Our Last Week as a Squash (Week 32)

Well, it is officially our last week as a squash! Yay! I don't know about you but I'm ready for a new food! I can't believe that we are starting the 8th official month of this pregnancy. It seems like just yesterday we found out we were going to have a baby and now here we are, 8ish weeks from meeting her. It's a little scary, a little overwhelming, and a lot exciting.

So, what's Ms. Lily up to in there this week?

"Your baby is really plumping up and will gain almost half her body weight (between now and) the time you deliver. This needed baby fat will help to keep her warm in the outside world.  The layer of soft lanugo hair is also starting to shed.  Over the next few weeks, your baby's real hair and skin will become soft and smooth."

This week she is measuring approximately 16.7 inches and weighing in at 3.75 lbs. It's amazing to think that she now weighs about half of what she'll weight when she's born, but even crazier to think that she'll double her weight over the next 8 weeks! We spent 32 weeks getting her here and now she's going to rocket towards the finish line.

So, how's Momma doing?

I'm hanging in there, which is all I can ask for sometimes. The holidays were stressful... gotta love family drama. And when you add up the holidays, family, drama, being too busy and not getting enough sleep, being unmedicated, and pregnancy hormones, you get... well, it ain't good. But we got through it, and I'm really looking forward to some rest this weekend.

But don't get me wrong, it was far from all bad. Christmas Eve we had my family over for dinner, plus our friend Dan, and some new friends of ours that we met at our childbirth class. They are pregnant with their first too and due a couple months after us. We had such a great time. I felt bad for not making the whole Christmas Eve spread like I did last year, but the shepherds pie seemed to be a big hit and was super easy to make and clean up after.

Christmas morning my family came over again and we had brunch. Mom made biscuits and gravy with eggs and it was so awesome! Since everyone is short on cash this year, we decided to stick to stocking stuffer type gifts this year and it was really nice. There was lots of candy and Hickory Farms summer sausages and my mom got me a bunch of these beautiful sparkly deep red holiday ornaments. I'm even debating putting them on the tree for just a couple of days before we take them down again. Jay got me the owl from Build-a-Bear that I've been wanting since before we decided to use owls as the theme for Lily's nursery. I love it so much!

Christmas night it snowed and delivered the first white Christmas in Charlotte in some 60 years. I went to bed before it really started sticking so I didn't get to enjoy it until the day after, but it was breath taking when I woke up.

Thankfully, we didn't have anywhere really we needed to go so we spent most of the day laying around watching Netflix and enjoying the down time.



I think my favorite gift this year though, came from our friend Shannon. She's an artist and created an original painting for Lily's nursery! I am so in love with it and took it straight upstairs after opening it to start working on where to hang it and how to arrange the room.

I'm hoping to get out to the fabric store on Friday to get the fabric for the nursery. And plan to spend the weekend working on the crib skirt and valence for the window. I also want to make an owl shaped pillow for the chair and smaller versions of the pillow to make a mobile for the crib. Not that it's all going to get done this weekend, but would at least like to get started.

Plans are starting to fall into place for our baby shower too which will be in just a couple of weeks. I'm so excited about that! It's going to be so much fun having so many of the women in my life come together in one place. That's another reason I'd really like to have at least some of the nursery projects finished, so that I can show them off at the party. But I'm going to try not to kill myself over it. I'm also seriously debating over what I should wear. A lot of folks caution against wearing a dress since you'll be sitting and opening gifts and that never seems to happen gracefully. I may be able to put together an outfit with leggings, but am still not sure. Might actually go out and splurge on something new.

The indigestion/acid reflux is definitely not getting any better, but at least doesn't seem to be getting any worse yet. I'm starting to experience more aches and pains during the day and am finding it hard to stay comfortable in my computer chair at work all day. I keep putting one foot up and then that hip will start hurting so I put the other one up and then that hip starts hurting. Something was really sore on my right side last night and I was almost in tears but after lying down on the couch for a while and taking a Tylenol it finally let up. I'm very thankful that this pregnancy has been so free of complications thus far. I know it's going to get more physically challenging over the next 8 weeks, but I think I can deal with it. I think Jay may have to start taking the puppy out in the mornings though soon because I'm having a harder and harder time bending over to pick him up. (And yes, our puppy doesn't understand how to do stairs so he has to be picked up and carried up and down from the porch or back deck in order to do his business.)

And speaking of the adorable puppy/big brother... here he is NOT enjoying the snow...

That looks says, "It's cold out here momma! But don't worry, I'll just hold it and go inside were it's warm!" hehe!

So, how's Daddy doing?

Jay is wonderful as usual. I got him a diaper changing pad/diaper and wipes holder thingy for Christmas so that he can just drop it down in whatever bag he wants to carry and doesn't have to worry about carrying around an official diaper bag. He got me one for my birthday back in September so that's the one we'll probably be carrying most of the time, but now he has something of his own in the event that he takes her out without me.

He is really enjoying feeling her rolling around in there and readily admits that he has a really hard time keeping his hands off the bump. It's ok though. I don't mind. He always talks to her in the morning before he heads downstairs to go to work. He snuggles up to my belly and tells her how much he loves her and to take care of me. It's quite adorable and I think him talking to her is what actually wakes her up because its always just a few minutes later before she starts bouncing around. I can't wait until she comes out and he gets to be the daddy he's always been destined to be.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. I'm hoping to get some maternity pictures done this Saturday since it's going to be 60 degrees and sunny. If that happens I'll definitely share, but regardless I promise to take a bump picture this weekend since I've missed the past two weekends. Grr.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week, and wish you all a safe and happy New Years Eve. 2011 is slated to be quite a year! Woohoo!