32 weeks! Less than eight weeks to go, eeep! I was so happy to find that this shirt still fits; I thought I had gotten too big for it. I'll always remember this shirt as being the one I was wearing when we found out we were having a girl. I wore it out on a date with Chris this past weekend when we ventured to downtown Gilbert and found this great background for a bump photo. And if you'd like to see: 32 weeks pregnant with Dashiell.

Baby bump status: I'm finding it very enjoyable to have a baby bump. I love being noticeably pregnant and people asking me about the baby/when I'm due. I think it took longer this pregnancy to be really visibly pregnant although I've also been dressing in tunics that don't accentuate my bump as much. One mom at last week's school PTSO meeting just realized I was pregnant saying, "Oh, you're pregnant!" Chris and I ran into another pregnant couple at Barnes and Noble this weekend and it was fun to share the excitement with strangers. They are also expecting a girl but their first baby and I was thinking of that excitement and also the unknown of expecting your first. I'm so happy to be having a baby but also that it's not my first, ha!

I feel lots of movement and a recent ultrasound confirmed the baby is head down. This baby gets the hiccups at least a couple times a day (at least once in the middle of the night!) and I feel those down low and kicks closer to my ribs. The other night it seemed like she was kicking out her foot as hard as possible and then leaving it there. It's crazy to have a ~4 pound being living inside you! At our ultrasound the baby was measured at weighing 3 pounds and 13 ounces. I'm so curious to see if her birth weight will be as big as the boys (9.5 pounds!) or a little smaller. It seems like she might be on track to be under 9 pounds which would be just fine with me. :)

How I'm feeling: Emotionally I'm feeling so happy to be right here with less than eight weeks to go. I love that meeting our baby girl is close enough that my main priority is getting ready but there's still plenty of time to anticipate and savor. I know these last weeks will probably go by quickly and I can imagine missing being pregnant and the excitement of looking forward to everything to come. I'm also thankful to be feeling so good physically and to feel comfortable overall in my body. Worries that I had about being pregnant again included how my body would change, feeling really uncomfortable, and going through significant weight gain and loss again. Heading into this pregnancy I think I was the healthiest I've ever been and have been able to keep up my exercise and healthy eating habits. I think those have gone a long way to feeling so good this pregnancy.

Eating: I'm not sure if it's a pregnancy craving but I can't seem to eat enough fruit: blueberries, oranges (especially the Cara Cara which I remember devouring while I was pregnant with Dashiell), pineapple, Honeycrisp apples, bananas, red grapes – give it all to me! I'm also recommitting to eating dinner early (finishing by about 5 p.m.) and avoiding foods that cause heartburn because it disrupts my sleep so terribly. Also in January Chris and I did a no added sugar challenge (a repeat of one of my healthy habit challenges last year) and I really like that structure for pointing me towards foods that are good for me. I plan to continue to eat minimal added sugar through the end of my pregnancy. It feels like a really important time to be as healthy as I can plus I'm sure it's helping me feel so good.

Exercise: Still making it to my three workouts a week but felt a noticeable slow down last week. When I jog on the treadmill the bottoms of my feet hurt so badly. I'm guessing it's the extra weight I'm carrying? I find it very annoying because otherwise I would feel fine to jog. I'm going to try to stretch and foam roll more consistently (I haven't been consistent at all) but I'm also walking when my feet start hurting. In High Fitness my feet have also been hurting some but I'm modifying any movements with jumps and that's been helping.

Starting in January I committed to getting 10,000 steps a day now that I'm wearing a Fitbit. That has meant adding walks to my days when I don't go workout and I'm enjoying getting that extra movement and time to myself.

Sleep: Continues to be disrupted. Especially on nights when I didn't finish dinner early/avoid heartburn-inducing foods. My sleep is already disrupted by getting up to pee at least four times a night, a kicking baby, and sometimes needing to eat a snack. So I'm going to be better about managing the heartburn since there are already enough things keeping me up.

Preparing for another baby: Starting to make progress! The boys' new room and the baby's room are being painted as I write this. That means we can order the big furniture (crib, dresser, glider) and really start to see a baby room come together. I have an accumulating pile of baby stuff in my office that will be happy to find a home there. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law recently hosted a family baby shower for us which was so fun and sweet plus generous friends have handed down baby items. While I was in Austin my friend who has three girls let me go through all her baby clothes and I came home with a suitcase full of 0 - 6 month baby clothes. Chris had fun looking through them all when I got home.

I also signed us up for a required birth center orientation where we'll get more specific details about birthing at our birth center. The other thing I need to do is to schedule a call with our sleep coach to get a refresher on newborn through one-year-old sleep. We want to start this girl off right since we've struggled with sleep so much in the past.

Looking forward to: Seeing the nursery come together and checking things off the list. My goal is to feel DONE with everything by early March so that as much as possible I can relax and enjoy my final weeks of pregnancy.