Twenty nine weeks today - I’ve got about eleven weeks to go before my due date, but somehow I think the alien inside is going to want to make an early appearance.

An update on the general state of things ’round these parts:

Diabetes. Managed incredibly well, although probably as a freak result of pregnancy and not much (well, maybe some) to do with my own intervention. I am continually surprised every morning that my fasting blood sugars are so low, but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Josh mentioned this to his mom (who will be serving as my birth advocate during the actual event) and she said that when she was pregnant and diagnosed with gestational diabetes, her blood sugar was high only for that test and pretty consistently low afterward. Me and Metformin, we’ll be hanging out together here till the bitter end. Reminds me, I have to ask the doctor about Metformin and…

Breastfeeding. Josh and I went to a breastfeeding basics class at the hospital, and aside from a woman who was totally annoying the crap out of me* (really, people, there IS such a thing as a stupid question - the one that was asked and answered moments before your highness decided to ask hers) and bringing up negative experience after negative experience (I wanted to put her in the corner with her nose touching the wall), it was a good experience. Not that I think breastfeeding is easy by any means, but I’m not as intimidated by it as I was before.

I don’t think I mentioned this here, but Josh was (and is) the huge advocate for breastfeeding here - very supportive and encouraging. It’s not that I didn’t want to - I just haven’t really ever seen anyone do it before. The hospital where I’ll be delivering (crossing fingers; I have mad visions of a taxi cab birth) is really lactation-friendly, with daily classes and daily consultations to help new moms along.

Baby Movement. The child is definitely growing inside (see: pictures above). Yesterday at the breastfeeding class, as I sat, I could feel him doing somersaults, or at least trying to, given the space he’s got in there is increasingly compact. I feel somewhat small-ish for seven months pregnant, and at the same time, I fear for what I will look in just two months. Aiee. Baby also likes to kick and elbow my bladder, and what I think is my cervix, which during some conversations, is strong enough to render me breathless for a moment. Right now, he’s strong enough that sometimes with a good kick, if I’m sitting perfectly still, my body will shake with its force. He also likes to lodge a leg or arm directly underneath a rib, so moving it out of the way to be able to breathe comfortably is a necessity now.

Baby Positioning. I have no idea how this child is sitting on a regular basis, except it seem like he’s mostly doing everything he can to squash my bladder, and sometimes almost painfully so. Yesterday, within the span of ten minutes, I went to the bathroom three times in an effort to relieve some pressure on my bladder, but it was just plain painful. Walking hurt. Amusingly enough the thing that helped to relieve some of that pain was drinking more water and then trying for the bathroom again.

Strep Throat. I’m finishing up this round of antibiotics, and just starting to feel remotely human again, except I have a really busy week ahead of me, given that I was out sick for most of last week. Strength, I need strength!

Mirror, in picture above. Still not clean. Waiting for nesting urge to clean or to call someone to come and get it cleaned, along with the fine sheen of doghaircarpet we’ve got going on here as well (we are planning on getting our carpet steam cleaned before the baby’s arrival, and splurging for a cleaning crew to come in and do a major onceover for our apartment before he makes his grand appearance - with grandparents!)

***

Slowly but surely we’re getting things in order at casa cajo. I preregistered for the hospital, and all I have to do is fax in my insurance cards. We registered for another class - about caring for newborns - those happen next week (and the following week as well). S from work is planning a baby shower for Thursday, which should be fun. I finally finished putting the baby’s dresser together, which for a piece of IKEA furniture took much longer than it should have (requiring a pair of needle-nosed pliers and taking some pieces apart before putting them back together again). I want the baby to cook inside for as long as it needs, but as the end draws near, I find myself getting more and more anxious for his arrival.

*And can’t you tell? Pregnancy has not made me nicer, by any stretch of the imagination.