Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘Belly Shots’

Almost there! This was taken out in the big grassy area near our house.

Compare to my 38-week belly shot while pregnant with Rhino.

Feeling good!

Well, now that we have a camera and aren’t being lazy, here is this pregnancy’s first belly shot — at 31 weeks! I know, there’s not much to see as far as progression throughout the pregnancy, but it’s something.

I really hate posting a photo today because it definitely is not my best day! But if I don’t now, I’ll probably miss out on this week’s shot.

And you can compare to the same week when I was pregnant with Rhino. I’m thinking things don’t look too different this time as compared to last time. For some other differences, I haven’t had any new stretch marks show up at all. Maybe because Rhino stretched me enough last time? Or maybe I have nine more weeks for plenty to appear! Also, the linea negra that I had with Rhino (which showed up pretty early) faded after he was born and hasn’t yet reappeared. Maybe there won’t be one at all this time?

My last “belly shot”! Isn’t Rhino a cutie?!

Well, it’s the 8th! Here is my 40-week belly photo, a little washed out.

I had another appointment today. Not much is happening, still. Doctor asked me how comfortable I am and if I’m okay with going another week. I told him, of course, and he said that I shouldn’t go too far overdue. So he wants to talk about setting an induction date next Friday, if Baby isn’t here by then. I told him we can talk about it. Hopefully I won’t have an appointment next Friday, or he’ll be all right with me going to 42 weeks. We’ll see then!

Well, I missed the 37 week photo. Sometimes we get pretty lazy around here. I can’t tell so much of a difference from week to week anyhow, so you can just imagine what I looked like last week!

New weekly photos, complete with stretch marks!

Oh, and not that I buy in to the wives’ tales about gender prediction, but sometimes they’re fun FYI. You can sort of see my linea negra in the above photo, which runs all the way to the top of my belly. Supposedly, if the line runs from your pubic bone and stops at your navel, then the baby will be a girl. If it goes all the way up, a boy. Plenty of people have said “boy”, so we’ll just see. :-p

We took another photo tonight. This is 35 weeks, 5 days.

I think we’re also pretty much decided on names now, too. If it’s a girl, it’ll be Maia Joy (if we ever have a second girl, then she’ll be Madeline!). If it’s a boy, it’ll be Ryan Lowell. Yes, Lowell just kind of came up out of nowhere recently, and it surprised me that we both liked it. It happens to mean “little wolf” in Old French, and Matt loves wolves, so that’s just perfect. (Here are other names we had been considering.)

We had our 9th Bradley class tonight. We talked about cesarean sections (and watched a video – ick!) and advanced first stage labor and a few other things. We also chatted with the instructor after class about doulas. Andrea asked me about whether or not I think she should hire a doula for her birth and it never really occurred to me. I figured, if you have a husband coach, why would you need one? I brought that up to our instructor, since she is a doula, and she explained the role and the importance of her job. I’m thinking it might actually be a good option for our situation. Since I’m a little worried about whether our doctor is going to bully us around or try and convince us that we need certain interventions which we aren’t interested in, it would be nice to have someone else to sort of stand up for us. She has a lot more knowledge and confidence and would also serve as an assistant coach. Matt will be the main coach, but he will need support, or possibly rest, or she can run errands, etc. We also get a 50% discount because we are Bradley students, which puts the service within a what I think is a very reasonable range for what we’d get. Matt and I are going to talk about it a little more and research some other doulas in the area. And I know our doctor sort of rejected talking to me about a birth plan the first appointment or discussing medication and other options, so I really haven’t brought anything up about what we want and don’t want. He knows that we’re doing Bradley classes, so if he knows anything about that, then maybe he can make some assumptions about what we don’t want. Our instructor mentioned a home birth with a midwife, which has been something on my mind since my second appointment back in August. We’ve switched doctors all ready and really like the hospital in Goleta, so I’m thinking I’d rather not do a home birth anyway. It’s something I’d be interested in possibly for the next birth, but I feel like it’s too late to change now. I still like the idea of a water birth, and I can’t do that in the hospital here, so if I did a home birth later on that would be an option. Anyhow, it’s something I never really considered, but we’re going to be talking about having a doula present at the hospital after all. I think it could make the whole thing with the doctor less stressful. So we’ll see what happens with that.

Well, 35 weeks and 3 days. I’m a little behind. This definitely isn’t the most flattering photo of me, but there it is! Ohh, and the gray sweater is a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad. It’s not really a maternity sweater, but it buttons halfway down then flaps open at the bottom, so it works for me.

I don’t really update very often on how the pregnancy is going. For about a month now I’ve been getting Braxton Hicks contractions, but they aren’t much of a bother. I try and drink a lot of water, which is supposed to help those. For a little while, I’ve been feeling baby hiccups (yes, babies do hiccup in utero!) which is really cute and not as annoying as I hear some women say. They don’t really last too long for me right now. Stretch marks have taken over the underside of my belly, despite my efforts to prevent them. I have a difficult time rolling over, getting out of bed, and getting up off the floor without Matt’s assistance. I’m not too sore, achey, bloated, or tired. I think being off of work this past month has helped a lot with my moods and I’ve been able to take care of myself a lot better. Matt and I have been going to our Bradley Method classes every week for the past 8 weeks (classes finish at the end of this month). We’ve been getting a ton of great information there, get to practice relaxation, have to track everything I eat, and am assigned weekly exercises that I try my best to do. I feel great and am anxious to reach my due date not because I’m miserable being pregnant, just very excited to meet Baby!

Just six more weeks … ish!