Elyse Love ~ 31 Weeks

Catching up a little...

31w4d

Total Weight Gain/Loss: We'll find out for sure on Wednesday, but I still feel pretty good about my overall weight gain. My belly seems to keep growing out instead of putting on extra pounds in my face/arms/legs/etc. All that weight seemed to come on in the 2nd trimester, so it's nice to think that all the weight I'm gaining right now is true baby weight.

Gender: Our precious baby girl...Elyse Ann!

Movement: Wow, I can't really even describe how much movement I feel each day. Thankfully she's not keeping me up at night at this point, but some evenings it's hard to relax because she's moving so much. I can't imagine how cramped she must be getting in there! I'm not gonna lie, there are brief moments when I think..."geez, baby girl...why don't you just calm down a bit!" but then I remind myself that it's a wonderful sign to have such an active baby.

Sleep: Sleep has been better this week compared to last...maybe it has something to do with the fact that I think my energy switch has been flipped to the "OFF" position. My energy level declines rapidly so I'm extremely thankful that sleep seems to come fairly easily.

What I miss: My energy! Seriously, a switch was flipped between the 1st & 2nd trimester when my energy came back...and now that same switch has been flipped again as my energy is GONE! It's incredibly hard for me as I'm normally a go, go, go kind of girl. Thankfully I've got lots of support around me who practically force me to take it easy when I start to overdo it.

Cravings: Just food...my snacking continues to be healthy which I feel like is a big success. Almonds, cheese sticks, yogurt, fresh fruit, and graham crackers are my snacks of choice...normally some combination of all of them. I figure that's a good habit to be in, my snacks definitely don't need to become cookies & milk or chips & dip!

Symptoms: I'm definitely feeling 8 months pregnant at this point in our adventure. I'm afraid that the aches & pains and lack of energy and shortness of breath have all come to stay. I had a fairly long conversation on the phone at work today and I was even out of breath after that conversation. Geez...it's kind of ridiculous! We've also shortened our nighttime walks again...tonight we walked just under a mile because my poor body just can't take much more than that!

Maternity Clothes: Practically everything...I've even been resorting to Hubby's t-shirts as lounge clothes for some evenings. Thankfully I've got several options and with the weather turning cooler this week I'll be able to throw on a loose-fitting cardigan with most oufits and be good to go.

Best Moment this week: It's been a pretty laid back week, but my mom and I did meet up on Wednesday to check some things off the to-do list for the nursery. We ordered the rug, bought some of the items for the wall decor, bought fabric for some other projects and made decisions regarding the closet organization & a variety of other things. Thankfully I'm not feeling quite so overwhelmed with what I have to do! We also got all the proofs back from our maternity pictures and I'm so excited to share some of them with you! Hopefully that will be another post this week...

Baby To-Do List: Hubby's got a bit of a honey-do list, but that will have to wait for a night when the Cardinals aren't playing...so hopefully tomorrow night we'll get a few things taken care of when the World Series has an off night. ha! I've got lots of help with my precious momma and she's made me feel much better about the progress we're making in the nursery. I've got a goal of having most everything done by Thanksgiving...so we'll see!

And of course...the belly pic. Hubby decided to try a bit of a different angle this week!

And yes...she really is as much out in front as it looks like she is!