For Me, Third Trimester Is The Best

This was originally written on Thursday, March 13, 2008:

This has been the best month of my pregnancy! I'm afraid to jinx myself since everyone says the third trimester is supposed to be the worst (but for me there's no way anything can be worse than my first trimester--I'll take "body discomfort" any day over feeling sick 24/7)! But maybe since everyone else's second trimester is their favorite (but that's when I had pain), the third will end up being it for me. . .I hope.

I don't know if it's because I can tell I'm nearing the end (and so my happiness is having an affect on my body) or if it's the weather (spring may finally be here to stay). . .or if I've just finally gotten used to being pregnant, haha! But lately things haven't seemed so bad. (Maybe it also helps that I've been doing my HypnoBirthing relaxation exercises!)

Last Thursday was our final childbirth class. Too bad we had to walk out before it'd even started. Why? Because it was the exact same class as that Monday's breastfeeding class! It turns out that the lady on the phone whom I spoke with when signing up for the childbirth classes didn't know what she was talking about. :p She'd told me that I could take two additional classes for free if I wanted (Breastfeeding and New Parent), so I'd said "sure." When a statement came for $10 each, I was confused as to why she'd told me they were free. . .but I wasn't going to say anything since it was just $20.

However, last Thursday night I called and asked to be refunded. The Breastfeeding and New Parent classes were already included in the regular childbirth classes! In fact, the same instructor that we'd had on Monday was teaching on Thursday as well! Now it made sense as to why our regular instructor had her last class the week before (and why it had been about bringing home the baby). Clearly, we don't need to go to the April 14th New Parent class because Joe & I already learned what they teach!

The person in charge explained that this was the first year that they'd included those two classes in the regular childbirth classes, so the call center must have just gotten mixed up. She was nice and said there would be a credit on my mastercard, so all has been taken care of now.

On Friday I had my doctor's appointment and received the results from my blood glucose test--negative for gestational diabetes! Also, blood pressure is perfect, weight is perfect (at the time I was still at 26 lbs gained, now at 32 weeks pregnant I'm at 27), and L.J. is the perfect size. She said she doesn't expect him to be small or big, but rather average (7 lbs) if he's full-term. (Whew!) So I'm really glad that despite this being a difficult pregnancy, my body has ended up doing really well!!!!

However, my doctor said I am "near" being anemic, but I'm not in the range where they recommend iron supplements. She just said if I want to pay more attention to eating foods high in iron that will help me not become anemic. I guess that is another common side effect of pregnancy because the placenta absorbs most all of a woman's iron for the baby.

I had to wait a long time again, so I'd been there an hour-and-fifteen minutes by the time I returned to the parking lot. I had arranged with Melissa to go see a movie that day, so she came over to my house twenty minutes later, then hung out with Joe & me (her husband moved to Arizona that morning) until bedtime.

On Saturday I had my monthly writers group meeting. I filled in for the secretary and our new officers were elected.

While I was there, Joe installed our car seat and was left dumbfounded as to why we need to make an appointment with Fire & Safety. He said it wasn't hard at all. There were five easy steps. . .he's pretty sure it's installed properly. It just so happens they're having an all-day thing at our local mall the end of this month, so I think we'll just go to that to have them confirm whether he installed it properly--but not actually make an appointment to go in and be taught how. . .unless I find that it's harder for me, lol. But I think the brand we got made their car seat to help combat the problem of 85% of car seats being installed improperly and so it doesn't look like it will be tricky for me, either. (The base has been in the middle of my backseat since then--every time I see it, I smile!)

Afterwards, we met at Babies R Us and used the two gift cards that we got at our shower (from my stepmom and Joe's mom) to buy L.J.'s mattress and the pack n play that matches our swing (it's a play pin that's also a bassinet/portable crib w/ portable changing table). When we arrived home we finished organizing and decorating the nursery :-) I absolutely love it. . .which is a good thing since I assume I'll be spending a lot of late nights there! I can't stop looking at it! (It's the only room in our house that is all decorated and has a theme!)On Sunday Joe & I went to look at rockers/ottomans--the final thing that we need before L.J. is here.

I've had a heck of a time finding one that is 100% comfortable, but I did find one that might be a possibility. We have one more store to look at and then hopefully we can buy "the one." The only downside to the possibility one is that it doesn't swival or recline (but it's super cheap). Also, the color (tan) is a little darker than what we were picturing for the room. We were standing there staring at it when one of the sales people, an Eastern European woman, asked if we needed any help.

Joe said, "Do you have this in any other colors?"
She looked at me and smiled. "You're probably wanting blue."
Joe and I laughed and said, "How did you know we were having a boy?"
She answered that she could tell my abdomen was in a more pointed shape rather than a rounded shaped.
Now this is something I can tell when I'm naked--but I didn't think anyone could tell just by glancing at me in my clothes! Plus, I'd never heard that before. But sure enough, just this morning I was reading one of my baby magazines (As Your Baby Grows: From Conception to Birth), given to me my doctor when I first became pregnant and it said: "Tradition says that a pregnant stomach shaped like a basketball holds a girl, while a football shape harbors a boy. If the baby kicks so much that you feel like you're carrying a football player, you may be; girls' kicks are reputed to be more delicate." Wow--that's right on for me! (You can see my pregnant pics on the left panel.)

Speaking of which, L.J. has dropped down so he isn't killing my rib area so much as he was a couple of weeks ago. Instead, if I look at myself straight on in the mirror, it looks like he's sagging my stomach so much that he's going to fall out, haha.

I don't have much to report between Monday and today, except that on Tuesday I went to Wal-Mart and decided that's gonna be it for anything more than milk until L.J. is here. It is amazing what you take for granted--I've never thought going to the grocery store was exhausting work, but it was so hard on my body that I thought I was going into labor right then and there. . .when everything tightened up, it never relaxed!

It just so happened that when I was on my way to the check-out line, Joe called from his cell phone on his way home from golfing after work and said he was right at the intersection near me. I was like, "Ohmygosh can you come help me?! I don't think I have the strength to lift all of these bags in the trunk!"

I was so thankful he came right there--it was painful just to put the sacks into my cart, so it really helped to meet Joe outside by my car and have him load everything. Then he brought all of the sacks into our kitchen and helped me put everything away. SIGH, eight more weeks!