Week:30

Weight:+5

Well I’ve gotten through my baby shower and Thanksgiving,  two major events that I’ve been looking forward to in this pregnancy. Thanksgiving is my favorite food holiday. I can seriously eat my weight in stuffing alone.  My doctor on my last visit had mentioned how I had either been losing weight or only gaining a pound a month with the pregnancy. Now, I’m not a petite girl or underweight, in fact, I started off this pregnancy about 20 lbs heavier than I’d like to be, so really I wasn’t trying to pack on the pounds. Turns out, if you gain TOO little weight during pregnancy, it’s not ideal from a medical viewpoint, either. While Baby AM was ahead of his growth, the doctor felt I needed to gain 3 to 4 lbs a month to maintain a healthy pregnancy. It was kinda surprising to me that I wasn’t naturally gaining weight. I didn’t have this crazy, craving-filled appetite, but I dind’t have morning sickness either, so I wasn’t puking and losing weight. 

Thanksgiving, I just plain flat-out pigged out. Everything was EXTRA tasty this year I felt and as I helped myself twice in one day to a plate of turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, garlic bread, corn, and spicy green beans, I knew that I was definitely gaining more than one pound this month! Not to mention my mom was cooking all sorts of yummy Indian foods the day after like chicken biryani and pappadum. I was in food heaven!

My baby shower was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was a wonderful day filled with great people, food, gifts, and all around general love and happiness. I was thrilled that so many people could make it despite the busy holiday weekend. It was so nice to spend time with everyone, especially those I haven’t seen in a few months! My sister and Cousin Lisa were the co-planners and they did a really great job with the train theme (NY to Philly express!) and the wonderful decorations. What was especially cool were the train diaper cakes, the Philly/NY themed favors, and the personalized Andrew items.  The food was NY/Philly themed appetizers (cheesecake, pigs in a blanket, cheesesteaks, tasty kakes, etc.) and Indian samosas, chicken tikka, lamb kebabs and Indian food for the main course as well. For dessert we had a beautiful cake that had a wonderful train on it. My sister had ordered it half chocolate mousse and half strawberry Bavarian cream, my favorite.  Additionally, she also got cannolis, my favorite dessert! I was in food heaven with the leftovers all weekend. 

Andrew got a lot of really great, useful stuff from strollers, high chairs, car seats,  to really adorable stuff like stuffed animals, adorable onesies, blankets, and NY/Philly sports-themed things. The hosts had asked people to give us books instead of cards to build Andrew’s library and so we got a lot of great classics for Andrew! Also, two people gave us really great fun bookshelves to display and hold all those books! How awesome! Our baby is definitely blessed and we are duly blessed to have such wonderful, caring people in our lives who are as excited for the arrival of our little one as we are!

As my stomach gets bigger and bigger and the days fly by, I realize that I’m at the home stretch of this pregnancy. This week the heartburn and uncomfortableness of Andrew sitting so low has dissipated. Last week in New York, I slept about an hour only every night due to such bad heartburn and different uterine pains. It was really so frustrating and exhausting. But this week (so far), pregnancy is back to being enjoyable!

The house is full of baby gear and the nesting syndrome inside of me is in full effect. Due to a really great Black Friday deal that Saji was able to take advantage of, we ended up returning the furniture we originally bought because they had a promotion going on where if we bought the dresser and 5-drawer chest apart of the collection, the crib was free!! The crib retailed for about $450, so that was a definite great deal! Saji woke up early at 4 a.m. on Black Friday and went to Babies R Us to stand in line for this doorbuster deal. He was able to additionally score some great deals on humidifiers, baby wipes, diapers, and sleep sacks. I had to give him a lot of credit, because I totally was not apart of finding those deals or taking advantage of them. I only half paid attention to him when he spoke about these deals. I was so distracted with my lack of sleep and pregnancy woes. 

We received so much stuff from our shower that we couldnt’ fit it all in our SUV to take home from my parent’s house, so they will be paying us a visit this weekend to drop off the rest of the gifts. About 90% of my huge Babies R Us registry is gone and several items from my Target one, so now the hard part will be assembling everything and putting it in its right place!

This weekend we have an infant care/breastfeeding class scheduled. Hopefully it’ll provide us with lots of great information that will help us feel informed and relaxed about taking care of an infant. I’m really nervous about breastfeeding, mostly because I just feel clueless about it.

Lastly, I’ve been thinking about support systems a lot lately. Mostly I feel really great that I have such a strong support system around me while pregnant. From my parents, to extended family, my husband, and a wide range of friends that I can really talk to, as well as a lot new moms with great advice about things. I feel like I can really voice my frustrations, fears and worries, and get plenty of reassurance and comfort. That’s something I really value lately.

As much as I want to be a good parent to Andrew, I know I need to be a good person for myself first. You cant’ be a good parent to your child and meet their needs if you can’t meet your own first. I woke up to a stressful situation this morning.  It was something that was so full of nonsense and ridiculousnes and I just knew in my pregnant state that it was NOT healthy or wise to respond or engage myself in it. It was something that really was not worthy of my time to address but at the same time could possibly blow up into an uglier, nastier situation if ignored. After trying to deal with it for a bit on my own, I just finally gave up, called my dad, explained the situation and had him help me with it. He reassured me he would take care of things. The instant I hung up the phone I felt at peace. I just realized that I can really count on my parents to not only help me in a time of need and to fix a situation in the best way possible, but that I could also rely on them to really listen to me when I have a problem. I’m blessed that I can share things with them and that they will love me unconditionally no matter what.

I want my relationship with my own son and my future children to be that way. I want them to be able to talk to me. Like actually come to me and share things with me and look to me as someone who can make them feel better and offer them valuable advice. I realize that it can take a lifetime of trust building and careful cultivation sometimes to have an ideal relationship with a person. From the very first day of Andrew’s life he’ll be looking to me as his protector, provider, problem solver, confidant, etc. He’ll totally rely on me for everything in the beginning. As each day passes, he’ll become more and more independent and figure the world out for himself. It’s up to me and his dad to raise him as an autonomous, healthy adult who’s able to live independently in the world but also realize he can rely and depend on us for problem, big or small. It’s a fine balance and one that is so easy to screw up if you really think about it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the little things that it really takes to become a good parent. Often times the HUGE things are what occupies our minds. Providing him a great education, etc. But the little things like eating dinner together as a family or teaching a child to value people over things are lessons that I want to make sure I really show him through example and lifestyle rather than just preaching it to him.

I have another 68 days roughly to figure things out some more before Andrew gets here! Hopefully, I’ll be a lot more relaxed and confident about things before he makes his debut!

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