30 weeks of pregnant glory

I was doing squats in the squat rack at the gym on Sunday. I was changing out the plates on the bar when this girl came up to me and said, "You're so motivating!" And we chatted for a few minutes about lifting weights during pregnancy. I was completely flattered because I see her in the gym all the time and I admire HER! She's beautiful and she's always doing weighted dips or squats.

I actually feel really good lately. The last few weeks have been the best part of pregnancy for me. My belly is growing, but it's higher up and seems more out of the way. The nausea and fatigue of the first 4 months has long passed, and I finally look obviously pregnant instead of just chubby or funny shaped. My maternity clothes fit instead of me having to hike up the waistband every few steps. I'm even feeling strong in the gym. It's still a chore to get a work out in, especially because I don't feel much like a fit chick. I mean, less than a year ago I was doing this:


And now I look like this...

30 Weeks EGADS

10 more weeks to go! Whee! Of course, I'm doing way less in the gym these days - I'm squatting half the weight I was before, and taking lots of rest in between sets, and nothing high intensity. So it was a really nice for that girl to tell me I'm motivating. I still have the fire in me, it just has to wait a while before I can stoke it again.

Speaking of feeling good and nice things, thanks for all your lovely comments on that last post. I'm basically over it. I took an entire day of sick leave on Wednesday and spent the day at the hospital with A in tow (bless his heart he came with me for the whole day). I did the 3 hour glucose test first thing in the morning and then we had a nice lunch at a nearby golf course. We rushed back to the hospital afterward for our ultrasound and a tour of the L&D facility at the Army hospital.

The glucose test was not too horrible. I mean, the drink is ghastly, and getting stuck four times in 3 hours is no picnic either. But the time actually went by pretty fast with A there. We brought a laptop and dvd to entertain ourselves. And so far I have not heard a peep from the midwives about my results so I can only assume I passed. If I don't hear by the end of today, that's what I'm going with.

The ultrasound went fine too. The Little Elf is totally caught up now and is not even considered lagging behind in growth anymore so that is good. She is almost 3 lbs! She is still breech, but I guess it is too early to worry about THAT. She has taken to kicking me in some vital soft spot way off on my right side and it sometimes takes my breath away! I was sitting with Adam the other day and I made a face and he asked what was wrong and I said, she kicked me and it really hurts! He jumped up and put his hand on my belly and said, "Baby Girl!! Are you giving your mama a hard time?!" Haha.

As for the L&D tour, what can I say? I'm still somewhat skeptical about giving birth in a hospital. I am pretty sure I would prefer some foo-foo birthing center or something. However, I'm glad I will be with the midwives and I'm still hoping for a completely intervention-free birth. I may end up with an IV, but I'm hoping that will be the extent of the prodding. The only thing that really worries me is whether they will be full when I go into labor. They have 10 birthing rooms and 18 private mother/baby rooms. If the L&D rooms are full I could end up giving birth in a tiny triage room - not ideal. And if the private mother/baby rooms are full, I could end up with a roommate. The Army hospital here is a virtual baby factory, so them filling up is a real possibility in my mind. They run their L&D tour every weekday and the tour is booked for the next 6 weeks!

So here's what you missed last week... 29 weeks! I'm growing so much that I decided to take pics every week instead of every two weeks. And here's 28 weeks. These pics were still in my camera and I had to get everything running on my laptop again before I could download them. Yesterday I spent the whole day organizing and downloading and fixing everything on the computer. It's so frustrating because I already DID THIS when I first got this new computer! Grrrr....

I also made the video montage for Adam for our first anniversary on Friday. It was fun going through all our old pictures and reminiscing about A&M and DC and all the adventures we've had. It took me a while to figure out how to get the pictures right with the music and how to get it up on the internet. A was working all weekend so I had plenty of time to myself for it. I really can't believe it's been a year! It's been an awesome year and I can't wait to see what year two brings.