Bump Update - Week 28

Nothing exciting to report so here goes a basic recap of the normality...

Christmas shopping is DONE!

Hello Target during holiday season, I almost forgot you are a nightmare.

I don't know why I was so worried this year... maybe because we've had such extraordinary kindness sent our way by so many people. We both feel so indebted to so many family members, friends and coworkers, who were hugely helpful over the past couple months. Family and Ed have been asking me what I want for Christmas and for the first time, I'm struggling with picking stuff for me. All I've had on the brain are house and baby things we could use. If you were to pull up my Amazon homepage, you'd see it littered with deals for the following: cat food, biodegradable trash bags, bulk white vinegar, recycled paper towels, baby onesies, workout clothes (from when I was running) and board books for baby. Lots of really exciting things as you can see. 

Things are really good... same old, same old for these days. Ed's having his treatments weekly. We're both trying to spend regular time in the gym. It's been tooooo cold for swimming lately. Nothing new to report on the health front, everything is still amazingly calm and normal. Thank goodness. 

I've been making progress on my reading goals, total of 65 now... the odds are very slim that I will make the goal of 70... I did finish Visitation Street and The Night Guest, both very interesting and enjoyable reads. Visitation Street in particular made me almost miss Maryland summers - sticky, oppressive and thick with noise. Summers are too quite out here. No cicadas, no crickets, and no fireflies decorating the evenings. I'll let you know if any of the other books jump out at me. I've added in a rotation of parenting books now too... I won't bore you with even one sentence reviews of those!

Christmas cards are mostly sent out. Thank you notes are halfway done. I've written them for gifts we've received so far but I wanted to decorate them myself with tools I left at Mom's in Maryland, so I have to wait a liiiiiittle bit longer for those to be sent out. I love writing notes. I need to get back into the swing of writing letters, but I cover so much in here and have so few people who also like writing letters... Such a shame.

Now for the bump!

How far along? 28 Weeks

How Big Is Baby? 14.8 inch Chinese cabbage, about 2.25 lbs (Where on earth is this app getting this crazy specific numbers?!)

Sleep: I've been doing this new thing... well, it's not new, but I only just became aware of it... I make these loud sudden noises as I'm falling asleep. It's like a closed mouth yelp. And it's really loud. It makes Ed jump and it's even starting to spook me. I have no idea why I do it, but it's getting pretty consistent. I usually do it falling asleep but the other morning I actually woke myself up making the same noise. Poor Ed. Between my tossing, turning, weird yelping, and general inability to move in a graceful way, Ed's a real trooper. :)

Best moment this week: Ed hit another milestone in therapy - a little jogging! We're not talking anything crazy or sustained, but for a few moments Ed got a light jog happening. He's still far from running or jogging like I was when I was out there... but hey, it's an exciting step forward!

Movement: Like whoa. Tons of moving all around, and because baby is so big, I'll get a kick in the ribs and a stomp on the bladder all at the same time. Yay! :)

Symptoms: Round ligament pain. Not. Fun. It doesn't seem to like me walking, even though I'm walking so slowly. Oh well. Just trying to drink water and stretch to get things to relax. 

Food cravings/aversions: I am not enjoying salty foods at all. I feel like everything tastes salty these days. I'm craving fruit a lot and plowing through apples and clementines like it's my job.

Gender: It's amazing how people will guess what I'm having based on the way I'm carrying. And they get it right about 50% of the time! :-P 

Belly Button in or out? Same weirdness, every day a little shallower!

What I miss: Sleeping for longer than 2-3 hours before waking up with that stiff achy feeling when you are in one position for too long.

What I am looking forward to: One week until our trip to the east coast! I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement. Next week's post will be very short because the following post will be cram packed full of holiday stuff! 

Funny moment of the week: Along with the sleep noises are some craaaazy dreams. In one I gave birth to a half bird/half human baby 3 months early. In another Ed and I were in a version of the amazing race. In another I was on Glee, got in a fight with Unique and ended up smashing an avocado in her face. (I have no idea, people). Ed says I'm adding in words now too. The other night he swears I called out 'Northman!' Alas, I couldn't remember Eric Northman making an appearance - that dream is lost to me. I'm sure Ed is not as disappointed as I am. :)

Labor Signs: nah

Weekly Wisdom: Naps are for winners! I'd been going without naps the past month or so but suddenly it seems absolutely necessary that I go down for 30 mins around 3 pm everyday. I am going to enjoy this while I can. 

Milestones:  Third trimester! I don't know where the time is going... it still feels like time is flying by. I've yet to hit that 'pregnancy is miserable' mark - here's hoping it doesn't happening until the day before this baby makes a grand entrance!

And here's Emilia with her most dedicated babysitter!