Week 31

Okay, I’m officially nesting. And freaking out. But finally nesting. I move so slowly nowadays that I hate how I can’t get anything done by myself. I have to rely on a lot of people to do stuff. I was just telling Kavita today that I need to take a day off of work and organize everything. The nursery has yellow paint on it... well three walls. I am going to ask my dad to paint the last wall white this weekend since Anand is so busy. Once it's done, i can start taping the strips on the wall. Even with that, I’ll need Anand around since i am not allowed to climb ladders. Maybe I’ll just do it one day without anyone knowing.

I’m starting to freak out a little because we are planning on staying at mom & dad (Anand's parents) house after the baby but that house (and this one for that matter) has nothing I would need for the baby. I need to start making a checklist of things i will need the 1st two weeks the baby is born. I won’t be allowed to drive (we'll see about that!), so I'll be a little helpless. Any moms out there can remember things they would have died without the first month?? Help me here, I need a list. My list consists of: bassinet, diapers, wipes, onsies, receiving blankets, burp cloths, bottles, breast pump (ordered and on its way now!). Anything else? My camera of course!! What you didn’t think i was going to give this up after the baby was born, didyanow?! Don’t be surprised if you see pictures of baby's first poop on here. Yes, I'm that crazy eccentric! Okay, fine I’ll save the poop pictures for the personal file. But you guys are going to get pictures. Lots of them, if I have it my way.

Speaking of pictures, I can't wait to meet the little guy/girl. Now that the baby moves around half the day (maybe it's collectively a couple of hours), he/she is starting to feel so real. The other day I was lying down on the couch and I saw his knee or foot pop up. It was the most surreal thing I have ever seen. It was a sign outside of the bulging belly that someone is in there. It was so three dimensional. That's the closest i have come to touching the baby. It was one of my favorite moments in the pregnancy. Our little Raka got to see it first hand too, but I doubt he cared. I don't think he cares about being a older brother... or is it uncle now?  All the kicks are towards the side and top of the belly now. The baby's head is at the bottom and her butt is at the top. The baby is getting ready (slowly) for her grand entrance. I'm so excited.

I can't believe I'm saying this... but I'm off to BRUS! So excited about my shopping trip!

Week 30

OMG. We are going to be in single digit count (with the weeks).

This week I really got to enjoy the "joys" of pregnancy- heartburn. It reared its ugly head on Wednesday or was it Thursday...and made me feel a pain I have never felt before. I literally felt a pain in my heart - or at least near my heart. It was a burning sensation. I wanted to take a pack of ice and cool it down. I like to think I have a high tolerance for spicy food, but I swear it was not even the spices in the food that gave me heartburn... it must have been the timing or something. Since then I have eaten spicy food and I have only gotten heartburn another one or two times. BUT man, what a strange feeling. I felt like there was nothing I could do but wait it out. The idea of giving up spicy food for even 9 weeks is unthinkable. Life would be so boring without spicy food.

We had our 3rd trimester appointment with the educator last week and she talked about the basic thing... what to do when in labor, how's everything going, blah, blah, blah... but she did bring up cord blood banking. I hadn’t thought I would be interested, but I kinda am. It's an insurance policy for just in case. I doubt I would ever need it but it's nice to have. Our other option is also to donate it... if I don’t bank it for us, I will definitely donate it to a local charity. I think it's such a waste otherwise. Anyone out there done this? Or thinking about banking?

We took the baby's crib and dresser up to his/her room, so now this weekend we are painting. Woohoo!! All of a sudden I have this urgent need to organize everything, not just the baby's room. I feel like I’m running out of time. Before we know it, she'll be here and the house will be a mess. I need a week off of work and a handy man.

