Week 35

Howdy y'all! Yeehaw! Ok.. enough of that. Brace yourselves, this is a long, detailed post.

This has been a fun week for me... got to do some fun things, well, besides locking my keys in my car on a rainy day and waiting for AAA.

On day 1 of week 35 (Weds) I got to have breakfast/coffee with one of my BFFs Margaret. She had just gotten back from a 10 day cruise with her hubs (jealous) and we were catching up before she starts her new job as a PA... *Congrats Margaret, you deserve it!!! Now we are finally friends while you are NOT a student, crazy!* While chatting at Cafe Helios in downtown Raleigh, I was talking about the Women's Birth and Wellness Center and just all the research I've been doing and just exploding my new found knowledge to Margaret, being she is in the medical field. This lady next to us leans over and goes "I don't mean to be eavesdropping but are you talking about the birth center in Chapel Hill?" I told her yes and she went on to tell us she had her last baby there and it was the most amazing experience of her life. She had her first child at a hospital (Rex I think) and said the difference was night and day and she would never birth in a hospital again. SCORE! Oh man that pumped me up!!! (Nothing on you hospital moms! This is just my personal choice, hospitals scare the crap out of me) I love getting encouragement like that out of the blue. So +1 point to my confidence! After that I met one of my April brides that I'm working with at a linen appointment to make some linen choices. That made me feel good, knowing I still do what I love occasionally and it was fun to be back at that particular shop working with some people I used to work with when I did this full time.   Then I locked my keys in my car (or rather, realized I did after the appointment) and had to wait an hour. Oh well, my day had already been so pleasant it didn't bother me :)

Then I had a pretty busy day planed 2 days later (Friday) but we got some snow and I decided not to venture out and Jake worked from home. It was a nice relaxing day for me and knowing your husband is around is always great.. I love you babe!

Saturday, our dear friends Jason and Holly hosted a dinner party as a way to get a bunch of us together before we all have our babies (there are 2 other friends in our circle that are due before I am). It was such a fun night. The picture in this post is from that night, as you can tell we dressed up just for fun. We gathered around and enjoyed food and each other's company then we went around and guessed all 3 of our babies birth day and birth weight. On one of my turns I said "I'm guessing 7 ounces" hahahaha it was so funny, ugh I tell you, you really get stupid when pregnant. After that we played Catch Phrase which is always hilarious.

Sunday we went to an amazing church service that was SUCH an encouragement to Jake and I. It was about how we don't need to KEEP asking Jesus into our hearts, as if we are not saved and scared that we've been "exiled". We can have the surety that we are saved, just by even having those thoughts because it shows you are still sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His presence within you. Sometimes we may find ourselves feeling not very holy and like we've lost touch with God, and then we're like "Oh I guess I need to pray a sinners prayer again, just to be sure". No, you don't. I can't even express the awesomeness of how our pastor described it. You can watch it here if you'd like.

After church we had our Hypnobabies class... which again = AMAZING. Gosh, we really love it. We watched some births (even our instructors home birth) and they were all so gentle, relaxing and NOTHING like what you see on TV. No screaming, no "heh heh hoo heh heh hoo" breathing, no counting 1-10 pushing, no one telling them to STOP pushing... just women having their babies, their way, the way their bodies were meant to do it. And since all of them were using Hypnobabies tools, they were all calm, relaxed and hardly even looked like they were giving birth. Add another point to my confidence ;) Curious as to what a Hypnobabies birth can look like? Watch this video (there is NOTHING graphic.. the baby being born isn't shown.. just Mom laboring) It's a 6 minute video, but I'd recommend watching if you're like "what the heck is this Hypnobabies stuff?" It's definitely not my favorite Hypnobabies birth, but it was one of the shortest videos without showing the actual birth for those of you who might be freaked out by that. There are a lot more on YouTube if you'd like to see more.

Another great part of this week was me finally (after months and months of trying) having a coffee date with the girl who got in me interested in Hypnobabies in the first place, Rachel. A little history.. Rachel and I went to high school together and we knew each other, but never hung out or weren't even in the same circle of friends. However, we became Facebook friends at some point and only "knew" each other in that regard. She ended up getting married a year or 2 after me and I could just really tell her and her husband loved the Lord and were just such a cute couple. Then she became pregnant with her little girl, Olive, and started blogging and talking about something called Hypnobabies and the ever-so-scary natural childbirth. Of course I was intrigued, I pretty much stalked her blog and did some of my own research on what Hypnobabies was and quite honestly, wasn't interested (I wasn't even pregnant, just curious). Then the day I was waiting for arrived... Rachel posted her Hypnobabies birth story on her blog and I was so excited to read it, to see if it REALLY worked. It did, and what a great natural birth (in a birth center) she had with a 9lb3oz baby (and homegirl is TINY). Then I found out I was pregnant,  and I was still on the fence about natural vs. medicated birth but when I finally made the choice to go the Birth Center route (where an epidural is not even an option) I immediately reached out to Rachel. I knew that if I was going to do this naturally, I needed something, anything, to help me get through it because God knows I am a huge whimp. So we started conversing a lot via Facebook messaging and kept trying to set up a time to meet, but life always got in the way. Well, the stars aligned this week because we had a great coffee date and talked for an hour and a half about birth, amongst other things. It was such a great time and I really enjoyed picking her brain... she already can't wait to give birth again because that's how amazing Hypnobabies was to her. Add yet another point to my dear confidence.. making a total of 3 points. I'd say it's been a good week!

And tonight (Tuesday) my last day of week 35, we are having our friends Yana and Derek and their *almost* 8 week old little baby over for dinner. It will be a nice time of catching up and of course snuggling a little baby!

I won't bore you anymore with our life! If you chose to skip all that to get to this, I don't blame you ;)

Total weight gain: 23 last time I checked in the morning... it really likes to fluctuate these days. 

Symptoms: heartburn is going to be the death of me, I'm not even kidding. I have no idea how I'm going to deal with it for 4 more weeks!!! Forget all other symptoms of pregnancy, this one has been by far the worst for me and there's really not much you can do to make it go away. 

Maternity clothes: nothing new

Stretch marks: ..... the ONE thing that put a damper on my week. I got a few tiny ones. I knew I wouldn't escape!!!! It could be a lot worse though, but still. I'm pissed. 

Sleep: when boiling hot lava isn't flowing through my chest cavity, I can manage to sleep. I have to put 2-3 pillows under my head to try and prop my head up to "ease" the heartburn.. it only works slightly. Ugh kill me please!

Best moment this week: All the moments listed above!

Miss anything?: not having heartburn, I am so done with this!

Movement: yep! His little foot pokes out all the time. He also raises his little butt up, so adorable.

Food cravings: no

Food aversions: nope

Belly button: there's like a lip at the top, so it's kind of out, but the bottom half is still flat

Wedding ring: still fitting fine

Mood: good!

Looking forward to: my easy, comfortable childbirth :)

Baby bump: I was told by some older ladies "wow you're so small to be due in 4 weeks!" that's a good thing I guess.. I'd rather hear that then "are you sure you aren't carrying twins?" haha I know a lot of you women who have been pregnant have heard that.. I would be enraged!

Ok if you've made it this far... good for you! Haha, until next week! 

-We three Kings