30 weeks

Isn't she just adorable with her built-in hand rest? (smile)

This picture is actually about 2 weeks old ( April 5), but it was the best of the bunch in terms of showing off the tummy. As for current events, the big story this week is that mother and baby are both officially banned from the candy store. The trip to the OB yesterday was less than stellar as far as test results go. For one, they confirmed the age-old physics law that cheesecake, milkshakes, snickers ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, two pieces of cake (both eaten within 2 minutes), and extra waffles for breakfast all have to go somewhere. After very moderate weight gains during the first 22 weeks (she did great!) V definitely made up for lost time over the past 2 months... [that's the politically correct way of saying she's been eating like a monster]. So now we have to work on pacing the weight gain for the remainder of the pregnancy in order to keep mom healthy now and also postpartum.

The doctors were cool about it though, but then they also dropped enough hints so that we got the message: chill out just a bit on the eat-everything routine. At just a shade under the upper limit for "normal", her sugar level also came back borderline high... but then I guess that's what makes all of that food so doggone tasty. And last but not least, her iron level came in pretty low as well. I think that's typical during pregnancy, but hers was considerably lower still. The good thing is that we knew that from her bloodwork last time, and so she already ordered some iron supplements to nip that in the bud. Those pills, in addition to the entire cow that she ate this past weekend [she went a little crazy catching up on her beef intake while the nonbeefeating husband was gone for a few days] should help get her back up to par in no time.

Anyway, in all, nothing too dramatic, but enough to let us know that we need to be a little more mindful of her diet during these next few weeks (wow... just 10 weeks to go for life as we know it). Sleep hasn't come easy for V lately either, mostly because of back and hip discomfort. So I feel pretty bad about that because her energy level has been shot recently, and short of carrying the baby for her, there's only but so much that a husband can do to help. But on the (sarcastic) bright side, that means she won't have many adjustments to make to her sleep patterns when the baby is calling for milk at 4 in the morning. So there's good in everything.

And speaking of the baby, the little kickboxer is doing great. S/he is almost 3 pounds now, about 15 1/2 inches long, and still kicking up a storm. Still nonstop, and still keeping busy as can be. But you can just look at the included photo of V (above) and see where the baby gets it from. Like mother, like ...