32...

Okay, I will be really really glad for this week in pregnancy to be over. Everything is fine, but I am HUGE, HUGE, HUGE and pretty much constantly uncomfortable and/or in pain. I know this is totally normal, but it's still not pleasant. My lower back hurts, my abdomen hurts, my bladder hurts, my hoo ha hurts (I know, TMI, but just keepin' it real). I seriously have to pee constantly and would gladly move myself into the bathroom at home and at work just to save myself the trouble of having to haul my big a$$ to and fro.

Hudson is still "sitting" very high, which makes breathing a challenge, especially when I'm trying to go to sleep. Laying on one side will be okay for 30 minutes, then I'll have to switch sides, which is effort in and of itself. Getting off the couch or out of bed (which I do about 15 times a night) without pain and difficulty? Yeah, doesn't happen. And getting off the couch without help is a thing of yesteryear.

I had a dinner/movie date with my best friend last week and she had all kinds of pregnancy questions for me. Like...is it hard to go to the bathroom? I started laughing because I knew what she really wanted to ask - how hard is it to wipe your butt these days? I told her that it was beyond difficult, but still doable. Lately thought, wiping causes me to grunt, which I'm sure my coworkers who happen to be in the public bathroom with me probably find disconcerting. Whatevs.

Speaking of disconcerting, Chad got to see Hudson's sweet in utero dance moves over the weekend. He asked me in a semi-horrified voice, "WHAT is he doing in there?!" I wish I knew, honey, I wish I knew. What I do know is that he sometimes tries to Jackie Chan me in the bladder, but misses and nails my crotch. That's pleasant.

So in spite of the stretch marks, huge veiney boobs with dinner plate nipples, dry skin, double chin, aches and pains and exhaustion, we're doing good! Whoever insinuated that pregnancy was glamorous, fun, or enjoyable was obviously smoking crack.

Cheers to week 33!

Who Knew?

I feel like pregnancy is full of so many moments that make you question your sanity, your decision making skills, and whether or not God was POSITIVE that you would make make a good parent when He allowed the egg and sperm to meet.

This week has been so full of those moments - aka, hormonal overload. Let me just preface this by saying that I am not THAT great at making decisions. But up until now, those decisions have just been what we're going to eat at night. Since I got pregnant, I've been making decisions that directly affect my baby's life and I really feel like I've taken it to a whole new (and unhealthy) level.

I am placing the blame solely on the baby books. It seems like you really need to follow them, even above the advice of others because THAT makes perfect sense. I started reading the baby books right after the pregnancy test turned pink, so I've had 8 whole months of OCD overload on various baby products. The first terrifying hurdle was the car seat selection. Infant or convertible? Graco or Britax? Paper or plastic? (We decided on the Britax Chaperone.) And then, of course, was the stroller freak out of 2011 (we decided on the Britax B-Agile after trying out everything from the uber expensive Uppa Baby to the City Mini Jogger ). I spent an ungodly amount of time scouring the Internet for reviews, price checks, new product roll outs...and I've done this on virtually ever major baby product I've put on my registry. I kid you not. Every item has been thoroughly researched to death and caused major panic attacks that I'm going to permanently scar my kid because I chose the wrong bottle (we chose Born Free) or pacifier (lots of choices here, from Born Free to MAM to Nuk - just so he has a variety). I'm still freaked out about the mattress choice we made because it wasn't $300. Will it be worthy to hold Hudson's head? This is seriously my thought process. Ridiculous.

So the latest baby product freak out? The swing or bouncer debate. More specifically - I have registered for the 2011 MamaRoo, a $240 purchase. We still need to buy the stroller, breast pump (Medela Free Style), baby carrier (Ergo), and travel crib (Baby Bjorn). None of these are cheap. And I've heard so many mixed reviews on the MamaRoo. What if Hudson hates it, despite it's readiness to connect to my iPhone so he can chill with some sweet baby lullabies by The Stones? Yes it's very cool looking, but will it be comfortable to him? And if I don't do a MamaRoo, what is my other option?

This has COMPLETELY taken over Week 31 of Kelley's Pregnancy. Hopefully Week 32 will present a decision. Stay tuned.

3-0

No, I'm not in my dirty thirties yet. But my uterus is! I will actually be 31 weeks tomorrow, but I wanted to capture this week because it's been so busy and fun with snatches of annoying and obnoxious thrown in for good measure.

