34 Weeks (November 10 - 17)

Thank the Good Lord I had Monday off of work. I was exhausted from our whirlwind weekend!  I was able to sleep in a little bit, go to my doctor's appointment, and best of all, decorate for Christmas!!

I know, it may seem early, but with my due date being 3 days before Christmas, I wanted it to be done.  On top of having the decorations done, I also had my Christmas shopping pretty much done and wrapped. We have a lot of nieces and nephews, so I was able to do pretty much all of their shopping pretty easily online after I got lists from all of the kids!

One of my favorite traditions with my group of friends happened this week also, "Friendsgiving"! Normally I organize and host it, but since we live a little further away and since we're getting ready to have a baby, our friends, Mel and Stephen who live in Lawrence offered to host this year. I just helped get all of the food organized!  This was our 11th year of having Friendsgiving. It was a tradition that we started in college and somehow, we've managed to keep the tradition alive for many years after being out of school!  Nowadays, the group is so much bigger than what it was in college with everyone getting married and having kids! We always have SO MUCH FOOD. One of our first years of having friendsgiving in college the guys across the street were in charge of mashed potatoes...somehow we ended up with somewhere close to 20 pounds of potatoes for about 10 of us; needless to say, we had plenty of mashed potato leftovers....

I am starting to feel quite a bit more uncomfortable than I had in weeks past.  The baby is getting bigger (and heavier), braxton hicks contractions happen pretty frequently, I'm not sleeping quite as well, and I feel like I'm starting to get the pregnancy waddle down...overall though, I really cannot complain. This pregnancy (even though I have nothing else to compare it to) has been pretty easy. My biggest complaint would have to be sleeping on my side! I was a stomach sleeper prior to getting pregnant, so adjusting to sleeping on either side has been kind of a challenge for me. Luckily I have some good pillows!

This week the baby is the size of a butternut squash and weighs in at about 4.2 - 5.8 pounds and measures about 17.2 - 18.7".  By week 34, he's recognizing and reacting to simple songs. Fat layers, which help regulate the baby's body temperature after birth are filling the baby out, making him rounder.  The central nervous system is maturing and the baby's lungs are continuing to mature as well.