29 Week Update

How far along: 29 weeks 6 days

Size of baby:  Average = 2.5-3.8 lbs, 15"-16.7" long, or the size of an acorn squash, but last week when we saw the paperwork from our 20 week anatomy scan, he or she was in the >97% size percentile, soooooo....!?!

Physical symptoms: Just a bunch of aches and pains. Every morning I wake up with a slightly stiff neck. And headaches like whoa. And back to the constipation. Oh and this is TMI but my nipples have been realllllly dry (and therefore super sore) on and off (for months) so I've been using lanolin cream and that really works wonders. And!!!!!! Good news!!!!!! I FINALLY FOUND RELIEF FROM THE RESTLESS LEGS SYNDROME!!!! It's not an end-all-be-all solution but it's the only thing that's even vaguely worked. I take a shower, then I turn the water on as hot as I can handle and stick my lower legs in it. Sometimes skip the full shower if I already showered that day and I just stretch while the waters runs on my legs. Then I have to get into bed right away (like within 10 mins) and I'm usually able to fall asleep. I got really nervous for Shabbos this week because I wouldn't be able to use the hot water and it was going to be the first night all week that I couldn't do my "trick" until E and I realized we could use our Shabbos hot water urn to fill up a hot water bottle and I ended up going to bed with it between my calves (wrapped in a towel) and while it wasn't as magical as the shower, it got me to sleep!!! So thank Gd for that. I was seriously losing my mind.

Weight gain/loss: According to my home scale I'm still up 22lbs as of yesterday morning and 20lbs on Friday morning. I'm still gonna use the "I'm constipated!" excuse but it's really somewhere around that.

Maternity clothes: Same- mostly maternity shirts, I now have two denim maternity skirts that I've been living in, but other elastic waist skirts and normal nylons still somehow fit. Maternity dresses or old non-maternity empire waist maxi dresses. And I bought a few tank tops with "shelf bras" to sleep in and they're kind of life savers. I need to get some maternity/nursing bras but I'm still gonna push that off for a bit maybe. A few friends recommended the Bravado brand... any other suggestions out there?

Stretch marks: I don't think so. There still might be some thinking about happening on my hips but it's hard to tell.

Sleep: I've been able to stay asleep much better than last week- it must've been the away-from-home factor throwing that off last week. I've even woken up when E's alarm went off, had a mini conversation or even gone to pee, and fallen right back asleep. Amazing. And thanks to that shower trick I'm actually able to vaguely fall asleep when I want to, so, things are great right now. Still exhausted though.

Best moment since last week: Hmmmm. Got breakfast with some friends that were in town from Seattle- that was really nice. And Shabbos was really fun. We got ice cream on Saturday night... We had a pretty chill week; honestly didn't do much at all. I guess I was nesting though, I did about a million loads of laundry and reorganized our dresser. Fun stuff! ;) 

edit! Oh! And my glucose test came back A-OK!!!!! No gestational diabetes for me!! I seriously can't explain how excited and relieved I am!

Movement: He/she has been really active on my left side- sometimes big kicks, sometimes it felt like the baby was sliding a limb along, which was kind of creepy because it felt like worms under my skin or something. Super weird.. E finally witnesses one of the huge kicks and couldn't believe it. Like he was uncharacteristically surprised at what he saw, lol. Today the movement shifted higher, which is interesting. There hadn't previously been much action up there. At a couple of points it felt like the kid was stretching a limb out straight and then just left it stuck out like that for a few seconds. Because we had such a chill week, E spent a lot of time with his hand on my belly and got to feel the baby a lot more that ever before, which was really nice. He sang her/him songs and talked to him/her a lot, which was crazzzzy cute. Oh and the kid seems to get the hiccups a LOT. Last night he/she seemed to have them for like 15 minutes straight and would kick me HARD every few minutes. She/he was clearly not a happy camper, lol.

Cravings/aversions: Bagels with eggs and cheese is still #1. Shirley Temples (but I haven't had any! E got all of the ingredients Saturday night except that the store didn't have grenadine and we were feeling too lazy to make our own- which we actually usually do). I still really like lemonade if it's in front of me but I don't really crave it. I still really just want ice water All. The. Time. And coffee. I really crave coffee, but haven't been drinking it too much (only like 2-3x this week!) because when I get it, it doesn't taste as amazing as I wanted it to and I'm just as tired 20 minutes later as I was before.

Plain Chicken still grosses me out. And most beef. And fish. 

I still really want a root beer. 

Gender: Confirmed!! But Idk if we're going to tell...

Labor signs: Hopefully not anytime soon.

Belly button:  Innie!

What I miss: I'd still love love love like an extra 3 feet worth of internal body space. By 4:30/5pm every day my ribs feel like they're going to crack from the internal pressure. There's just no room. 

And cocktails. I definitely miss cocktails.

What I am looking forward to: Hitting the 30 week mark tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! Going to Canada for a bit sometime in the next month. E's entire family owns a lake cottage up there and E has visited it every summer of his life. :) And we're getting dinner with some friends on Wednesday. And going to visit some friends for Shabbos in a couple of weeks too. Yeehaw!