Pregnancy Update: Weeks 31 - 33

I am finally down to single digit weeks left.  It is unreal.  Everything is still going along pretty well.  Her kicks have gotten more powerful and her feet are right where my muscle tear is on my right side; and wouldn't you know, that seems to be her favorite place to kick. :(  Usually it's not too bad but every once in a while she will do a hard kick that catches me off-guard and it hurts!

We had another ultrasound between 31 and 32 weeks.  It is crazy how much bigger she looks and with all the added fat her face is starting to look more like a baby face and not a skeleton.  The growth looked good, but the doc is still having me get one more ultrasound this week just to make sure.  I shouldn't complain that I've had to get so many ultrasounds because it's awesome to see her so often, but it's annoying to schedule the appointments and take the extra time for them.  And I think it's fairly obvious from my stomach that she is still growing, haha.

I finally got a prenatal massage over Thanksgiving weekend.  It was awesome!  I noticed the next day that my legs were almost back to normal with no signs of swelling too!  The swelling has been minimal, so it wasn't a drastic difference, but it was still nice to see them looking better.

I mentioned in my last post that I was looking for a doula.  I found one and I am so excited about it.  She comes highly recommended and her specialty is massage (hallelujah!).  I had never heard of a doula before becoming pregnant.  I remember reading an article about pregnancy after I had just found out I was expecting and it mentioned something about a doula.  It wasn't much information and my curiosity took over and I googled it.  At first I thought it sounded like some weird thing a hippie would use at birth (no offense to hippies, but you get my drift, ha), but the more I read about doulas, the less skeptical I became.  I tucked that info away in the back of my mind as something to look into later in the pregnancy.  Then I began hearing about doulas randomly through friends of friends, when they'd mention how awesome they were on Facebook and how they couldn't imagine giving birth without one.  I kept hearing more and more positive things about them that finally I knew that I wanted a doula to help me survive labor.  Plus, they are great with helping the spouse know what to do to help his wife during labor, and I think my hubby could benefit from that. :)  I will definitely be sharing my opinion on how it goes with the doula when everything is done.

The last couple of days I think I have experienced some Braxton Hicks contractions.  They can start occurring as early as 30 weeks (and sometimes earlier) and are believed to help your body practice for the real thing.  They don't hurt and it feels like my stomach is tightening during them.  I thought it was the baby moving the first few times I felt them, but then it dawned on me that it was BH contractions.  It really is no big deal though, at least right now since they have only happened a couple times a day.  I heard that they occur more often as you get closer to your due date and can get really annoying.  We shall see.

One last thing to mention is that I think baby girl has finally moved to the head down position.  For the entire pregnancy she has been laying in a transverse position (left to right instead of up and down, if that makes sense) and so I would feel her kicks and arm movements on the sides of my belly.  It was also the reason the ultrasound technicians were having a hard time getting accurate measurements on her growth.  The last couple of days she has been pushing hard on my right side and it was very uncomfortable, especially with the muscle tear on that side.  I thought it felt like she might be turning but I wasn't sure.  Then yesterday morning I noticed the movements were more at the top and bottom of my belly instead of the sides and my belly was less wide (kinda weird).  It's great because I felt like she was getting too big to be laying transverse and that my belly wouldn't stretch out that wide any more!  Haha.  I will be able to confirm her position at the ultrasound this Friday.  I just hope she is head down and not breach, but I'm pretty sure she is because I have felt hiccups in the lower part of my belly.

Wow, this post turned into a novel!  I will save the rest for the next post. :)  Also, the next post will contain pictures of the nursery!  It's not quite done yet, but it's coming together quite nicely and I can't wait to share.  That gives you something to look forward to in the next pregnancy post!

Past Pregnancy Posts:
Weeks 29 and 30

Weeks 27 and 28

Weeks 24-26

Weeks 21-23

Gender Reveal

Week 20

Week 19

Week 18

Week 16 & 17

Week 15

Pregnancy Announcement and Weeks 11-14

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