26+ Weeks

 Check out those sausage fingers, my goodness!

How far along? 26weeks 2 days

Maternity clothes? Yup yup yup.  Pants are all the time (unless they are sweaties) and shirts are about 60% of the time.

Exercising: Well with my rib pain it was NOT a good week.  I guess I got a 10 mile bike ride in and lots of walking in Door County last week...so I deserved a week off.  But any sort of physical exertion whatsoever aggrevated my rib (and my cough).  So I informed Dan I was going to try to do as much laying as possible for the next week.  Thank goodness it feels MUCH better, there's still some pain, but nothing like earlier this week, yikes.

Stretch marks? Still nope.

Sleep: Ugh.  For a couple nights I only got up once to pee, so I made the mistake of making that comment to Dan and then I think I peed about 800 times that day, and like 3 times that night.  Totally jinxed myself.  The rib pain didnt' help with sleep, I could ONLY sleep on my right side and even that still kind of hurt.  And any slight movement I would make would wake me up from pain.  Getting into and out of bed was seriously probably the most painful part of this rib injury, OUCH!  My sleep has been so disrupted lately between a big belly, pain, peeing, weird dreams, and Clyde that sometimes I don't know what's real and what's reality from the crazy dreams I had, yikes!

Best moment this week: Hmm, well I guess it's a best...with a downside.  We finally made a trip down to Ikea!  A little over an hour and a half drive from our house.  It was a beautiful Saturday and I couldn't WAIT to take care of the crib, dresser, and do some other fun/cheap shopping there.  Well all was going well, we got the crib, got some cute accessories and a new pan, and we get to the dresser and it says "temporarily outsold"!!!  I almost cried!!!  Apparently this dresser is in high demand and they are having a hard time keeping up with it!  They said they'd have more in on Wednesday, but they can't guarantee there'd be one there when we came!!  I told her we were from Milwaukee and couldn't just keep driving back and forth hoping!  She did say we could call ahead and reserve one, but now the problem is finding another day Dan and I can both go AND borrowing my parent's van again since the box doesn't fit in either of our cars!  UGH!!  I just had this bad feeling all morning that something wasn't going to go right and I was correct :(  But we'll figure it out, it is for sure the best dresser we've found as far as size, price, and style.  Also we picked out some carpet for the baby's room and have a measure set up for the coming week!  Yay!  One more thing off the list!

Dano surprised me one day while I was at work by putting the crib together!  And it seems pretty sturdy too, I think she'll survive in it ;)

Have you told family and friends: Yup!

Miss Anything? I don't think anything this week.  After my glass of wine and accidental sip of VODKA, I think I'm good on that front til January ;)

Movement: Oh my gosh a lot a lot!  She is a very active little lady!  And getting strong!  I'm pretty sure she is still head up and her feet are on the bottom right side of my tummy, so when I lay on my right side (which is often with my rib problems) she kicks a TON over there!!  One day it was seriously hurting me and I was jumping each time she'd kick!  I finally had to move around and change positions so she'd stop!  She also likes to kick my cervix!  Which is one of those things no one tells you about.  It is absolutely HORRIBLE!  Somewhat painful, but mostly uncomfortable, I'm ready for her to flip anytime now.  Also, her kicking or sitting on my bladder is getting worse.  It seems that I've been peeing more than ever and sometimes it's just due to her putting pressure on my bladder.  I will go from not having to pee at all, and then her kicking it and I swear I'm going to pee my pants!  Between that and the coughing, it is BOUND to happen at least once.

Food cravings: Sweets, fruit, and cereal!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Coffee, tuna, and cold cuts/subs.  Coffee is off the list!  Yay!  I'm still drinking tea most mornings though because I'm sure it's still better for me AND I got some yummy pumpkin spice TEA bags in Door County!  It's the best of both worlds!  However, Sunday this week was a pretty nauseous day for me :(  We went to church and I felt horrible most of the time there, then we got home and it only got worse and worse, it felt a lot like those 4-5 weeks of "morning" sickness I had, so that better not be starting back up and thinking it's going to last the next 3 months!

Have you started to show yet: Yup, and seriously love my bump!  I love putting on shirts that I haven't tried on with the bump yet and seeing how they look...of course sometimes it's depressing if they don't fit or fit funny.  But so far most of my fall clothes and sweaters look so cute over my growing bump!  It's like when you lose weight and can't wait to see how your clothes looks on you now...except instead of losing weight, it's gaining LOTS and a huge tummy :)  And of course the not worrying about sucking in is amazing too.

Gender: GIRL GIRL GIRL, IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!  :)

Labor Signs: Nope
 

Belly Button in or out? Still in there and pretty red/discolored...weird.

Wedding rings on or off? Off, but now sporting my garnet ring Dano got me :)

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy but sometimes emotional.  I keep freaking out to Dan saying "can we really do this?!"  Of course he is completely confident and says he was BORN for this!  He says "you just worry about spitting that thing out and I'll raise her!"  So sweet right?!  Haha.  I'm so scared we are not going to know what we're doing, or not have something we need, or not be able to work out our work schedules, baby time, Michelle and Dano time, and LIFE!  For some reason I'm more scared about when she becomes a toddler...completely irrational right??  I can picture us having a baby and not sleeping and changing diapers, but I can't picture a toddler walking around our house and going to preschool!  I don't know why that freaks me out right now, I should be worried about normal NEWBORN stuff!  Not that I feel like I know what I'm doing in that area, but for some reason, right now that doesn't freak me out as much.  I think I'm just nervous about it all and just focusing on that fear right now :)  I remember the day I brought home Clyde (my cat) and I was SOO nervous about "how am I going to raise this thing?!"  (yes a cat, I'm crazy remember?)  My parents came over to see him and we went and ate dinner and I could barely touch my food cuz I was SO nervous about Clyde at home!  And that was a CAT!  Oooh goodness!  BUT I'm confident we will figure it out!

Looking forward to: Getting more of the baby's room taken care of.  I ordered a stencil from online to hopefully solve my paint color problems, I'll post pictures when I get it and do it...IF it turns out like I'm imagining it will...We also REALLY need to register!  My shower is just about a month away, so I guess we need to get on that.  I'm still totally terrified of it, but we just have to do it. 

Then I'm looking forward to November!  We have Baby CPR class, then childbirth classes, then my shower, then breastfeeding class, then THANKSGIVING!  Yay!  Then it'll be Christmas and baby time before we know it!

Not loving: COUGHING COUGHING COUGHING!!!!!  I finally went to the doctor for my rib pain as well as this cough that has been going on for well over a month.  I was at my wit's end and in so much pain every time I would cough.  Unfortunately the appointment was a waste of time as I was afraid it would be.  This is why I never go to doctors, cuz they can never actually tell you what's wrong!  I would have been so much happier if he seriously would have told me I had bronchitis or whooping cough or SOMETHING!  He basically doesn't know why I'm coughing, he said it could be allergies, something to do with heartburn or reflux, or something else.  He prescribed me a nasal spray and told me to take 2 Pepcids (anti-heartburn medicine) a day whether I had heartburn or not.  Ok doc, sounds great!  NOT!  What sort of weird prescription is that?!  And not only that, but he did that thing where he said "well you can take this or you can take this or you can do this; what do you want to do?"  I DON'T KNOW, YOU'RE THE DOCTOR!!!  As far as the rib pain, he said it's entirely possible that I strained or fractured a rib, but that he can't do an xray cuz of the pregnancy, and that even if he could, it wouldn't matter because they don't do anything even for a BROKEN rib.  He said he could prescribe me Vicodin for the pain, but that sounded a bit extreme.  So that was a waste of time and $10. I have been doing his stupid prescription, but I feel weird taking so much Pepcid, especially when I don't NEED it, AND I'm STILLL coughing!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading!

~Michelle