I haven't written in a while and now I'm 39 weeks pregnant!!! What?? I can't believe it! The baby could come any time!
I didn't write posts all along like I had planned but that's ok! Today I'll write about things we've done, classes we've taken, products I've liked, how I've felt, etc. throughout the past nine months.
Alex and I have taken a lot of classes together to get ready for the baby! We took three classes through my insurance: one about labor and birth, one about once the baby is born and at home, and a breastfeeding class. We also took an infant care class, infant CPR, and a tour, all at the hospital where the baby will be born. These classes have been so helpful and I think we feel a lot more ready since we've taken them.
We have had so much fun getting ready for the baby to come! Sweet family members threw us two virtual baby showers and those were such a blast! I can't believe all of the wonderful presents we got from family and friends! Alex and I have put together furniture, rearranged our room, and just had a great time getting everything perfect for when baby gets here :)
Alex has taken pictures of my every single Wednesday starting at 12 weeks (which is when we told our families that we were pregnant!) and it has been so fun to see me grow!
Here I am at week 12 and week 39 (yesterday)!!
He also took some maternity pics of me at a pretty park near us. He's the best!
I really have felt pretty darn good overall and I feel super lucky about that! In the first trimester I definitely felt nauseous (pretty much constantly - ick!) and I had basically no appetite/things that I normally love sounded horrible, but I didn't really get sick like I know a lot of people do. Other than the nausea, during the first several months the main symptom was that my boobs hurt SO. BAD. Luckily that eventually (after what felt like forever) mostly went away!! That was probably the worst symptom for me out of everything.
In the second trimester, I think the symptoms I noticed the most were round ligament pain and my feet hurting really bad for a period of time. I couldn't even walk around the apartment without wearing super cushion-y shoes/slip ons! Luckily that has gone away. Also, around this time my shoulders started to hurt a lot, especially when sleeping (or trying to sleep) and that hasn't really gone away. I think I've just gotten used to it!
During this final trimester, the worst symptoms have definitely been heartburn (thank goodness for Zantac - thanks for the tip, Kate and Christi!!) and what is basically pregnancy carpal tunnel. The heartburn comes pretty much at the same time every day no matter what I eat/don't eat. Ever since my doctor told me I could take something other than Tums (why did I wait so long??) and I heard that Zantac was a life saver, it has been SO much better. As far as my hands and wrists go, they have been so swollen and painful for a month or two! Luckily (I guess?) I've had more of the pain and less of the numbness and tingling, but it's just inconvenient and uncomfortable. I've heard that it should go away pretty quickly after the baby is born.
I have tried to stay as active as I can! I kept going to super fun classes at Movement Lab (up until about a month ago) and those were great, of course. Because I like lists and I write down everything I do in my planner(s), I know I went to 66 classes there while I was pregnant! I most often took Jazz, Nia, and Hip Hop. I also took some Broadway Dance, Bollywood, and Qigong classes. I'm so glad I was able to go to so many and keep moving throughout my pregnancy. I think that has helped so much.
Speaking of moving, a new thing I started doing (at around 20 weeks) was taking prenatal yoga classes at The Womb Room.
It's an amazing studio about 5 minutes from our apartment that has prenatal, postpartum, and baby yoga classes, workshops about all things birth and babies, etc. I love it there SO much and the classes every week have been wonderful, physically and otherwise. At the beginning of each class, we go around and talk about how we're feeling (or anything else we want). It's so nice to hear about how everybody is doing each week and see them get bigger and closer to having their babies! It is crazy that now I am the farthest along in the class :) As of today, I've gone to 21 classes there. We'll see if I can make it to any more before the baby comes!
There are some things I've used/worn throughout the pregnancy that I've really liked. My cousin sent me this adorable gift from the brand Earth Mama and I love everything in it! My favorites are the Belly Butter and Belly Oil. Their products are made with organic and safe ingredients. I've ordered some other things for me for after I have the baby, too, and I'm excited to try them!
My skin has been itchy, probably mostly because it's getting colder and drier, and this lotion has been great.
My back hurts occasionally, especially if I'm just sitting, and I ordered this belly band and it seems to help! It also just gives me a little support so standing up and walking around are easier. Actually receiving it was quite the adventure (thank you, Alex, for making so many phone calls to make sure one actually got here!!!) but since I got it I've used it a lot!
I've slept with a body pillow (just a regular, non-pregnancy one) every night for months and that has really helped with being more comfortable. The hardest part about sleeping, especially these last several weeks, is rolling from one side to the other!!
Here are some brands of maternity clothes that I've been given and/or bought!
Ingrid and Isabel (from Target)
Motherhood Maternity
New Recruit (from the BX in Tucson)
Old Navy
A Pea in the Pod
Maternity clothes are fun and comfy and I've worn the heck out of them!
We've also done a lot of fun things not related to pregnancy. We've had a lot of family come to visit which has been so fun! Some were here before we told anybody I was pregnant! We're sneaky :)
We got to go to my cousin's wedding in St. Louis this summer which was very fun. On that trip we got to meet my cousins' new baby!
Two of my friends and another of my cousins had their babies in the last few months! They are all sooo cute and I have loved hearing about how things are going for them!
Alex defended his dissertation and is now Dr. McCourt!! This was just last month and I am sooo proud of him! Family came to watch and celebrate and it was such a great day!
There have also been a few things we've had to miss or stop doing for a while. My brother got married last month and while we were so sad to miss it (it just would have been too far to go too close to the end of the pregnancy), it was the perfect day and we have loved seeing the beautiful pictures and hearing all about it!!
Photos by my cousin Izel at Zelly Photography!
We were both supposed to be in the wedding so we we put on our outfits and celebrated even though we couldn't be there!
I slowly stopped doing standardized patient work over the last couple of months once it was very obvious I was pregnant. For many of the cases I do, physical exams are involved and I didn't want to get abdominal exams while pregnant! It was nice, though, that there were some cases I got to do recently where it didn't matter that I was pregnant.
For now, I've also stopped working at the desk at Movement Lab, helping the woman I usually help about once a week, doing improv with Charm City Comedy Project, and volunteering at the Teacher Supply Swap. These are things that I will probably eventually do again! We'll see!
This is long! I could keep writing about things forever but I'm glad I at least wrote this much because who knows when the baby will come and when I'll write on here next! We are so excited for our sweet baby to get here!
Thanks for reading!
