I’m hitting 28 weeks today and the weeks truly seem to be flying by. 83 days until due date!

28 WEEKS PREGNANCY UPDATE

Baby milestones:

• Baby can now open his eyes but his vision is blurry. Eyes have color but that might change in first 6 months of life, especially if they’re blue or gray.
• Baby is sleeping and waking on a regular schedule but it’s a little weird. Baby sleeps only sleeps for 20 to 30 minutes at a time.
• Putting on fat and gaining about .5 pounds a week until birth.
• Brain continuing to expand and develop rapidly.

HOW I’M FEELING AT 28 WEEKS PREGNANT

Weight Gain/Body Changes: still in the range of 13-15 pounds…even with all the carbs in my diet (haha). I’m going to ask my doctor about it this week and make sure everything is on track.

Workouts/Workout Modifications: although the doctor from my practice that was on call at the hospital didn’t send me home with any restrictions after last week’s hospital visit, I still wanted to take it easy. For the first few days I stuck to walking before starting to add in short runs and strength training again. I haven’t practiced yoga since before the scare. Here’s what I’ve done since last Tuesday…

• Almost daily walks with the dogs for about 45-60 minutes
• One FlyWheel class
• Taught two strength classes
• Two runs – one 3 miles and one 4 miles

Symptoms: I’ve tried to keep a running list of these in my head to share with you. Here are a few…

• Lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions. I’m going to discuss this with my doctor again when I see him this week. The good thing is that there is no pain with them and I mostly only get them at night.
• Less hair loss. My hairdresser was commenting at my last appointment about how healthy and thick hair is during pregnancy and also warned me that I’d lose a lot of it after! Since then I’ve realized how little I’m shedding in the shower. It really is crazy how much less hair I’m losing when I wash my hair!
• My belly button is starting to turn into an outie. When I wake up in the morning it looks normal for a few minutes and then stretches out as my belly does.
• My skin is breaking out but only on the sides of my cheeks.

Sleep: overall TERRIBLE. It’s not a comfort thing as much as a slowing down my brain/insomnia kind of thing.

Food Aversions/Cravings: see yesterday’s post!

Watching/Reading/Listening: I watched The Business of Being Born last week and I feel like it pretty much fell in line with most of what I’ve read/learned/heard about the medical model of childbirth and the commonality of birth interventions.

I chose a hospital delivery because I know myself and my tendency towards anxiety so I just thought it would be the best fit for me to know that advanced care and the NICU were right there should I need it. I am attempting to bring a little more “intervention-free” to that through hiring my doula. We’ll see how that all plays out. 😉

I’m still listening to and enjoying episodes of The Birth Hour podcast.

I also finished listening to Bringing Up Bebe on Audible and got some good takeaways from it.

Next up: more reading on breastfeeding and little babies! 🙂

Accomplishments: 

• finished both registries (Amazon and Target)
• had baby’s room painted
• ordered nursery furniture
• hired my cleaning friend to organize the attic and closets (I’m all about creating efficiency and calling in help where needed!) 😛

To Dos: 

• choose a pediatrician
• schedule classes and hospital tour (like ASAP)…I might also do some online courses/learning options
• meet with my doula to discuss birth preferences
• nursery closet organization strategy…what is a cheap but efficient way to organize with hanging and shelving? I don’t want to sink a ton of money into a closet organizing system
• name the child 😉 still working on that
• doctor’s appt this week for GD screen and US to check echogenic focus of left ventricle

QUESTIONS

Dogs and babies. Talk to me about this. How did it go for you? Anything I should do to prepare them? 

Has anyone taken online classes or courses for childbirth or breastfeeding or infant care that you found helpful? 

What happened with your hair pre- and post-baby? 

Any cheap solutions for nursery closet organization that doesn’t involve having a whole closet system installed?