Bump Progress – Week 21

December 4th, 2011-December 10th, 2011

*No 21 Week photo this week – completely had no time to snap one, unfortunately. Instead, I’m comparing a photo of me from March of this year – on my 27th birthday! – and the photo from last week. You can tell in the 20 week pic I’m trying to grow my hair out – haha!*

How big is baby? He is a banana this week. He is 10.5″ long and 12.2 ounces. He is almost a foot tall. Wow!

How I’m feeling? Great now that my semester is almost done! All that is left is the final exam on the 12th and after having just written a HUGE research paper and done a presentation on it, the final seems like a piece of cake.

I have noticed that I’m getting tired earlier in the evening, though. I used to be such a night owl, now I’m ready to go to bed around 10 or 11pm.

Any cravings, weird dreams or other symptoms? I haven’t mentioned this before, but since becoming pregnant my nails are growing like crazy. I am so proud of them! I have never had long nails unless they were made of acrylic. My hair is also growing pretty quickly which is great because I’m in an awkward phase of hair growth. I hope to have shoulder-length hair by the time the baby is here.

My cravings are still veggies – in the form of GIANT salads – and fruits. And, oddly enough, water. Lots and lots of water. Finally cravings that are good for me!

Any other details? This weekend we had the chance to see Alex’s mom and dad again as we celebrated his dad’s 58th birthday. It was a lot of fun; we ate at a German restaurant in Lexington which meant… spaetzle! If you have not had spaetzle, you must try it ASAP.

On the baby front, now that we know we are having a boy, we decided to re-do our registries at Babies r Us and Buy Buy Baby. BRU had deleted our original registry that we made back in early November so that was a little frustrating (3 hours down the drain!) but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we’ve had more time since then to research and figure out what we want. We had begun a registry at Buy Buy Baby back in October (I think?) but didn’t do anything with it until recently. I have to say… If you have the chance to shop at Buy Buy Baby definitely do that over Babies R Us. They have such a better selection and the staff is way more knowledgeable, at least that’s been true for the Buy Buy Baby locations we have been to!

Maybe the best news of all is the fact that this weekend we made major strides on our birthing plan! We canceled our registration for Bradley Method classes because we hired a doula!! The doula I mentioned last week in Northern Kentucky came to our house yesterday for an interview and she was so sweet! We clicked right away – she is someone I could envision being good friends with. I was instantly at ease with her, and she was so professional and answered all of my questions. It was just a great experience!

We were so motivated after the interview that we signed up for childbirth classes at our hospital – which means we finally chose a hospital! I don’t think I have mentioned this, but choosing a hospital was a major decision we were stalled on as well. The other doula I had interviewed stressed switching OB/GYNs to an office about 30 minutes north of us (she suggested that office because we want to go the unmedicated route and the doctor at that practice has a great track record with natural childbirth). That particular office only delivered at this hospital, also 30 minutes north of us. The drive time wasn’t a big deal, but the OB/GYN I currently see is about a 10 minute drive and the hospital that office delivers at is about a 5 minute drive. Well, the doula we hired has attended several births at the hospital closest to us so that was a major relief and also one of our top criteria for a doula. So, needless to say, we immediately signed up for childbirth classes at the hospital as well as for our pre-admission appointment.

It is such a relief to have these things under control and figured out. I feel like now I can finally enjoy my pregnancy and just focus on preparing mentally and physically for the actual birth part.

If you are considering hiring a doula but don’t know where to begin, Your Best Birth has an entire chapter on doulas and what they do as well as a list of suggested questions to ask doulas when you are interviewing them. I highly recommend you check the book out at least for the questions. They are a great springing off point and definitely helped us in the interview process.