Belly pic: 33 weeks

OK, back to my amateur belly pictures. How is it my belly looks so small and dainty in the pictures Judith took, yet so large and out of control in the pictures I take? I think part of the problem is that I'm comparing them to 2007...and I get more and more alarmed every week. What is going on?? Isn't this the baby that is in danger of IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction, i.e. being too small)? And wasn't hilltot the baby in danger of being too large due to gestational diabetes??

So we've made it to 33 weeks! Only one more week until we hit the "safety zone" -- babies born between 34 and 37 weeks have a high chance of being born healthy. Of course I would prefer to make it all the way to 37 (or even 38, if I dare dream) weeks so that we have a full-term baby, but Dr. H told me that if labor starts after 34 weeks, they won't do anything to stop it. Especially now that we know what happens when I take terbutaline. Not only am I one of the small percentage of people who react badly to Nifedipine (which we discovered when I was having preterm contractions with hilltot), but I'm also one of the even smaller percentage of people who react badly to terbutaline. There aren't many more options for stopping preterm labor, so our best chance is to just make it until at least 34 (or 38...c'mon baby!) weeks on our own.

The baby hasn't dropped yet, although I honestly don't know where it would drop. My belly already rests on my lap when I sit down. I've heard that second babies often don't drop until labor starts, and I'll be happy if that's true for me. I remember feeling like I was trying to keep a bowling ball from falling out when hilltot dropped!

I'm thrilled that babyhill has flipped around to be head down, and now I'm just hoping for him/her to turn a bit to be anterior-facing. Right now, baby is facing my right side, which is better than posterior-facing (like hilltot was) but still not ideal. I feel kicks and punches and twitches and hiccups all over my belly though, so I have no idea if the baby has turned or not.

Things are going well other than the whole preterm contraction stuff. I had a glorious prenatal massage on Wednesday (thank you Chris and hilltot, for my Mother's Day present!) and the massage therapist was careful to stay at least three zipcodes away from any pressure points that might cause contractions. I have a lot of back pain so I spend a fair amount of my evenings in either child's pose or cat-cow pose. I generally wake up around 1 AM with painful heartburn and spend 30 minutes or so trying not to throw up, and then I wake up again around 3:30 or 4 AM to go to the bathroom (again). Pretty standard pregnancy stuff. I have contractions whenever I stand or walk for too long, but so far they are irregular and not too painful so I haven't started tracking them.

Otherwise, I'm just counting down the days and hoping to make it to full-term! I'm also thinking that it might be time to start getting things prepared for babyhill's arrival. Maybe buy some diapers, wash some of the newborn clothes, set up the co-sleeper...

Meanwhile, here's my aggressively growing belly: