snow on the bump- week 37

It feels like it hasn't really snowed in years but it's been snowing lightly all day, so tried to do a quick bump with the snow before our neighbor webby or someone walked by:

I've noticed that I engaged my core a lot to hold up the bump (probably a good thing with my back issue) so I also tried to do a pic totally relaxing it. It's a pretty big difference:

I'm not really sure if chunks has "dropped" or not yet. I think not because he seems to still be sitting pretty high. I started feeling pretty uncomfortable earlier this week, like really really preggers. I slept poorly a few nights because of really bad heartburn while sleeping. I think I was sleeping on my back a little bit for the duration of my pregnancy and I definitely can't do that anymore, it's side or bust. One night it was so bad I went to the couch and kind of propped myself up so I wouldn't be laying horizontally. I've also been getting pretty short but intense cramps that I'm assuming are Braxton Hicks contractions. They aren't too comfortableeee

Zach has really cracked me up sleeping the past few nights. I'm not sure if he is causing me to stir a bit occasionally but I woke up searching for my sleep mask because it had fallen off (we've been using them because after getting the windows replaced we still need to have the trim painted and don't want to put up new blackout shades until we do that), and almost immediately Zach whispered, "Are you looking for this?" and handed me my mask. It had to have been like 3am, very bizarre- I was taken aback. And then another night the pillow I use between my legs must have fallen out, and again I stirred to search for it and Zach was at the ready again and handed me my pillow. I'd like to think that he is attending to my every need right now... but most likely he's coming in late and waking me up. 

Last week at work verged on being way too much, I have this little renovation project I'm doing due on Tuesday, and if things don't ease up at that point I will talk to my boss. Working 40s is fine but I can't do the overtime right now. Friday was the worst because I was just ready to relax and I was getting all these chats/calls about a million things and felt like I was doing 1 things at once. I had booked a 6pm swim for that night for Zach and I, and I was REALLY looking forward to it after the long week. However, I had worked right up until we left and we ended up going to the wrong pool because I didn't have time to check, so we missed the swim. I will admit that after leaving the pool, I started crying. I was so frustrated that work is so busy right now and that it's so hard to get swim reservations (they literally get scooped in minutes of the slots opening up) so I had to book one at a different pool, and wasn't able to get another reservation until the following Wednesday.  But there was nothing I could do, so we returned home and I went back to work until about 9pm. At which point I called it quits and went downstairs and had a DANCE PARTY. Zach was present for the dance party but he must have been tired because he did not participate much.

"I Just Want to Fly" by Sugar Ray always puts me in a good mood so I started us off with that for a 90s dance party. That music video is terrible by the way, I had never seen it before. Dancing to "Country Grammar" by Nelly proved challenging and Missy Elliott was even harder. Eventually I got worn out and we watched some videos of people being songified by the Gregory Brothers. Chunks was swirling around in my belly after the dancing, he must have been feeling the tunes. I think this little baby is going to like foot rubs when he comes out- since his foot is always pressed on my abdomen I always give it (and my belly) a little massage. 

Contractors continued work on our house this weekend, we might actually get this done in time thanks to Zach really stepping up to help get this thing closed out. Closing everything else out this week might get delayed by the snow though. It was actually great having them here Saturday because it forced us to hide away in the disaster of a second bedroom (they'll be repainting it a light yellow soon for it to transform into the nursery) and clean it up and out. Usually I'm itching to go see what the contractors are up to but I had no desire on Saturday, I wanted to get this closed out. We kept our masks on the whole time and windows open but they didn't come upstairs at all. It looks so much better now. Again, a miracle that our house might be semi-decent when chunks arrives. 

We're making a small little pantry next to the brick where there is a cavity, since space is at such a premium in this house. This has been a really tricky part of the project with the details- there's wire going through back there that needed rerouting, there's the old wood lathe that we didn't know if we wanted to remove or not, how to deal with the unfinished floor there, the existing wall that doesn't line up with it, etc. etc. Possibly more of a headache than this amount of space is worth but I am proud that we have arrived at a solution and are just going for it. Also because of not being able to closely watch contractors I realized that our masonry guys did not seal the brick after repointing, which seems like a basic end result of repointing even though it wasn't specifically spelled out in the contract, and I didn't want to breathe the sealant so Zach did that on his own 👍 He had some experience from the brick I tuckpointed the mortar on myself, and we also had some leftover sealant from that. Glad he showed interest in helping out that time so this time I could not be present. Glad we just did that in general, it would have felt like a much bigger deal having to seal it if we hadn't. 

