33 weeks!

Piper asked me last night why I was wearing all black. My response: "because it's slimming." Not that there's any real point in trying to appear 'slim' at this point, but most of the maternity shirts I do own are black, and let's be honest, I'm wearing yoga pants almost full time now because why bother wearing anything else when I spend most of the time on the couch with my feet up. Comfort is king!

So for today's photo session, it was another pair of yoga pants paired with yet another black maternity tank. I feel much bigger than I look in these pictures and I can't figure out what sort of magical illusion is happening with my camera, but I'll take it!

Standard belly shot ...

Uncovered belly!

And full frontal ... I wish I had 33 week pics from being pregnant with Piper, but it looks like the closest we have is from almost 35 weeks so give me a couple more weeks and the comparison will be more accurate, but I do think this belly sticks out more than with Piper.

Pink or blue? Old wives' tails revisited

When I was pregnant with Piper, we didn't know what she was until she arrived so I blogged about many of the old wive's tails I had been told throughout my pregnancy. As it turns out, many were true and we ended up with a bouncing baby girl with lots of hair.

This time around has been no different. Everyone asks what we're having, and since we don't know, they have an opinion. While with Piper the vast majority of people thought it was a girl (myself not included), this time around, most people are seeing blue in our not too distant future. So let's recap ...

• Fetal heartbeat: Fast heartbeat = girl; slower heartbeat = boy. What's fast and what's slow? I'm honestly not entirely sure, but I will say that this time around is very similar to last time. While Piper tended to be right around 155, this one was 155 multiple appointments in a row, with the lowest I've seen being 145, and our last appointment was 150. I guess that's fast? Not quite sure, but I will say that this is one ACTIVE baby in my belly and the little girl or boy is working up a faster heartbeat with all of the acrobatics it's doing.
• Linea negra - theory #1: Line on your belly? High estrogen, which means a girl. No line, better paint the nursery blue. No line this time, which would mean a boy.
• Linea negra - theory #2: If the line only goes from your pubic bone to your belly button, then it's a girl; if it goes up past your belly button up to your sternum, then it's a boy. Since I don't have a line, I guess I automatically default to theory #1, but then again, the two linea negra predictions seem totally oppposite to me so your guess is as good as mine ... Last time I had a line up to my belly button, so this time is different. Pointing at blue again?
• How you're carrying the baby - theory #1: This is kind of like the heartbeat where what denotes "fast", but apparently if you're carrying evenly across your front, onto your sides, it's a girl. Carrying what looks like a basketball on your front, with it ALL out front, it's a boy. I look entirely different this time around than with Piper. Even though I've gained about the same amount of weight this pregnancy, I can say that I carried Piper EVERYWHERE on my body. My hips, butt, face, arms. You name it, she was crammed in there somewhere. This time around, of course everything is a little bigger, but it's totally different and I'm mostly belly. Now I did start out weighing less in general with this pregnancy ... but I guess I'd put us into the boy category again, and that's what everyone tells me when they see me.
• How you're carrying the baby - theory #2: There's also the high (girl) versus low (boy)conundrum, which I didn't cover with Piper, but again is totally subjective and I would think would have a lot to do with whether or not someone is long waisted or short waisted. I will say that I carried Piper way higher than I'm carrying this one so I guess that puts us into the boy category.
• Baby's level of activity: Got a quiet baby in there? Girl. Growing a kick boxer? Boy. Piper was a super active baby and hasn't slowed down since she entered the real world. This one is also a crazy fool, but I'm going to put that on genetics and not gender. Either way, my guess is this child will be a bit wild and super active, just like his/her older sister.
• Penny and the wall: There's something about a penny and the wall and whether it sticks. We ended up doing this with Piper at my mother in law's insistence and I don't remember whether it stuck or not, but I know the verdict was boy and obviously that wasn't the case. She hasn't asked me to do it this time, and frankly I would refuse, having just had the walls painted while we were on vacation in January. No since in ruining a paint job over nothing!
• You just are ...: And then there's my final favorite - "I can just tell." I don't think a single person has told me this time around they think it's a girl.
• The ultrasound technician calls it a "he": Lastly, at our 20 week ultrasound, the technician knew we didn't want to find out the sex, but after 45 minutes of looking at the baby, she called it a he. When I asked her whether she just gave the sex away, she quickly said she calls them all "hes" when they don't know ... was she just covering? I have heard of this happening before, but I personally think she slipped.

