28 Weeks! A Chinese Cabbage?

From Babycenter:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

How your life's changing:

You're in the home stretch! The third and final trimester starts this week. If you're like most women, you'll gain about 11 pounds this trimester.

At this point, you'll likely visit your doctor or midwife every two weeks. Then, at 36 weeks, you'll switch to weekly visits. Depending on your risk factors, your practitioner may recommend repeating blood tests for HIV and syphilis now, as well as doing cultures for chlamydia and gonorrhea, to be certain of your status before delivery. Also, if your glucose screening test result was high and you haven't yet had follow-up testing, you'll soon be given the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. And if the blood work done at your first prenatal visit showed that you're Rh negative, you'll get an injection of Rh immunoglobulin to prevent your body from developing antibodies that could attack your baby's blood. (If your baby is Rh positive, you'll receive another shot of Rh immunoglobulin after you give birth.)

Around this time, some women feel an unpleasant "creepy-crawly" sensation in their lower legs and an irresistible urge to move them while trying to relax or sleep. If this sensation is at least temporarily relieved when you move, you may have what's known as restless legs syndrome (RLS). No one knows for sure what causes RLS, but it's relatively common among expectant mothers. Try stretching or massaging your legs, and cut down on caffeine, which can make the symptoms worse. Ask your caregiver if you should try iron supplements, which can sometimes relieve RLS.

From Alphamom:

Your Baby:

• Continues to get a longer and fatter by the day. Shocking, I know. His or her weight has actually doubled in the past month alone, which is why you’ve probably gotten comments about “popping” recently.
• Weight is around 2.5 pounds right now, which (if you’re like me, gazing in horror and your inside-out belly button and spidery stretch marks) might sound a little frightening, since the baby clearly needs to gain a LOT MORE WEIGHT before he or she is fully cooked, and oh my God, how in the world is anything bigger going to fit in there?

You:

• Are either feeling like this pregnancy will NEVER end, or that 12 more weeks is simply not nearly enough time to prepare. Or you might feel both ways, changing your mind one minute to the next.
• Must move furniture and fold clothes and organize the linen closet and replace the bathroom vanity and finally get rid of that sooty stain on the marble fireplace and yes, DARLING, these are all essential tasks that MUST be completed before the baby gets here, DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME, NOW GO HANG UP SOME SHELVES.

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Me: Who (whom?) turned on the Nausea Valve again? WHO DAMMIT. And unlike First Tri, Oh the Stomach that must constantly purge itself of absolutely nothing, now it's actual meals. And usually meals that were a 'splurge' and I probably shouldn't have had in the first place. Like pizza. Or Doritos. Or Halloween oreos (Hello again!). Or Who the Hell Knows. But hey, I'm prego, we are supposed to indulge occasionally, right? RIGHT? My digestive areas seem to disagree. Back to the greek yogurt and fruit, I guess.

And the Tiredness has returned. This morning, as I sat with my daily ritual of English Breakfast tea, I seriously contemplated calling in to work sick, because I was just so damn tired. Like, arms feel heavy tired. But I still managed to drag myself there. Yesterday I had a glorious day off for Columbus Day and had so many plans (I will sew! I will launder! I will clean! I will decorate pumpkins! I will bake! I will!....). And I woke up TIRED. Oh so Tired. If our diet coke situation hadn't become so dire, I would have skipped the trip to the grocery store entirely, but I persevered anyway. And it kicked my arse. I later lounged on the couch with a bag of Doritos and later was regretting that decision.

It's not melt the sun hot anymore, but it sure isn't really cool yet. Boo. I have a beautiful camel maternity coat from Motherhood Maternity hanging in my closet, that hopefully I will get to use at some point. Maybe even before Baby Boy is born.

The nursery is so.close.to.being.done. And furniture is on its way! The crib, mattress and crib set has been ordered and is in route. The armoire(s) still lounge in the garage, waiting to be painted. Same thing for the changing table/dresser, except it is at the foot of our bed. I have ONE MORE PAYMENT for my glider from BRU. I have a coupon that may get used to purchase the ottoman from BRU as well. Stuff!

Oh yea, and appointments: Doctor's appointment last week, where I had both the gestational diabetes test and the Rhogam shot. The GD test was just drinking the orange goop and having my blood drawn one hour later. No biggie. And had the Rhogam shot at the very end of the appointment. I paid no attention to the size of the actual needle, but there was about an inch and a half of clear liquid in the syringe. Shot to the hip. I jabbered on about my lower-back tattoo that the nurse asked about as she was stabbing me. Also no biggie. Dr. Smiley had a new 'toy' to use this time; instead of just the doppler to listen to the HB, it had a flip screen that was also a mini-sonogram machine. So we got to SEE the HB (but not actually listen, I guess he had the sound turned off). And there it was, flickering away. And he pointed out some of the outline of the head, an arm, a knee, etc. Pretty cool and unexpected.


Me: 28 Weeks!