28 weeks pregnant - Mitch's 34th birthday and Midwife Appointment

So I am 28 weeks pregnant. I have kept to my goal this week of working out at least 3 times and I think it has become easier and easier. I find that my cardio has greatly improved in the last couple weeks since I have have increased my workouts which is great. The only exercise that I have tried and I have found that I can't do right now is push-ups. I tried one push-up from my knees the other day and I felt pain in my stomach so I stopped right away. Everything else seems fine as long as I use a lower weight.

This past weekend was Mitch's 34th birthday. We celebrated just the two of us a couple weeks ago when we went to the baseball game in Toronto so this past weekend we had a family dinner for his birthday at our house. I made some homemade meatballs, fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, a ravioli appetizer, and people brought salad and garlic bread. I also made this basketball cake that I found on Pinterest. It was the first time I ever baked a cake believe it or not. I just made a marble cake with vanilla icing and then decorated like a basketball using Reese's Pieces. I think it turned out ok for my first attempt. It took a bit longer than I expected to decorate it and I ended up buying way too much Reese's Pieces. I bought $20 worth in bulk at the grocery store because I knew I needed a lot of the brown and orange and I wasn't about to sift through all the yellow that I wouldn't need. 

The ravioli appetizer was also something I found on Pinterest but it didn't turn out great. You were supposed to bake the fresh ravioli and serve it with marinara sauce but I found that they didn't really get crispy enough. I won't make that recipe again. Overall, I think his birthday dinner turned out pretty well. I will post a pic of my cake below:

There was a day or so last week where I didn't feel the baby move which was freaking me out. I looked on forums on babycenter.ca to see if anyone else experienced this. Apparently it was quite normal but I was still a bit freaked out. I tried the "drinking juice" trick and I still didn't feel the baby move. Anyway, the day after and since then I have been feeling the baby move quite a bit so I am feeling better now.

I had my midwife appointment today and everything seemed to be great and right on track. I got my requisition for the glucose test which I plan to have next week. I have decided that I am going to take the glucose test. We discussed it more today and she brought up a valid point. She explained that those that have gestational diabetes may be at a higher risk to develop diabetes later on and if this is discovered during the routine glucose test in pregnancy, your family doctor can test for it earlier and in turn treat it earlier. 

We also discussed the option of the birth centre and she explained that she needs to send in the paper work at 36 weeks to register there but we can decide during labour if we would prefer to go to the birth centre or the hospital depending on how the labour is going. As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, we are already registered at the civic but I want to have the option to deliver at the birth centre so I plan to register there as well. 

My midwife also checked my blood pressure and listened to the heartbeat on the doppler which was 150 today. That is a lot higher than before. Usually it is in the 130's but she explained if the baby was just pretty active, then his heart rate would be higher. Also when she was feeling my belly to see the baby's position, she mentioned that I was having a Braxton Hicks contraction but I couldn't really feel it. She explained it as a feeling like the baby is pushing outwards and the belly tightening. Now that she pointed it out, I felt like I had a lot of them tonight. I googled it and as long as it is not more than 4-6 an hour, then it is normal. I just thought it was really weird that she noticed me having the Braxton Hicks contraction and I didn't really notice it. My next appointment is in 2 weeks. Starting now, I will be seeing my midwife every 2 weeks until 36 weeks and then it will be once per week.

As far as new baby purchases go, I haven't really bought much this week. I bought a Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes book which I think will be a classic. It is a nice hardcover book. I also registered for a few books at Chapters. It never occured to me to put books on my registry but there are some really nice ones that are relatively cheap so hopefully I get some at my shower. I think the book was my only baby purchase this week.

28 Week belly (waist) measurement: 36.5 inches
28 week weigh in: N/A (still haven't weighed myself)