18 July 2012

35 weeks

I'm visiting my in-laws during this week's update, so there won't be a picture update until I can get home and Mr Siili takes the picture, hopefully on Thursday. Mr Siili stayed home because he is working and to take care of the cats. Quite often I've visited my in-laws without my husband. My MIL and I get along quite well and do all sort of things together.

For example, this time I baked her a belated birthday cake yesterday and we made a mushroom soup/risotto from a recipe I have. We went through all the baby clothes and items she had stored up from her own kids and I picked out what I wanted (or if it was too big, it will stay here until Paxlet is closer to that size). The rest of the evening we just hung out, chatted and I showed her and my FIL the maternity photos that were taken Saturday.

Today, we went downtown and bought some buttons for the sweater and booties that my mom had mostly made, but not finished. We then continued our walk downtown to look at the booths that were set up along the walking street. I petted a dog that works for the customs (and then my hand stunk like dog) and we got a consolation prize from a knowledge competition, even though we got the first question incorrect and thus discontinued from the competition. We bought strawberries, saw the mayor of this town getting her photo taken with the Angry Birds owner because a new park/play ground for kids opened up today in this town. We made it back to the car just in time to avoid a parking ticket. Once we were home, we made a late lunch/early dinner of chanterelle mushrooms that my MIL picked. We sat outside for a bit in the lovely sun. In the early evening MIL and I went chanterelle mushroom picking. We found about 5 liters of mushrooms and cleaned them all when we got home with a bit of help from my FIL. They're giving me all of the mushrooms to take home with me tomorrow! FIL picked me some rhubarb to also take home.

Now, we're just relaxing for the evening, eating some bread and I'm writing here. I'll catch the bus back home tomorrow morning at 8am.

I could have driven my car here and home, but I came by bus, as it was cheaper than coming by car. When I posted on FB about coming here by bus, a friend on there asked how much gas is here in Finland as it is now under $4/gallon in her town, in the US. My MIL and I calculated it and it is roughly $8/gallon! I paid only 13,80€ for my round trip bus tickets. It would have cost me about €35 round trip by car.

And now for this week's update.
Total Weight Loss/Gain: I forgot to weigh myself this morning before eating and drinking, but at my neuvola appointment yesterday, the scales said 83 kilos. Although I think it is a bit less than that.

Maternity Clothes: When we went mushroom picking, I put on some jogging pants in order to not be eaten alive by mosquitoes. I almost couldn't get them over my hips (and under my tummy). MIL and I found it quite funny at my jumping around trying to pull them up. And then putting on socks and shoes..that was interesting also.

Stretch marks: No stretch marks still, but MIL says they can still happen in the next few weeks. We'll see. My belly button is really sticking out now. I don't like it. LOL

Sleep: I still sleep quite well, although sometimes I wake up at 4am or 6am for a hour or two before falling asleep for another couple of hours. Last night I slept around 6 hours before needing to get up and go pee!!

Movement: Even though Paxlet is head down (for now and hopefully permanently), he is still kicking me tons! In fact, he wouldn't hold still again for the neuvola nurse to listen to his heartbeat. She did hear it quickly, and it is beating strongly, but she wasn't able to listen long enough to get a good idea of how fast it was beating. He's already taking after me and his dad.

Cravings/Aversions: Still nothing special. Loving my fruits.

Gender: It's a boy!!

Symptoms:
Swelling! My feet and fingers are more noticeably swollen, at least to me. The bottoms of my feet are a bit sore when I wake up to go pee in the middle of the night and also the morning. And I also notice that my finger joints are a bit sore when I first wake up.

I have also finally taken off all of my rings. Even the two very thin ones that never come off. I'm a bit sad about those last two, as one of them is a gift I bought for myself for my 18th birthday (almost half my life ago) and the other one was my mom's, which I haven't taken off since my sister and I found it in a drawer at her house over a year ago.

I'm waddling a lot. My bump gets in the way of many things. I'm insanely warm, almost all the time, which is very unusual for me. Basically, I'm having all sorts of normal pregnancy symptoms, which I'm enjoying the experience of immensely.

What I miss: I can't think of anything I miss this week. I'm just enjoying every moment of this pregnancy.

What I look forward to: Tomorrow, we'll head to the country side to visit a friend and her family who have been living in the US for the last year. We might even get to go to sauna and then swim in the lake!
On Saturday, we'll head over to Mr Siili's brother and wife's combined birthday party. I think it'll be nice to see many people at once.
My birthday is only 10 days away. 36 years young, here I come!
And the RHCP concert is only a few days after my b-day. OMG! I'm excited for that.

Moods:
The other day, Mr Siili was standing in front of me and I noticed a mark on the back of his arm and gently reached out and touched his arm to look at it. My hands were cold and Mr Siili thought I was being mean and in return elbowed my arm. It wasn't so hard of an elbowing, but it did hurt a tiny bit and shocked me, as I had no mean or mischievous intention in my thoughts. I immediately burst into tears. After he realized it did hurt me, he apologized, but I couldn't stop crying and sniffling for a while. I'm sure I reacted worse than normal because of hormones.

Milestones: Paxlet is the size of a honeydew! He weighs roughly 2300 grams (just over 5 pounds) now. We've only got 5 weeks until the due date, which is only 35 days. Ack! It just isn't registering in my mind that he could be coming at any time.

Medical concerns: Mr Siili has expressed his concern over me going to the RHCP concert w hen I am so far along pregnant and also the noise level for Paxlet. I have told him that as long as I feel able, I'm going and I asked the neuvola nurse how the noise might effect Paxlet. She said there is enough amniotic fluid to protect his ears. Once he's born, that's a different story. So, I'm still excited to go to the concert. Especially since it is in my town. I don't even have to drive several hours to get to to the concert. Bonus!

My neuvola appointments have now been bumped up to weekly appointments, until Paxlet is born. I'll also see the doctor one more time (in 2 weeks) at the neuvola place before he is born.

Misc: I talked with my step mom on Skype, Sunday night, for over an hour. It was great to be able to talk with her for so long and for it to be a good conversation. My step mom shared some of her insight, experience and thoughts about pregnancy, labor and delivery, life after a child and so on. We also giggled and laughed a lot about my youngest brother's love with Po.wer Ran.gers, years ago, and the dance bit he'd do whenever a specific Cry.stal Wat.ers song came on. (We have no idea why he chose or decided that that song was a Po.wer Ran.ger song, but in his mind it was.)
My poor dad felt left out, as I normally call and talk to him. We did chat for a bit at the end of the call. He told me about the crab they caught the day before with one of his sisters. (Oh, how I miss fresh crab!) We discussed a bit about his plans to come visit once the baby is born. And other random stuff as it usual during our calls. I can't wait to have my dad visit again!! The last (and only) time was 12 years ago!

This week's bump pictures can be seen in the Paxlet Pictures tab, once it has been taken and updated (mostly updated on Friday).

34 weeks
33 weeks
32 weeks
31 weeks
30 weeks
29 weeks
28 weeks
27 weeks
26 weeks
25 weeks
24 weeks
23 weeks
22 weeks
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20 weeks
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18 weeks
17 weeks
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