35 Weeks Bumpdate! {and maternity photos}

Another four weeks have gone by since my last pregnancy bumpdate! I feel like it’s gone relatively quickly. We are now 35 weeks!

Baby and I (and the other two as well) got to take a trip to the beach for a few days. The ocean wasn’t quite as cooperative as I would have like for good floating, exercise, and baby positioning – but we still managed to avoid the sharks and have some good times regardless.

(31 Weeks)

The following week, I had a small private baby shower at my in-law’s house with my closest friends locally. I actually spent the entire day focused on myself and the baby (including a massage and a nap!), and then had a lovely evening with some great food. I’ll be doing a whole blog post on this later on!

That week, Ezra also got to attend a class at the hospital all about being a big sibling. He did a really great job, and even earned a certificate! The only problem came when he realized that going to the class did NOT mean he was going to meet his Little Brother that day.

(Big Brother and Little Brother – 33 Weeks)

Ezra seems to be more and more excited about the new baby coming. A few weeks ago, I was trying to get him to guess a surprise I had for him (I was taking him to the movies), and one of his guesses was, “Is the surprise that {Little Brother} is out of your tummy and waiting for me at home?”

(Here he’s pretending to be a puppy who is excited about the baby puppy in mommy doggy’s belly.)

Little Brother continues to grow, as do I. I’m now just a few pounds under what I weighed when I delivered Ezra (with 5-7 weeks still to go), but I feel much healthier than I did then. I’ve gained less weight overall (44 pounds total as opposed to 80).

(Captioned: #34weeks tomorrow and TODAY ONLY it’s ok to tell me I look like a cow. #cowappreciationday)

I’m still exercising regularly: walking 2 miles a few times per week at the indoor track at the Y, prenatal yoga at the hospital once a week, and swimming when I can. I’m also incredibly focused on optimal fetal positioning. When I’m home, I’m spending a lot of time on my hands and knees, doing yoga poses like cat / cow (pelvic tilts), and bouncing or rotating my hips while on the birth ball. Also Spinning Babies forward leaning inversion daily and working on getting comfortable in an exaggerated SIMS position from Miles Circuit.

Braxton Hicks are coming more and more frequently, and I already had one evening last week when full-on prodromal labor kept me awake in the middle of the night. It was a little unexpected, but I was able to work through it. Several of my friends have told me that prodromal labor showed up earlier and earlier with each of their pregnancies. I started having it with Ezra around 36 weeks, so I don’t believe that this is any indication that this pregnancy will end any earlier than normal. I’m trying to keep it in my head that 42 weeks is well within the norm and expecting to go that long.

I’ve switched chiropractors for the rest of the pregnancy to one of my chiropractor’s backup providers who has a traveling practice (meaning she can come to me for adjustments). She also has a service by which she goes “on call” for moms in labor and will come adjust them both at home and at the hospital throughout labor. I cannot begin to share what a relief this is for me to have one more person on my team and who can help to safeguard me and baby against a stalled labor due to malposition.

We finished taking a 2-week childbirth “refresher” course at the hospital where I’ll be delivering. This was incredibly helpful – the second week especially. They talked through and role-played cesarean procedures at the hospital, which was both hard for us emotionally, but good for helping us talk through what we have been through and what we can expect. The best news is that their procedure is to allow moms to have skin-to-skin time with the newborn on the operating table once the baby is checked by the NICU team. This is something that I did not get with Ezra. So knowing that, worst case scenario, I’ll have that time with Little Brother is incredibly relieving.

More and more frequently I’m getting people asking me if I’m “done” with being pregnant. While physically, I’m definitely over lugging around a bowling ball every where I go and am so looking forward to releasing this extra weight and water – I’m still pretty content being where I am, in an excited-about-the-future kind of way.

I feel like I’m about as mentally prepared for labor and birth as I can be, but am thankful for a few more weeks before I have to actually start, you know, caring for a newborn!! I don’t know if you ever are really prepared to have another child, but the thought is still fairly overwhelming to me, especially on days when being Mommy to Ezra proves extra challenging or exhausting. I don’t know how I’m going to manage with another, but I know that, somehow, I will.

Last weekend, we had maternity and family photos taken at the same place where we took our pregnancy announcement photos. These are my favorites:

(Yes, this is a “Supermom” pose – on purpose. According to Grey’s Anatomy and the internet – which of course means it’s true – there’s a study that says that standing like this boosts confidence and performance. Watch this clip to find out more – and be inspired.)