39 weeks

My parents arrived for the baby visit on Friday night. I've finally finished everything big on my "to-do before baby" list, including 2 garage sales, 2 Pampered Chef shows and my students playing at Festival yesterday. Baby can come now, please! I'm DONE. At my 38-week appointment, Dr. O said to hold tight because Baby wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I'm considering asking for an induction at my 39-week appointment tomorrow.

37 weeks

This baby is due 3 weeks from today!! I'm physically ready for this pregnancy to be over. This has been way more difficult than being pregnant with Harry. Still, I've always said I'd happily (moderately!) be sick and bed-rested for 9 months to have a happy and healthy baby. While I'd be happy for this pregnancy to be over, I have things to do before he arrives. I'm in Iowa City this weekend for a symphony set, two concerts next week, a garage sale next weekend, two Pampered Chef shows the following week, and my students' festival on May 1. Sooo...any time after that, Baby can come!

And now for TMIFSOY (too much information for some of you): At my 36 week appointment on Monday, everything looked good. I was only dilated 1 cm but ready to hear I was 3 or more! I'd gained 3 lbs from the previous appointment 2 weeks before. Still 10 lbs under my weight when Harry was born. I somehow doubt I'll gain that much in 3 weeks. I had an ultrasound on Tuesday, mainly to check for Baby's size, as I'd been measuring big. Well, at 36 weeks, Baby was measuring 7 lbs 15 oz!! Average baby weight at birth is 7 lbs 10 oz, and average weight at this point in pregnancy is 6 lbs. He's in the 98-99th percentile right now.

Now's a good a time as any to play the guessing game! If you haven't already done so on Facebook (and even if you have and would like to put it here too), put your guess in the comments section below for Baby Boy's date and time of arrival, as well as your best guess for weight and length.

Really hoping my nausea subsides in the next 10 minutes...I'm heading out to an Indian restaurant in Iowa City with some friends. Come on, baby! Make some room!

32 weeks

Yowza! Yes, I know I'm big!! But I'm still 9 lbs under the weight I'd gained with Harry up to this point. Baby is measuring 2 weeks big, so that makes me think it's all baby in that belly. In a few weeks, we'll play the guessing game on this blog! I'm feeling pretty good. I have severe heartburn at night, and I've had to take stronger medication that lasts 12 hours. It still doesn't always work for me, and some nights I'm up for all but 2 or 3 hours. And I don't even have a cute newborn to cuddle with! Anyone who says these sleepless nights are just nature's way of preparing me for a newborn again can come on over, watch Harry during the day, and let me sleep. In other news, I'm a delightful, cheerful pregnant woman. :) Dave painted the baby's room this week, and we are moving some furniture around so we won't have to do much else in the next 7.5 weeks besides wait for the little guy to make his appearance. We've definitely decided on a name, and for fun, you can see the initials to the right of this page...eliminating the letters of the alphabet that will not be the first initial in his name! :)

26 weeks

Quite the difference between 18 and 26 weeks!! From the beginning of this pregnancy, I've gained 15 lbs. At my 20 week appointment, I was measuring 24 weeks!! At my 24 week appointment, I was measuring 25 weeks, so Baby and I are on track. I was really careful with what I ate during my first pregnancy, but it's been much harder this time around. I try to get some protein in with each meal, but even that has been difficult at times. I try to nap whenever I can, but sometimes I just lie there in bed (if Harry even lets me nap--he's been a stinker these days), completely unable to sleep even if my body is screaming to! I don't remember Harry flip-flopping around this much this early. Sometimes I feel like Baby #2 is HUGE already!! He stills plays shy with Harry and most people that try to feel him kicking, but Dave has felt him move, and I'm feeling him all the time. I get some Braxton-Hicks contractions, heartburn, lots of round ligament pains, and painful muscle spasms in my calves at night. So far, I think this pregnancy has been more difficult physically. We've picked out a name though, and we'll try to keep it a secret!! I'm keeping a list of first initials on a side bar on this blog...first initials that Baby Boy Camwell will NOT have! Have fun guessing!

18 weeks

I'm a little late on my "16 week" shot...


Things are good! I'm generally feeling well. I have some heartburn like last time, and depending on what I eat, I've had some bad gas pains that keep me up at night. But I'm feeling baby kick more and more, and pretty soon Daddy and Harry will be able to feel the kicks too! Harry likes laying his head on my tummy and sucking his thumb. It's very sweet...and then he sticks his finger in my belly button or pinches my tummy hard! My 16 week appointment went well--Baby's heartbeat was in the 160's--but I didn't like the doctor. I hadn't met her before--she's the newest in the practice. She didn't make eye contact with me when she met me at the beginning, she spent 5 minutes trying to determine my due date...um...why?, and her answers generally showed a lack of experience and confidence. I won't be scheduling more appointments with her if I can help it. I'd had some cramping and spotting in the few days leading up to my appointment, and she didn't quite reassure me. After obliging me with scheduling an ultrasound (reason: "threatened pregnancy"...which I find slightly funny since the ultrasound was scheduled 4 weeks later...she couldn't come up with a different reason?), her exact non-reassuring words were, "Well, if anything bad does happen at this point, there's nothing we can do about it." Boo! To end on a positive note, I will indeed be having my ultrasound at 20 weeks, only 2 weeks away!! Hopefully Baby will cooperate and turn the right way so we can see about buying a blue or pink little something for Christmas! :)

"12 Weeks"

Here I am at, well, almost 13 weeks. Just looking nice and fat. :) The pants are regular non-maternity pants but with a waistband expansion belt that I think you can see pretty clearly through my stretchy shirt in the photo. Like I'm wearing a belt with a buckle. Non of my maternity pants fit right now, so it was either wear sweatpants/yoga pants all day every day (tempting), wear the belly belt thing, or buy new maternity pants. Just on Sunday I did buy some new maternity pants, so I may be wearing those a lot until my belly gets big enough to wear my old pants. It's a lot different the second time around!