Building the baby belly, week by week

by Angela on June 26, 2013 · 7 comments

Whooo-hooozzzzzzzz.

That’s the sound of me rounding into the home stretch of pregnancy — excited but exhausted. Friends, I’m at 36 weeks now and Baby Girl’s still inside! High five! Now I have to lie down.

In order to avoid another premature birth plus theatrics during labor and delivery (as comical as that was for Max’s baby book clippings), I have been getting progesterone shots in my derrière weekly and so many ultrasounds that I could wallpaper my bedroom with the printouts of my kickin’ fetus. I did a hearty fist-pump when I heard my doc say “Your cervix is like a fortress,” as we want Baby Girl locked in as long as possible. So all this would be difficult enough to navigate, but factor in our nomadic lifetstyle, and guess what?

Traveling while considered high-risk pregnant + Wrangling a toddler +
Figuring out prenatal care in eight different tour cities = cray-cray²

But we Hollicks have always taken the road less traveled, especially if that road involves 10+ hour car trips between tour cities, visits to the ER, and broken feet the night before getting on a plane (you think I kid, but check out our photos of Week #32 below). Cray-zee.

It feels like I’ve been carrying Baby Girl around for ages as I look back at all the cities that I’ve been, well, pregnant in. You can see the evolution of the bump in the photos below.  It all started in Jamaica, for my best friend’s wedding last November. Literally. Full disclosure — that’s where Baby Girl was made.  🙂

Photo by Selena Moshell Photography.

Photo by Selena Moshell Photography.

At 26 weeks, I had a minor scare when I thought I felt early contractions. We went to the Menasha ER in Wisconsin, and they checked us into the Birthing Center, where a series of tests were done. Turns out I was cramping from a bacterial infection, and antibiotics were prescribed. Below, I’m hooked up to a fetal heartbeat monitor.

Photo by Selena Moshell Photography.

At 32 weeks, I broke my foot. Our last night in Nashville was a doozy in the Vanderbilt ER (infinite thanks to our dear friend Mark Kaplan for keeping me sane the whole time).  I had to get on a plane to fly to my in-laws in Pennsylvania the next morning with a big boot, crutches, my unwieldy belly, and Max. But we did it.

Hershey, Pennsylvania is my final preganacy destination! My father-in-law Mike Sr. (I call him BM for Big Mike) and step-mom-in-law Jan have graciously agreed to host Max and I for the summer in their rustic, restored log cabin in the countryside of Annville, PA. Mike will try to arrive by labor & delivery (whenever that may be in July), but I have to be prepared for the possibility he may not make it back in time from either Tulsa, OK or Cleveland.  🙁

On my first visit to the high-risk OB/GYN at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, I was “downgraded” to intermediate-risk after they reviewed my prenatal records from the past, oh, seven cities.

Baby Girl is due July 26th. Does anyone wanna wager on whether she’s early or late?

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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

ANGELIQUE June 27, 2013 at 8:12 am

YOU ARE ONE HOTTTT MAMA!!!!!! 🙂

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LK Fan June 27, 2013 at 9:01 am

Hi Hollicks! I am loving these photos, and I can’t wait to see more!!

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STK June 27, 2013 at 12:12 pm

Wonderful post and lovely photos of you and your bump! Cannot wait to see photos of the baby soon. Best of luck to the whole family.

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Janeen June 27, 2013 at 2:02 pm

Oh my this looks like such an adventure and it’s not quite done, in fact the best is yet to come 🙂 🙂 🙂 You look great and we wish you the best in the baby birth! xo Janeen

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Liz June 27, 2013 at 5:15 pm

Love this! You are goooooorgeous! And you’re ALMOST there … you can do it, you can do it:-) Love to M+M — XO

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steve June 27, 2013 at 8:47 pm

love the photos and narration. keep it coming, we are very excited to see what happens next!

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Danny July 22, 2013 at 10:26 am

I keep checking daily to see if there is a post about the birth yet. I’m more excited about y’all’s baby than I am the royal baby!!

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