Week 32 and week 33… at my week 33 appointment, I was the same weight (0lb gain, 173lb total, up 30 lbs from pre-pregnancy) and the baby’s heart rate ranged from 140-150. My blood count is still low, but has stabilized at 24-25. I’ll keep getting blood draws every 2 weeks to make sure it doesn’t drop further.

On the non-baby front, last Friday we went over to Dana and Dave’s for dinner/games … and up stayed until 2-3am! And while I know some people think I should sleep now “while I can”, I’d like to say that given my acid reflux and compressed bladder, I’m not sleeping that well anyway. So believe it or not, staying up till 3am didn’t really make me any more tired the next day. In fact, we got up about the same time as normal, and headed to Folsom Lake for jet-skiing and a picnic with James’ coworkers!

Zachary loves being in the water. He doesn’t really swim, but paddles around pretty confidently in a life vest. He really likes water animals so we swam around looking for eels. He wanted to swim ”all the way to the end”, but was eventually convinced to turn back. 

The next day was Father’s Day … James took Zachary to the zoo and they rode on a train. As his father’s day gift, he received immunity from taking pictures (hence no pictures of the zoo or train ride). Speaking of trains, Zachary is not as much into trains anymore – he still loves riding them, but playing with them and building tracks is losing its allure. What he really likes now is playing games. Recent favorites are Gobblet and Carcassonne.

And this is a miserable picture of James. He was doing the dishes at night, and Zachary said,”When you are done, we’ll put on sunblock and shoes and go outside.” We’re been teaching Zachary to be more patient, as he used to throw a semi-fit if we did not drop everything to play with him. So to reward him for waiting, James agreed to go outside and skidded on a cold water slide at dusk.

During the work week, I had my extended team over for a BBQ … ribs, tri-tip, teriyaki chicken, sausages, and lots of sides and desserts … yum! The best part was that so many people made it – which has the beneficial side effect of no email pileup during my lunch hour.

Fun weekend! My 2 college roommates from Texas (Natalie and Carol) came up to visit me. Natalie brought her son Anderson, so I got to meet him for the first time. My sister Alice also drove up. On Saturday, we had a small BBQ outside for lunch and also went shopping at the outlets.

Anderson is hands down, the best eater I’ve ever met – I was jealous because eating is our biggest struggle with Zachary. Anderson is 9 months old and can eat kiwi, strawberries, tomato basil soup, and almond scones with gusto. I have a theory that a few years later there’s going to be a new study that says something along the lines of,”Starting solids later (ie 5-6 months) with bland foods (ie rice cereal) and introducing only one new food once every 4-5 days  increases your child’s probability of being a picky eater. We now recommend that babies start eating as early as 4 months, and eat whatever their parents eat, just smashed up. Sorry for our previous recommendation, which has resulted a a whole generation of overly cautious eaters.”

That evening, we got dressed up for my baby celebration – which is supposed to be an excuse for a party similar to a baby shower, but without gifts. It ended up being a baby shower anyway, so I think I’m just going to call it what it is. Dana hosted it, and she did a wonderful job. There were 4 fondues … 2 savory and 2 sweet:

And we played 2 games. In one game, you matched up baby pictures with the guests. I was tied for 2nd place … interestingly, I got all my blonde friends mixed up.

In the 2nd game, you race to finish one ounce of water from a baby bottle. The key is to get the variable flow nipple, squeeze it to keep the hole open, and suck down the water. I raced against my sister and kicked her butt… twice.

And just like my first shower, people were overly generous. I ended up with a carseat, a carseat travel carrier, a high-end baby monitor, travel/inflatable tub, memory book and box, nightlight, snacks for the hospital stay, SnackTraps, handmade blankets/burp clothes, mesh laundry bags, and lots of baby girl clothes. So much for no gifts! Thank you everyone for taking time to attend and celebrate with me … thanks for all the nice gifts … thanks to Dana for organizing and hosting the party … to my sister and college roommates for traveling. I am so good at picking friends!  And James was very helpful driving to/from the airport and watching Zachary and Anderson – YEA for competent dads!

The next day, my plan was to treat the shower host and my out of town friends to an afternoon tea. However, Natalie pretended Anderson needed a diaper change and ended up paying for everyone! Next time, I think I need to pay in advance when I make the reservations.

After lunch, my Texas friends left for the airport. *sniff!* I’m sure we’ll all get together again though! Cheers!

Week 30 and week 31 … baby’s heartrate is ~150 and my weight is 173 lbs. Up 6lbs from my last appointment 2 weeks ago, for a total weight gain of 30 whopping pounds.

This Saturday, six girlfriends and I spent the morning-afternoon at a resort spa. It was a pretty awesome deal – since we had over 6 hrs of spa treatments total, they gave us complimentary day passes to their private  facility. There were 4 pools (including one with a waterslide!) and tennis courts. We ate lunch by the poolside in cabanas and decided that we have to do this more often!

James and Zachary also had a great time – they went on a 3 hour bike ride adventure while I was out. Today (Sunday) is James and my 5th year wedding anniversary. I bought him a brown Coach belt  (yea for outlet 5 minutes from work!). His gift to me hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s a Tiffany&Co charm bracelet with a charm for each child … Zachary is a moon because on his 1st ultrasound he looked like he was sitting on a moon … and Calista is a pink cupcake because I am eating sweets like crazy (and I’m not normally a big fan of sugary snacks). I’ll post once I get it! We went to Olive Garden for lunch. We’re also thinking about a trip to Hawaii for a week, some time end of this year… but it’s going to depend on #2′s temperment.  Happy 5th Anniversary James!

<6/5: Updated with picture of my new bracelet> The card text says “I love you. Thank you for giving me two beautiful children. James.” Which is interesting because we have no idea what Calista looks like. The moon charm looks exactly like a smaller version of the necklace James got me as my “push present” when Zachary was born … I ended up losing it on a family vacation to Mexico (Insurance paid for the monetary loss, but I was still sad to lose it since it had sentimental value). It’s sort of like getting it back – yea!

Product recommendation… PedEgg … add it to your Amazon wish list or wedding registry or just buy it. I was not able to squeeze in a pedicure at the spa, so I picked up of one of these at Linens-n-Thing for ~$8 ($10 + 20% coupon). It was recommended by Sandy and now also by me. It’s basically a mini cheese grater for your heel, but it doesn’t hurt at all …and it collects all the callous skin shavings, which is super satisfying to see. You grate, then buff your heel … then slather lotion on your feet and put them in socks. Love it.