36 Weeks

How far along? 36 Weeks! Holy Cow!  When did this happen?  Just yesterday we were at Week 8 and I was puking my guts out.  Now instead of my child being the size of a grape, he's putting on ounces each day!  I'm totally going to be a Mom in a few weeks...and Dan is going to be a Dad!  Gah!

Total weight gain/loss: Passed the 30 pound mark!  32 pounds.  Woof!  Not only am I looking like I've gained over 30 pounds but boy am I feeling it.  Plus the numbers on the scale are beginning to scare me.  I enjoy having the baby belly but I'm not fond of the large scale numbers...and the largeness of my butt (but I'll get to that in just a bit).

Maternity clothes? Bought a comfy robe to pack in my hospital bag and wear at the hospital.  Also broke down and bought some bigger underwear.  My butt just wasn't fitting in my old undies anymore so I had to buy bigger sized underwear.  What a shot to my self esteem.  I can't lie to myself anymore and possibly think that my expanding bum can fit into my cute Vicky's undies.  It was just making me mad every time I would put them on and see how unattractive my bulging bottom half looked.  So yeah, I went and got bigger undies.  Although they are somewhat cute designs, I hope to never wear them again.  The weather also got a little warmer this week/weekend so I got to wear dresses and capris again!  Yeah!  Still haven't bought the illusive nursing bras because the girls keep getting more and more gynormous by the hour.  

Stretch marks? None!  My expanding (stretching) belly is only making me mad about how pale I am and all the icky veins you can see through my translucent skin.  They're not the scary veins but they are ugly.

Sleep:  Getting better'ish.  I cannot seem to possibly get comfortable when going to bed.  My expanding belly has made it almost impossible to find that "perfect position" that everyone strives for when sleeping.  This means I constantly move (more like flop like a seal) until I pass out for 30 minutes only to wake up and have to pee again.  Sorry Dan.  Also when we were visiting Dan's home this past weekend, I wasn't exactly the most graceful when I had to wake up and fumble to the bathroom.  Again, I'm sorry dear.  Only a few more weeks of these million bathroom breaks nonsense then we'll be waking up at all hours for an entirely different reason...to feed and change baby K.  I also had more scary labor dreams.  I dreamed that I went into labor on the farm and that I wasn't allowed to be driven to the nearest hospital so we had to have a doctor friend fly to the farm to help deliver the baby.  That's the non-scary version of what happened in the dream.  Eeek!

Best moment this week: My weekends seem to always be the highlight of my week and that didn't really change this week.  I did enjoy my date night I had with my old sorority house mom, Doris, I had during the week though.  She's one amazing person and I never get sick of hanging out with her.  Besides Daniel, she's definitely up there as one of my Top 5 favorite people in Champaign.  We usually close down the restaurants that we visit and we never share dessert (Doris is a dessert-a-holic and so am I but we never get the opportunity to share desserts because we usually inhale them before we can share).  She always brings a smile to my face.  Doris was actually the one who outed me about being pregnant before I told anyone.  She sent me an email that said, "You can't fool momma Doris!  I have a feeling that I'm going to be Grand Momma Doris."  Gosh it totally cracked me up that she outed me like that.

Just in case you're wanting to put a face to this Doris character, here is a picture of her and I right before my Senior Year Formal.  It's a tradition that everyone comes to the House before Formal to take pictures with Doris before the big event.  Love her!

But also, my other favorite moment of the week was obviously my weekend back on the farm with Dan's family and my mommy.  Dan and I left on Thursday to have a long weekend back home visiting with the fam.  It was his grandparents' big pottery sale this weekend so all the family was in town.  When I say pottery, I don't mean the "pottery" one buys at Hobby Lobby to paint with children and wahla!  pottery!  No No No.  These two individuals dig up their own clay, process it, create amazing pieces of art, paint, glaze, and fire in their own kiln these pieces of pottery.  Dan's grandparents are truly modern day artisans of their craft and hundreds of people from all over the country come once a year to purchase a single piece of their work at this sale.  They have been in business for 30 years making their own pottery.  I love adding pieces to our pottery collection each year and being able to see the love that goes into each piece.  Plus after each sale, there's always a big family get together where games are played, laughs are had, drinks are drank, and memories are made.  All of Dan's brothers came in town for the weekend (and their ladies!!) so we had a wonderful time catching up with the whole gang back together.  Plus no weekend together is complete without a family game of Pictionary which we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning playing.  And it's never a normal, civil game of Pictionary that gets played.  These games are fun but cutthroat.  I'm happy to report that my team won the first night's game but lost the grudge rematch game the next night.