Okay now to enjoy the rest of the snow day with little Smokey

9th inning, bump is loaded - week 36

Only one more month (hopefully, want him to be fully baked) to enjoy this bump. 

Doglet should start dropping more soon, which is good because just within the last few days I have really felt like my belly is getting problematically large. My whole belly feels tight like baby is pushing on everything and heart burn has gotten worse this week. Sleeping also started getting more uncomfortable because my belly gets sore if I stay on one side too long, and I can't sleep on my back at all because Doglet has gotten too big and it hurts. But last night I woke up several times when my belly was in pain but I would fall back asleep again soon after rolling over. I think I can fall back asleep quickly because the act of rolling requires so much exertion that it probably takes a lot out of me 😄

I started feeling these sort of painful but light cramps this week that last just for a few seconds and then go away. Perhaps they are braxton hicks contractions but they are no where near as intense as the one I had in the car a few weeks back which required all of my mental concentration. Definitely think the body is prepping to get this little pudge ball out of me though.

I had my 36 week appointment this week and my first appointment solo since Zach wasn't allowed to attend (I looked back at my last post, my route was not totally cleared out by the Capitol and had to detour, also for the first ever there were no spots at Captain Cookie and I had to circle around and figure out how to get to the parking garage, ahhh). Everything is looking good still, except that Doglet is slightly "sunny side up", meaning that his spine is facing my spine, and it would be better if his head was facing my spine, because it makes for an easier labor. So now I need to do "spinning babies" to hopefully flip the egg. I don't really know what this involves at the moment. Otherwise Doglet best do some spinning during labor.

workity work work

 Last week at work was pretty exhausting. 60 hours including some work last weekend and I should be doing some work this weekend but I can't bring myself to do it. I think two of my other co workers took care of a bunch of stuff but I am afraid to log on and look. I have been working under a senior structural engineer for this project and have been doing coordination with the other disciplines and generally getting the drawings together, but had another project a few weeks back require way more time than anticipated and my little BWI air lighting vault project came back online out of the blue with a quick restart so I am a little behind on this project. Luckily we roped in some other team members at the last minute but I need to ease up when February starts. It's time to start mentally switching gears...

The good news is that I really like my job. The senior structural I'm working on for this project has a project coming up that it'll probably miss out on due to maternity leave but it sounds super cool. It's a firefighting training facility that has all these areas where they actually train with real fires and put them out with water and whatnot. I really want to work on the fire building but oh well. 

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I never ended up finishing that thought above. But my co-workers have been awesome the past few weeks. The senior structural I mention above is the only other person on the team with kids (it's like a 20 person team, wtf) so he is really the only person on the team I talk to about pregnancy/kid stuff. He and his wife sent us some gifts which was really nice, and he'll send me fun pictures of his two year old because he has no one else on the team to talk about his kids either haha. Another guy on the team who is younger wanted to ask me about the pregnancy one time but wasn't sure what to say so he asked me how "the thing" was going. Inside I laughed so hard but did not call him out as I think he was just trying to be careful.

In general, even with the younger co-workers I am so impressed by them. I think structural engineers are a different breed- I'm glad I came to this profession later in life, there's no way I was as mature as some of these guys and gals are when I was in my 20s. I mean, we are definitely doing a very serious job that involves a lot of risk if not done right. Recently I've been working a lot with a co-worker who is 27'ish going on 40, and people call him Mr. (insert last name) sometimes and I think it's said only semi-ironically. He has been a god-send for me- there was a project that went awry last week and it was so ridiculous what they needed us to do to get it back on track that I think I just kind of shut down- I couldn't even get stressed about it because it was so stupid, and I don't want to be stressed at work right now. It's really just supposed to be a small renovation project but some of the design issues involved are things I have never dealt with before and I was in a bit over my head on that. He's on the project too but not supposed to be that involved except to help when I need him to,  however, he's a busy body so he was up to speed on most things going on and I admitted to him I was a little overwhelmed. He basically did what I needed him to do- which was get stressed on my behalf and get on the phone together with the project manager and basically tell him what they were asking wasn't going to happen in that time frame. 🤯 At some other point during the day I was talking to the architect and my brain was shutting down for some reason and I looped him into the call and he was able to help out, and then it all clicked back for me eventually and I was good to go again, just needed a mental break I guess. And then this week I slept unusually poorly two nights ago, and slept through my 7:30 alarm on Monday morning. Little did I know that the project manager had put a 9am meeting on our calendars that morning and around 8:55 I got a text from my co-worker asking if I was getting online. Unfortunately this meeting was to discuss some structural issues with what our mechanical engineer friends wanted to do so I couldn't just sit there in the background. I told him I was but that I literally had just awoken, I was so groggy, and if he could get on the call too and basically take charge in the beginning. I'm by far the most junior person on the project so I feel like this is all very embarrassing and I can't do too much about it right now. I will definitely not forget how supportive Mr. (insert last name) has been. He keeps reminding me that I have a golden excuse for everything right now and I need to milk it for all it's worth. Well at least for this project I think am unintentionally succeeding in that.  

