here I am at 28.5 weeks

N ot much has happened since the last post. Last Saturday, Todd and I joined about 20 other couples in a prenatal yoga class. There, we learned yoga poses that we could practice to help alleviate some pregnancy pains and also relaxation and breathing techniques like deep belly breathing. It feels odd doing them, but if it helps… I don’t care! My teacher says we should practice together often.

Todd is busy preparing for his trip to Australia/New Zealand where he’ll get to travel and backpack and avoid deadly snakes and caterpillars and jellyfish with his brother. It looks like REI moved into our house! Soon, it will all be gone, and on a nice vacation!

We spent the last weekend on home improvement planning. Todd has been selling items on Craigslist to clean out the small room upstairs – soon to be the baby’s room. Today we took another trip to Home Depot to collect color swatches so we can get to painting. We think we’ve found it; and I hope to paint the room (using low VOC paint) while Todd is away. We’ve also been moving on the bathroom remodel, and earlier this weekend, we found the perfect old vanity at a corner antique store that we plan to turn into a sink cabinet counter. We still have to purchase a lot of items for the remodel, but we are both very excited to get this project moving too!

Even though it’s getting notably harder to get up and down and bend over, I still feel completely capable. I do seem to be getting tired a bit more often lately – naps are definitely my friend. The baby is still moving a lot, and the movement has changed from kicks to a more sliding like feeling and the baby feeling around like feeling. This week I start “kick counting” for my doctor. I have my next appointment on March 27th. I can’t slouch as much as I used to because she is needing a lot of that room, so I guess good posture is a nice side effect. I have noticed an unfortunate side effect and it’s my growing butt and thighs! I definitely need to stop indulging my sweet tooth.

All in all, everything is going just wonderfully.

T odd and I have been busily preparing the house for baby girl (still yet to be named). Todd re-did his office, to make it much more open for baby watching and working :-) I’ve been re-arranging closets to make room for all the new things we will have for the baby.

i think todd is going for an ‘i love lucy’ impression, what do you think?

We celebrated Valentine’s day by me leaving work early and surprising Todd and taking him on a tour of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory in Berkeley. We got a tour of the chocolate factory with yummy samples to boot. After our tour we headed over to North Berkeley Farmer’s Market for a snack of cheese, bread and butter- YUM! From there we drove over to the Berkeley Rose Garden to hang out, eat our snack and watch the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Work has been very busy for me, so the weeks are flying by! I cannot believe I have less than 15 weeks left! (that’s what I say now, huh?! I suppose that’s why they call it the “golden trimester”). My next doctor’s appointment is on the 28th of February where I think I’ll take my pregnancy glucose test. Everything is going great. I feel wonderful and have tons of energy. I feel her move more and more strong and often. I’m keeping up with my twice weekly prenatal yoga classes and enjoy them more and more each time I go. Todd and I have signed up for a couples prenatal yoga birth preparation course through my yoga studio. I’m very excited for Todd to see and experience some of what I’ve been learning. I hope to use some of the yoga techniques I’ve learned along the way during the birthing process. I plan to have a drug-free birth and hope that using some of these relaxing techniques and poses can get me through and if not, oh, well… we tried! We’ve also signed up for all of our birth/baby/breast feeding/hospital tours preparation sessions. Hopefully we’ll be as prepared as we can get for our big arrival.

It’s funny… I still don’t think I look super pregnant but others are definitely noticing and it is absolutely having its benefits. I had to use the restroom in a drug store the other day and I asked a woman very politely where the restroom was, and she was about to tell me I had to go get some key from some customer service area when her eyes set upon my belly and said, well come here, I’ll take you to use the employees restroom. Score!

I hope you enjoy the update and that everyone had a great start to the year- Hugs, Becky, Todd and Baby