I just posted my 30 week picture and then compared it with my 26 week picture. I cannot believe how much I grew in 4 short weeks! I know this is the time where Luke is gaining about a half a pound each week but geesh! When you see the comparison it's just amazing. Hard to believe I have 9 weeks until my due date.

I'm entering the highly uncomfortable stage and I'm having considerable pain in my lower back. If it weren't such sharp pain I could probably handle it better. I went to see a chiropractor and he seems to think a back brace would help me. They make braces just for pregnant women. We'll see what his final recommendation is on Thursday. I think a back brace would help a lot in taking some pressure off my lower back. This baby is heavy!

I've been able to pack away quite a bit of food lately. I want to be careful not to put on too much weight because I know what strain that will put on my body and I don't need any more strain than I have already. Most of what I eat is fairly healthy, I'm just trying to make sure I am getting all my nutrients and not going overboard with the sugars. Thankfully I haven't had much craving for sweets. I haven't had much craving for anything in particular, although I've developed an interest in root beer that I didn't have before.

Luke is moving a lot nowadays and he is proving to be very strong. It's not uncommon to be able to see him kicking and moving around. I like to sit and stare at my belly, waiting for the next move. It never gets old!

My urge to blog has decreased dramatically but I think that's partly because it's tax season and partly because I'm becoming more social (having real conversations with people, like on the phone or in person). I don't think as much about telling my stories on my blogs because I'm out there in the real world telling the stories to my friends and family directly.

But for posterity's sake, here is a brief summary of the last few weeks.

On the morning of February 20th, a Tuesday, my heart start racing and I started feeling lightheaded, dizzy and very short of breath. I had been having these sorts of episodes for three weeks but none this severe. I called the nurse and she instructed me to have someone take me to the emergency room. Mike picked me up from work and took me to the E.R. at St. Lawrence. After a two hour wait they put me in a room. For the next seven hours they ran tests and monitored my heart rate. Then they shuttled me over to Sparrow E.R. for more monitoring and to admit me into the hospital.

The rest of the story is pretty dull. We hung out on the cardiac floor until Friday morning when they finally let me go. They did run one more test and I spoke with a cardiologist but mainly I was just there to be monitored and to wait for my cardiologist and OB to get on the same page. They had OB nurses come up every once in awhile to monitor the baby's heart rate, which was just fine. Luke is totally healthy. It's just me.

The conclusion is that tachycardia (rapid heart rate) is fairly normal in pregnancy and should go away after I have the baby. They prescribed a beta-blocker to slow my heart rate and it does seem to be helping. Occasionally I'll feel my heart rate is still up around 120 bpm but the majority of the time it is below 100, where it should be.

So I missed a week of work for what seemed to be an unncecessarily long hospital stay, but I am okay, the baby's okay, and I've even caught up on my work. Though now I am starting to feel the urgency of getting my office prepared for my maternity leave. That has me more than a little stressed out but I'm trying to take it one day at a time.

Other than all that, things are going well. I'm sleeping better and I'm eating well and I'm feeling Luke move all the time. Sometimes in the evening I like to lay on the couch and stare at my belly. When Luke bounces around you can see my belly moving back and forth. It's very surreal and it just makes me wonder what this little guy looks like. I'll find out soon enough.

The pregnancy has been going along very well. Pretty uneventful lately. It's getting a little harder to sleep, mainly because I wake up with pain in my lower back and I almost need a guardrail to roll over. Some nights I sleep on the couch and that seems to help a bit.

I have to go in for a glucose tolerance test soon. I also need to check and see what Mike's blood type is to find out if I need a Rhogam shot. I am a negative blood type so they said I may need that to make sure my blood doesn't interfere with the baby's blood.

Just in the past two weeks I've been experiencing heart palpitations with shortness of breath. It usually happens when I'm sitting down watching tv or knitting. Today it happened at work and lasted for about 45 minutes. It's rather uncomfortable and a bit scary. I told the doctor about it last week and he said to keep a log of when it happens and how long it lasts. If it persists he may have my heart checked out just to be sure there is nothing wrong. From what I read on the internet it sounds like it's a fairly common thing among pregnant women.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time starting at my belly, watching Luke kick. Sometimes it's easier to see than it is to feel. Mike has felt him kick a few times now. Last night we tried out the heart monitor Kari loaned to us and Mike was able to find the heartbeat. That was pretty neat. Just checking to make sure you're still in there, Luke! He has been very active today. Sometimes the kicking is so strong it distracts me from my work. I love it.

I have heard many women say how much they loved being pregnant. I don't mind it, but its just a lot of waiting. I talk to Luke on occasion but its just not the same as face to face conversation. It will be nice to eventually put a face to the name!

It's a BOY! Now I'm not sure how they can tell from the ultrasound, because it just looks like a bunch of nonsense to me, but they look at these things all day so they should know. We are thrilled. Mike was secretly hoping for a boy so this is huge for him. I didn't have a preference, so I'm still just as excited as before. I am happy for Mike that he'll have a son to carry on his family name. He is an only child so all hopes are pinned on him :)

All else is going well. The baby is developing well and mommy is healthy too. We've been taking pictures of my expanding belly every four weeks so I posted what we have so far in my photo album. I have a feeling I'm going to get very big!