Pregnancy 1: Week 29

29 Weeks:

Symptoms: Back pain, nausea still, fatigue/tiredness, constant peeing, HEARTBURN! Man I keep forgetting to add heartburn but I have had it for a few weeks now and it is especially bad at night, though I now experience days where it is constant. I take so many tums it is ridiculous. I also still have the pain in my groin muscle but it is lessened from before. I am not sure it is going to go away before I have our little guy which does worry me as I don't want it making it that much worse.

Weight: I have gained just under 11 pounds (though my scale is different from my OBs as it says about 11.5lbs). I am basically pretty close to gaining 1 pound a week, sometimes a little less. This week I actually ended the week (so technically the start of 30, losing about 1.5lbs due to all the stress and sickness)

OB Appointment: So to start this week off I had a check up OB appointment, I am officially on a 2 week schedule until 33 weeks and then they have me on an every week schedule. I can’t believe how close we are getting already! 11 more weeks! I went in and the OB office said I had gained just under 11 pounds, my blood pressure was 115/80 which was great, baby Patrick measured right on track (30 cm head to bum) and his heart rate was 150 bpm which he ranges from 145-160. They had me do the standard urine analysis and it was all clear (no proteins, etc.) AND they had me do the 1 hour glucose test which tests for gestational diabetes. The one I had to do wasn’t fasting so I was required to eat before I had to drink the orange drink (yeah that sounds like a cult). I went in and was kind of dreading it but opened the drink and took a sip...wait that tastes yummy! It literally tasted like a flat fanta. I don’t tend to like carbonation a lot anyway and so I actually enjoyed it. I made a comment about how it actually tasted good to the nurse and she laughed at me and told me I am not allowed to have more than the one...so of course I said ah man, but can’t I take one home? Heehee. We had a good time with it. I also got my Tdap shot and that did NOT feel good, honestly the tdap shot was worse than the glucose drink. We went down and had my blood drawn 1 hour later (during which no food or water) and that went really well, I found out the very next day that I passed that test! The good range was 110-140 and I was 130. YAY! :)

New Fence Project: This weekend was spent hard at work tearing down the metal wire fence we had and putting up the new privacy fence. And since we couldn’t finish it it is basically the entirety of this blog this week as it took 6 days to complete the basics before the gate hardware. So below is the wire fence that we had before and the start of them working on taking it all down.

Day 1: The wire fence came down, all the corner posts went up, and they used string to mark out where all the other posts were going to go. We got a later start but it was because we took Ron with us to the store and he helped us get all the extras we needed from Lowes to get started which was huge! Then it was hard at work from about 11am-1pm (lunch) and then 2pm to nearly 7pm. Then the guys came in and I felt like it was a nice special dziadzio type of moment...they went down and enjoyed a few drinks in the bar! Moments like these make me know dziadzio is up there smiling down watching over us! Thank you for helping us Ron, Marty, & Larry. While the guys did all this I made homemade cookies and brownies for them to have and they also ate hot dogs, watermelon, and strawberries for lunch. I also managed (seriously 1st time in the pregnancy) to have enough energy to dust, vacuum (a rough one with my allergies), pick up the house, clean the kitchen, and do all the dishes including silverware which I had about 3 weeks worth to clean!

Day 2: This was definitely our bigger work day, there was so much to do we were very grateful to have a bigger team of guys helping! Another special thank you to Patrick, Gabe, Ron, Wade, Justin, Larry, and our 20 min. crew of uncle Adam and cousin Bent. With the entire house clean my goal today was to work on some of the things I need to get done for the baby shower as we will be leaving town next weekend to visit my family in Iowa and the next weekend is the shower! I managed to get 5 of my 8 items on my to do list done for the HP shower, seriously I love it and am getting so excited for this party!

Unfortunately we weren’t able to have all of the guys who initially thought they would be able to help come and so with the main job of the day being digging the holes for the inside posts (basically 45ish posts) and placing them in concrete we just didn’t have enough workers for the amount of time. These guys started at about 9am and worked until nearly 7pm (in shifts, some had to come and go) and unfortunately all the posts couldn’t get done which does push the project into more days.

Day 3: The goal was to get all of the fence pieces up initially but with being behind the day started out with doing the rest of the posts that weren’t completed the day before. Then panels of fencing started going up but there was no possible way for them to finish as the posts they did at 8:30am wouldn’t be ready to hold panels until the next day. So our initial 3 day fencing project is now running into the week…. A special thank you to Ryker, Ron, & Larry_ for helping in getting more of the fence done today. Today is the first day that I can look outside and see a fence and not just a bunch of holes and posts. I am so excited to see more of it done!

Today I had the last 4 things on my baby shower list to do...which are definitely more tedious so I was especially grateful that I finished doing a couple of them of them. I initially planned on finishing all of them before I leave for Iowa but I decided I will do the last 2 projects when I get back since I will still have a full 6 days before the shower anyway. :)

Monday Love: Tomek had to go to work and I was really struggling with some things that were going on (I am not ready to share them on here, apologies) but I woke up to send him off to work. We went to the front door for me to kiss him goodbye like I always do and he just looked at me and said, “You are rocking this pregnancy!” I can’t let go of this. It made me truly so happy. I know I have times where I struggle to deal with the emotions that I am experiencing (While pregnant I would say 98% of my emotions are valid and for a legitimate reason but the intensity of them are so much stronger than I have ever had and explaining them sometimes are that much harder) but in the end he still said I was rocking it, I am doing so well. I adore my Tomek.

Day 4: The struggle with this project going during the week is Tomek has to work. So today he worked from 7:30am-5:30pm. Got home and went to work on the fence again immediately. I spent all of this day inside throwing up or trying to sleep. I was so sick. I am sure it was in part due to pregnancy but I think it was also the amount of emotions and stress I was going through. I tried to eat a few times (crackers, chips, applesauce) and none of it worked it just made me throw up again. Tomek came home from work and after talking about eating nothing he decided to try boiled eggs. So he made me a few and I ate them all...I didn’t even get sick! YAY!! He is amazing.

I obviously wasn't able or allowed to do any part of the fence work but I did have a couple joyous moments spent out there.The first was when my hubby had me go out early with him and I got to drive the dingo in the backyard. That thing was kind of fun though when you stopped it was a bit lurchy so I was happy I didn't have to do any real work on it....

The second was when the guys all finished their work and I agreed to help Tomek clean up so they could go ahead and leave and so I moved all the empty concrete bags to the trash...I was covered in such a coating it was crazy. I was amused but I also got to take a shower like 10 minutes later...I couldn't imagine actually feeling that way all day!

Day 5: Tomek took a day off of work so he could get the fencing finished (with Ron & Larry). Unfortunately the weather wasn’t friendly and they had to hide out in the garage a couple of times. However all of the fence is up except the gates that Tomek has to finish. After he finished for the day he took me out to dinner and it was so nice just to have some connecting time with Tomek again as between the fence project and his work we really haven’t had any stress-free us time.

Day 6: We are still working on the fence (Tomek was outside working for a while after work but there is just so much to getting these gates done!) but I chose to have us not work on it and instead spend time together de-stressing before we leave for Iowa on Friday morning.

This project has been a rough one. It has taken quite a toll on me (more so than normal). I am not a fan of projects in general, I am the kind of person that desperately likes to help with things, and I am pregnant! So, I wasn’t able to help, I stayed inside all day every day, I overworked myself inside just to prove that I was doing something too, and definitely hit emotional overload with everything that was going on. The project was meant to take 3 days but between not having enough workers, weather not always permitting, etc. it just wasn’t possible. However, Tomek worked so hard every day taking care of this fence, even after work, and he was so determined to get it done as quickly as possible. I am so proud of my husband! I am so blessed to have him!

And though the gates aren't done our puppy Maggie is quite thrilled to enjoy spending some time in her newly privately fenced in yard! So far there hasn't been any barking...which is an added bonus! :)

Relaxation: Other than taking some time away from all that was stressing me out I started my yoga up again (I didn't feel comfortable doing pregnant yoga in my family room with people in and out as they needed), I utilized some guided meditations on youtube, and I got back to my regular routine of laundry, lists, and even just watching some movies on TV. I can tell you that yoga and meditations are huge for me and not doing them for 6 days definitely made those days harder. I didn't realize how helpful they had been to me until I stopped.

Wrap Up: I finished out this week finishing up laundry (even ironing some for fun...it was relaxing), trying to relax, and packing for our trip to Iowa! We are both excited to go and see my family that lives there. We have a family reunion every year the same time at this wonderful park and so we are doing that on Saturday and then my aunts are throwing a baby shower for us as well (It is so sweet! I can’t believe how wonderful this family is to me) on Sunday. Unfortunately it is just a weekend trip but it will be so great to see my dad and catch up with everyone some. So obviously more on that and pictures to come next week. :)