29 Weeks

Thankfully, this week has been much less eventful than last week! I don't think I have enough stamina for another super-busy week. My semester at work is winding down (at least my responsibilities with teaching, anyway), so that helps a lot. It's also a relief to know that I won't really have that many responsibilities at the beginning of the summer semester, either...since I'll be on maternity leave for the majority of that one! I'm ready for some time to relax before Sprout gets here!
Here's the latest belly picture...this was taken at 29 weeks, 3 days. I don't really feel like my belly is getting that much bigger from week to week, but it must be, because my belly button is sticking out more and more!

We met again on Monday night for our Empowered Birth class. I'm really enjoying the class, and I think that it's definitely well worth the money spent. Angela does such a great job of presenting the material, and I know that I've learned a lot already, just in the last two weeks. I'm looking forward to future classes. This week, we talked about what happens (physically) during labor, and next week, I think we'll learn more about positions for labor. We didn't have another crunchy-granola relaxation session this week, and I know David was relieved about that!

On Monday and for most of Tuesday, I had tons of Braxton-Hicks contractions. It seemed like every single time I stood up/got up, I had one, and I had lots of random ones in between. On Tuesday morning, I pretty much felt like I was just having one looooooong contraction. They didn't hurt at all, but it there were a lot more than I'd ever experienced in that short of a time frame. I also hadn't been feeling Sprout move very much over those two days. And it didn't help that the previous week in our childbirth class we'd talked about signs of premature labor. So on Tuesday afternoon, I was "that crazy pregnant lady" and called the doctor's office. I spoke with a nurse who listened to me patiently and assured me that what I was telling her sounded very normal for a woman who is 29 weeks pregnant. She asked me to drink more water and to take it a little easy. She also told mIe that as long as I was feeling some kind of movement every hour, then things were probably okay, but that if I went an hour with no movement, to call them back. Luckily, after I had lunch, guzzled water, and stayed off my feet for awhile, things started to get back to normal. The rest of this week, Sprout has been his/her normal busy self, and I've had very few of those BH contractions. I guess it was just one of those things I'll have to get used to in these last months of pregnancy. But I don't feel badly for calling the doctor...I'd rather call and let them think I'm crazy, than not call and have something bad happen.

One of the best things about this week has been the fact that I'm sleeping so much better! I guess my body has finally adapted to side sleeping! It seems like now I'm only waking up once a night, if that. It's made such a difference in how I feel during the day!

The only other excitement we've had this week has been the addition of the glider to the nursery. It's really starting to come together now. I still need to get curtains, French door curtains, shelving, storage, and paint the quote over the crib, but it's feeling much more doable. I'll try to remember to take some pictures to post soon.