Hudson is doing well. We had our bi-weekly check up last Wednesday and everything is measuring on time, weight is good, blood pressure is good, and feet are slightly swollen. I am such a firm believer that you speak things into existence because the nurse at the doctor's office told me my feet were slightly swollen (I hadn't noticed it, but then again, I can't see my feet real well these days) and by the time I got home I looked like I had elephantitis of the foot. Just the one foot. Not AT ALL attractive, but it did go away. I have been worried about dealing with post-partum depression because of my past history with GAD and OCD and talked with my OB about it. I had considered natural alternatives, including encapsulating my placenta (just google it, it's real and it's also semi-disgusting), but she said we could just up my dosage of Zoloft to ward off any craziness. Bless her. She's just a few weeks behind me in her own pregnancy and was rocking the cutest zebra print heels and I am waddling around in my Rainbow flip flops. Some women can do it all.

I had a fabulous baby shower thrown in my honor by one of my mom's closest friends on Sunday afternoon. Aunt Jan is a caterer as well as the Martha Stewart of her neighborhood and she hosted all of us at her home with a spread of food that would make Gordon Ramsay proud. I'm talking homemade baked brie, homemade spinach dip, homemade crab salad, homemade chicken salad on croissants...oh I was in HEAVEN. And I was spoiled rotten by the gifts - so many things I registered for, adorable outfits, a beautiful bank from Hudson's godmother, layette items from Ralph Lauren (thanks Mom), a handmade crocheted blankie that made me cry...I was shocked at the presents! I am so appreciative to everyone who came and celebrated Hudson with us. His closet and dresser are overflowing with the cutest clothes, we have all of his kitchen things put away in their respective spots, and the car seat is in my car (not installed, I'm not that on top of things). I am so excited to get to use all these little gadgety things - like the Baby Bullet for making baby food when the time comes. Bless him, he's not even here yet and he's got territory marked in our house. :)

So this week I've been running back and forth between jury duty and work, which has been both boring and expensive in gas, since I work in Greenville and jury duty is all the way in downtown Spartanburg. I haven't even been picked and I've had to endure some of the nastiest bathrooms in the Upstate. I'd rather pee in a bush outside than have to go inside the courthouse bathrooms. Yuck.

Week 31 starts tomorrow. I can't believe Hudson will be full term in just 6 short weeks. And I can't believe that I have to deal with nonstop urination for that long (or longer). I'm just going to wear Depends.

Results Are In...

So after a weekend that included nothing good for my sugar levels - including making homemade apple muffins for breakfast on Sunday - I finally heard from my lab tech. No gestational diabetes (or diabetus as our friend Bret Michaels says)! I have never been so relieved, other than when I got off the plane after a bumpy ride from Killeen to DFW. She did say that at one point during the 3 hours my blood sugar was rather close to failing me, so I need to watch it. I take that to mean that my body is a machine and I will process that Ben & Jerry's with panache. Just kidding.

I truly feel like all the prayers coming my way worked because I was pretty much sure that I had GD. I was diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome several years ago which made me think that I was a shoo-in for diabetes while pregnant and huge. Thankfully, I was wrong!

30 weeks on Thursday...

I'm Super Sweet

Week 29 has arrived! Hudson is the size of a squash and his kicks (or punches or flips or whatever the heck he's doing in there) have become more and more pronounced. I've been counting his kicks on the Sprout app for my iPhone and he usually has 10 kicks in 10 minutes (or less) every time. He's pretty much a star.

Since I failed my 1 hour glucose test last week, I went in Wednesday for the 3 hour test. Basically, they took a vial of blood and then I had to drink another glucola drink with double the amount of sugar in it than last week and then every hour for the next 3 hours have another vial of blood drawn. The time went by pretty quickly, thanks to the entertainment that is my iPad, but the end result was one exhausted and irritable mama-to-be. I had to head home after the appointment, I was so worn out. Basically, my body went on a major sugar high and then crashed - which is the point, of course, but it still makes you feel really out of it. I won't know the results until next week, but hopefully I passed this one. Hopefully.

Other than my crazy sugar levels, everything is right on schedule. I got to see Hudson on the big screen yesterday (the ultrasound tech had pity on me) and he's growing just like he should and is measuring on time. And I must say, he looked dang cute on the ultrasound screen!

