mrs. of a med student: November 2014

S T A T S :

baby: officially today, she is the size of an eggplant...or 2 lbs. this week, she's now opening her eyes, and has electrical brain activity similar to that of a newborn! what a crazy miracle!! when really active, she will actually play by kicking an area back if i push slightly on my tummy. sooo cute.

weight gain: seventeen lbs. my weight gain has slowed down {i was up 15 lbs at 20 weeks, and i'm now 26 weeks!}. i am part of a preggo mama fitness group, and one of our recent challenges was to count our calories. what an eye opener! i really only need 200-300 more per day than my pre-pregnancy diet. sometimes it's reallyyy hard to not eat when i'm hungry, so i take that as a sign that baby is having a growth spurt and i eat a big meal. but for the most part, i stick with the 300 calories/day max addition. that's only like one extra serving of trail mix! also, now that my queasiness has gone away, i am eating veggies again, and can bear to cook. so i feel like i am healthier all around than in the past few months. dr was super happy with my weight at my six month checkup and said i was doing "perfect," and that couldn't have made my day better! this girl is turning me into a cookie monster and it's sooo difficult to turn down sweets! BUT i've been doing it!! i have to say, when i first found out i was pregnant, the scariest part for me was the impending weight gain. but now i feel like i have a handle on this, i know how to not get out of control, and i am much less overwhelmed! of course, i still have an entire trimester to go, so this could definitely change.

sleep: still not so good. i need about 5 pillows haha. last night was the first night i had to wake up and have a midnight snack, so baby must be growing! i've also started a liquid magnesium supplement in the form of calm, which is supposed to help:

reduce stress & relax muscles{tmi-which helps in the bathroom department, and also with leg cramps}
relieve insomnia & excessive thirst
promote bone & teeth development for baby and me
regulate blood sugar levels and heartbeat {it's common for the heart to palpitate with all the extra blood volume, totally something i was experiencing}

i didn't know this, but apparently many preggo women are deficient in magnesium and there is nowhere near enough in a prenatal vitamin! not sure why it took me so long to start taking this, but it has really helped with my sleep & nightly stress. also, i haven't had any of the second trimester dreaded charley horse cramps, so i'll just credit the magnesium for that!

feeling: hormonal & roller coaster-y. stressed about where we are going to be living in seven short months. physically, large. at night i feel like i can't get enough air in my lungs sometimes because my torso feels so full...lots of stretching. if i am too active {working out, walking, pilates}, my pelvis feels like it's going to split in half. soooo, that's a bit painful. just now noticing it is hard to tie my shoes, put on tights, or socks & boots. also, i'm feeling the nesting start to kick in. i'm shopping for baby clothes, starting the nursery, and scheduling classes & a hospital tour. feeling prepared helps with the overall anxiety of all this change.

maternity clothes: oh yeah. the biggest challenge has been trying to decide what to wear for maternity pictures and my two upcoming baby showers!! so fun!

favorite moments of this month:

1. hubby is coming home for thanksgiving: eeek! so excited!! his program this month is closed wed-fri for thanksgiving holiday, so they sent their externs notice last week {what awesome notice because airfare is superrr easy to book this time of year!!}. so, we sold my left kidney and bought a plane ticket for him to spend it at h o m e. you guys, he hasn't been home since july. i can't contain myself. i pick him up tonight!! feeling a little nostalgic about it because i just realized that this will be the last holiday we spend together as just a married couple, as he will be at his san diego externship for christmas and i'll be too much of a whale to fly.

2. nursery details: i can't wait to officially start putting this girly whimsy woodland room together. my colors are neutrals with pops of coral, light pink & gold. i have a vision and can't wait to share it. i need jack to help me move furniture, so we probably won't put it together completely until next month. in the meantime, i'm beginning to hoard:

some leather bows from little kate designs. are you kidding me right now with these?

this glider & cozy friends. my amazing grammenner and aunti kate sent me a gorgeous glider for our nursery!! and i splurged on pale nulle {left} from lucky boy sunday when i first found out i was pregnant because, obviously. and the little fawn is by maileg...one side of her is sleeping and the other side is awake. i bought them both from the fawn shoppe. the possum fur baby blanket {draped over the chair for now} is from my trip to new zealand. i may or may not also have a matching pillow.

i decided i hate every cutesy mobile on the planet, so i am going to make my own. after jack vetoed a couple of ideas involving feathers and sticks that were too "blair witch project" {oops}, we found these amazing felted woodland animal ornaments in a shop in vail when i visited him in colorado last month. i took their little christmas scarves off, and now they are going to make the perfect mobile!

3. registering at babies r us: seriously, that gun is way too addicting. huge thanks to my sister teagan and other mother di for helping me by telling me what i need! i was sooo clueless.

morning bump shot before registering!

4. passing my glucose test: yay for no gestational diabetes! bring on the thanksgiving feast!

5. miso not dying of grape poisoning: the other night, my little fruit bat ate a piece of a green grape, of which at that moment, i did not know are extremely poisonous to dogs and cats. one grape can kill a cat of kidney failure in a matter of days! they don't know exactly what the toxin is in the grape, but it's hit or miss. sometimes animals react, and sometimes they don't. sometimes a cat can even eat a grape once and be fine, and die in the course of hours the next time! i called kitty 911 because i was so freaked out by this and we ended up in the kitty ER at 11pm to make sure his kidneys were ok, because once they show symptoms, it's too late, and the poisoning is not treatable. they watched him for two hours, and during that time he got fluids and lots of blood/urine testing. of course i waited like a frantic crazy person in the waiting room the whole time. three days later we did another panel & checkup at his regular vet, and he was ok. poor baby! don't let your pets eat raisins or grapes, no matter how happy and excited they are! EVER!!!