61: 7 months

Today I am 7 months along!  Well technically I am 7 months 1 week, but it is 2 months today until her due date so I’ve been calculating it backwards from that instead of from my LMP.

I don’t have a lot of new updates to share about the pregnancy at this point.  Our little girl is starting to run out of room a little bit, so I’ve been feeling fewer and fewer ‘kicks’ (I’m so excited for you to start feeling those soon Mandy!!!) and a lot more stretches and hiccups. 

Mom:

My waist (at belly button) has only gone up 1” since the last time I measured it, which I think was at the 6 month mark, however it has changed in shape and ‘popped’ a bit more.  I think I’ve lost a bit of weight on my hips, so maybe it’s partly because those have been going down as the belly has grown.  Who knows.  I’m up 10 lbs now, although I lost about 10 lbs at the beginning of the pregnancy, so I’m basically back up to my pre-pregnancy weight.  Most of that weight has been gained in the past 8 weeks, and the past few weeks I’ve been gaining about a pound every 2 weeks.  My midwives know I’ve been a little concerned about how little I’m gaining (after eating everything in sight for the past 7 months) so they always make a big deal of me gaining a pound or two.  Who knew that would be encouraging as a woman?  I guess it shows how protective we get of our little babes, even if they’re not here yet.

My belly button is finally starting to flatten out a bit.  I’m still not sure if it will ever pop out during this pregnancy, but it’s a great sign of a growing belly!

Ok, I know I said no more bare belly shots, but I haven’t had any stretch marks show up yet, so I’m still ok with showing a little skin.  I’ve been putting on vitamin E cream (almost) every day, so I’m hoping that helps to keep them away – according to my mom it worked for her!

Baby:

Hopefully in part because of my eating efforts, baby however has been doing a LOT of growing.  At my 28 week appointment I measured 28 cm’s from pubic bone to the top of my uterus (fundal height), and last week at my 30 week appointment, it was measuring between 31 and 32 cm.  She measured twice just to be sure of the measurement.  It is normal to be within 2cm of your week in cm’s, but not to grow almost four in 2 weeks!  I guess it’s not surprising then that my ribs are so sore all of the time lately; if my uterus has grown 3.5 cm in 2 weeks, but my belly’s only gone out an inch in a whole month, she’s done all of her growing up into my ribs.  And trust me, she seems to LIVE up in there.  I sit at my desk a lot of the time with my hands pressed up against my ribs so that she can’t push her little feet and legs (and an occasional bum, thankyouverymuch) into the space.

She’s now over 16 inches long and around 3.5lbs.  By the time I go for my next prenatal appointment (at 33 weeks), she’ll have grown to over 18 inches and over 5 lbs.  No wonder I’ve been gaining weight lately – she’s been packing on the pounds herself!

 

Daddy:

I don’t often post a lot of updates about Craig, or what he is doing over there (partially because he can’t tell me a lot of what he’s doing), but I figured I should share a little bit of how my man has been doing while his wife and daughter continue to ‘keep the home fires burning’ back here in Canada.

 

It has been getting hotter and hotter over there, with temperatures slowly creeping up to 40 degrees (Celsius).  Craig is commanding a Force Protection platoon, meaning he and his men go out as convoy escorts for supply runs to the Forward Operating Bases.  As combat trained soldiers, if the convoy is attacked or they run over an IED, they protect the supply drivers (and supplies I presume) until the threat is over or roadside assistance has arrived.  A lot of his time during the day is spent in a LAV, while evenings are spent in the office doing reports, working out at the gym, watching movies on his laptop, and calling his lovely wife (which he could do more often if he’s reading this!!).

Please keep him and his troops in your prayers.  Recently one of the soldiers from our area was injured in an attack, and I know it has affected Craig and his friends mentally.  Craig has trained a lot of the guys in the battle group, and he’ll likely take it hard if one of them is killed while over there.  So prayers for the entire Canadian contingent in Afghanistan please!!