Week Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three & Thirty-Four

I'm feeling huge. Which scares me a bit because I am so not huge and still have a ways to go.

Physical therapy has made a huge difference for my back, and the doctor has even prescribed massage therapy for me to help my back even more. I am definitely not complaining about that!

The baby is still nicely head-down, and I hope he stays that way. His bottom is pushing against my belly kind of below my sternum if that makes sense. He moves enough now that my whole belly sometimes shifts & bulges, which is just weird.

I can tell he's getting bigger because he's crowding out my lungs - I'm having a terrible time breathing and the doctor says it may get worse before it improves. I definitely understand now why women are so relieved when the baby drops, and it's not just because it's a sign that there isn't much longer until the baby arrives.

My energy level is basically nonexistant (hence the very very sporadic blogging). If I go to work, I am just about worthless once I get home. Weekends when I'm not at work I've been trying to use my limited energy to get work done around the house.

Speaking of work around the house, my desk has finally been moved out of what will be the nursery, so this coming weekend we hope to get the crib set up. There's a love seat in there that will have to go downstairs, but L has to find some help with that since I can't. Then there's a rocker/recliner downstairs that needs to come upstairs to go into the baby's room that would also probably be easier if he has help too.

I signed up for doula services at the hospital. The way their program works is they will match me with an available doula, we'll have a meeting with her to make sure we get along, and assuming we do, that's who we'll stay in touch with until we call her to say I'm in labor. The program coordinator asked me a slew of questions to get an idea of what I'm like and which doula will probably be the best fit. I'm waiting for a call back from the coordinator with the meeting date & time.

L & I are halfway through our classes - we're taking a series of 4 childbirth prep and basic baby care courses, then a course on natural labor & one on breastfeeding. All we've done so far are the first three of the series, but we'll have the final three in 7 days - Tuesday the 26th (natural labor), Thursday the 28th (#4 of the series - on basic baby care), and Monday the 1st (breastfeeding). So far the classes have been great - the instructor has been fantastic. We'll have different instructors for the Tuesday & Monday classes, and I hope we get as good of an instructor in those two. So far we've covered labor, relaxation & comfort measures, and the medical side of childbirth (drugs & c-sections basically). And a tour of the maternity ward & a view of the rooms which are AMAZING. I'll have the same room for my entire stay - labor, delivery & recovery. They're very very nice & I've heard the setup at the other hospital we almost went to are nowhere near as good so I'm glad we went where we did.

We had another shower this past weekend - L's coworkers & friends. It was a couples shower & it ended up being a lot of fun. The hosts had a baseball them for it and I was very impressed with how they carried the theme through the entire event. The invitations were super cute and so was the "concession" stand with all the food. Now I'm just trying to get up the energy to write the thank you notes. Maybe I can convince L that he should write some too (or instead) since they're from his friends & coworkers...