Hi ladies....I have been MIA for a loooong time :blushing: I stopped tracking on MFP because it was making me just a little too obsessive! I'll be at the 30 week mark tomorrow and I've gained 29lbs so far, which my doctor is happy with. It really seems to have steadied off in the past month or so, which I am grateful for. I'm still getting to the gym 3-5 times a week, and if not, walking outside during my break at work since its finally getting nicer outside. Still lifting and doing all my cardio, and 2 yoga classes each week (regular ones, not prenatal). Although this belly is starting to get in the way of some of the poses :laugh: I want to get a yoga DVD to do at home on the days that I am not getting to the gym, because the stretching feels reallllllly good these days. Anyone have suggestions on good DVDs that will actually give me somewhat of a workout? I'm not a fan of hatha/gentle yoga and I'm not really interested in prenatal DVDs because I feel like they will be too slow (aka boring). I've been practicing yoga for over 10 years so I'm comfortable making modifications as needed.

I'm going to take some time now to catch up on this thread. I hope everyone has been doing well!!! :flowerforyou:

I am due May 14th (but went 6 days over with my 1st so I am looking realistically at May 20th just so I am not devastated going over like I was the 1st time). We are having a little boy and my 1st is now a very active wild 3 year old little boy!!

On a side note... I am looking to be-friend any mommas that have had success with EBF their little ones!! I had a terrible go at it with my first and need some support from experienced moms out there!

Welcome to the newcomers!

RBXChas: glad to hear the bedroom is finally getting pulled together/the furniture worked out!

Re:pumps - our insurance required us to go through a DME as well but they were able to provide us a list of the approved types. So weird that they'd make you go through the whole process! My hubby said maybe it's so everyone doesn't just go for the top-of-the-line option automatically. By the way, we bought a Medela Pump in Style (backpack version) and I have never had any problems with it. I got mine in Jan 2010 so I don't know if it has changed at all in the past couple years.

Abby: I exclusively breastfed my first daughter for her whole first year. I pumped once a day on days I had to work (parttime) but that was all. With the twins, I exclusively breastfed for about 3-4 months, then started exclusively pumping for time management (still using my Medela) for a couple months, and slowly transitioned to half formula, half breastmilk and then eventually moved to all formula around 9 or 10 months. This wasn't because of dwindling supply; it was because I was having to spend SO MUCH TIME pumping that it was interfering with actual interaction with the babies. I'd be on the couch pumping, and they would be on the floor wanting me to play with them/read to them but I couldn't because I was pumping for 30+ min (it takes forever when you're pumping a good 30oz at a time!). I'm planning on breastfeeding this next baby, though, just like my first, since it'll be much more manageable with only one.

Hello Ladies!

It's been awhile, but we finally made the move to Canada this weekend and we're getting settled in.

Welcome MtMcConnel!

RBX- nice score on the pump! Glad your furniture came in too! I bet that's a relief.

Welcome Abby!

Tara, Laser - hope you're all doing well.

Jess, glad the ultrasound went well!

MormonMommy- I hear you on the nesting! Being without a home for so long I was so sad not to nest.

LadyJacc- I'm looking into classes, I feel unprepared! How are your classes going?

Hi All! Sorry to be MIA; I've been lurking but haven't really had anything much of my own to report.

It's good to see you back, rubybeach! I'm envious of all your exotic globetrotting travels!

Based on what friends were telling me, I expected the third trimester to be really difficult. Week 27 certainly started out that way -I was super exhausted, nauseous, and achy again (also had a lot of tightness on top, so much so that I had a band of numbness up there -I think it was the uterus expanding as far high up as it can possibly grow, plus baby kicking). It turns out I was slightly anemic. Normally I am mostly vegetarian and I hadn't actually cooked raw meat in years, but I decided to give it a try and I have been feeling loads better. I don't know if it's the iron or the protein or just the nature of my pregnancy at this point, but I have so much more energy. I'm also sleeping much better and feeling more alert. My cravings and therefore calories are slightly more under control, too. Heartburn is always lurking in the background, but it's still quite manageable. I take 2 tbl of aloe vera juice every morning and then papaya enzymes throughout the day as needed; again, it's hard to tell whether that's made a difference over the long term or this pregnancy is just not extreme heartburn makeover (yet....).

This week is a family milestone in that my sister went into premature labor with the first grandchild at 33w6d, and I think the knowledge of that has triggered a recent nesting instinct in me. Probably most of you have already bought baby gear and clothes and set up the nursery and packed your hospital bags, but I only just got going on it. I hired a doula (although my husband doesn't seem to be so on board with that, so it's not quite a done deal), went to a big children's consignment event, got the crib, have been washing all of the clothes, attended a La Leche League meeting, starting reading breastfeeding books, etc. My biggest worry right now is figuring out cloth diapers and what supplies I'll need. And I'm glad the group has started to talk about breastfeeding, since that feels to me like the last scary frontier of physical challenge in this process.

Exercise: I've continued to do what I've been doing since the second trimester -water running with paddles + about a mile of lap swimming 3-4 times a week, and prenatal yoga on the other days. Weirdly enough, I feel like the prenatal yoga isn't challenging me adequately, whereas before I felt so achy and uncomfortable that it was the perfect exercise. The Bradley course has had me doing tons of kegels in all kinds of creative combinations; I haven't been able to get all of recommended number them in each day, but I have already noticed a HUGE difference in my ability to control that muscle. Hopefully they will come in handy later.

I'm 33w4d right now and I'm actually feeling better than I have all pregnancy! I keep thinking this can't be normal, but hey, I'll take it!

Fiji, we stayed on a tiny island with only a few other guests. The staff lived on the island too and there was a high level of interaction between staff and guest, we loved that! They invited us into their Kava ceremony and we played vidi vidi with them at night (their local game). Fijians are the nicest people I've met in all my travels! We went to the island where Tom Hanks Castaway was filmed (I've never seen that movie).

So, SO stinkin' jealous of you! That sounds like a dream! Was the fresh fruit out of this world?

Other than that, my belly feels tight most of the time, especially at the top. It's uncomfortable, is this Braxton Hicks? Also feeling lots of pressure on my bladder, is that the babies head? She is moving a lot in the last few days and the tightness has gotten worse :frown:

Same here - tight belly on and off - my assumption is also that it's Braxton Hicks. It's not painful, just odd feeling and lasts for about 15-30 seconds. I believe the warning flags would be if you felt that more than 4 -5 times in an hour for longer than 30 seconds at a time. But, I'm new to this too.

I hear you with the bladder issues -- I had to laugh at RBX's story of walking around target having to sporadically pee. Those sudden urges are killer! *bam* pee! My FIL was in town over the weekend so we did a lot of walking showing him Seattle's waterfront, etc, and I peed at pretty much every Starbucks we passed... which, if you know Seattle, was about every 3,000 feet.

Kegel combinations:
(I do all contractions on the exhale and all releases on the exhale, which is what I learned in prenatal yoga)

Regular:
Contract, relax, repeat

"Elevator" kegels:
-regular contraction, graded relaxation in five steps (like going down five floors on an elevator and stopping at each one)
-graded contraction, graded relaxation, " "
any combination of the above, plus a three second hold at the top

Sprint kegels:
really fast series of contract and relax, like a pulse

That's as far as we've gotten. We're doing 100-150/day for now. I find myself doing them before bed, when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep right away, and after working out. I try to do them in the car or during lectures, but I find they take too much concentration.