Even fairy tales have a villain

Phil and Warren painting

During this pregnancy, I have regularly commented on how much I love being pregnant and how special this time is. I love feeling the baby move. I love seeing Phil get excited about putting things together. I love the adorable clothes and cute accessories in the stores. And in the past 2 weeks, I have seen the continued and growing love that others have for this little girl. Last weekend, I had a swim meet in Watertown, so I was gone for about 7 hours on Saturday and another 7 hour on Sunday. On Saturday, my parents in-law came up and helped Phil paint the nursery. On Sunday, Phil tackled the crib and the dresser and made a room turn into a nursery. In the past few weeks, we have also received packages from family members with clothes, toys and cards full of well wishes. It's just amazing to have so much love for someone that only God has met.



Crib with bedding and curtain

However, in every fairy tale, there is always a dark cloud or villain that appears at some point in the story. For me, the villain of our story has come in the form of  insomnia, physical aches and pains as well as high blood pressure. Towards the end of pregnancy, I know there is going to be the typical aches from a growing baby and a not-so-growing body. Anyone that asked me how the pregnancy was going during the first 33 weeks would have received an honest, 'this is awesome!'I love being pregnant!' Enter the 33rd week and you now get the response of, 'yep, only 6 more weeks' with a half-hearted smile. It's as if this little girl didn't think that she would rule our world, so she wanted to make sure she put her stamp on things right off the bat. About 2 weeks ago, my blood pressure started to creep up, so the doctor has kept a close eye on that. About the same time, my feet started to balloon and not return to their normal size (in previous weeks, I had mild problems with swelling, but my feet would always return to their normal size after a few hours of rest). In the past week, I have not been able to sleep through the whole night due to abdominal pain that wakes me up. I sleep sitting up and about 3 hours after falling asleep, I get woken up with a sharp pain in my upper abdomen. I stay up for about 2-3 hours trying to get the pain to go down and relax and then go back to bed for another 2-3 hours. I have seen the doctor twice in the past week and have had multiple tests done. I'm waiting on some results that should be in tomorrow, so hopefully I'm able to have some relief. But if not, I have to find the silver lining and think about the prep that I'm getting for the next 6 weeks (because we all know after baby's born, I'll be excited to get 3 hours of continuous sleep)! And I have to keep reminding myself that pregnancy is something that a lot of women have gone through and each of us has our own story, so I'm just making sure mine is extra special :)

So, I am now 34 weeks- yikes! Baby girl is about 4.5 pounds (so the size of a cantaloupe) and she's about 18 inches long. I'm trying to rest as much as possible to help her grow and trying to stay on the healthy track, although my diet could be much better (as always). Still no weird cravings or making Phil do any late night runs... but there's still time for that!  Nothing really has changed in that department- I still like cheese, key lime yogurt, cheeseburgers, and fruit snacks. Oh, and tis the season for Girl Scout Cookies! (Thin Mints and the lemon ones are particularly delicious) :)