35th Week: New "Signs"

No, I'm not talking about signs of labor, but another type of sign that every woman wants to avoid during pregnancy... I like to refer to them as "mommy marks " - stretch marks is just such an ugly phrase With Madeline I got a few of these lovely marks around the same time (35-37 weeks) - right on my love handles (about 3 on each side), but today I noticed a small one right in the middle of my belly just under my belly button, only about 1/2 an inch long. I'm thinking that the move from my sides to my belly has a lot to do with how I am carrying this little bundle of joy - more out in front. Now, some people have said that this means "boy", but I think it has more to with the fact that the baby is head down instead of breech like Madeline was :-)

Regardless, I'm now applying my "tummy butter" a bit more regularly and hoping that it helps keep more of these little marks from appearing I understand that I really have nothing to complain about because there are some women that get a lot more of these "mommy marks", but it's still something I'd like to try and minimize as much as possible :-)

I forgot to mention that Madeline and I went to see CNM Cheryl again last week and the heart beat was jumping from 140 to about 160 while we were listening. My mom says that during each of her pregnancies, the babies with the higher heartbeats were girls and the lower heartbeats were boys. She's pretty convinced we're having a girl - we'll just have to wait and see!

On another note we moved into our new house yesterday and today! There is so much to do... everything is here, but hardly anything is put away!!!! I have a feeling it will be a while before we are completely settled in - in fact this probably won't happen until well after Baby Frantz has joined us :-) We've tried to put this into perspective and do things one step at a time... focusing on making sure we enough things ready if Baby Frantz decides to make her/his debut a bit early :-)

It's kind weird how the things that you "need" are so different the second time around. With Madeline there was so much time to prepare and make sure the nursery, clothes and accessories were bought, clean and ready to go. This time we know that all baby really needs is a bassinet to sleep in, clean clothes and blankets, mommy (for feeding purposes) and diapers :-)

Speaking of diapers, I went to a little demonstration this week at the Edina Library regarding cloth diapers. We've decided to give them a try this time around, but there are just so many to choose from!!! The demo had samples of the most popular brands so that we could see how each of them work and weigh out the pros and cons associated with each. I think we might get one or two of the most popular kinds and give them a try to see what works best for us... now I just need to find the time to go out and get them :-)

Baby Frantz is still moving around a lot - especially right before bed and early in the mornings. Most of the kicks are in my upper right side - a good sign that Baby is still heads down :-)