Pregnancy Week Thirty-Six and Final Baby Purchases

With the Baby Showers One and Two out of the way, I was so excited to do a little shopping myself!  As I have said previously, I didn’t want to make any purchases until post Baby Showers, because who knows what wonderful gifts Baby and I would receive? There wasn’t much of anything left that I NEEDED to buy, actually.

This week I bought:

This Graco 1-sec Ear Thermometer. How is it possible for a thermometer to be that fast? We currently have a digital thermometer that takes about 15 seconds to register a temperature and it feels like forever. I wasn’t sure that an infant would hold still long enough, so I was really excited to buy a new and improved thermometer.

Diapers are still on my list to take care of, however, thanks to generous gifts from friends and family, including a diaper party thrown for Husband we will have a cloth diaper service for our first 12 weeks as parents. Woohoo! I did however purchase wet wipes and a diaper bag, this week. I am looking into cloth wipes, yikes! However, I wanted to have wet wipes on hand as well. Here’s the bag I chose:

As cute as some diaper bags are, looking like a beautifully designed purse-bag, I wanted something Husband wouldn’t look silly carrying around (without it looking too plain of course). I was interested in the brand name version of this bag by Skip Hop, but I had a hard time paying twice the price just for the brand (the one I purchased was on sale at the time). I’d agree the brand bag does look a little nicer, so maybe I missed out? I did however, get a free travel wet/dry bag with the purchase of this bag, which I was very excited about.

I also purchased a nose bulb, as it seems like that’s a good thing to have on hand. Our Birth Class instructors recommended Nose Freida. They claimed it’s the most effective and cleanest way to remove snot from a child’s nose, however you have to suck the snot out with your mouth. As such, neither Husband and I were ready to make the leap for that…maybe later?  I also bough a set of teethers this week, I particularly wanted something I could stick in the freezer like these. I mean, ice on the gums sounds really nice to me… if I were cutting teeth, that is.

With my mom’s help I headed over to Baby’s R Us and checked out car seats. They say you should have your car seat bought and installed by 36 weeks, so I was feeling a little bit behind schedule. After analyzing all our options, we found that you can get quite the deal when you purchase a car seat and stroller together as a set (they call it a travel system), so home I came with a stroller too!

Last, but not least!  My favorite purchase this week was a set of drawer organizers for baby clothes. Baby clothes are so tiny, a huge drawer wasn’t going to cut it; I decided I needed something to break up the space. I am very pleased with my decision and am still working on other ways to organize the multitude of baby things we now have. These Sodynee drawer organizers come highly recommended.

Symptoms

• Disappearing Belly Button: So far it’s still an “innie” though.
• Burping: More in general, but especially after I lie down to sleep bubbles form in my throat for some reason.
• Insomnia: Sleeping is more difficult lately, either I can’t fall asleep, can’t sleep in, or wake up in the middle of the night. It’s a great joy when I can sleep a solid 9 hours like the good old days.
• Cracking Joints: All day, everyday.
• Panty Liners: How do I say this discretely? I use this almost everyday now so I don’t have to change my underwear more than once a day.
• Round Ligament Pain: Since seeing the Chiropractor these have gotten significantly less sore, yay!
• Easily Startled: Jumpy.
• Thick Hair: I have experienced less daily hair loss than normal.
• Forgetfulness: I often forget what I’m saying, while I’m saying it.
• Loss of Balance: I regularly reach out for something to catch my balance.
• Shortness of Breath: My lungs are getting squished by Baby.
• Swollen: At the end of the day my calves and feet are quite plump and sore. I feel quite lucky to only be experiencing this now, as many women have it sooner.
• Weight gain: Holding 50lbs extra weight since pre-pregnancy.

Notes

As I wrote two weeks ago, I am still fatigued. At this point, I just do life fatigued and don’t let it bother me. Basically, I’m planning to be fatigued until forever. I’d say until baby comes, but I hear new moms are tired from being up throughout the night too. The biggest item on my to do list is sending thank you cards for the baby shower gifts. It would be nice to finish those before baby comes. I received a long awaited package of maternity clothes I purchased over a month ago. I would have liked to have the clothes sooner, but what can you do? Well, besides not ordering from that company again…

A snack I have been loving the past few weeks is Ants on a Log. Good old celery, PB, and raisins are hitting the spot, lately. This week also, Husband and I attended an “early home care class” at our birth center. It was only an hour long, but they about covered all the content our 12 week Bradley Method Birth Class covered! I left overwhelmed and Husband left thankful it was so short, haha! They touched topics like how to know when to come in for labor, what to bring, what to expect at the birth center the hours post labor, what recovery will look like, how to monitor baby and mama’s health at home…etc. It was a lot! I’m thankful we took a through birth class to prepare me, because I’m not sure how much I’ll retain from that brief birth center meeting.

What were some things you have done or plan to do to help you prepare for labor and caring for a newborn?