No pregnancy related picture this week. Just a picture of Anand looking like a nerd-kaka:

A Baby is Blooming Shower

On Sunday June 12^th, Kavita and Mom#2 threw me a wonderful shower. I have the most incredible sister in law. Her attention to detail is unmatchable – from the invites to the dessert bar having mini terra cotta pots filled with cake. She started planning the shower probably early March. It started with a thought and an idea, and it grew into a Blooming Shower. She single handedly picked out everything that was displayed at the shower. I “helped”, of course. My contributions including the type of toppings to have for the ice cream bar and what flavor cupcakes I wanted. But in all seriousness, I know Kavita put a lot of hard work, energy and time in this but she had several helping hands including my mom (both of them), Hiral, Manali, Dipuldidi, Munnabhai, Bhabhi, Dhaval, Parul, Baa foi, Shruti, Santiago, Anand, dads, Prathiba Aunty. I am sure I am forgetting a few people.

I wish I had a picture of the computer room the day before the shower. It was un-occupy-able because it was filled to the brim with shower stuff. It had stored everything from the favors to the mini-signs for the food. We stressed the week of because until the week before it showed sunny skies, but the last few days the forecast changed to thunderstorms and rain. We prayed that it wouldn’t rain until the shower was over but in the end accepted the fact that it might rain, after all it was a shower. My mom and Hiral joked that it’s in my luck to have rain before any major event pertaining to me. It rained the day before my wedding (THE understatement of the century). But the morning of the wedding, the sun came out and gave us a dry day. Well, my shower was no different. It rained until like 9am, and then all of a sudden we had a dry day. The sun didn’t come out until 4pm for a few minutes, but at least no one was wet during the day. In fact I think the rain made the grass and the trees greener. Kavita hired a wonderful photographer, so we have pictures to prove it!

The Indian ceremony started probably around 10:45 and lasted till about noon. At one point the maharaj was taking his time, so to speed him up, Kavita reminded him of the time and I think he got mad at her. Her whole point was to wrap up before noon because that was the deadline for the ceremony, but the maharaj really likes to take his time in explaining things, which is a good thing most of the time, but bad in this case because we couldn’t run over the noon timeline. Anand and some of the men left soon after the ceremony and hung out at Kavita’s house. After the ceremony I quickly ran in to change and rid my face of the red kumkum. I probably had a pink glow the rest of the day from the kumkum.

After the ceremony the shower continued with a brunch. We had a mixture of Indian and American food. The food included: Samosa, Upma, Sabudana ni Kichadi, Fafada, 3 types of frittatas, French toast, potatoes, penne ala vodka, Salad, pastries, an ice cream bar and homemade cupcakes. We really wanted to keep it informal and not play any organized games. Most women dread playing games, so instead we decided to go with an activity table where people would be able to go and do the activities when they pleased. We also skipped opening of the gifts. I think in a more intimate setting, it would be appropriate, but with 85 women it might drag.

The shower ended a little too early in my opinion but that’s because I talked to almost everyone at the shower and didn’t have any time to just sit and people watch. Check out the shower tab for pictures of the shower. Here’s one of my favorites from the shower.

Anand wanted to have a small bbq with just friends later that day. So that started around 5pm. It was fun but I was so exhausted that I probably got outta my chair a handful of times. We played a couple of minute to win it games. I wish we had that organized a little better, I bet people would have really gotten into it if we had more than 3 games organized. But like I said before, I was pooped and didn’t have the energy to go thru all the games we had thought of earlier. Overall, the day was awesome. Thank you everyone for showering us with love, laughter and lots of foods.

Week 29

Week 29 was awesome because right smack in the middle of it was my baby shower. I’ll do another post for the shower.

Our second childbirth class was interesting to say the least. We watched two birth videos and I think Anand was scarred. We watched two women give birth, one with an epidural and one without. They were both natural births. They were both super graphic. We practiced some breathing exercise. It wasn’t as bad as the first class, definitely worthwhile.

Because my week ends on a Wednesday, I get the weekend in the middle of my week and so it goes by super fast. The baby is very active and I feel like at time certain parts of my belly are really hard. I wonder if the area that is hard is where the baby’s head is. I’ll have to ask my doctor this week.

Nothing else happened this week that i can remember (yes, my memory is going) but now my belly can do this:

Week 28

We went to our first childbirth class and I am already dreading going to the second one today. The lady who teaches the class looked like she was bored half way thru the class. I really wish we had someone semi-peppy to lead the class. I'll take the ultrasound tech from Yale. Remember her from Week 12? I swear at one point I thought our instructor was going to fall asleep.

