Light Framed

Weeks 33 and 34 marked the start of the holidays and we celebrated with our maternity photo session on an Irish beach, making a decision on a baby buggy, and me balancing this growing bump and all that comes with it.

Highlights from week 33:

• I’m ever fascinated by baby’s movements and they tend to make me jump, wince, laugh or just stare!
• It’s getting more and more uncomfortable to sleep these days. I wake up with aching hip joints, flip to the other side (which is no small task), repeat.
• Our maternity photos were postponed due to rain this week, but I fit in some nice walks instead… and balanced those out by trying out a new mint chocolate chip cookie recipe I found. 😉
• We finally made a decision about a travel system / stroller / buggy / pram and ordered it. One big check off the list!
• Hypnobirthing wrapped up this week and, even though I still needed to read the book and practice with the meditation CD, I got a better idea of how to “breathe baby out” through the “surges”.

Highlights from week 34:

• So as it turns out, what I thought was some kind of rib flare – a burning, aching area right at the base of my ribs on one side – must have been something else because it seemed to be growing out with the bump. By this week it was a numb/burning patch of skin on top of the bump. Pregnancy brings on the oddest things!
• Things falling on the floor were really irritating me by this week and it didn’t help that I seemed to be getting clumsier. I also seemed to lose perception of my size and kept knocking things over with my belly or closing doors on it!
• LOTS of hiccups lately. I think they annoy baby because he squirms a lot when they come on.
• Finally – our maternity photos worked out! We rented a car and drove down to a beautiful little beach in County Wicklow. Our photographer was great to work with and we had a lot of fun with the session. It wasn’t exactly the bright sunny beach scene I hoped for, but the subdued, overcast day was probably more fitting for a winter beach session anyway. At least it wasn’t so cold that we couldn’t kick off our shoes and go barefoot in the water. 🙂
• More of the same from the doctor visit this week. All was normal, well, and baby was huge.
• We had a nice late lunch out with friends before the holidays this week, and finished up Christmas shopping, baking, and gift wrapping just in the nick of time.
• With baby’s due date being so soon, we weren’t able to travel home for the holidays, so we had some low key celebrating on our own. Christmas eve wrapped up week 34, so I added some festive touches to my pregnancy photos and we went for a nice lunch out.