34 weeks & 3 days

Life has been pretty hectic lately and unfortunately blogging has definitely taken a back seat!  I often think about all of the blog posts that I want to do but have just not found the time to actually sit down and do them.  I was wide awake early Sunday morning around 5am (I woke up to pee and had heartburn and couldn't get back to sleep) and I thought about grabbing the laptop and doing a blog post, but I decided to read and then try to go back to sleep instead. Right now, I should be laying down with my feet propped up (because they are super swollen!) but I just need to post an update first.

So here I am....over 34 weeks pregnant! Oh my gosh, only a few weeks left. In all likelihood, in less than 6 weeks I will be a mom. Holy crap!  I am so excited and scared and happy and nervous and anxious and worried and all kinds of emotions are running through me!!  I must admit that I haven't really enjoyed being pregnant as much as I thought - or hoped - that I would.  I have wanted to be pregnant for so long, but now that I am in the home stretch, I am definitely ready for it to be over.  My sister, Katie, said that she thinks I have had all the possible pregnancy symptoms a woman can have....and I must agree with her!!

At this point, the symptoms I am still experiencing are (from worst to not-so-bad-but-still-troublesome):

• Numbness in my right hand/fingers - the three middle fingers of my right hand stay numb pretty much all of the time (especially when I am typing or using the mouse at work!). I have a brace that I wear at night (although I don't think it really helps all that much) and I recently bought a brace to wear during the day.
• Swelling!  My feet stay swollen pretty much all of the time and are pretty bad at the end of the day. My ankles swell too, especially at night.  One of the sports medicine trainers at work gave me some anti-embolism support hose to wear to help the swelling and hopefully keep me from getting varicose veins in my legs. The biggest problem with the swelling is that I have very few shoes that fit. I have had to start wearing slippers at work because the only other alternative is to go barefoot!
• Heartburn....I was able to control this for awhile by taking Zantac once a day, but recently I have started having heartburn at night so the doctor told me that I could take it twice a day now.  Even doing that, I still wake up most nights with an awful burning and I end up chewing on a few Tums at 3am.
• Snoring - this, of course, is not really bothering me but it is definitely keeping Keith from sleeping well.  Recently, we have even started sleeping in separate rooms some nights so that he can get good uninterrupted sleep!
• Other annoying symptoms that I have been experiencing are: low back pain (especially when I stand for long periods of time), random nauseousness, bleeding gums when I brush my teeth (oh, and still gagging when I brush too!), periodic cramping in my lower abdomen, and of course having to pee all the time!

All in all, I am definitely ready for all of these symptoms to be replaced with other "fun" things that having a baby and taking care of a newborn entail. I am sure I will be complaining of other things at that time, but right now, I am very much looking forward to the next step....the birth of my baby!!