Bumpdate {35 Weeks}

We are less than a month away from our due date! I am pretty stinking excited and can't wait to meet our little girl! We definitely want her to stay in there and cook for a few more weeks, but we are ready whenever she is. People keep asking me if I'm nervous or scared about delivery (Why do people ask these questions? Why does everyone assume that people are terrified to deliver a baby?) and I can confidently say that I am not. Am I anxious about how everything will actually end up going? Of course. But am I afraid? Nope. I am prepared, and my body was created to do this. No fear. I got this.

Week 35: April 30 - May 6

Week 35 Milestones:

- Baby is the size of a coconut this week! She has officially dropped now, which means that her head has started to descend into my pelvis. While this has alleviated a lot of pressure and discomfort around my rib cage, it has relocated that pressure into my pelvis. It's a lot easier for me to breathe now that I have extra room for my lungs to better inflate, but her weight has been redistributed to fully resting on my bladder which causes me to go to the bathroom non-stop.

- Total pregnancy weight gain is 39 pounds thus far. I'm starting to feel like every single one of those pounds in sitting right here in my belly...carting this gigantic thing around 24/7 is exhausting. Apparently, my uterus has now grown to 1,000 times it original size. That is a horrifying thought.

- During the day, I feel great. At night, not so much. My Braxton Hicks contractions really kick into high gear at night time, in addition to baby girl's movement. Sometimes I lay on the couch or in bed practicing my labor breathing (because there's nothing else I can do) as my entire belly contracts and fills with immense pressure, along with getting severely kicked in the organs. It's magical. I swear this child has got some serious ninja moves. My pregnancy insomnia has returned as well, in addition to me waking up (when I do manage to actually fall asleep) every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom. Long story short...I don't sleep at night.

- Even though I don't notice it visually, I've been having some swelling and fluid retention in my hands. This causes a little nerve pain in my arms and numbness in my fingers when I wake up every morning. I guess I never realized how much pregnancy truly affects every single part of your body. Even though it's not always super pleasant, I enjoy watching how my body is adapting and reacting to this amazing phenomenon that is going on inside of it. Oh and my feet are still swollen 24/7, but that has become such a normal part of my life now that I hardly even notice it.

- We took our maternity photos this week and I can't wait to see them! I really enjoyed working with our photographer and I am so excited to get the photos from her soon. I will definitely share them here on the blog once I get them.

- Food preferences: Nothing new here. Just drinking an excessive amount of water and eating my fresh fruits and veggies all day. When I do eat meat, I prefer beef, which is normal for non-pregnant me anyways. Maybe this is why my iron levels are excellent every time they check them at the doctor :) I'm still enjoying my waffles and lime sherbet too, with a few coke icees thrown in every now and then.

We finally put the bedding on the crib. My mom and I picked out this bedding back at the end of December and it has been our main inspiration for the nursery. I love it so much. It's from Pottery Barn Kids, but most pieces of it are discontinued now.

I knew that I wanted to put a cross in the nursery and I have been looking for the perfect one for months now. I wanted something simple and pretty, with no writing or pattern on it because I didn't want it to clash with the other patterns I have going on in the room. I also wanted it to be fairly large (but not too large) because I didn't want to have to put a bunch of other stuff on the wall with it, but I didn't want the wall to seem too empty either. After looking at dozens of crosses and failing to find one that fit the exact picture I had in my mind, I decided to just make my own. So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought two unfinished wooden crosses. I spray painted the big one white to match the monogram and other accents in the room, and then painted the small one using the actual wall paint from the room. I layered the crosses, and voila! This cross came out perfectly and is exactly what I wanted.

This corner of the nursery is officially complete now!

We are still waiting for a few more pieces to come in for the other walls in the nursery, but the main stuff is finished now. I can't wait to bring Peyton home to her pretty little room!

Peyton and I are so proud of her daddy! He earned his third degree from Florida State University this week as he graduated with a Masters of Business Administration.