So what's on the agenda for the weekend? Well...we're planning on heading to Sky Top Orchard to pick some apples and then the big Clemson/Florida State game comes on at 2:30. It's sure to be a good one, so we'll be cheering on the Tigers! My dad mentioned having a bonfire tomorrow night and Chad was all about that and also added the possibility of camping with the girls (my dad & step-mom live on 50 acres). We'll see what happens with those plans. I'm certainly not taking my big self out to camp!

Have a great weekend!

28 Weeks

Week twenty-eight...you brought bad news! :(

I took my glucose tolerance test on Wednesday and after a great appointment (blood pressure was great, weight gain was 2 lbs, heart beat was good, measurements were good) I received a call from my lab tech letting me know that I would have to come back for the 3 hour glucose test.

Epic.Fail. I am an overachiever. My husband is an overachiever. I'm pretty sure Hudson will be an overachiever. Failure is not an option. But evidently, my body is failing to process sugar like it should. I'm hoping I don't have the dreaded gestational diabetes, but I very well could. I'm guessing that my love of Pumpkin Spice Lattes and snorting lines of table sugar haven't helped things (JOKE). Wednesday is the day of reckoning and I reckon ya'll should say a prayer for me and my glucose.

On a happier note...my baby shower at work was so fun! My work friends are great - snarky and sarcastic, much like me. And they spoiled me with a beautiful cake and some great gifts, including the high chair I registered for. I also received gift cards and Chad and I went baby shopping this past weekend and bought Hudson's crib mattress.

Okay mamas, did you feel 100% guilty for not doling out $200 + for a crib mattress? I really felt like I was failing my child by only buying a $100 mattress. I know the crib mattress is vitally important but MY GOODNESS. I really feel like the authors of baby books and retailers know every trick in the book to make a mama-to-be feel even more paranoid and guilty for not giving their baby "the best" - in their opinion. It's annoying and it works. Obviously because I'm stil talking about it five sentences later.

Moving on to another rant: the employees at Buy Buy Baby are stalkers, much like their kin at Bed Bath & Beyond. If I had one more person ask me if I needed help I was going to drop to the floor, spread my legs, and say "yup, can you birth my son for me?" I mean, y'all, it's a BABY STORE. How much help do you need, unless you've wandered in unsuspecting and the name of the store and the smell of baby powder didn't tip you off. I mean, other than reaching high items, I don't need to be followed around or harassed 80 billion times. I'm most likely going to purchase something because I feel like I need to make up for not buying Hudson the best mattress ever. You don't have to keep asking.

Whew. I'm obviously hormonal today. Week 28 - the week of hormones. Week 29...you're just a couple of days away.

It was September 2001. I was 18 years old and had just started my first semester at the College of Charleston. I was on my own in a new city, three hours from home. I had graduated high school just a few months before and had met the people I now lived with just a few weeks before. Classes had begun and I was getting into the swing of things. All of us were listening to Pink, Christina Augilera, Linkin Park, & Staind. We had all been shocked when one of the most famous pop & R &B stars of our era, Aaliyah, had been killed in a plane crash that August. That rocked our world. Unfortunately, we hadn't seen anything yet.

I remember where I was that morning - at the deli at the bottom of my dorm buying breakfast. I saw chaos showing live on CNN playing on the TV there and ran back up to my suite to ask anyone if they knew what was going on. We all sat in silence as we watched the second plane hit on TV.

All of us knew something signifcant was going on, but none of us had any idea how it would shape everything we knew about the world - politics, religion, our own mortality. We saw one of the girls on our floor, a New Yorker, hysterical because she knew many of her friends' parents worked in the World Trade Center Towers. I didn't know that girl well, but I will never forget her.

I knew we were probably safe in Charleston, despite the large Naval base close by and the close proximity of Parris Island. But I was watching my country dissipate into a hysterical mass and my parents weren't there. My mom wasn't even in the country at that time. It was scary for someone so far from the tragedy and I will always remember that day and the helpless feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I can't believe it's been 10 years. So much has happened, but the memory of that day will always be present and I truly believe that it was a day that blatant disrespect and hatred for humanity was overcome by incredible sacrifices and goodness. It seemed like that day the USA turned their faces towards God and begged for mercy. And in so many ways, mercy was granted - in the survivors brought out of the rubble, in the heroic stories of passengers who sacrificed their own lives to make sure the plane didn't hit the target it was headed for. In so many amazing tales of survival and friendship. I think a lot of us have forgotten how we felt toward each other that day - that we were all in this together.

We're still all in this together. Never forget.