9th Month Reflections

Wow, here we are in the home stretch! Here's the latest:

- Nesting has officially commenced! I am a woman on a mission to sort and organize just about everything in the house. It started with the kitchen, pantry, garage, laundry room, our closet, and especially baby Zach's room. It took 7 loads of laundry, but I have all his clothes, blankets, and linens all clean and ready!

- Sleeping has never been as unpredictable for me than the last month of my life. Some nights I sleep perfectly soundly, but most nights I'm up to the bathroom 2-3 times. It wouldn't be so bad, but it's so hard to fall back asleep with the pinching heartburn, back pain, and breathlessness. Sometimes sleeping in the recliner helps.

- Thanksgiving was an unusually disappointing experience for me. I love to eat, especially pregnant! But my abdomen is out of room and my turkey plates were sadly not-so-piled-high. We have much to be thankful for and it was a long, but very good day running around to all the family.

- I have officially made it to 36 weeks still working out and exercising! I really do hate it, but it's healthy for me and the baby. I really can't imagine feeling any less strong than I do, I am so glad I have kept fit. My gain is 29 pounds right now, so right on track to keep within the 25-35 pound guidelines from the doctor. Cardio at the gym fell off my radar a while back. Pregnancy yoga was a once weekly activity until about two weeks ago when it became too hard to breathe while bending. Now here I am still doing personal training with Cara though this week. Now we'll be on to walking the neighborhood as my workout ... or rather "waddling the block" as Blaine says!

- The weather is cooling off, and I reluctantly ordered a few winter maternity clothes online. I thought I'd particularly love a white cable-knit hoodie, but Blaine says I look like Frosty the Snowman, and after re-examining the mirror ... he's so right!

- My hormones must be running a bit higher than before. There have been a couple of very random incidents of bursting into tears ... it's kind of an out-of-body experience!