Week 36

I now have less than one month until my official due date!  I'm feeling good because I know that anytime from here on out our baby will be pretty healthy even if she comes early.  In fact, because Eric is done with classes on December 6th, we're almost hoping that she does come a week or two early so she can have more time to bond with her dad.  I also wouldn't mind ending the pregnancy a little early, as I do grow increasingly uncomfortable everyday!

Sleeping when you are pregnant is quite a challenge.  I rotate sleeping on my left and right sides, switching when I wake up every couple of hours to use the bathroom.  But my hips are killing me by the middle of the night, and while it seems like while our baby is pretty quiet during the day, she really likes to move around at night.  And, since she is fairly large now, these movements are now quite noticeable and hard to sleep through.  I've been spending 8 hours in bed the past few nights, but probably only getting about 6 hours of sleep.

Next week at my doctor's appointment they should start checking to see if I am dilated or effaced, so that's exciting.  I'll make sure to post any news!

Week 35

I'm so sorry to the faithful friends and family who regularly check our blog hoping for an update - I haven't written nearly as often as I had hoped.  Part of this I blame on my job, which has been way more stressful and busy this fall than I ever anticipated.  But, the other part is just being a little lazy!  Either way, I'm happy to report that everything is continuing to go well with the pregnancy.

Two weeks ago I was given another ultrasound, and the partial placenta previa I was experiencing earlier has completely resolved itself.  This means I have the green light for a vaginal delivery!  Our little girl was measuring pretty much right on target at that ultrasound, though her head was measuring somewhat big - not exactly what every mother wants to hear. ;-)

I also can't complain too much about pregnancy symptoms.   I have a little trouble sleeping for any long stretch of time at night, and inevitably wake up with sore hips each morning.  But other than that, I continue to feel pretty good, have no had no noticeable swelling, and no stretch marks yet (knock on wood!).  I think staying active  - by running for as long as it was remotely comfortable, and then walking and taking water aerobics - has really helped with a smooth pregnancy.

Eric and I are eager for the arrival of our daughter!  We can't wait to meet her though there are moments when I wonder what we've gotten ourselves into.  I have a feeling that's pretty normal though.  Oh, and a huge blessing for us has been that we found a fantastic childcare provider for after my maternity leave!  Her husband works at Calvin with me, and she has two little kids of her own and watches a third child two days a week.  Oh, and they live four houses down from us - isn't that amazing?!  Eric and I felt completely at peace with her just minutes after meeting with her!

Okay, perhaps the length of this post will make up for the lack of quantity in recent weeks.  Thanks to all of you who are thinking of us and praying for us!

Week 27

A couple of days ago I officially entered the third trimester of my pregnancy! It's crazy and terribly exciting to think that in only three months Eric and I will be parents. Things are continuing to progress well, and after taking a horribly disgusting sugary drink, I've learned that I don't have gestational diabetes. I continue to feel our little girl kick (or punch?) quite often, which is often fun and only occasionally uncomfortable. I'm still jogging occasionally, though more often walking or going to water aerobics with other moms-to-be. The only recent complaint is that sleeping through the night has become a rare experience. I commonly wake up in the middle of the night (sometimes triggered by heartburn) and often am wide awake for the next one to two hours. If this is my bodies way of preparing me for feedings in the middle of the night, I think we can hold off on that training for a few more weeks!

Week 26 Update

Our little swimmer is still gestating happily. She is still healthy, and has a new set of pictures to share taken a couple weeks ago at her week 24 photo shoot.

My "condition"

A few days ago I was in the checkout line at the library when a tiny old lady approaches me and says "You're in my favorite condition!" with a big smile on her face. She's old enough that I begin to wonder if she knows what she's saying, and I must look visibly confused, because she points to my stomach and winks. Ah, I get it now, and I realize that she is the first stranger who has identified me as a pregnant woman. I'm feeling pretty happy that I look pregnant, as opposed to pudgy, to the rest of the world, and I half listen as the woman tells me about having six children and many grandchildren. Suddenly, we both notice another woman with a bump about my size listening to us a few feet away. "Congratulations to you too!" says the old lady, and in response, the woman with the bump sadly informs us that she's not pregnant but only wearing comfortable clothing. So much for my verification of looking pregnant and not pudgy - turns out old ladies like this one think everyone is pregnant!

It's a girl!

Yesterday we went to the hospital for our detailed ultrasound. The night before, I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve, and couldn't sleep at all - in part because of the excitement of learning more about this great gift we're being given! Our ultrasound was scheduled early in the morning (though not quite as early as I thought, and thus we arrived 30 minutes early for our appointment), and we watched for over an hour as a student technician, and eventually a more experienced technician, measured all the growing parts of our baby. We saw the liver, the kidneys, the brain, the heart, the spine, the bones in the legs and arms and finally our technician said "there it is - it's a girl". She seemed very confident in this proclamation, as we saw what looked like three dots and a line to Eric and I, and patiently explained that was the labia. So, we are now eagerly awaiting the birth of our daughter! Our little girl wouldn't fully cooperate to let the technician view the four chambers of the heart as well as she wanted, so we'll probably end up going back in a few weeks, but we were able to see that the heart was beating, and seems to be working just fine, and was registering a fetal heart beat of 138 (which is well within the normal range). Praise God!

Baby Update (16 weeks)

If my tummy is any indication, Baby Plantinga is continuing to grow and flourish in utero. Baby is now 16 weeks old, and should be about the size of one's hand (according to all the baby books we're reading), and I am now definitely wearing more maternity clothing, left with only a handful of pre-baby items that still fit.

The most exiting thing that Baby Plantinga has done recently is make his or her presence known to me. The other night I was laying awake in the middle of the night (after one of my MANY trips to the bathroom) and when I returned to bed, I'm pretty confident that I felt the baby move. It felt like a moth was trapped inside my tummy, moving around and trying to find its way out!

Also, we've decided to find out the gender of the baby, and we have an ultrasound scheduled for August 2nd, so you can expect another exiting update shortly after that appointment. Almost everyone who has made a guess thus far has said boy, and that has been my gut feeling throughout most of the pregnancy as well, but we'll soon find out for sure!