident in birthing and zero confident in actually caring (and breastfeeding) a child. But as Ben and I talked longer about it, it just seemed to make sense to have her there for the birth. She'll be able to help me in so many ways - and I don't want to put that burden on Ben. I want him to enjoy the birth and not be stressed about doing things right or if he has time to take a bathroom break.  I also wanted a doula for the hopefully-not-the-case case I need to have a hospital birth. I want an advocate for the birth plan I believe in. We contacted a handful of doulas last week and plan to "interview" them over the next two.
• I started my prenatal yoga class last weekend. It was everything I needed. I didn't realize how much I wanted a community of pregnant women until I was there and we were all introducing ourselves and how far along we are. I imagine it will be a similar feeling for when we start our childbirth classes next month. I felt wiser than the 19 week-ers and in awe of the 38 week-ers. And felt like bff's to all the mamas in the 28th week. What a special feeling.

Baby Bear - Week 25

Well, it's definitely been a while since my last update... and now I'm past halfway (yay!) and only have 3.5 months left!

the cutest little baby feet

I'm so very obviously showing now. I grew out of my non-stretch pants and moved into the luxurious (seriously!) life of maternity pants around week 18. It was annoying, since I was still in the "is she chubs or pregnant" stage, so I felt much like the chubs state. And now, 6 weeks later, I'm thinking I'll have to move to the full-paneled maternity pants since the demi/short paneled pants are starting to fold over under my growing belly.

And it's going to grow so-much-bigger. Everything is going to get so much bigger.

I finally started to feel baby bear kick and move around week 19. It happens about every other day, not all the time, and at first I was convinced they weren't kicks. They feel like little bubbles of pressure - pretty cool. I'm excited for when Ben will be able to feel her move.

Her nursery is starting to fill in too! We finally put up crown molding a week or two ago, bought a crib we love, and moved the dresser up to the room. We still need to get a rocker, hang the art, and finish the mobile.


I also wanted to touch on something I was panicking about at my week 16 update - getting the every other week invasive ultrasound.  I talked to my midwife before my week 19 ultrasound and asked why this would be necessary, and she explained, that while it's probably not necessary, it's a precaution because up until 24 weeks if my cervix were to start shortening (getting ready for labor), they could put a stitch in there to help prevent pre-term labor. Easy as that. I was so peeved the doctor never explained something so simple like that to me. The next day, at the ultrasound, I confirmed this with the doctor and made sure that if everything looked great and long that I could stop with the additional ultrasound requirement - to which she agreed. And I'm happy to confirm that indeed, everything is looking perfect!

Finally, I am still working out about 3x a week, but am officially not jumping or doing any deep squats or lunges anymore. I talked to my trainer and worked out a plan to add some more variety into the workout for me, since everything was turning into either do a plank option or full body extensions. My legs have been fatiguing pretty fast lately (all this extra weight! swelling!) so I wanted to do more upper body/arm work outs. It was a great talk, and now when I get to class I go through each circuit exercise and figure out the modification or do a completely different exercise (tricep extension, bicep curl, dumbbell lateral raises, pushups, etc.). So far I feel like i'm getting so much more out of my workout! I'm going to continue going to the gym class until the beginning of May (about week 27) before transitioning to prenatal Pilates (at home) and prenatal yoga in a studio (1-2x a week). I think this will work out great and still keep me in shape for labor and delivery. The yoga studio I found also does a mommy and me yoga for new mothers (nursing baby and any baby that isn't crawling yet are welcome!) - what a great environment to reconnect with your body and not have to make arrangements for baby.


Also, pregnancy hair isn't a joke - I've never had fuller, more luscious hair!