#stopthestealbutnotThebump - week 35

 Here is the glorious, explosive bump this week: 

Smokey won't get much longer at this point but he will be continuing to put on fat these next few weeks. He is the size of a pineapple (that must include the green part?). He put on a really good show for Zach earlier this week- he had been particularly active one day so I had the belly out to watch his movement and Zach got to see him take his foot and just roll it across half of my stomach, making a big ripple. I was a little surprised myself- I have no control over my water bed belly. 

I am very lucky that I'm not giving birth at GW this week because there are extensive vehicle restrictions with the inauguration on Wednesday and the route to get over to GW would require a huge detour around NW. Our typical route there goes right by the Capitol, down the national mall, and snaking our way through downtown which is all a no-go right now. Below in green are the vehicle restricted areas and in red are road closures.

I draw out this map and our route in blue only because we have worked so hard on getting it right. After a few mishaps we finally realized that going this way and parking at Captain Cookie and the Milkman, which is kind of tucked away on a small street right off of Pennsylvania Ave and awkward to get to, is the way to go. There's a lot of traffic and 1 way streets downtown so you could spend much time wandering around trying to find a spot. Captain Cookie has never let us down, except one time after an appointment when I tried to get the "cookie" of the day there which turned out to be a "muffaroon" (a cross between a muffin and a macaroon). It was more on the side of being the size of a macaroon, which wasn't going to cut it. As I squinted at this thing I asked the employee if I could get another choice instead, but I guess she couldn't put it back because she had already picked it up and proceeded to slam it down into the trash can. She had seemed kind of grumpy before that but I was still in shock so I said "Oh, you're going to do it like that" and then wobbled out of the store as fast as I could.

I do have an appointment on Friday but I think this should be cleared up by then. I'm not totally looking forward to the appointment because Zach can't attend it with me due to covid cases rising. This is a little alarming because as far as I know this is the first time GW has restricted partners/support people from attending appointments, so not a great sign. It will be the first time that I will need to make the drive on my own which I am not stoked about it. Now that I think about it, maybe I will take my old downtown route and ride a capitol bikeshare there..

Overall, enjoying my last few weeks carrying this child around.

bring your bump to the riot - week 34

This week Trump incited a riot at the Capitol and we had yet another 6pm curfew. I watched coverage in the background while I was working- I must have turned it on right before they breached the doors because it seemed like everything happened so quickly. I think that was one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life and it's incredible how few injuries and deaths there were. Little chunks has been has been through some pretty turbulent times in utero, I'm hoping that life can resume to some semblance of normalcy when Chunks comes into this world. 

My pool reservation was cancelled the night of the riot but I had another one booked for the day after next. There's a woman who I've been seeing at the pool for years who I generally avoid because she is incredibly annoying. She's always badgering the guards about something or other or trying to have loud conversations with other swimmers. Unfortunately, our swim clocks always seem to be aligned, I think we're both night owl swimmers. She's made a few innocuous comments about my pregnancy but I knew at some point she was going to take it up a notch. So last week she asked me when I was due and then seemed shocked that it wasn't like the following week. She proceeded to ask me if I felt like I was about to burst and then asked if it was a big baby. Okay, all I can do is LOL because she's an idiot but clearly she thinks I'm ginormous. I guess this is my punishment for letting everything hang out in a bikini at the pool. For the record, I actually did tell her I felt like I was about to burst because it's kind of true. 

