32 weeks

About 32 weeks now and everything is still going pretty well with the little guy. It's been so long since I've blogged that I've actually had two doctor's appointments since my last post. A few weeks ago, I did the glucose tolerance test, which is a screen for gestational diabetes. It involves drinking a very gross orange drink and then they draw blood an hour later to see how well your body processes glucose. That test came back normal so no problems with that!

Yesterday I had another appointment and got another clean bill of health. Everything is normal and I'm measuring exactly where I should be. Now I'm going to the doctor every two weeks until we get to the last month, then I'll go once a week. The doctor is still planning on doing an ultrasound around 36 to 37 weeks to see how big the baby looks.

David and I attended a Childbirth Preparation class a couple of weeks ago at one of the local hospitals. It was pretty informative. It was taught by a nurse/doula who had some helpful information. The videos weren't even as bad as I had remembered from high school. I don't know that we learned anything we hadn't already read, but it was nice to hear it all at the same time. I think we're ready- just waiting on the little guy.

The baby has been kicking pretty vigorously now, including some strong punches to my ribs. I'm told he will ease up as he gets bigger because there will be less room. I already feel like I'm at capacity. It's hard to eat as much as I used to (which I'm sure is a good thing) and a lot of times it's hard to breathe. Considering that he will probably double in size from now until when he's born, I'm thinking it's about to get very uncomfortable. In fact, between weeks 30 and 37, the baby is supposed to be gaining about a half of a pound per week so we're in the middle of a big growth spurt.

My biggest complaint at this point is that it's very hard to sleep well. Sometimes, if I'm very tired, I can sleep through most of the night. Most of the time, however, I wake up every hour or two and sometimes have a hard time falling asleep again. Luckily, things have calmed down at work and I have a little more flexibility.

At this point, the baby is supposed to be able to perceive light and track light sources on the outside and most of the time when he's awake his eyes are open and looking around (although there is not much to see). He's continuing to practice breathing motions and his lungs are getting more developed. He's mostly ready to go- just needs to pack on a few pounds.

Although there were requests for a new belly picture, David is out of town for about a week and a half so there's no one to actually take the picture. Just imagine a few more inches on the last picture I posted. That's about right. Instead, I've posted a picture of our current baby enjoying a treat. She used to get long, brisk walks, but now that we've had to take shorter walks at what we call "waddling speed," Zoe is starting to pack on some sympathy weight. Zoe and I are looking forward to taking longer walks again once the baby is here.

That's it for now. I'll try not to take so long to post- especially since we're getting a lot closer!