Baby Starks: Week 29

Hello friends, and welcome to the third trimester!

How big is the baby?

Baby is now the length of a pineapple.

Let’s read that again.

A PINEAPPLE.

That’s huge. OMG.

And my apps tell me that he won’t actually get too much longer than this by delivery time, but instead will mostly be putting on fat and muscle from here on out. He probably weighs close to 3 pounds now, too. Chunky monkey!

And as you can kind of tell from the photo, I’m starting to outgrow some of my maternity shirts. Since I’m stingy and I don’t want to spend money on tops I’m only going to wear for a couple more months, I’ve taken to wearing some of Robbie’s t-shirts when I know I’m not going anywhere. My current favorite is apparently one that Robbie’s had since he was like 14, which he finds rather amusing. I just care that it’s big and it’s super soft!

How am I feeling?

Honestly, I’m mostly just exhausted these days. I had a rough week of sleeping again last week, and I just can’t seem to catch up… I’ll take all the naps I can get, please. The heartburn seems to have settled down, for now, but I’m still having a lot of numbness in my right hand, especially in the mornings. Otherwise, I actually feel pretty good most of the time!

What’s new?

Baby has been moving like crazy for a while now, but those kicks are getting stronger and more frequent every day. His favorite time to move around seems to be bedtime, too, because as soon as I lie down it’s like a Bruce Lee movie is happening in there! His movements have also become more than just kicks and punches, and now I’m feeling more sweeping, pushing movements, too. I wonder if he feels like he’s running out of room! The sensation is honestly pretty strange, and I often giggle when it happens.

Also, I’m pretty sure that I can tell he’s positioned transverse (sideways) right now. I get stronger, more kick-like sensations against my right side, and softer, more sweeping, hand-like motions against my left, sometimes at the same time. It’s all good, just as long as he turns himself head down sometime in the next 11 weeks!

As expected, I was also diagnosed with gestational diabetes last week. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster, too, trying to figure out what I can and cannot eat. I was actually getting pretty frustrated and even wound up in tears last week, when even my best food choices were still giving me high glucose readings. I had my first appointment at the diabetes clinic last Friday, and was sharing my frustrations with the dietician when she told me that the meter I’ve been using is well-known for reading high. She gave me a different brand of meter to try, and imagine my surprise when the two meters were more than 20 points different off the same drop of blood! Since then I’ve been testing the two meters against each other, and the new meter is consistently lower every time.

It’s been a major relief to have a more accurate meter. Now I know that I can actually eat some of the things that I didn’t think I could! I was also a little outraged to find this out about my old meter, though, because there was a very good chance that I would have wound up on medication with the numbers I had been getting. And considering that my fasting glucose has actually been more like 75-85 and not 105, that actually could have been dangerous, too! So, PSA, if you’re using the OneTouch Verio, I’d highly recommend talking to your doctor about trying a different brand. It might make a difference for you, too.

In other news, my baby shower is this weekend! I’m getting very excited, especially about seeing my family. I hope to have some pictures to share for the next post. 🙂

And with that I’ll say adios until next time! Have a great rest of your week. 🙂

 

Advertisement

Baby Starks: Week 27

Hello friends! It’s week 27, so please join me in doing a little happy dance for the last week of the second trimester!

How big is baby?

Baby is the size of a papaya, about 14 inches long, and weighs in at around 2 pounds this week! That’s around 1 kilogram, which my NICU friends can agree is a big milestone!  And I don’t doubt that he really is that big, as my belly keeps getting bigger and bigger every day. As my friend, Savannah, so eloquently described her own baby bump… it’s beginning to feel like it’s leading me around, haha!

How am I feeling?

For the most part, I don’t feel too bad these days. Heartburn is a constant, no matter what I eat. It does make me pretty grumpy at times, because it just will. not. go. away. But I am sleeping better since my last post, for whatever reason, and that has definitely helped with all of the negative emotions I had been struggling with.

Other minor complaints include having intermittent numbness in my right hand. This has been going on for a few months now, and when it first started it only seemed to occur when I had my arm bent for long periods of time, like sleeping with my hand behind my head. But lately it’s been happening at more random and inconvenient times, like when I’m bagging a baby at work or writing something down. Weekly trips to the chiropractor have helped a little bit, thankfully.

Also, some of those pesky complications I’ve been so worried about are starting to pop up. I have my fasting glucose test tomorrow, and, mostly out of curiosity, I’ve been testing my glucose at home intermittently this week… and based on the readings I’ve been getting, I’m 99% sure I’m going to get the official gestational diabetes diagnosis when I go in. I was all prepared to resist the constant stream of treats in the break room at work, but I have to be honest… the high reading after eating a protein-heavy breakfast burrito this morning surprised me. Looks like no more flour tortillas for me. It’s going to be an interesting next few months, for sure.

I’m also trying to keep a close eye on my blood pressure. It’s actually been low for most of my pregnancy so far, but it’s started creeping up to normal and sometimes even high-normal numbers in the last couple of weeks. And I know that now is the time when we can start really seeing it climb. So I’m watching it closely, and mentally preparing myself to give up my one daily cup of coffee that gets me through the afternoon slump. Sigh.

Other fun things?

Robbie and I went on a quick, sort of impromptu “babymoon” a couple weekends ago. We had already planned on going to see the SF Giants play the Braves that Sunday, but Saturday afternoon, after we dropped James off with his mom, we decided to go spend the night in the city just because. We drove up beautiful highway 1, and spent the night at the fun, very modern Aloft hotel. It was nice to be able to sleep in and not worry about hustling to get to the game in time. We even got to the park early enough to walk around and check out parts we’d never seen before. We had splurged on awesome, club-level seats, and the view was amazing! And the game was awesome, too… especially that epic 8-run 7th inning. In the end, it seemed worth every penny.

We are also starting to get some really fun baby gifts! Including some really adorable Harley clothes like this one from (guess who!) my mom and Scott. And I’m getting super excited about seeing my family for my baby shower in just 2 weeks, eek!

Meanwhile I’ll just be here, growing away…

…see you next time!