Soon to be 28 weeks! Whoop Whoop!

I haven't blogged much about this pregnancy - other than to complain about it - so I apologize for that.  All in all things are going wonderfully.  A few weeks ago I was starting to have anxiety about it - did I mention in any other posts that the due date for this baby and the due date for Madison are only one day apart?  This means that exactly four years ago, I was exactly this pregnant and come December 1st - I was in the midst of delivering my still born little girl.  It's certainly a head game this time around - more so than the other two pregnancies but thank God those other two pregnancies have happened because if this was #2, I'd probably be going crazy.

Anyways, a few weeks ago, as you may know from my previous post, I was having a lot of lower back issues.  That alone was annoying and a little troublesome since its actually quite abnormal for me in my pregnancies to have any back issues at all.  Add to that the the little bugger in there got really REALLY quiet.  I still felt movements - when I focused and laid down - but they were usually spaced out and annoyingly slight...if that makes sense.  Of course, as children do, it had pushed me literally to the point of drafting a text to my midwife to ask about it all when the energy levels picked up.  I realize now (as I should have then) that this little one was not only sitting in a very odd position (I'm guessing transverse due to the pain and discomfort) but it was also going through a decent growth spurt.

How do I know this you may ask?  Well for one, my belly is now a hard, round, basketball.  I literally cannot bend over to tie my shoes simply for the fact that I cannot breathe when I do it and it feels as though anything in my stomach is going to be heimlich-ed out. Also, the movements I feel now are much more distinct than before and my stomach actually MOVES - which is awesome and weird all at the same time.

So as the title suggests, on Sunday (in one-ish days) I will be officially 28 weeks and in my 3rd and last trimester of this pregnancy.  This is probably my favorite part of pregnancy to be honest.  Just today alone, thanks to wonderful winter clothing and big puffy jackets, I was told by multiple people that they couldn't tell I was pregnant - even though I'm due in 2 1/2 months.  :) What a wonderful thing to hear when in all reality, you feel like a whale.  I also love it because its so incredibly obvious I'm pregnant and due relatively soon.  People are much more forgiving and helpful.  A great example of this is when I have to get Marvin's dog food - its a 44 lbs bag - do-able for me, even now; however, because I have a slight waddle - people automatically insist on carrying it to my car - which I appreciate because 44lbs is still heavy....even when not pregnant!

Also, it is right around this time in pregnancy that I feel I am starting to get a good grasp of the type of baby I am creating.  With my first and second pregnancies I didn't have much intuition in this field - I actually, probably, just took for granted the cycles/rhythms of the babies and the types of movements they made.  And thinking back, even with Lucy I wasn't nearly as tuned into all of it, except to know that she was a night owl and liked to get active whenever I stopped being active.  This pattern still holds true today with her too - she needs way less sleep than Keller ever did and has always had a later bedtime than him at any point in his life.  Now you're probably wondering what this baby is like and I'm happy to report, that I think this baby is a lot like me :).  Laid back and a bit reserved.  Where Keller is laid back and rowdy and Lucy is determined and a good blend of reserved and rowdy; I just feel like this is going to be a calm baby.  Its movements are so fluid and hard kicks are not it's norm.  It's not doing tumbles or giant side to side rolls like Madison did; but it stretches and seems to glide its little hands and feet along the inner walls of its little cocoon. It's also very consistent in its active periods too - which similarly to Lucy tends to be in the late evening hours - so at least this time around, I can prepare myself for a night owl child that depending upon the time of birth may not choose to sleep right away.

I am intensely interested to see if these perceptions change as the weeks progress; which is why I'm finding the need to write about them now.  I also wanted to give a bit of an update on everything.  I promise (to try) to get a pic of the belly bump since I don't have many of those and I do have a midwife appointment tomorrow morning, so I will also update on baby's heart-rates and anything else that might be interesting to know.  So with that...

Until next time...