Month 8 with Baby K

LESS THAN A MONTH UNTIL BABY GIRL'S DUE DATE. We are freaking out and so excited. Month eight went by so fast!

32 weeks

Dustan officially began nesting ;) We decided at the beginning of the month that we needed to buckle down and start getting our spare room organized. Our plan is for it to be half nursery and half random stuff (like our piano and bikes) that doesn't fit anywhere else in the apartment, haha. But it was a disaster! We got a new bookshelf, and that is where Dustan's nesting started. He was obsessed for a few days with getting things put together. We quickly found a cute used crib and got that set up, then began the search for a chair. By the end of the month, our "nursery" was almost completely ready! We'll put a few pictures up next month :)

I had baby shower number two this month, thrown by my wonderful bestie Ashlee. It was at a family friend's house down in Mapleton. We had super yummy brunch food (fruit, muffins, and baked french toast) and spent the entire shower just chatting and opening baby gifts. It was perfect! I was very excited that some of the Kraus family was in town for the weekend, so my mother-in-law Jen and sister-in-law Erin were able to come as well. Again, Dustan and I are so thankful for all the generous people in our lives <3

While Dustan's family was visiting, I had an appointment. Unfortunately, Dustan had a meeting, so he missed this one (first one he has missed, it was sad). But on the plus side, Erin got to come with me! And because Erin was with me, my OB did an ultrasound so we could see baby :) She is looking wonderful! She is still head down and was mostly turned toward my spine, so it was hard to get a look at her face, but it was great to see her wiggling around again. I also got my tdap shot at this appointment and my arm was sore for two days. Not a fan. I got my flu shot at the second appointment this month.

August (month 6) was my favorite month bring pregnant. I felt healthy, I could feel baby girl's cute little movements, and I didn't feel like being pregnant was uncomfortable. September felt much the same, though I became a little more tired, my back hurt a little more, and less clothes fit. This is the month where I am truly starting to feel uncomfortable and really pregnant. My stomach feels heavy, my body feels stiff, I feel like nothing fits me how I like, and baby's movements are more often uncomfortable than fun and fascinating (though I feel blessed with how much she moves, I never have to worry haha). I feel more exhausted than ever--even more so than the first trimester--yet have a lot of trouble sleeping at night. But all in all, I wouldn't trade it. I'm so excited to meet our little girl in just a month!

We took a few maternity pictures at week 34 this month, and below are some of our favorites :)

Toward the end of this month, I had one evening where I got really bad cramps--very similar to menstrual cramps--with a whole lot of back pain thrown in. I had had a few Braxton Hicks before, but none that were painful. After a couple hours of these constant cramps, I realized that my stomach was tightening pretty often, though the pain of the cramps didn't really change accordingly. I started to time these "contractions" (I had no idea if they were the real thing, but I hadn't felt anything like it before) and though it was difficult to time only when my stomach was getting hard without the pain changing, my best guess was that it was happening roughly every 7 to 8 minutes, which really just shocked me. This went on for a very uncomfortable hour while Dustan and I tried to decide if this was the real deal and if we should head to the hospital that night. It was about 11 pm at this point. Eventually, I forced myself to take a shower. This slowed things down and the pain lessened enough that I was able to go to bed. More "contractions" and pain woke me up throughout the night, but only a handful of times and they stopped around 5 am completely. The next day, it was as if nothing happened and nothing similar has happened since. We'll see if that experience ends up anything like being in labor. I've had a lot of painless Braxton Hicks since then (dozens each day when I had only felt a few before) but nothing similar.

Notes/Symptoms:
  - About half way through the month, round ligament pain started in full force. OW. It is horrible! I feel extremely blessed it didn't start in the second trimester. Sleeping/moving at night and getting out of bed in the morning are especially painful. Most nights pain wakes me up every time I move, especially if I have had a particularly active day.
 - Finally bought a pair of long maternity jeans, hallelujah.
 - Eating so many Tums every day.
 - Still able to be fairly active! Weight lifting still feels good. Can't jog more than a quarter mile at once max (this was towards the beginning of the month, haven't really tried jogging recently), but I never liked jogging anyway haha. Still enjoy hiking and went on a couple three to five mile hikes this month, though I am unnaturally/weirdly sore the next couple days for such easy hikes.
 - Braxton Hicks are getting very commonplace.
 - Abnormal if I go 10 minutes without feeling baby girl move, she is very active in my limited experience, haha.
 - Always so HOT. I sleep with the window open even when it is below 50 degrees.
 - Got a little bit of a waddle right when I wake up in the morning and toward the end of the day when I've been on my feet a lot.
 - Aversions: knock-off Tums, extra chewy meat, most chicken dishes
 - Cravings: peaches (went to go buy some at a local peach stand and was SO upset when I found they were done for the season...), chocolate cherry ice cream, donuts, chocolate (but I'm always craving chocolate, so nothing new there), marshmallows


For anyone interested in knowing our baby registry information, here it is!
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/ellen-kraus-dustan-kraus-december-2017-provo/IRA5JGTHSCTX
Target: tgt.gifts/Dustan&EllenBabyRegistry