Week 30

Baby's development: This week the baby is about 15 1/2 inches and weighs about 3 lbs. The baby's lanugo (early body hair) is starting to disappear and the few fuzzy patches left at birth will eventually rub off. The eyelids now open and close! The bone marrow has taken over the task of red blood cell production from the liver. His skeleton hardens even more and his brain, muscles, and lungs continue to mature.

10 more weeks! Wow. I'm shocked by how quickly time is flying by. I can tell the baby is growing very fast because I can feel myself expanding very quickly. I'm having trouble bending over these days and tying my shoe laces comfortably. But, I managed to solve that problem by buying some extremely comfortable slip on shoes. I imagine that I will be wearing these shoes every day to work until the baby arrives. With the baby getting bigger, I can also feel the toll that it's taking on my body. I went for a nice walk this morning with Ryan and Sue and felt really tired afterwards. My lower back was really tight and needed a good stretch afterwards. Last weekend I played bocce ball at a BBQ and injured myself! I did something to give myself sciatica so bad on my right side that I could barely walk the next day. What is happening to my body? I feel betrayed!

So far I have gained 16 lbs, which was surprising because I had gained 7 lbs during a previous visit (over 4 weeks), but then only gained 1 lb this most recent visit (over 3 weeks). I've been eating a lot, so I'm not sure how this happened, but the doctor isn't worried, so neither am I. I'm suppose to gain another 1 lb per week at this rate, so that's another 10 lbs before the baby arrives! And, the baby is suppose to double (at least) in weight in the next ten weeks. I will be definitely be expanding a lot more in the coming weeks.

One nice thing about looking obviously pregnant these days is that I have noticed people treating me differently. Sometimes it's really small things, like someone holding the door open for me or letting me cross the street. Another time I had a man insist that he help me carry a container to my car for me (the container was empty and weighed about 5 lbs). I've even noticed that people are even a little more forgiving of Charlie, especially when he runs up to their dogs and tries to start a fight. They look at my belly and all of a sudden they aren't so mad. What else can this belly bring me? A seat on the bus? A free meal? A good parking spot?