Maternity portraits

Here are some of my fun maternity pictures :)

Tiffany took these; she and one of her photographer friends Nikki did my pictures a couple weeks ago. I have about half of them back - these are a couple of my favourites!



















I love the way this one turned out; I quasi-stole the idea from one of my friend's engagement photos (though she wasn't prego in hers so it looked a little different...!) Thanks Megan :)








I had a dream a couple nights ago that Mark and I decided to do a 'trial run' of giving birth - which for some reason ended up becoming the actual birth (surprise surprise!) rather than just a practice run! It made me chuckle when I woke up ... but also made me really look forward to getting to meet this baby in 7 or 8 weeks!






So far I haven't had any total strangers come up and rub my belly, which I have been warned several times will start to happen at some point ... but what I do find odd is strangers making predictions about the gender! So far the general consensus of the American public is that we're having a boy - I guess they will just have to wait another month and a half to find out if they were all right!

Spring Break!

I've been counting down the days till spring break for a good few weeks now ... the last couple weeks have been pretty busy ones with school work and rotations. But it keeps the time flying by, and makes me treasure this week off all the more!
It's definitely looking like spring over here - the grass is turning green again, daffodils and that funny purple flower that covers our lawn are out, and the temperature right now - at 6pm - is a gorgeous 81 degrees!

We've had a little bit of time for some fun in between being busy; two of our really good friends Smackey & Megan just got married and we got to help out with the wedding weekend, Mark took me to see a Gordon Lightfoot concert a couple weekends ago (a Canadian singer from my dad's music collection, who I consequently grew up listening to and who has become one of my favourite 'oldies but goodies'!), and I got my maternity photos done today, one of which this one is actually not; I really wanted one like this but we ran out of time today so I did this one myself at home!

Also this week we get to find out where Mark will be starting Residency in the summer. It's a pretty significant event in the life of a medical student, since the Residency program he matches into is where he'll be receiving his speciality training over the next three years. We find out for sure on Thursday where he matched, so we'll be either staying in Tulsa (but probably buying a house rather than staying where we are now) or moving to Wichita, Kansas. OU is hosting a luncheon on Thursday where we'll find out, so we're a little bit pins-and-needlesy this week! By now I'm just ready to know, though ... we've been going back and forth between the two programs he ranked first and second for so long that I just want to know for sure where we're going so I can start planning!

I've started accumulating baby equipment; I have a chest of drawers/ changing table in the garage that I want to repaint while I have some time over spring break, and I'm hoping to buy a crib this week as well. I inherited a couple bags full of infant boy clothes and I'm about to get some girl ones from my sister in law (as soon as her own cute girl grows out of them!), and things like baby baths and bouncy seats and diaper bags (and diapers!) are starting to pile up in the baby room. It's fun to see it all start to accumulate :) I have a couple baby showers on the horizon, which I suspect will increase the amount of baby supplies we have floating around the house!

I can barely believe I'm 31 weeks already; only 8 or 9 left to go, depending on whether or not I need to be induced! At my last OB appointment my doctor said that since my blood glucose levels have been so good and that the baby is weighing in where it should be (rather than getting too big too quickly) he doesn't think he'll have to induce me unless I start going past my due date. The baby weighs a little over 3lbs now, and is approximately 16 inches long.

Mark and I have started going to childbirthing classes, which we're actually enjoying so far; I was a little concerned that it would mainly consist of things we already knew, but we've learned a lot of helpful pointers as far as managing pain without having an epidural (which is, so far, what I'm planning for). The baby is moving around more often, and it's definitely starting to knock the breath out of me! It gets the hiccups nearly every day, which I found funny at first but now makes me feel kind of bad! Poor baby. I've been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, too - never anything regular or painful, just one of the most uncomfortable sensations I've ever had! That's ok, though - it's giving my uterus practice at contracting, and giving the rest of me the chance to practice breathing & relaxation techniques every time I have one! It almost doesn't seem real to me yet that at some point in the not-too-distant future I'm going to actually start having real contractions, go into labour and end up at the hospital with a baby. In a way it seems like I can't possibly have already been pregnant for nearly 40 weeks, but at the same time I feel as though I've been pregnant for so long that that's just how it'll always be...! Not in a bad way; I've loved being pregnant and I think I've had a really good and easy pregnancy (thanks Jesus!). I suppose I'll have to figure out a way to convince myself that it's just a few weeks now until I actually have a baby to look at and touch. Until then I'll just keep stocking up on diapers and onesies and wondering what to do about a name!

