Nesting

My house is pretty darn close to spotless.  Seriously.  Between Michael, my Mom, and (mostly) me, our house looks amazingly clean.  According to the books, "nesting syndrome" (laymen's terms: obsessively preparing one's home for a baby) usually occurs in the latter part of the third trimester.  For me, it seems to have struck a little early.  What I can't do, or don't feel well enough to do, I have had my Mom or Michael do by writing out a list of monthly chores that need to be taken care of.  From painting to attending classes to dusting to cleaning to redecorating/decorating to house hunting to installing shelves- the list goes on and on...AND there is still more to do!  AHHHH!

On tap for the week: I get paid tomorrow!  Woopee!  And we have dinner with friends scheduled Saturday night.  And Michael and I start Parent CPR classes this weekend.  And we are having a family dinner on Sunday night.  And my Mom is staying a week with us (to help me out again).  And I have another doctor appointment and blood test on Monday (wish me and the baby luck).  And we have a charity event on Tuesday.  Sprinkle work, nausea, back pain, indigestion, exhaustion, and more nesting to this schedule and you have a recipe for the next week of my life.  I am tired just thinking about it. 

Things to watch for in my pregnancy: 1) Braxton Hicks contractions: (I have been having these since about 20 weeks, but they are getting more and more frequent and a little stronger)  I usually get them a few times a day, but sometimes more.  For those of you unfamiliar with Braxton Hicks contractions: they occur when the uterus tightens and contorts in a practice preparation for labor.  They are very common and can start as early as 17 weeks of pregnancy.  They are usually painless, but can definitely cause some pain here and there when the stomach tightens in a crampy kinda way.  It really sucks when I am standing upright and then immediately roll forward when my tummy clenches in pain.  2) Back Aches & leg cramps: with the belly growing larger and larger, the back takes a beating and begins to hurt- especially the lower back.  Makes it kinda difficult to stand straight sometimes.  3) Navel: still an inny to report.  But a shallow inny.  I mean really shallow.  Could pop out and become an outy any second kinda inny.  4) Balance: whooo!  I turn my head too fast sometimes and then trip on my own two feet.  This did not help my sprained ankle situation (see past blogs).  5) Indigestion: worse than any indigestion one could ever feel.  I can't tell you how awful and nauseating pregnancy indigestion can be.  Sleeping upright becomes a necessity sometimes. 

Things the baby is doing: 1) Growing!  He is growing so much in the next month!  He is 2 lbs right now and almost 15 inches in height!  2) his eyes are wide open when he is awake (he doesn't have pigmentation in the eyes yet, so his little peepers have no color), and he can blink now.  Radical.  3) Sense of hearing is growing more and more acute.  He can recognize Michael and mine's voices (even tho they are muffled to him) and get really agitated when a loud noise startles him.  4) Baby kickboxing.  I swear we will never have to enroll him in martial arts because he already has a black belt in kicking-the-snot-out-of-Mommy's-tummy.  His movements get stronger and stronger each week it seems.  I read that as he gets bigger he may not kick as much as squirm as my due date approaches.  5) Brain development: his little brain is kicking into high gear as his synapses fire and begin to respond to more stimuli.  All so exciting!