This year has been named the year of additions for the Kochs with two of Dan's brothers getting married and Dan and I expecting our first so here's a picture (stolen from my father-in-law) of my wonderful Koch brothers and all their ladies!  The gender gap is finally even only to be shaken up again in a month.

My momma even came down for the pottery sale this past weekend so I got to enjoy spending some time with her too.  It was the last time that I would get to see my momma before Baby Koch's D-day so I was trying to take everything in as much as possible when I was with her.  It was also my last time seeing all of Dan's family before our big day so that was equally as memorable.  From now on, Momma Jackie will be camped out in Champaign (no more long distance traveling) until our little man arrives.  I really don't want to chance anything and would rather stay put knowing that I'm close to our hospital in case things go down.  Overall, Dan and I had an amazing weekend on the farm and can't wait to get back there with our little man once he gets here.

Miss Anything? Wine and beer.  Full contact sports (not that I was very good at them but I had to sit on the sidelines of football this year instead of pretending to play).  Being able to hold my bladder for longer than 30 minutes.  And even though I absolutely love naps and always have, I miss the feeling of not being obligated to take one every day.  Nowadays, I feel exhausted soooo easily, even if all I'm doing is taking a trip to Wal-Mart or Target.  I'm dead.  I feel like I need a nap after I eat breakfast.  I miss not being exhausted all the time.  I had to take a break from family time on the farm just so I could take a nap because I was literally head bobbing.  I'm probably never going to feel rested again though.  Wah!

Movement: Little Baby Koch wants out!  He's made it quite clear that he is no longer content being squeezed inside of my belly.  He made some vicious movements inside me just to let me know that he wants out!  It was pretty cool though because we could actually distinguish his feet for the first time during his movements!  It was super crazy!

Food cravings:  Just milk.  It's delicious.  That's all.  Just give me my milk and no one gets hurt.  

Anything making you queasy or sick:  When little man kicks my stomach then I get queasy and sick.  Heartburn is also hitting me bad at nighttime...like right before I go to sleep so that's a pain. Literally.

Have you started to show yet:  I'm finally getting happy with the size of my bump and I love showing it off but in just a few more weeks it's going to go away. Wah!  I can't win.  There's just so much of pregnancy where you don't look like you're pregnant, just that you ate too many burritos that day, or maybe you indulged on too much Halloween candy that weekend.  I'm told that when you get pregnant with #2 that your belly comes out sooner.  Guess this means I'll be excited when we plan on #2!  

Gender: Wonderfully perfect baby boy!  I made sure the doctor confirmed he was a boy (again) at our latest appointment when we had the ultrasound...just to make sure.

Labor Signs: I think I felt my first Braxton Hicks contractions this past weekend when Dan and I went home, but I'm not sure.  I mean I've never felt a contraction before (kinda never been pregnant before) so I'm not sure what to expect exactly.  But it was late at night and my uterus (aka body at this point...my uterus has expanded from the size of a fist to its current size and position to the top of my rib cage.  THAT'S GYNORMOUS!) seemed to tighten for about 30 seconds or longer then stopped then a few minutes later did it again.  But then that was it.  It was just weird feeling so maybe it was something I ate, maybe it was little man telling me I needed to go to sleep, maybe it was gas (that's definitely happened before. ugh!), maybe something else.  Who knows really?  But other than that 5 minute weirdness, haven't felt anything unusual from what I've been consistently feeling for the past 8+ months.  

