baby #3 update: 34 weeks

Look how much rounder my bump has become just since my last pregnancy update! It will be fun to see how big this baby is compared to her sisters, whose birth weights were only a few ounces different. This pregnancy I am eating better and taking different vitamins.

• Weight gain since last update: 7 pounds -- an average of a pound a week, like I said
• Total weight gain so far: 15 pounds (over about a 14-week period)
• Measurement around my waist at belly button height (I have wondered about this in the past, maybe because of the guessing game I've played at baby showers): 37" at 32 weeks, and still 37" at 34 weeks. The measurement around my torso above the top of my uterus is 30".
• The baby was breech (we found the heartbeat at the top, not down by my pelvis) three weeks ago but head-down last week. I love feeling her move, even though as I am getting bigger I find it a little harder to breathe and do other things. Also, I'm definitely having practice contractions throughout the day -- sometimes more than one in an hour.

Time is really going by fast! Do you realize Christmas is less than six weeks away? I'm glad we at least have some time to finish getting things ready for the baby and take care of Shboogoo's birthday, Christmas shopping, etc. I do complain to my husband that I still have weeks of being uncomfortable! On the other hand, I feel really good most of the time.

Since my last update I finished reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and started her book that came out this year: Birth Matters. I have had appointments with midwives C and P, and also met 5 of the other midwives the day they answered questions and did a tour of labor and delivery at the hospital. My husband and I really like the midwives and the hospital and feel good about birthing there. We love the midwifery model of care and the fact that our midwives don't do certain things routinely, only when necessary.

I am so glad that I have been going to monthly ICAN support group meetings since September. I am thankful that my local group leader, who is not currently pregnant, started having meetings a few months ago. It's helped me a lot to talk with other cesarean mamas who would like to VBAC (and one who has). Three of them have military (Army Reserve or Army National Guard) husbands as well. 

The Hypnobabies classes my husband and I will participate in start this week (yay!) and end before Christmas. There are great videos and stories online of moms who used Hypnobabies during their labors.

Here is a recent picture of me that actually shows my head.