Week 34: A Baby Walks Into a Bar

Lots of big news for our family this week! First, I found out on Friday that I passed the California bar exam! Definitely a big deal, and Baby Baklava was with me the whole time. I found out I was pregnant on my last day of law school. I started studying for the bar exam around 9 weeks pregnant and took the bar exam between my 17th-18th week. Studying for the exam while pregnant was daunting because my only pregnancy symptom was extreme fatigue. Luckily we made it through and Baby Bak will be with me when I get sworn in in a couple of weeks.

More good news: I dragged my sick, tired butt out in the rain to the UCLA/SC football game and for only the second time since I started college in 1999, UCLA WON! I am starting to think Baby Baklava is a good luck charm of the highest order. Love this little girl and can't wait to meet her in a few short weeks!

Week 34: Looking fabulous, I hope!

How Big is Baby?: The size of a butternut squash. But obviously, much cuter!

Total weight gain/loss: Back down to -7 from the start of pregnancy. Pregnancy = best diet ever???

Next Appointment: Wednesday, November 21. I had my last appointment on Thursday and Baby Bak looked great. She was estimated to be 4 lbs 10 oz, which is right on track for a 34 week old baby. And FINALLY she realized that laying transverse at her size isn't too comfortable and she got head down. That was such a relief! The only negative was that for the first time this pregnancy, my blood pressure was high (135/70 or 140/70--I forget which). Since I'm usually around 110/70, the doctor wanted me to come back just to have my BP checked. My guess is that my BP was kind of high because I was so worried about her positioning and my fear of a c-section. Hoping it's back to normal on Wednesday.

Maternity clothes? Still resisting. Still hoping to make it to the end with the small assortment of maternity work dresses and just my normal clothes. My casual wardrobe still sucks, but since I don't go anywhere on the weekend anyway, yoga pants and t-shirts for everyone!

Sleep: Sleep started to suck the other day, mostly because I'm experiencing the delight of post-nasal drip. I apparently kept my husband awake the other night because I was snoring like a wildebeest. Sexy. And I wake up with the worst sore throat. 

Movement: Tons. Especially after I drink orange juice. I need to keep better track of what I eat that makes her go apeshit because those are the times that I love the most. 

Food cravings: Still burritos. Kind of. 

Food aversions: It's not that there are any foods that gross me out. Mostly food doesn't sound really good to me, and I just force myself to eat something.

Gender: A beautiful little girl.

Belly Button in or out: Still in, thankfully!

What I miss: Sleep, being healthy.

What I am looking forward to: Thanksgiving! Hopefully food will sound good again by then. Also, my first baby shower, which is tomorrow!

Milestones: Baby Bak can recognize and react to simple songs if I'm singing them. That's such a blessing to me because I sing to her all the time. I'm glad she will start to learn my voice! She is also urinating about a pint a day. So basically, I'm glad I'm not the only one peeing all the time!!

Week 33

Ugh, what is it about my life that I can't get myself together to post *one* blog post a week? Maybe it's work? Or, you know, coming up on the end of exhausting pregnancy!


In my last post, I talked about our failed elective ultrasound. The tech had us come back two weeks later and she was still being a pain in the butt, but this guy knew how to handle a difficult baby girl.

Meet Baby Baklava (at least, how she looked 3 weeks ago):

Forewarning: sorry for the weird me-shaped shadows at the bottom. We got these big 8x10s and I don't have a scanner, so the easiest way for me to share is to take a picture of the picture.

Look at this angel face! Those lips! I might be biased in saying she looks like a mini me, but I think she does.

Just hanging out in the ute, cuddling the umbilical cord and showing off her delicious little cheeks.

This picture was one of my favorites. Usually, Baby Baklava has an arm or hand over her face. The tech would have me flip from side-to-side, which was typically enough to get her to move her hand, at least for a bit--and then he'd get about 30 seconds to one minute of clear face for pictures. Towards the end, she caught on to us, and this is what we got in response. She put BOTH feet up, in addition to the arm all the way across her face. Our little monkey is a flexible little girl and a funny girl too, because she had all of us cracking up.

How Big is Baby?: The size of a durien, which is kind of sad to think about because durien are so stinky and gross, but my baby girl will never be stinky and gross! And yes, I am blocking out the thought of blowout diapers, meconium diapers, etc.

Total weight gain/loss: -5 from the start of pregnancy. This actually represents some weight gain! I had gotten down to -7 or so, then over the past two weeks, gained back 2 lbs. I'd like to think it's just Baby Baklava packing on those pounds so I'll have a delightfully chubby baby girl.

Next Appointment: November 15. I will be almost 34 weeks. I'm now at the stage where I'm going every two weeks! Since I got an A+ on my GD test* (*graded according to me), I only have regular appointments and no extra interventions.

Maternity clothes? Kind of. My normal work dresses have been forgiving enough for me to just grow into with pregnancy. So, I have a couple of maternity work dresses, but the majority of my work clothes are regular ones. Pants are drama. I have one pair of work pants that are oddly high-waisted, so they fit over my bump and are relatively comfortable. Otherwise, only yoga pants or jeggings (non-maternity). Since I'm so close to the end, I don't want to buy maternity pants, but I may have to suck it up and buy maybe one or two pairs because I can't get away with maxi dresses during the late fall and early winter!

Sleep: Sleep is getting better. I still have to wake up constantly just to flip from side-to-side, but I'm getting better at doing it without waking up too much or for too long.

Movement: My favorite part about pregnancy. She's always moving around, rolling around, and occasionally pulling some weird stretching move that feels like she's trying to bust out of my stomach around my belly button area.

Food cravings: I still want burritos almost all the time. And I normally don't eat flour tortillas, but I *have* to have a burrito. It can't be a taco, even if the only difference is the shell. With the cooler weather, I've been wanting hearty, homemade soups too. This weekend I'm going to make chili and baked potato soup, two things I've been wanting for weeks.

Food aversions: Nothing. Baby girl is HUNGRY.

Gender: A beautiful little girl.

Belly Button in or out: Still in, thankfully!

What I miss: Being able to sleep like a log, cocktails/happy hour. 

What I am looking forward to: The ultrasound we're having on Thursday to check her growth. Can't wait to find out if she's a little chunkster!

Milestones: Baby Baklava is now keeping her eyes open when she's awake. We are so excited to know if she will have brown eyes like her mama and mama's mama, hazel green eyes like daddy, or blue eyes like yiayia. She's also starting to coordinate her breathing with sucking or swallowing, which means that she will hopefully breastfeed like a champ and if not a chunkster now, might become a chunkster in the future. 

If you've made it through all this, here are some pictures of me over the last four weeks of pregnancy. 

Week 30 (L) and Week 31 (R)

Week 32 (L) and Week 33 (R)