32 Week Pregnancy Update, Weekend Recap, and Some Thoughts on Monday

Happy Monday, friends!  I hope everyone had an excellent weekend; ours was definitely full and fun!  I started on Friday night with a little wintry-mix of sleet and snow and rain.  It was pretty yucky, actually.  But on Saturday, we had several friends over for our annual Gingerbread House decorating party.  This is the third year we’ve done this party, but the first year it was specifically for the kids.  It was definitely different, (For starters, it was on a Saturday morning rather than Saturday night because #naptime and #momlife.)  but it was a blast.  Our church had our family worship night with the kids on Sunday night for Christmas and we loved it.  Basically, this weekend was all about the treats and family/friends time.

Today’s post is a little bit of rambling, without much in the way of Pinterest-worthy images, just a catch-all of what’s been going on in our lives during this season.  Think of this as “coffee – talk” if you will.  Basically, all the things I would tell you about if we were sitting down for coffee this morning.

32 Week Pregnancy Update

How far along? 32 weeks + 4 days.  It’s crazy to me.  This pregnancy is FLYING by.  Like absolutely flying by.

Maternity clothes? Yes and no.  I have one pair of maternity jeans that I wear often and have been living in leggings quite a bit.  I’ve also been in over-sized sweaters, long sleeve tees, and some maternity tops.  I have a few maternity sweaters, and one zip up jacket.  Fortunately, it hasn’t been too cold so I haven’t felt the need for a winter coat.  I think I might start looking for a few more tops this weekend though.

Stretch marks?  Still nothing new that I’ve noticed.  I’ve been a lot more diligent this pregnancy about keeping my skin well moisturized with the growing bump, but I am definitely starting to feel quite large so anything new won’t surprise me.

Sleep: Actually starting to feel pretty uncomfortable.  I sleep fine when I’m asleep, other than the usual getting up to use the bathroom, but I can’t as easily turn over or get in and out of bed.

Best moment this week:  Making cookies with Little.  I posted recently about how to prepare well for the holidays with little ones and like everything else in motherhood, sometimes I feel like I’ve got it together and other times not so much.  I have all these tips to be prepared, but I still found myself recently wondering just what we were going to do for our own traditions this year.  So, I taught Little how to cut the cookies out of the dough for our party.  Not only did he do a great job and have tons of fun, but it reminded me that we really don’t have to do BIG elaborate things to enjoy one another.  I also took a good look at our calendar and realized that we do in fact have lots of festive things coming up this month that I’m excited about.

Movement: Yep – mostly at night.

Food cravings:  Ice cream.  And caramel dip for green apples is on my shopping list this week.  And actually, healthy things for lunch as we near the end of this pregnancy.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Fortunately no.

Gender prediction:  It’s a boy!

Labor Signs: Nope.

Belly Button in or out? Out.  Like way out.  No hiding it.  I’m growing really similarly to how I was with Little, so I think we might be having another big baby and to be honest, I’m not totally mad about it.  I actually feel really confident in my body this time around having seen it carry, labor, and deliver a baby once before.  Pregnancy definitely changes your body in a lot of ways, but it made me so aware of my body’s strength and ability to endure and recover.

Wedding rings on or off?  On.  And actually, I was thinking this week that I might be able to make it through with them on.  (Fingers crossed!)  There is still some wiggle room, so I’m hopeful!

Happy or Moody most of the time:  A little mix of both, to be honest.  It’s starting to really hit me that we’re having a baby soon, which makes me want to clean and organize all the things.  It’s easy to let myself feel stressed when I think about all the prep that we need to do.

Weekly Wisdom:  Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.  Heard this on the Risen Motherhood podcast this week and it totally challenged me and helped my spirit and mood in trying to balance all the things.

Milestones:  Being officially in the third trimester.  Of course, I’ve been here for a few weeks, but I’m really starting to feel it now.  (Someone actually asked me recently if I was having a baby before Christmas.  Nope.  I hope not.)

Other Life Updates / What I’m Thinking About These Days

Family

In other news, we are finalizing our Christmas plans and shopping, denying that we are just two weeks away from Christmas and trying to soak in all the last weeks of being a family of three.

I’m also trying to figure out great tips to help Little sleep through the night again.  Mostly, just to stay in his bed at night.  I don’t know if there is a two year sleep regression, and part of it is the new freedom that comes with being in  a big boy bed rather than a crib, but man.  We’re tired around here these days.  I really want to figure this out before baby gets here because baby will definitely be sleeping in our room for the first few months, and I’m concerned that if Little is still coming in at night, it will be even harder to get him to go back to his bed. (You know since the whole family except him will be in our room for a while – it feels a little harsh to send him out when he comes in.  But, he really doesn’t sleep great in our room and it’s important to me that he also get enough sleep.)

Home

We’re working on creating some better systems in our home – specifically in terms of cleaning and organizing.  We’ve been decluttering this whole month to prepare for Christmas and the new baby and I want to be as prepared as possible for adding a new little one to our team.  I feel like we already operate on some  level of schedule, but I think that having things written down and more organized will help me better look at and evaluate our home systems and keep our family on the same page.  Things are about to get crazy around here, and I’d like to get as ready as we can.  If you’ve got a great cleaning schedule (or toy rotation schedule/plan), send me all your tips!

Blogging

Finally, the blog has been busy these days and I’m working to get things lined up for the new year.  I plan to review some of what worked and what didn’t this year moving forward.  And I’d love some feedback from you all about things you would like to see in 2018.

With Christmas and New Year’s coming up, I’m thinking about taking some time off from this little space (at least in the public/publishing sense) to do some reflection and planning for the new year and to be able to spend some time with family during the holidays.  I’m not totally sure what that break will look like, but you’ll be hearing about it more in the days to come as I get a better idea of what our Christmas break is going to look like over here.

I’m also working on actually getting a newsletter put together for you all so you can more easily stay up to date.  To be included, make sure to sign up in the subscribe button on the side bar!

And I think that’s mostly it.  All the things going on around here these days.  I wouldn’t trade it.

Now, it’s your turn – what have you been up to?  What’s something that you’re looking forward to this week?