34 weeks

It seems baby boy has most likely maxed out his height (could be upwards of 20", which is average, or more!) but will continue to steadily gain weight at a rate of about 1/2 of pound per week.  Also continuing to grow at a rapid pace is fetal brain development, though thankfully his skull will remain soft through labor & delivery.

Most babies are head-down at this point in pregnancy and I can tell you that he most definitely is!  He has been for a great deal of the third trimester.  What comes with that at this stage?  Frequent trips to the bathroom because of his head's position on my bladder.  It's like the first trimester all over again.

What else is going on?

My energy level is completely unpredictable and that frustrates my OCD tendancies and need to "do it all".  ha  :)  Some days I'll wake up full of energy; some days I only have energy for about 2 hours, and some days I'm zapped from sun up until sun down.  I feel so bad... guilty, on the days I'm completely zapped and the TV stays on Sprout or the Hub and Emily spends a lot time entertaining herself while I'm glued to the couch.  Thankfully, there are only a handful of those days and she has plenty of easy art projects and puzzles she's currently obsessed with that require little physical involvement from me.  And I'm so happy David is wrapping up on Cars2 and is home by 7:00pm to help with dinner and bath time as well as to spend some quality time with Emily.

And for the worst part of this past week: the leg cramps I had Wednesday night.  Three within one hour that woke me with a painful startle, me sobbing each time.  I was in such a panic each time because I couldn't get up and out of the bed fast enough in order to sit in my glider and bend over to rub my calf muscle or to walk around to work the cramp out.  Thankfully, David is a super light sleeper and was at-the-ready the second and third time to rub my calf and help point & flex my foot to work the cramp out.  I had the hardest time falling back asleep for fear that I would move in such a way that would cause another cramp.  My leg also felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to it for two days afterwards.  Ugh.  I had completely forgotten how awful leg cramps are; I had them pretty frequently my third trimester pregnant with Emily.  I'm very thankful that I only had them Wednesday night and count every day that goes by without one a huge blessing.

Nothing else has changed since last week: no stretch marks, no linea negra, my belly button is still an innie (although, so flat that it barely resembles a belly button), no heartburn, no constant back pain (only at the end of a very active day), no general swelling (can still wear all my shoes and rings), and my Braxton-Hicks contractions are as frequent as ever.

With Easter and all the activities we've had this past week, baby preparations have been put on hold, though there isn't much more to be done!