27 weeks ... and feeling it!

Well, I've gained an inch or two in circumference and a pound or two in weight since I last posted in January (or about 3 inches and 5 lbs!), and my baby is now the size of a head of cauliflower :) I'll have some real pictures by the end of this week, maybe, but in case I don't get time to post them and this week eats me alive, you'll at least have a visual of *some* kind. I have started clinical rotations again - this semester I have critical care (various intensive care units) and inpatient psych - so in addition to classes two days a week I'm working two 8-hour days at the hospital. I love critical care so I'm enjoying the semester so far ... I'm not so keen on psych, though, so that may be an interesting few weeks. Getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get to the hospital by 6:30 is something I was dreading, but it's actually proving to be pretty manageable - certainly more so than when I was doing it during my first trimester!

Here's how fat I am now ... I had just gotten back from the gym, the effects of which I quickly counteracted with a cookie! However, tasty treats are now a thing of the past because this last week I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes (GDM). The test for it is a routine screening that all pregnant women get and my risk of actually having a positive result was extremely low since I don't have a family history of diabetes (that we know of) and I'm not normally overweight. But sometimes it can just happen. In regular diabetes, the body either doesn't produce enough insulin or can't effectively use the insulin that it does make. Since insulin regulates the amount of glucose in the bloodstream and converts it into energy that cells can use, problems with insulin levels mean that blood sugar levels are too high. Which isn't a serious problem for me - a) because it just means I need to stick to a low-carb/low-sugar diet for the rest of my pregnancy and b) once the baby's born GDM usually goes away - but all of the extra circulating sugar in my bloodstream could mean that our baby grows bigger than it should and has to be delivered by C-section. It might also have some problems regulating its own glucose levels right after it's born, so that's something that will need to be monitored while we're in the hospital. So ... having GDM isn't a huge issue, but it is something that we need to watch and I probably won't be posting any more pictures with cookies!

Other than that, things are progressing the way they should ... the baby moves *all* the time now, and it feels like it's learning to crawl while it's in there! I can feel it bumping into my pelvis and my ribs at the same time, so it's getting pretty long. I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a week or so now, so I guess my uterus is starting to practice for the big day. It doesn't hurt - it does feel very tight and uncomfortable, though! I'm starting to need pillows to prop my belly up while I sleep; I can only sleep on my side, which makes my belly fall down to the side I'm sleeping on - if this sounds at all comfortable, be assured that it's not!
Ha - I'm finding myself falling into that 'mother-pattern' of talking about children - the ones who spend 15 minutes complaining about all the back-breaking, thankless work it is to raise them, and then end the paragraph with, "... but it's so worth it!" We had a quick ultrasound a couple weeks ago and got to see the baby sucking its little thumb and yawning at us - seeing that totally made me forget how uncomfortable I was feeling laying there on my back with my huge uterus pressing down on my spine!

The other significant thing that has happened since my last post is that we asked our very good friends Kris and Nicole to be our baby's godparents. We actually only met them less than a year ago, but our friendship with them is one of those rare gifts that you don't stumble upon very often. We love spending time with them and really want our baby to grow up knowing and loving them too ... so luckily they said yes when we asked them to be godparents! This is me & Nicole on the most beautiful day in the history of February days (yup, that's a tank top ... and yes I was wearing flip-flops!), and the one on the left is one of Kris & Nicole that I stole from her facebook :) Kris is a doctor at Mark's dad's residency program (the one that keeps sneaking me in for extra ultrasounds!), and Nicole is on the same nursing course that I am. Mark and I are trying to convince them that they should move to Ethiopia and start a hospital with us when we're all done with school :)

Speaking of school ... that's definitely something I should get to work on now. I may be having another ultrasound at the end of this week so hopefully I'll have some more pictures to post here soon!