26 Week Pregnancy Update!

Happy Friday from the beach!

We came down last night and slept in this morning until 8:10. That’s super late for me and I feel like I slept away half the morning! I’ve got some work to do this morning and then a couple conference calls later tonight, but besides that I’m free to spend time at the beach! Danny and I are going to celebrate our day off by a morning walk and then planting ourselves in the sand.

Now onto that pregnancy update I promised you. The last one I did was a 23/24 week update, which is 2 weeks ago at this point.

So what’s new? Baby C is now 14 inches long and 1.75 pounds. That makes for a really long and skinny baby. I cannot believe that this baby is 14 inches long. Although I can when I see and feel kicks all over the place.

I went to the doctor for a 25 week visit and everything was good. I have one more monthly visit in a month and then it goes to every 2 weeks. (WHAT?!)

How I’m Feeling: I feel GOOD…until about 8-9 o’clock at night and then I basically feel GIANT. This makes me nervous because I know I’m not “giant” sized yet. What is it going to feel like when my belly gets bigger? I really do feel lucky that I feel good. The heat hasn’t been too bad for me, but if I feel like I’m getting too hot I’ll escape to the AC. I’ve been having a fair amount of heartburn nightly, but it’s not that bad. Sleep has also still been pretty good, but I attribute that to my body pillow and the fact I love sleeping.

Weight Gain: As of last week I was up 12 pounds. I think I’ve been doing a good job of eating what I want (bread & cheese) and eating healthy. I really do only want mostly healthy food. My type of indulgence right now is (homemade) pizza, chocolate chips or coconut milk ice cream like the one I made. I had a couple french fries and 1 scoop of Ralph’s Italian Ice the other day and it made me pretty sick. Baby likes healthy food and so do I.

Exercise: I’m still running 3x a week, although I’ve switched up my runs to do between 10-15 minutes of running then 2 minute walks, until I complete the run. Before I was running 20-25 minutes, walking 1x and then running again. As far as weight training I’m still doing weights 3x a week and the other days I’m walking or doing the elliptical. I hope to get into prenatal yoga in the next two weeks, but fitting the classes into my schedule is a challenge for me.

Clothes: I have to admit that maternity clothes was a big scare for me. I didn’t want to look frumpy…ever. I’ve gotten over my fear. I can still fit into a bunch of my tops and I just wear maternity bottoms with them. Also my pre-baby dresses (cotton summer dresses) still fit too. I highly recommend Gap, Asos, Gilt Groupe and Old Navy for cute, affordable clothes. As fas as workout clothes, my Reebok and Nike tops still are long enough to cover the bump.

ASOS top

Books & Hospital Tour: I haven’t talked much about this on the blog. I am almost done with Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. I read it in about 3 days. It’s an amazingly, powerful book and I’m SO glad I read it. But….while what I’m about to say may not be the most popular in blog world… I’m going to say it anyway. I read post after post about how mama’s to be want to have a “natural” birth and I give them SO much credit. I am a holistic minded person, yes, but I have to admit and say that I am in the camp where I’m pretty set on getting an epidural. I’m reading the books and the birth stories about all the amazing women who have unmedicated births and I think it’s incredible. I have no judgement either way, but for me, I just feel like the right thing to do is to go in with an open mind and see what happens…knowing I’ll probably get the drugs. I just think that it’s not written enough that no matter what happens, its your birth and it’s special. Drugs or no drugs, most important is you get a healthy baby and that’s the end result I’m going for.

Hospital Tour: I had a mini hospital tour last week. (This may be TMI) I had some brown discharge for the 3rd time (had it 2x at 16 weeks) and called my doctor. Out of the 2 doctors at my practice, one was on vacation and the other was at the hospital, so they sent me there. Everything was fine (brown usually means old blood) and I got to hear the baby’s heart beat and see the hospital room. It is SO nice and very calming. They are all private rooms, low lighting, very calming. I was happy to see that. I called the doctor to be safe, but I was pretty sure everything was okay and it was.

Purchases: We bought a glider and a crib (well my mom bought us the crib…THANKS MOM!!) and the baby’s room is now looking like it’s for A BABY! We also scheduled our maternity shoot with Steve Depino who takes the MOST amazing pictures. We weren’t completely blown away by our wedding photographer, so I wanted to make sure these were really great. P.S. If you click to his website that’s one of my BF’s Lauren, who is the first picture. Isn’t she gorgeous?? You’ll even see me in one of the pictures.

Other Thoughts: We have less than 100 days to go (according to my Baby Bump app, so give or take some!). This baby is SO active, literally all the time….except when someone wants to feel or see the kicks haha. Family & friends have formed their opinions on whether it’s a boy or girl and I think most people think boy because of how I look and am carrying. I have done just about all the old wives tales out there and they are mostly coming in one direction, but I won’t reveal that yet. The heart rate has really no basis because every time I go baby has a different heart rate, and when I was in the hospital for the hour being monitored the heart rate was at high at 168 and as low as 137.

This was a LONG post, so I’ll be amazed if you’re still here reading, but if you are THANKS. I guess I had a lot to say today!

Happy, happy Friday! Also happy retirement to my Father in Law!! 

Tagged as: baby, Exercise, Fitness, health, pregnancy