The belly is getting harder to work around. While we were out one day, my shoe came untied and I really didn't want to get down there to retie it, so I just asked Zach to do it. I don't seem to have any issues with packing on the pounds but throughout the entire pregnancy I've mostly been way less ravenous than I thought I would be. Recently, I've been surprised at times when I've barely been hungry when I normally would have been, although I think I have been spreading my meals out more and eating snacks in between. But I am still always worried about eating enough vegetables, so I've continued my regimen of eating an entire carrot per day or whatever else I can get my hands on. I took down a whole bell pepper a few days ago and plan to do it again soon because we have another one in our fridge 👌 Ice cream is never an issue but I have very little desire for fried or super rich foods at the moment. I think I forgot to write about it but we had some very buttery and tasty egg sandwiches for takeout the day after New Years and I threw up from it, it was weird. Barfing is so 5 months ago. 

Chunks is really on the move these days. For me the belly is big but for him it's cramped in there, hope he's doing okay in there...

diaper "blowout"

Everything about diaper "blowouts" displeases me. I hate the term most of all. Is the poo really blowing up out of the diaper in what sounds like an explosive manner or is it more of a gradual trickle? How is it even possible that a baby can squirt poo up out of their diaper onto their backs? I need a seal-tight diaper to stop this from happening. Zach and I attended a newborn 101 class tonight which was very informative, and in the Q&A I did ask in the chat about preventing diaper blowout, which really animated the instructor compared to other questions (apparently everyone gets hyped about the prospect of blowout) but she said besides getting the best fitting diaper you can, blowout just happens and can't be totally prevented. no no no

new year old bump- week 33

 it's 2021 now, the year of smokey's birth 😀

Covid is still raging but the end is in sight with the approval of 2 vaccines. I got an email today from GW stating that the design of the vaccine is such that they don't have any reason to believe that it will negatively affect pregnant and breastfeeding women, even though they weren't included in clinical trials. This seems to be the general consensus. I doubt I will have access to the vaccine prior to birth but will get it as soon as I can afterwards. Zach will hopefully get a vaccine prior to the birth due to being an essential employee but a date hasn't been set yet. Covid in the winter has been a drag the past few weeks. Now is the time to connect with other pregnant women and it's very hard to do so right now, or really connect with anyone in general. I am in a whatsapp group for moms of Fall/Winter babies on Capitol Hill and there's a lot of chatter on there so it's good to skim through that. Also being at the tail end of winter I get to benefit from hearing how they're managing things. From that group, Zach and I will actually talk to a couple tomorrow night on Zoom who recently did a bris for their December baby to see how they did that. I'm kind of interested in just doing the circumcision at the hospital with covid but we'll see what they have to say to make an informed decision. 

I also hate winter right now because I just want to show off the bump. I would love to be lounging at the outdoor pool right now. I guess people say it's uncomfortable to be heavily pregnant in the summer but I'd take that over having to bend over my massive belly to get my boots on and what not to get outside. It was super nice out on Saturday though so we did get a bike ride in down to Navy Yard and enjoyed an awesome sunset.

We had our 32 week appointment this week and all is looking good. I've gained almost 30 pounds, fundal height is looking good, still sleeping like a champ.  I'm starting to wonder if after pregnancy to maintain this kind of amazing sleep, I need to wear myself out more- I think getting regular exercise on top of the pregnancy and working a pretty long day is just wiping me out. Maybe baby will help with that though... I was biking 20 miles a day pre-pregnancy for my commute and occasionally using the gym at work or swimming on those days as well, so I don't know if I can do much more than that, besides just going outside and running at like breakneck speed until I'm tuckered LOL. 

The midwife we had this week was fun. A few of them have been kind of a drag so it was nice to get someone with some more energy this week. Zach asked her when things were going to get hard for me, which was amusing. You're looking at hard times now, bub, I'm dragging around a 30 lb belly. 

I won't have any additional ultrasounds unless there's a good reason to but the midwife felt my belly and believes that the baby is in a sideways head down position, with his head on my left, his rumpus pressing up against my belly and his feet on my right side. I feel this little chunker's foot on my right side ALL THE TIME the last few days. Like I can literally feel the outline of his foot right below my rib with my hand, and I can feel him pushing on my right side with his foot and moving it around like he's stretching out. I also can feel him kicking up under my rib which is annoying 😠 But I love feeling his little foot and can't wait until I can actually touch it, it's pretty amazing there is a baby inside mah belly, so exciting....