The PUPPP have not gotten better or worse; they still itch like crazy. I'm just dying to get my skin back. The darkening around my neck is getting more prominent. I don't like it. It makes me look dirty. Like Kesha dirty.

A couple of weeks ago I had a dream that the baby looked and behaved exactly like my brother. If you saw what he looked like when he was young, you would think he was so adorable. He was light skinned with curly hair and a little monster. He would chase cows (in India) and would probably eat dirt. I can't prove the latter but I am positive he did. So you can imagine my joy and stress when I dreamt my little baby boy looked and behaved like Dhaval. I was overjoyed because he was really cute but exhausted from chasing him around the house. Here's a very old and not so clear picture of him when he was a baby. This picture does not do justice to what he really looked like:



Dhaval eating a rock... just kidding. I think he's eating a "goto"

The baby center emails that I get have reminded me to start baby counts in the mornings and evening. I know the baby is active and I don't need to worry about the counts, but just for fun I was counting yesterday evening and the baby kicked 10x in a minute and a half. The article on baby center said the baby should kick at least 10x in an hour. We have an overachiever here. God only knows how many kicks I would count if I had an hour.

I'm starting an on going list about what everyone thinks the sex of the baby is and I'll update it here every week. Please email me, text me, or tell me in person what the sex of the baby is and I'll post it here.

Boy:
Amisha
Kavita
Rach
Nital
Mom - Niru

Girl:
Anand
Manali
Jalpa

Here is yours truly at 7 months!

If you look close enough, you can see my belly button making an appearance

Only two more monthly pictures before the baby! I'll probably continue doing monthly pictures of myself to motivate myself to lose the baby weight.

Week 27

This week has been the longest week so far in the pregnancy. I can't believe it's been only one week since my last doctor's appoitment where they told me I have to do the 3 hour glucose test. It really feels like that was weeks ago. Well, I went yesterday and did the 3 hour test and the results came back... *drum roll*... normal. I think there is some sort of miscommunication or error in the way they tested the first time around. During my visit yesterday, the lab tech told me that the drink I was going to drink was 2x stronger than the first one. You can imagine my horror when she said that. I told her that's almost impossible since the drink first time around was so sugary. It was the same drink the 2nd time around but instead of drinking half of the bottle, I had to drink the whole thing. If she meant that, that doesnt mean the drink is 2x sugary; it mean I am going to drink 2x as much. Again, you can imagine my horror when she told me to drink the whole thing. I started thinking the worst, I didnt pass the 1 hour with half a bottle, how will I pass the 2nd test with the whole bottle. Anyways, i think the drink i drank the first time should be used only for the second time. There must be a different drink for the first time around. A few friends have told me they drank the whole bottle the 1st time around. So now i wonder why I only drank 1/2 the bottle. When I see my doctor next, I'm making sure he/she knows about this. But alas, all is well.

Well... no, not all is well. I started getting those red bumps on my belly. It's worse than my neck. I researched online and it says it's normal.
____________________________________________________________________________

Is it common to get itchy bumps on your abdomen?

Up to 1 percent of pregnant women develop a condition characterized by itchy, red bumps and larger patches of a hive-like rash on their bellies. This is called pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP) or polymorphic eruption of pregnancy.

PUPPP usually begins in the third trimester and is more common among women carrying twins and those having their first baby. The eruptions usually show up first on the abdomen around or in stretch marks (if you have any) and may spread to your thighs, buttocks, and arms. PUPPP is harmless for you and your baby, but it can itch like crazy!_____________________________________________________________________________

Thank you Baby Center- but what now? Will I have this for the three long, hot, summer months!?! And speaking hot summer- I welcomed summer with open arms on Sunday and it kicked my butt on Monday. I was so uncomfortable in the heat. The AC at mom & dad's house is broken, so i literally was sweating in every place possible. Mom gave me a mumu and I finally found relief in that. No I will not post pictures in that mumu nightgown.

Here's one of first pregnancy pictures taken by the Kavitaben: