34 Weeks

As of today, I am 34 weeks pregnant! Baby J has already had a good two weeks to put on the sprinkles to his cake and frosting. This means that he is just continuing to get prepared for his life outside of my belly and the longer that he stays in there, the better off he will be when he arrives. With only approximately 6 weeks until his arrival, he will be busy gaining weight and strengthening his lungs while Chris and I will be trying to get his nursery in order and ready for him.

As of 34 weeks, Baby J now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Babycenter.com relates Baby J's weight to your average cantaloupe. So, if you're in the grocery store in the next few days, pick one up and imagine what I am carrying around, lol!

His fat layers are filling him out and making him rounder. These layers will help to regulate his body temperature once he's born. His skin is smoother than ever and his central nervous system and lungs are continuing to mature. Babycenter.com reassures us that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. That is such great news! I still have my fingers crossed that he stays in there for longer than 37 weeks. We want him to be as fully cooked as possible!

Babycenter.com says that the fatigue that I had in the first trimester should start to set in this week. I have to admit that I have definitely been a little more tired and irritable than usual. I feel like I am really turning into a normal pregnant woman now with the uncontrollable crying and the emotional outbreaks. I am sure Chris doesn't appreciate it very much and I am doing my best to control it, but it is hard. I am sure he is just thankful that it hasn't lasted for the last 34 weeks!

I am also having major pregnancy brain issues. For starters, I made an appointment with my new doctor when we were still living in Boston. I had been telling everyone that it was the 14th of July, but I opened my calendar Sunday night and it said that my appointment was on the 13th. Yikes, a Monday morning appointment with no way to confirm it. So, Chris and I had to both get up on Monday morning in time for me to take Chris to work and then make it to my appointment by 8:40. I got there, and, of course, with my luck, the appointment is Tuesday at 8:40. Fun times! Chris and I will have to do the same routine tomorrow, ugh!

A much bigger deal than the doctor's appointment being on a different day, I completely forgot to change our address on our Pottery Barn Kids registry. With the move and everything else that we've had going on, I didn't even think about it. I called my mom today to check on a few items that she had purchased and had shipped to me to see if I could track it to see when they would arrive. As soon as she opened the email, she gasped when she saw that it was being shipped to our place in Cambridge. YIKES! It was scheduled to be delivered today. I quickly called Pottery Barn Kids who intercepted the packages and said that they would resend replacement items to our correct address. Thank goodness it wasn't delivered there! I don't know what we would do.

Unfortunately, there are 3 additional items that have been purchased from PBK that we haven't received yet, which I hope have not been shipped to us. If you did purchase something from PBK before today and had it sent directly to us, please send me an email at mb_hardeman@yahoo.com and we will find your gift! Thankfully, we still have friends in Boston and there are also new tenants in our place that I am sure wouldn't mind forwarding our packages. Again, I apologize if your gift is one of those, it truly is the result of pregnancy brain!

Week 34 belly pics taken at the end of a very long pregnancy brain dominated day!