#33week bumpie. Enjoy my messy bathroom.

Well the countdown is on… baby Shea will be joining us so soon! Our due date is July 21 so we are in the final stretch. Lil dude is very active. I swear he has the hiccups at least 3x/day. He is tracking exactly to his due date, so we guess he will be average size. My blood pressure is normal, weight gain on track. All in all, fortunately very uneventful so far! Thank God. 🙏

Check out those swollen feet and ankles! :) Pufffffy!

We just came back from an epic family vacation/babymoon, a European river cruise. We hit up 4 countries and did a lot of walking, but everything was great! The biggest issue was some feet and ankle swelling.

Reflecting on this pregnancy, I realized it mostly has brought out the more chill side of my personality. I haven’t stressed overly about what to eat (but don’t worry I did plenty of research about it first! :)), and occasionally will indulge in a glass of wine. But at times, I wonder if I’ve done baby a disservice by not being hyper-vigilant. For instance, should I have changed my water filter on my fridge? Should I have really tried to stay away from dairy and refined sugars? Should I have exercised more vigorously? These questions plague me, often, but mostly I hope that my more laissez-faire approach will affect him positively through his demeanor. This sums up pretty accurately how I feel like this pregnancy has been more mentally challenging than physically. Yes, the physical changes are hard, but nothing compared to knowing that everything I do for the rest of my life will affect this kid. Sheesh. This is why we waited awhile before embarking on the parenthood train!

Currently, I am doing a lot of thinking about the birth plan. Doula or no doula? Epidural or try to go natural? My doctors have a very low c-section rate, which is important to me. If I have to have one, of course, let’s do it, but I really only want that if it is absolutely medically necessary. There are so many little details that go into it, I want to have a clear head while I can, knowing we are making the right moves for the little guy.

The other big thing is getting the nursery set up. We have to move a lot of furniture and junk currently in the room. So while we have a crib and lots of baby gear in there- we can’t really get set up until we get the other beds and desks out. If anyone has any organizational recommendations, I would seriously appreciate it! Cleaning is not a strong suit of mine.

Current symptoms:

Feet swelling. This was particularly bad when we were on our Euro trip last week. The plane made them huge! They almost didn’t fit in my shoes!
Running hot. It’s been so weird going from someone who was always cold to always hot. My hands, my feet, ice water is my new BFF. Summer is going to be fun!
Waking up. If I don’t wake up several times in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, that’s a win. It isn’t so bad except for when I can’t fall back to sleep right away. Pretty standard, but only getting worse I’m afraid.
Weight gain, duh. I’m at a little less than 30 lbs from my starting weight as of today (doc says less, I’m not complaining!). For not really trying to manage it–I’m happy with it. It’s weird feeling just letting my stomach takeover, but I’m kinda loving it.
Acid Reflux. I used to think this was something that could be avoided, but apparently the relaxin hormone that “relaxes” the muscles to make room for babe also relax the sphincter (the lid between the stomach and esophagus), allowing stomach acid to make it’s way north. So really if it’s going to happen to you, it’s going to happen. This has gotten progressively worse with time. So hello, Tums!
Hormonal emotions are back. I cried at the end of Pitch Perfect this week. Yeah, new low. 🤦🏻‍♀️😅

So that’s it for the current update! Apologies if I have been as present with the wedding content, my head is just in baby land right now. :) Thanks for following along on this journey! -AHS