flashback friday and pregnancy update

Here I am just a few weeks before Anna was born in early March of 2008::

And, here I am just last weekend at the Kelley farm::

Generally speaking, it's not the best picture ever, but it's the only recent one I have of my belly. If you want to see it bigger {the picture, that is}, just click on it and voila, it will get huge!

I am 29 weeks pregnant.

That means I have 11 weeks to go before my due date.

I went to the doctor on Wednesday {I go every other week these days} for my checkup. Everything looks pretty darn good. My glucose screen came back {as it always has} to show that I don't have gestational diabetes {phew!}. All the levels in both my blood and my pee looked just dandy. My weight gain is completely within normal ranges {and is slightly below what I normally have gained by 29 weeks . . . maybe that has something to do with it being summer and not the dead of winter?} However, at each appointment they measure your belly {among other things} and that number should correspond pretty closely to the number of weeks along you are {isn't that a cool fact. I love when God thinks numbers are cool, just like me: I must have gotten that from Him!} Well, guess what I measured? You would think that the first sentence in this paragraph might be hint, but if you thought that you would be mistaken. Nope, not 29 {like would be expected}, but rather just a hair under 35! Nice! I guess I shouldn't be surprised {and, really, neither was my OB} because I have big babies {my smallest was 8 pounds and 4 ounces -- and he was nearly 2 weeks early! and my biggest was 10 pounds 2 ounces -- although a week late. The others have hovered right around 9 pounds. Give or take.} But, since I have 11 more weeks of growth ahead of me {and the largest, most rapid time of growth is still to come!} I'm pretty sure I'll be HUGE long before the baby is ready to make it's grand entrance. Oh well. I've done it before, I guess I can do it again. Right?

On another, pregnancy-related, note, I have had a few charlie horses in the night over the past month or so. Those are NOT fun! Also, I had my first bout of nasty late-pregnancy heartburn this week::let the good times commence! I know the end is approaching when these things start to begin. Still to come are::can't get up from the couch, can't get comfortable enough to sleep well, completely out of steam, "I can't be pregnant for one more minute!!!", Braxton-Hicks contractions all the time and back pain. Oh, the joys! {but so worth it!}

Also, the baby and I {mostly me, the baby was no help, and sometimes even a hindrance} finished the Lazyman Triathlon at the Y {so did Kirbs, by the way!}. That means we biked 112 miles, ran/walked {I opted for WALKED!} 26.2 miles and swam 2.5 miles over a 5-week period. It was more of a challenge this year than it was last year, but I'm glad I finished. I need some motivation to do something or I'll opt for sitting poolside and reading a book while the kids swim rather than getting in there and doing a few laps myself!

Here I am with my Lazyman finisher t-shirt::

Alrighty, that's all. Enjoy the weekend!