Wesley is...

a big boy!  At our appointment last week, he is measuring two weeks bigger than he really is (as he did at the previous appointment).  The doctor also estimated his weight at 4 pounds, 15 ounces, so I'm really taking the 'Your baby is this big, what is going on this week' posts on the baby websites I read as guestimations.  Here is this weeks post:

Week 33 of Pregnancy: Fetal Immune System

This week your baby may be anywhere between 17 to 19 inches in length and weigh more than four and a half pounds. Your baby could grow a full inch more this week alone — especially if he or she has been on the shorter side until now.

This week your baby may be anywhere between 17 to 19 inches in length and weigh more than four and a half pounds. At this stage in fetal development, your baby  could grow a full inch more this week alone — especially if he or she has been on the shorter side.  Weight gain can range from a third more growth to a full doubling before the big debut.
 
The level of amniotic fluid in your uterus has reached its maximum at 33 weeks pregnant, making it likely that you have more baby than fluid now. That's one reason why you're probably feeling lots of nudges and pushes — there's less liquid to cushion the blows. (Of course that means you're even closer to your baby now!)
 
If your uterine walls had eyes, here's what you'd see: your fetus acting more and more like a baby, with his or her eyes closing during sleep and opening while awake. And because those uterine walls are becoming thinner, more light penetrates the womb, helping your baby differentiate between day and night (now if only baby can remember that difference on the outside!).

And good news! Your baby has reached an important milestone about now: The development of his or her own immune system that (along with antibodies from you) will be able to provide protection from mild infections.

Maternity Pix

Yesterday, I got maternity pictures done and am so excited about them!  I found a great local photographer, Melissa Green, and Casey got me a package for a Christmas gift.  I opted to get hair and make-up done as well, from Lyn Shelley, and went for a retro look and had a maternity shoot with a pin-up twist.  I had so much fun and am eagerly awaiting all of the pictures coming back, but for now Melissa has e-mailed me a few teasers to get me excited!

um, a lot of catching up to do...

Ok, so I am horrible at keeping up to date but am really going to try to be more consistent with it.  I last blogged in November, so a lot has happened since then.  I have made the transition from front end to pharmacy at work. Harder and easier at the same time, I have realized the pharmacy is it's own beast.  I normally am not working any more than three days a week and come February, will only be scheduled one day a week.  Now I know that a lot of women work 40 hour weeks right up until they deliver (as my sister likes to tell me of her friend, pregnant with twins, working right up to the day she goes in to deliver), but I cannot do it.  I am in my 32nd week, and I am ache.  I weigh the most I have ever weighed in my whole life, my feet and hands swell all the time, my back aches, I have broken out all over my chest and back, and Wesley is moving around all the time, mostly pleasant movements but sometimes a harsh movement that really doesn't feel all that awesome.  Don't get me wrong, I am super excited that I he will be here soon, but I was very naive about how I would (physically) feel throughout this whole process.  I thought, very naively now, that I would work on the floor up to about 38 weeks and then just spend those last few weeks at home; ha! is what I have to say about that now.  Silly, silly girl...  Casey has been really good with me through this.  He plays music for the baby, so he learns about "good" music and not the "crap" I listen to.  He loves to feel him move around, and will poke and rub and bounce my belly to get him to move.  Considering he has to deal with me right now, I am very proud of what else Casey has been up to and how well he has been doing.  On New Year's Eve, Casey wasn't feeling very well and (knowing the symptoms) suspected he was in fact very sick.  So off he went to an InstaCare where his suspicions were confirmed: he has diabetes.  Not that this was enough of a blow but on his follow-up appointment it was confirmed that he has Type 1 diabetes, the never-go-away, auto-immune type.  Needless to say, he has had a really hard time (mentally) dealing with this while doing an excellent job adjusting to the changes he has had to make.  He is on insulin and is doing really well at checking and adjusting his blood sugar levels.  He has had a few incidents where he has under- or over-corrected his injections, but otherwise, in the two weeks he has been on insulin he is doing really well.  It makes me really sad to see his tummy all bruised up from his injections or listen to him talk about not testing on certain fingers so he can still play guitar and know that this is something that will never go away.  I know that he is upset and sad about it, but he doesn't talk too much about that with me.  I know he tends to keep his worries to himself and it is easier for him to talk to me about the progress he is making with his goals or the cool insulin pumps that are out there that he would like to get.  This came out so out of left field, that I still haven't processed it all yet and the implications that it will have on the rest of our lives.  I worry about him, for him, in ways I didn't before.  If you know Casey, you know that he is always willing to do something crazy or daring (like take his street bike up on a mountain trail or go up a snowy mountain road by himself in the Saturn) but now I worry about him when he is sleeping and eating, too.  It breaks my heart to see him cope with.  Wow, re-reading this last part is kind of a downer, but we both know that things could have been a lot worse and he is honestly doing really well.  Also news for us, we are moving into a house in Sugarhouse this weekend.  Super exciting, so Casey can stop with the 80 mile a day commute to and from work.  What we save in gas for him almost makes up for the difference he spends on gas, so that is exciting.  I am sad to leave my sisters' house; it has been really fun to stay with them for the last year and a half.  Whether it's making dinner together or just sitting around and talking, I have really enjoyed living with them.  The last time we lived together was before I left for college and I really didn't know them as anything more than my 'little sisters' but now I feel like we've moved beyond all petty stuff from when were kids and a we connect very differently now.  I am really happy that we had this opportunity to get to know each other this way and will miss it a lot when we are gone.  Ok, that is probably enough for now, I need to go to sleep so I can pack in the morning before work.  Yay!