28 Weeks

Hello third trimester!  I am finally, legitimately, here.  Damn, pregnancy lasts a long ass time.  If Gizmo is four days late or more (which I suspect he may be) then I will have been pregnant in all four seasons consecutively.

And the trimesters don't make any sense!  I was like "yay I'm pregnant" and from that moment I only had about eight weeks before I was telling people I was pregnant, even if I didn't really consider myself in the second trimester until week 14.  But the wait between second trimester and third trimester is crazy.  Fourteen weeks compared to eight to ten.  Now, I only have twelve to go!

We had a nice long weekend in Vermont from Thursday til Monday, for a winter music festival put on by our favorite band.  For the first time all pregnancy I felt good enough to stand up for an entire two hour show.  I was right up front so the guitarist even offered me a chair but I soldiered on.  At the end of the show, we got our own shout out from the band because it was H's 75's show, my 56th and Gizmo's 19th.  Yes, our fetus has been to 19 shows in just 23 weeks of gestation.  He's much cooler than most people.  Sadly, it will be his last on the inside.  I'm not sure when we'll be able to go to a show again since he'll be so young during the summer tour and I don't know the rules about crowds and vaccinations.  Hopefully we'll still go to a couple of local free concerts.

We stayed in a nice little bed and breakfast and met up with some friends.  And we met with a local photographer to have a maternity photo shoot!  I'm a few weeks shy of your standard maternity shoot but I wanted to have some winter pictures taken with snow in the background since we already have nice springtime pics from our engagement session and summer pictures from our wedding.  So far I've only seen one of the pictures but I LOVE it and can't wait to see more.

How Far Along: 28 weeks.
Size of baby: Baby is the size of an eggplant.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm a medical marvel.  I feel really fat but I am down a pound this week.  Perhaps my scale is broken?  One above pre-IVF weight.  More on this below.
Workouts: Lots of walking around on our long weekend in Vermont.
Maternity Clothes: I have discovered maternity leggings and I love them!  I also said leggings were not pants and mocked those who wore them, but I regret my wicked ways.  Leggings are the new pants.
Gender: It's a boy!
Movement: A few times a day he is pretty active but still not enough for the "kick counts" I've read about.

Sleep: Awful, reflux sucks so hard.
What I miss: Not having reflux at night.

Cravings: None.

Symptoms: Reflux!  I am off to get some Prilosec or something because the Zantac 75 is not cutting it.

Anxiety Level: Better.  I actually have a lot of thoughts on this to share but too lengthy to do in this post.

Best Moment this week: Chilling in Vermont!

Reading: After a long hiatus I am back to reading Bringing Up Bebe.

Dad is: Waiting to hear back from a second job interview.  He's not too jazzed about it but maybe the details will sway him.

 

Somehow I forgot to share this in the last update but we had an ultrasound at 26 weeks, 1 day to check out Gizmo's heart.  I have some heart problems in my family medical history that aren't serious but my OB wanted to err on the side of caution.  All is well thankfully and Gizmo is definitely a boy!  I, however, vomited on the table because laying on my back for twenty minutes is no bueno.

Ok, so I need to talk about the weight thing.  I'm feeling sort of guilty about not gaining anything and hearing everyone say how great and healthy I look.  In a way, I'm happy to hear people think I look good.  Who wouldn't be? But, I'm still easily twenty five pounds overweight and haven't received a compliment on my body in who knows how long, so hearing them often when I've done exactly nothing to deserve it (and I'm still overweight) weirds me out.  Today a male coworker said "you're doing a great job carrying."  Like it's a job?  Gah.  This is a first world problem, I realize.  But what should I say to that?  "I'm glad the redistribution of my excess weight has played out in a measure that is pleasurable to you?"  Stop talking about my body, freaks!  I don't even know you!

At the same time, I hope I look hot in the rest of my maternity pics.  Because, really, pregnancy is long and sometimes hard so I'll take whatever happiness I can get.  

 

Pictured (top left) is the same dress I wore at twenty two weeks, sixteen weeks, ten weeks, and four weeks.  I didn't set out to wear the same dress every six weeks but once I realized it had happened last time I figured I would keep it up.  I wonder if this dress will still fit at 34 weeks?

Like I said, more on this later, but I am just really happy to be feeling good and not anxious even as I get closer to the end.  It gives me hope that maybe the whole newborn stage won't be as scary as I fear.  My birth month board is full of posts like "been awake for an hour and haven't felt the baby kick, should I call the doctor or just go to the Emergency Room?" and I'm like "really?  Just chill, Mama."  Hopefully I can take some of my own advice in the weeks to come.