Third Trimester Update

I am officially in my third trimester! Guys, I am two-thirds of the way there! I thought this would be a good time for a big update on my pregnancy so far.

29-week bump!!

I am now 29 weeks pregnant. Baby Lyons is growing well. And, overall, I feel great. I do have some of the annoying symptoms but they are symptoms that I can tolerate and has not kept me from going about my life. My sinuses and I have come to a standstill and I think this is as good as it's going to get until the baby is born. My hands and feet are swelling but I can still wear my rings and, since it's summer, I've been wearing sandals and flip flops. I have continued to get veinier but I haven't experienced any sharp pains.

However, going to the bathroom has started to increase. I'm pretty sure it's due to several factors. One, being that Baby Lyons loves to stretch out and squish my bladder; it's an immediate trigger to go to the bathroom. Also, just her being in my belly is a factor especially since she's getting bigger. And I have also been drinking a lot of liquids. Hence, lots of potty breaks.

According to What to Expect's website, belly buttons will start popping out at the end of the second trimester for most women. Well, I guess I have a deep belly button because my belly button has yet to poke out. It's really shallow but no poking yet.

The most favorite part of the pregnancy is seeing Baby Lyons move. And feel her move. But there's something amazing when I see my belly move around and twitch. She has been really active and it's awesome. I admit that some movements will throw me off or it feels really weird, but for the most part they are really tolerable. There have been a few days where she wasn't moving as much and I would get a little anxious. I told David that I would rather have her roll around and wake me in my sleep than not move. He just shook his head. But since I can't seen anything, I feel at ease when I fell her move because then I know she's alive!

Lastly, and I have to mention this because it's so weird, a plus I discovered is that my leg hair stopped growing. Now, the rest of my body has been acting normally in the hair department. I don't lose that much hair when I shampoo or brush, hair grows a little faster under my arms and I have little hairs around my belly button. All normal to pregnancy. But I have never heard of hair not growing from pregnancy. To be honest, I only shaved my legs every few weeks, but this was different. I noticed a few months into the pregnancy that I hadn't shaved my legs in several months and realized that my leg hair stopped growing. I have yet to shave. That's awesome because shaving legs with a pregnant belly has to be annoying. Putting on leggings is a pain in the ass now.

Aside from nature doing it's thing, we have officially started doing baby stuff. We signed up for a birthing class and plan to sign up for a couple of other classes so we can try to be prepared as much as we can. David kept saying how having all these classes for prenatal, birth and baby classes were a little foolish citing that humans have been having babies for thousands of years. This may be true but then I argue that things have changed over time and we now understand things that early humans did not know. Also, we don't really have friends or family nearby that we could turn to for advice. So I thought taking a few classes wouldn't hurt so we know what to expect. Sure we could always call and the internet exists but I would rather not be holding a phone or something while the baby is squalling and I am feeling frantic. I think a little preparation is going to help.

I discovered a great consignment shop that sold not only baby things, but maternity clothes as well. It's called Loved Before Kids and I've been there twice now with both experiences being great. The maternity selection wasn't huge, but there was enough to where you could find basics. I bought a dress and sweater there that were in good condition and I absolutely love them.

Wrap-around dress

The gray sweater is what I got at the consignment shop

They were the fraction of the cost of when you would buy them at a retail store. However, if you needed clothes right away and you didn't know of a nearby consignment shop Motherhood Maternity is great store to go. The retail price isn't outrageous and the clothes are really comfortable. Target also has a great selection but it's not very extensive.

Anyways, back to the consignment shop. I was surprised to see several items at the consignment shop. I was able to buy a baby sling (which I bought the only one) and there were a lot more swaddle blankets on sale than I thought there would be. And I really shouldn't have been surprised being in Colorado, but we saw a couple baby hiking carrier/backpacks. We didn't buy that since we hadn't done enough research but it was nice to know that there were some available. So yeah, besides thrift store, consignment shops are the way to go. Especially when it's a specialized consignment shop.

I started laundering the new baby things we got so it's ready to go when baby is here. And I started because we finally have a place to store her things! I hadn't before so I didn't bother laundering them since they would have stayed out and continue to collect dust and cat hair. But now she has a room and a dresser just for her.

Some things we have for the baby. The red canopy goes to her stroller

After much thought, we decided to have a baby shower. We don't know a lot of people but David has several co-workers who seemed really nice to hangout with out of office hours. And there were other friends of his that we invited. Since we also have a nice new house to host in, it's also an excuse to have a house-warming party. One of David's co-workers volunteered herself to bring shower games and I guess the theme I'm going for would be yellow and white. I'll definitely talk more about once I have details worked out.

We've had a registry up for several months now but we aren't really expecting people to bring gifts to the party. Just their company is good enough. BUT, I know there are friend who would love to get something for the baby so here's the link, Baby Lyons' Registry. There isn't a lot of things on there but I didn't bother putting things like baby clothes on it since I knew I would be getting them no matter what (and I did). I did, however, want specific books for her so they are on the registry. We are doing our very best to keep baby things to a minimum and we are doing pretty well so far. We'll see how long it will last.

I have also started to freeze meals. I know I will not have the energy to cook for the first few weeks and David will be busy not getting sleep and going to work. Our parents are visiting around that time but I don't want to depend on them to survive. I'd rather have a stock of frozen ready-to-go food in the freezer and if people give us food then that stock will last longer.

I want my freezer to look like this

So, basically, we are officially underway with baby preparations and I think we are doing an okay job with staying on target. Birth plan and decisions of what to decline or what to have done to the baby is what's left. In general, I already have an idea of what I want but I think I will wait until after the birthing class to make any firm decisions. There are so many different options and opinions about those two that we really need to think carefully. The only sure thing I know is that I want a natural birth with no drugs. I will go into more detail once I have a firmer plan in mind. I think sharing this kind of information is very useful even though it depends on the woman. Knowing your options is a good thing.

So there you have it! My third trimester update! Any comments, recommendations or advice?