28 Weeks

Okay, here is the real 28 week belly photo. To me, it has really exploded. Many of my maternity pants are not really fitting right anymore and even some of the shirts are getting a little tight. It is a bit frustrating as I am not keen to buy more clothes that will not work in 2 1/2 months. I am grateful that I don't have a job that I actually have to dress up for or I would be in real trouble.

I had my 28 week check up last Thursday. It was my last appointment with my midwife, Alice, in Akron. She was so sweet and I will miss her. Everything looked good. Butterball was moving around and Alice said he was head down for now, but he can do plenty of flips in the next few weeks. His heartbeat was a strong 145 beats/min. I had to take a glucose test to screen for gestational diabetes. It consisted of me drinking a very sugary orange drink and then sitting in the lab for an hour after which they took my blood. It wasn't bad really and I got the results today that my sugar levels were just fine. The bads news was that my blood cell count was a bit low and I am somewhat anemic. This surprised me as I thought I was eating the right things and I am religious about taking my prenatal vitamins. But, the nurse who called with the results said I need to concentrate more on getting iron-rich foods. I guess that means more meat, beans, and spinach for me. I am relaxing my meat consumption philosophy a bit for the time being to try to get the appropriate iron. I feel a bit guilty about it, but Butterball needs iron so that is what needs to be done. I am also wondering if this is one reason I have been so tired lately. I was chalking it up to the beginning of third tri and all the packing we have been doing, but I think this is probably also contributing. It actually makes me feel a little better because I was getting sad at how lazy I have felt.

I spent today cleaning out my office at school. It was a strange feeling. It is a little anti-climatic since I haven't actually finished and I know I will be back to defend (hopefully sooner rather than later). The rest of this week is packing and we head out on Friday.