Week 33

Dear Conor,

Thursday's birthing class was very informative but also made the idea of birthing you a little scary.  Your Dad had to leave about 20 minutes early because Hunter had been home for 4 hours alone and that is about his time limit.  When he left we were watching a movie and it was just getting to the actual birth viewing.  The teacher came up to me after class and wanted to make sure that he was ok.  The look on her face when I explained why he had to leave was priceless - and then she shared a picture of her grandpuppy that lives in Sweden.

Friday we had a doctor's appointment.  This was our first biweekly appointment.  We talked about carseats, prelabor contractions and a few other things we had discussed in our class just the night before.  After talking (and coming to the conclusion that I needed to wear wrist guards at night to help with my hand issues) we began measurements.  You are measuring spot on for 33 weeks and your heartbeat was a strong 145.  You are head down (and have been for several weeks) and curled in a "C" shape with your little feet touching my right side.  Your butt is up by my ribs and the midwife thinks you have a boney butt (this made me laugh because that is a trait that runs in my family).

Today I worked on so many projects but nothing is wanting to come together very quickly.  Tomorrow I have a little bit of painting in your room left and then I have to wash the floor and it will be done.  The shelves have gone up in the bathroom and I am working on staining those tomorrow as well and painting the supports.  Staining takes time because you have to do each side and the edges and then poly so I will be working on those all week.  I am going to try to convince your Grandma Mary to come up in the the next two weeks and help me paint the bathroom (and maybe the hallway or my bedroom) and make sure that there is nothing I am overlooking in our preparations for your arrival.

The bedding for your room arrived and we are not in love with it so I am sending it back and ordering the original bedding that I liked.  If I can return it on Monday then I should have your new stuff in by early next week and that element of your room will also be complete - then it will just be curtains and decor!

A pregnancy issue this last week has been heartburn that can't be easily cooled and occurs more than twice a day.  I am currently eating a few Tums a day and taking Pepcid at bedtime along with my prenatal vitamin.  It is my hope that once you drop I will have a little relief.  I think you will drop in the next few weeks because you tend to "bobble" down low towards the evening hours and then you float back up by the next morning.  I have also had a lot of swelling in my feet.  This is normal and is not currently a concern for the midwives but I have been told I need to put my feet up at the end of the day.  This is very hard for me but I am going to give it my best try because I don't want my feet to hurt.  I also have an odd symptom in which my finger joints hurt when I try to bend them.  They hurt more in the morning than any other time of the day but the pain is present during the entire day.  I am now going to be wearing wrist splints at night to prevent my from sleeping with my wrists in awkward positions which might help alleviate some of the pain in my hands and is that doesn't work then it might be time to see a physical therapist or another type of doctor to get some relief.  I am also looking into some prenatal aqua-aerobics classes as there is some belief that swimming or being in water can help with both the swelling in my feet and the pain in my hands.

So, that's the update for this week - next week I am going to start packing hospital bags......I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to just fly by and we don't want to be caught off guard!

xoxo
Mom