Fumbling Toward Grace

Or I suppose one could say week 33?

In either case, Monday I was 33 weeks, and yesterday was my appointment. Since about week 20 or so, I have been saying to Atticus “Oh she’s going to put me on insulin this time” or something to that effect. But it still hasn’t happened! I know the last weeks of a diabetic pregnancy are the worst, and it still could, but it would be so great if I only needed a few weeks of insulin, as opposed to 20. Just saying.

At this point I’m going to talk about pregnancy stuff; if you’d rather not read it, here’s a cute scene from Elf to distract you:

A few other pregnancy related updates:

• I have six weeks until my induction! I’m not sure whether I should secretly be praying that I go into labor a little early (which if a few days early would be on Christmas) or not. I’d like to not have to be induced, but I’d also like to not spend Christmas eve/day in a hospital.
• Baby girl is head down as of yesterday’s ultrasound. I thought for sure after her gymnastics routines of the last few days that she was laying transverse. I hope she’ll stay head down for the duration.
• She is measuring right on target for gestational age, and she weighs 4.5 pounds — no toddlers at birth for me (I hope!)
• As of right now, I have gained 13 pounds with this pregnancy. It seems sort of strange to me that I’ve only put on 13 pounds, and the baby takes up 4.5 of them. I haven’t been dieting either. I’ve been watching my carbs (for the most part) but have been enjoying nuts, butter, eggs, and cheese to my hearts content. Oh well, I’m not complaining. It’ll just make it easier to lose after she comes out!
• Though I have to say, this is getting old:

Random person: How far along are you? OR When are you due?

Me: 33 weeks OR December 27th

Random person: No! You can’t be! You’re so small. You can’t be 33  weeks! OR You better get eating! OR Feed that baby!

Seriously, just smile and say how nice or congratulations. Do you think I don’t know I’m carrying small or that you’re the first brilliant soul to point that out to me? I guess its nice though that people actually realize I’m pregnant at this point, because as recently as 25 -28 weeks, I mentioned being pregnant to someone and they said, “Are you really?” Nice.

• Sleeping comfortably now is akin to an Olympic event. If I lay on my back more than 5-10 minutes I get dizzy and lightheaded, and I have siatic nerve pain in my lower back for about 40% of each day. I invested in one of those full body pillows for pregnant women, and it was so worth it. I love that thing. I’ve finally discovered a systematic way of twisting myself around it that allows me to mimic sleeping on my stomach, but actually being on my side. It’s great as long as I don’t have to roll over in the night.
• The back pain. Oy. I’ve inflated my exercise/birth ball and spend a lot of time bouncing on it to help my back. Anyone else have suggestions for relieving siatica?
• Her nursery is finally 95% done! Just some little things to get and it’ll be all set.
• I don’t know if I’ve had “nesting” per se, but for the first time in my life I’ve noticed that gutters need to be cleaned, and created a to-do list for Atticus to winterize our home. Last weekend I made him clean the entire garage with me, my very first garage scrubbing ever. Never mind, I think I have been “nesting”.
• Did I mention only six weeks?? I can’t believe that it’s that soon, yet at the same time it feels like forever. I’m also incredibly excited to be experiencing the last month of my pregnancy co-inciding with Advent. I want to write a post about this at some point.
• One last thing, lest I sound like a whiner. Even with the discomforts, I am so happy and blessed to be six weeks away from our baby that 90% (hey I’m not a saint!) of the time, it doesn’t bother me at all.

I don’t have a 33 week picture, but here is one from 31 weeks:

Thanks for reading!