Also, just to comment, I mentioned last week that our doc thought our little man might be breach so she scheduled an ultrasound just to check things out.  Well we had our ultrasound and he is definitely NOT breach.  That doesn't mean he won't turn, but that they usually don't turn once they assume the position.  She said that my stomach is being stretched so much that you can easily mistake his lumpy head for his jiggle booty.  So now we know when he kicks mommy's ribs that it's actually his feet kicking me and not his hands hitting me.  Crazy!  It's super weird to now know that the lump by my ribs is his butt.  So now when he moves his butt around, I say that he's wiggling his booty.  He's totally dancing inside of me.  What a little rump shaker.  I get a kick out of that.

So to everyone who was concerned, even though you didn't need to be, our little man is just fine.  He's measuring just great, heart rate is perfect, dancing inside of me, just doing fantastic.  Momma Jackie and Daddy Daniel weren't too worried because we knew that however he ended up being positioned that the doctors would take care of everything and that our little man is in safe hands.  No need to worry.  Let's just all get excited to see him in just a few weeks!  EEEKKKK!!

Symptoms: Pee Pee Pee.  It's not funny anymore.  I have to pee ALL THE TIME!  Also the heartburn is getting worse, just at night though.  My body is getting more and more sore.  I'm exhausted just after eating breakfast in the morning.  I can definitely feel more pressure on my pelvis and lower abdomen.  I'm guessing that has to be connected to the fact that I have a child situated right there, ready to come out.  It's made me entertain the walking style coined by penguins and pregnant ladies alike, as the "Waddle".  I even stated this week, "I know why the pregnant lady waddles."  She waddles because a child's head is situated in her pelvis and walking and sitting like a lady isn't really an option anymore.  So I've started to waddle.  I hope it's not too noticeable.

Belly Button in or out? In.  I feel like it's going to pop any day now!  I can still fit the whole head of a Q-Tip inside of it though so it's still pretty deep but it looks so weird as it's getting stretched across my abdomen.  Belly buttons are weird!

Wedding rings on or off? On. I think it's getting looser as it's getting colder out.  Maybe I'm just crazy.

Happy or Moody most of the time:  In the words of Phil Robertson (Duck Dynasty anyone??), I'm "happy happy happy".  (I hope you read that in his voice...it makes for a more entertaining read)  I loved being back on the farm and seeing everyone and loved seeing my mommy too.  Now it's the waiting game! 

Looking forward to: When it labor going to happen?!?!  It's driving me crazy!  Is my water going to break while I'm at Wal-Mart or Target?  Will it be when I'm sleeping (don't worry, Dan and I already have our waterproof cover on our bed in case it does....don't want to ruin a mattress)?  Will my water break?  What will the contractions actually feel like?  Can my doctor predict when this will be?  (No she can't, I already asked her)  Gosh I just want to bring our little man home already.  We finally have our hospital bags packed (by we I mean me...Dan is convinced he can just throw his bag together in 5 seconds...and he probably can and will.  And yes, I made sure to throw some of my favorite musicals in my bag so we can watch them at the hospital....The Newsies included.) so now we just need the signal to go there and pick up our son from the stork.  That's how it works, right? So, basically I'm just looking forward to getting to meet our son.  I have no more concrete plans made for after this weekend because I don't want to take the chance of labor starting at these things.  So to my friends and family who are wanting to plan things with me, it's not you, it's me.  I make plans day-by-day now instead of a week in advance.  Little man is in charge of all my plans and reserves the exclusive right to cancel any plans I make for myself from here on to D-Day.  He's not even here and he's already ordering me around.  Jeez!  But I'd gladly cancel all of my plans to get to meet him.  We can't wait to introduce our handsome stud to the world.  Just a few more weeks!

Anything Else?: Have I mentioned that I'm excited yet?  Because I am.  Dan and I read to our little man a bit so he can be familiar with many of the stories in his book case when he gets here.  Still washing more and more of his outfits as people keep sending us more and more stuff for him.  Gosh!  He is seriously one blessed boy.  I'm honestly blown away at how generous you all are and how much you all love to love on us and our little man. I cannot thank you enough.  We are truly grateful for all your generosity and continued love and we are very happy to bring our little guy into this world where he's already tremendously loved by such a vast community of people.