Waiting on Sydney's Arrival (37.5 weeks)

Overall this pregnancy has been good.  Sydney is a good little baby inside of me.  She moves mostly at night and has not been too cramped inside of me.  Austin leg was under my right rib when I was pregnant with him.  That was the worst.  Sydney has her little space and I have mine.  It works perfectly.  The only thing is I do get short of breath easily since she is taking up some of my lung space. That is to be expected with being pregnant but other than that I have felt well up until this week.  However it's been a very hot and dry summer.  Not the best summer for being pregnant.  If we did not have air conditioning, I really don't know what I would have done.  I have tried to stay in the air conditioning or pool as much as possible.  I am not a big fan of all of this heat. It has been so hot and dry and has hardly rained at all.  We haven't cut our grass since before our Virginia Beach trip.

I live in shorts, tank tops, and flip flops.  I usually don't like shorts and prefer capris however if I am not at work, I am in shorts.  Also I don't like wearing socks because my feet are swollen.  When I wear them it just makes it worse.  So my flip flops are my best friend.  I sleep in shorts and a tank top and that has worked out fairly well.  We have the air set to 75 degrees and when I sleep I have a fan on high.  I mostly sleep on the couch because its more comfortable for me with the pillows.  Plus it is a little cooler downstairs.  I really don't like being hot.

Here are some pictures Brian took.  The storm ditch in our neighbor's yard is as dry as can be.  Meanwhile temperatures in July were soaring.  Two photos of the television show the highs being near 100 degrees day after day!

On Sunday, I started to feel really tired and just my usual self.  After my afternoon nap (on days I am off, I really try to nap at the same time as Austin) and shower I did feel a little better.  Tuesday July 31 I started to feel cramping.  That was the first time I really had any cramping.  Wednesday night (Aug 1) was a rough night  for me.  I was up cramping and then woke up with some GI upset.  I am excited and nervous that this means that Sydney will be coming soon.

So far I have gained 26 pounds.  I don't think that is too bad.  Most people say I look really good for being 9 months pregnant.  I have a pregnancy belly and I also gained weight throughout my body.    I eat mostly normal however before bed I like eating a bowl of cereal.  That way I am not hungry in the middle of the night.  Waking up in the middle of the night hungry is one thing I really don't like.  If that happens, I am usually up for about an hour.  I do love sweets during this pregnancy too.  I could eat a Wendy's Frosty or Diary Queen Cupcake everyday but I try to limit it to once a month.  Plus I wake up about every 2-3 hours to pee.

We had our last ultrasound a couple of weeks ago.  Just like Austin, they confirmed that Sydney already has a head of hair.  The second ultrasound photo shows the hair (so we were told).  We were only given 2 ultrasound pictures to take home and neither were that good.  The first one shows the head with one eye with the face looking towards you.  The other eye is below the first one and hidden in the shadow of the nose (so we were told).  We think that is an ear at the top of the picture if we are making sense of it correctly.  The second photo was largely meaningless to us, except that they told us that the spikes along the right side of the black area (along the vertical line) are hair.  We were a bit disappointed in the quality of the take home pictures, but were quite glad to learn that everything looks normal.

We have everything ready for Sydney.  Brian has the car seats installed in both cars.  Her room is absolutely perfect.   All of her baby toys are ready for her like the Boppy Pillow, swing, and bouncer.  It is kind of fun to have those things out again.  I have sanitized all the little bottles again. I am planning on breast feeding for the first 6 months again without killing myself.  If she needs a little formula here and there that is okay but hopefully her main source of nutrition will be breast milk.  I really hope that maybe she will be able to latch on a little better than Austin so I can nurse her more than pumping.  Because pumping and having to give her a bottle is A LOT of work.  I still plan on pumping but I would love not to pump every 2 hours!

Right now we are just playing the waiting game.  I am plan on working tomorrow (Friday August 3) and I have a lot of work to before I go out on maternity leave.  Hopefully Brian and I will get a few more little things accomplished this weekend and then we will be all ready for Sydney's arrival!