And just to be clear, I would love to know what we're having this time around, but am giving my husband the opportunity to have one last surprise because he absolutely loves that we don't know. But part of my wanting to know has to do with the name ... we have a girl's name that we love. First, middle, everything. Boy name? Not even close. We have nothing. We don't like the name that Piper would have been so thank God she was a girl, but we're so far away from a boy's name this time that if it is a girl, I would love to just throw the whole name discussion in the trash and never look back. And if it is a boy, then we better get cracking and fall in love with something soon or else Piper's going to name the boy Peewee like she says she wants and we won't have any other good options so the poor kid will be screwed with a lifetime of heckling.

32 weeks!

I would be remiss to not account for the three whole days of winter fun we had this year. While it was cold at times, we didn't get any real snow until we had our one storm on March 1st, and I'm pretty sure we were all outside by 7:15 in the morning. Reid snow blowed the driveway while Piper checked out the white stuff that she had been asking for all winter long. We spent the morning playing with friends - building snow men, making a fort, getting pulled around in a sled, and in general, making up for the months of bare lawn that we had all winter. The next day was sledding with friends and then the weekend was upon us so Daddy was able to get in on the fun. By this time, it was back to almost 50 degrees out so it was sledding on a couple inches of snow in sweatshirts. As you can tell by the smiles though, it couldn't have been more fun!

So now here we are at 32 weeks! I tried to take a self-portrait yesterday, and while the lighting isn't great, you can see that the baby has definitely grown. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and I'm definitely on bed rest for the next two weeks, but if I can get through these weeks without any additional signs of preterm labor, then they'll take me off bed rest at 34 weeks. So fingers and toes are crossed for a very uneventful two weeks so I can get back on my feet and back to work around here. Piper is doing great and has been such a trooper in terms of adjusting. Right now, since summer seems to have arrived 3 months early, she's at a playground with one of her favorite sitters and I'm sure she's having a blast. She's thrown a few mini tantrums about me not putting her to bed or up for quiet time, but other than that, she's been surrounded by people who she loves and who love her and is a happy camper. And with the incredibly generous help of our family and friends, our laundry is caught up, our house is clean, and we've been eating great, healthy meals. In the whole scheme of life, we are so lucky and blessed.

Next up - gender old wive's tales revisited ...

29 week bump

I'm 32 weeks tomorrow, but trying to catch up. The quality isn't great from my phone so the next one will have to be from my real camera.

We should have known it was coming ... bed rest!

I have to start by saying that I'm jealous of Piper and Reid right now because they're at our favorite diner having breakfast, which is one of our favorite things to do on Saturday/Sunday. But it's all for a good reason because a healthy baby and healthy mama are this moment's (and the next month's) top priorities. After a trip to the hospital two days ago to confirm that I was having preterm labor, I'm on bed rest. Yuck.

When I was pregnant with Piper, bed rest wasn't a huge deal. It was boring, and looking back, I'm not really sure what I did for almost four weeks, but this time around is completely different. With a super active toddler, the whole game has changed. I now have two super important goals: 1. keep the baby in, 2. keep Piper happy. Let's just say her adjustment period to this new baby is well underway. I think the plan is to keep her days filled with people she loves, while factoring in some cuddle time with me on the couch. We thought about getting a nanny for the next month, but it would have to be someone she didn't know and that's just one more big adjustment I'd rather not put her through ... I think we're asking enough of her at this point! And admittedly, I'm trying to minimize my guilt too. This is my last time to have just for Piper, and it's getting taken away to a certain extent. Pregnant with Piper, it drove me nuts that I never got to nest. This time around, my last bit of special time with Piper is getting taken away. I know what people would say: before we know it, both kids will be in college and we'll never remember this part anyway. Well, there's probably some truth to that.

There's one thing I'm sure of, though, I do not have a good baby making body! Although we've talked about the potential of bed rest and knew it was a possibility (apparently the biggest risk factor is having had it before), there was still a lot of me that was in denial about having to actually be on bed rest. Well, no denying it now. But now, I have absolutely no excuse but to blog! So while Piper's at school more of the time and hanging out with people she loves, I'll be catching up on pictures, catching up on her "baby book", and please for the sake of this next child, actually take another bump picture or two. More to come!