Cats

Here are pictures of the cats snuggling up to the baby through every stage of pregnancy!

Lissa at Work

4 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks
 

17 weeks
 

21 weeks

24 weeks

29 weeks

33 weeks

35 weeks

37 weeks

39.5 weeks

35 weeks

Weight gain?: 27 pounds

Maternity clothes: My maternity t-shirts are actually too small.  I’m starting to look a little ridiculous no matter what I wear.  Oh well.

Sleep: No change on the vivid dreams front; I still have them constantly.  I need to sleep with a pillow between my knees, one under my belly, and a flat one under my head.  Gotta wear a bra or I end up with numbness and tingling in my sternum and ribs.  If I do all the right stuff, I can sleep quite soundly.  I only have to get up once in the night.  If I get lazy and don’t arrange my pillows correctly, I wake up in the morning with my hips feeling nice and rested but my mid and upper back feeling pretty awful.  So, it just takes a little effort and then there’s no problem.

Embarrassing pregnant moment: I’ve had a couple of days when I wore a t-shirt that really didn’t cover my belly unless it was pulled all the way down, and then spent the entire day tugging it over my belly.

Any baby purchases this week?: Not this week.  We now have the co-sleeper, the car seat, the baby carriers, almost all the clothes we need (nearly 100% hand-me-down, awesome!), and some burp cloths.  That’s because those were given to us as presents.  Everything else?  We’re waiting until the Amazon registry completion discount (15%, which is a lot of money in this case) becomes available in a couple more days.  So we’ll make a huge purchase that includes diapers, blankets, sheets, a bouncy seat, some healthcare essentials (suctioner, nail scissors), and a few more things.  It’s making me nervous to cut it so close, but the 15% discount is a lot of money.

Any movement yet?: Last week the baby moved virtually non-stop for about 6 hours. No, I don’t mean I felt kicks pretty often, I mean the baby gently waved limbs around for 6 hours with only the very occasional 30-second break for 6 solid hours.  This kid doesn’t seem to be big on massive punches or kicks, but wiggles and waves around nearly constantly.  (During the day.  During the night, I feel movement when I have to flip over, but when I just happen to wake up and I don’t have to get up, I rarely feel much.)  One day I actually sort of freaked out because I hadn’t felt much movement, so I did a “kick count” and I reached 10 movements in 12 minutes, which is already above average, yet WAY below average for my baby.

Food cravings: I’m just really thirsty all the time.

Food Aversions: Garlic, still.  Eggs.

How are you feeling?: I feel great when I wake up in the morning - not too heavy or weighed down, able to move quickly, able to bend pretty easily, etc.  Walking 2 miles or swimming 1 kilometer is no problem.  However, by the evening, I’m pretty tired - usually sleepy, and often physically exhausted.  My hips ache, it seems impossible to get comfortable, and I can’t bend over without pain.  Washing the dishes or cooking is becoming very uncomfortable because I can’t get close enough to the counter or sink, so I have to bend slightly all the time, which is really tiring.  Getting up off the couch at 9 PM isn’t fun.

What are you looking forwards to?: This is the home stretch!  I’m looking forward to throwing myself into my research project for the next few weeks and getting as much squared away as possible before I leave.  REALLY looking forward to getting the rest of our supplies soon and making the house all ready.  And of course… the baby!

Are you ready for baby?: Getting there.  In some ways, yes.  We clearly haven’t bought everything yet but we’re very close.  Being ready for the baby means being ready to give birth and I’m not entirely certain it’s possible to be 100% ready for that experience…

What is your favorite thing about being pregnant?:  All the wiggles :)

How far along: 35 weeks.

Baby in veggie/fruit terms: About 19 inches long (nearly birth height) and something like 5.5 pounds.  

Your adventures before you were born

-immediately before your conception Mama and Papa went on a very cold, but wonderful and memorable winter backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah National Park with Mark Avara

-3 weeks: your first orchestra concert, as a zygote (the LSO played Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis, and Grandpa Dick and Grandma Susie were visiting but nobody knew Lissa was pregnant)
-4 weeks: we find out we are expecting you!

-6 weeks: Boston Marathon Bombing

-7 weeks: visited Grandpa Dick and Grandma Susie and Great Grandma Bull in VT

-8 weeks: visited the ocean for the first time at Crane's Beach

-9 weeks: ultrasound confirms live little bean with great heartbeat

-10 weeks: second orchestra concert (but you still didn't have working ears, so you probably didn't hear anything); Mama celebrates "Almost Mother's Day"

-12 weeks: ultrasound confirms healthy, active mini person, and we told our friends and extended family we were expecting you

-13 weeks: we hiked Welch/Dickey in NH in 100 degree heatwave, went to FUN. concert at Government Center for Boston Calling music festival in 42 degree drizzling rain (it was a week of weather extremes!)

-18 weeks and 22 weeks: moved and moved again - after a disastrous first move to a horrible apartment

-18-22 weeks: extreme heat wave in Boston; Mama discovers heat intolerance and falls in love with the air conditioner

-19 weeks: ultrasound confirms healthy baby growing just right with no problems visible

-21 weeks: Mama goes on silent retreat at IMS

-22 weeks: we took a long hike through the Blue Hills

-23 weeks: your first visit to Brightwater, first visit with Great Aunt Chris, Great Uncles Peter and Tom in addition to Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma, your first sail on the ocean (but you'd been sailing on the Charles River already)

-24 weeks: Mama stops going running (it's uncomfortable!) and start swimming instead; we visited Crane's Beach again; Mama is very relieved that her pregnancy has passed the point of viability

-25 weeks:  you start to play "kick and poke" with Papa, Mama starts to have a hard time finding a comfortable sleeping position

-26 weeks: Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Fred visit Cambridge

-26 weeks: Harriet can no longer snuggle with Mama the way she likes to; she's forced to find other cuddly positions

-27 weeks: Mama has a glucose tolerance test, leading to hypoglycemic crash because she is not diabetic; we are happy to find out there is no risk that you have cystic fibrosis

-28 weeks: you get big enough that Mama can't drive the car any more without (unsafely) squishing you

-30 weeks: Mama hiked the ridge line of Mansfield in VT with Grandma Susie, Grandpa Dick and Great Grandma Bull; afterwards everybody visited the Ben and Jerry's factory

-31 weeks: you second visit to Brightwater, we hiked through rolling hills and visited a very foggy Popham Beach at dawn, Mama takes the longest nap ever

-31 weeks: Mama notices she has many more Braxton Hicks contractions than the average woman and goes to Labor and Delivery to get monitored; you are deemed "tremendous" because you are so active and healthy (tried to kick the fetal monitor off); Mama is thoroughly examined and found to be perfectly fine

-32 weeks: your third orchestra concert (this time, you can hear and wiggle vigorously whenever the brass play)

-33 weeks: all grandparents (and Great Grandma) and Aunts and Uncle and lots of friends come to Diane Daily's house for a baby party, Mama eats at least 10 different kinds of confections, you receive presents and get nicknamed Chickadee

-34 weeks: you have several days in a row of wiggling around virtually nonstop for the entire day; Mama and Papa take a tour of the Labor and Delivery unit (on purpose this time!)

-35 weeks: you attended a Radiolab live performance at the Wang Theater
-37 weeks: the Zhdanova lab has a little party in your honor, and Mama deep-cleans the entire apartment from top to bottom