Today I am...34 weeks pregnant.

Getting closer and closer but, with the holidays here, it’s been a welcome distraction. We spent Christmas in LA for the first time and it was nice to celebrate, just the two of us. I suppose it’s probably our first and last quiet Christmas. I’m told by the powers-that-be that fill my email inbox every week that I should be doing my birth plan. Now, I’m generally a type A, organized nut, but writing out a birth plan just seems silly. No one has any idea how their body is going to react or what it’s going to be like so how am I qualified to write out a birth plan? It’s like saying that I’m going snorkeling in South Africa and, while I’ve never been snorkeling or to South Africa, I’d like to tell you all how it’s going to be. Of course not. I leave it up to the professionals. My tour guides. My nurses and doctor. Sure, I don’t want a c-section but, as my doctor said when I told her that, yes, of course. No one wants a c-section. I suppose I could type that out but it would be a short birth plan.

And now for the stats:

How far along: 34 weeks

Baby Development: Baby is apparently filling out and getting rounder. He weighs as much as a cantaloupe which explains my tiredness.

Baby Movement: Very pronounced and big kicks.

Water Intake: Hey, it’s the holidays. Aren’t we on a break?

Best Moment of the Week: Having John home all week and watching “Christmas Vacation” with him in honor of the holiday.

Current baby/pregnancy worry: Starting to seriously worry about actually delivering this baby. I hear it’s kind of painful.

Symptoms: My hands and finger joints are starting to ache and become all mushy. I feel like I couldn’t grab onto something really tightly. My wedding ring is getting very tight.

Sleep Quality: I’ve had better. But I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse.

Food Cravings: Everything

What I miss: Working out. Ha! Just kidding.

What I’m Looking Forward to: Being able to one day turn over in bed like a normal person.

Trying to get done before baby: Hanging some wall décor in our house that we’re been procrastinating on for 2 years.

John's POV: “LA at Christmas time is about relaxing as it can get for a city that routinely gets my bile boiling and turns my knuckles white. Definitely a holiday we’ll always remember, since we had never truly spent one alone with just each other, and probably won’t again for a long, long time.”

Today I am...33 weeks pregnant.

This week was my first week not working and it was glorious. I didn’t realize how hard it had been getting to work all those hours. But it was nice to take it easy and be able to put my feet up for part of the day. Being off work means that my house projects begin and there are many of them. Right now it feels like there is a lot of time before baby comes but I’m not so sure.

We had our childbirth class at Cedars Sinai this week. About 12 couples with pillows and mats watching childbirth videos and hearing in detail all the things that will go on during labor. I think I knew most of the info presented but it was helpful to John. There were a lot of breathing exercises where the instructor would say “okay, a contraction is starting, now breathe through the pain.” Guess what my reaction was in the 2 minutes of silence that followed? Yeah, giggling and stifling laughter. I felt pretty bad but, come on. Of course I can breathe calmly while sitting in a warm room, fully clothed, in zero pain. How do I know how I’m going to react when I’m in the worst pain of my life? Oh well. That’s why yoga and meditation is not for me.

But the highlight of this past week was welcoming our new niece Sophia! John’s sister may have been around the globe in Berlin, but we were certainly thinking of her as we got word that her water had broken. Sounds like Joelle handled her natural childbirth like a champ and her baby girl is beautiful. Can’t wait for the cousins to be so close in age and play together.

And now for the stats:

How far along: 33 weeks

Baby Development: As big as a pineapple and losing that wrinkly alien look. (So they say).

Baby Movement: Pretty sure the little guy is doing somersaults and acrobatics.

Water Intake: Does eggnog count?

Best Moment of the Week: Meeting our new little niece Sophia over Skype!

Current baby/pregnancy worry: the latest terrible website I saw was about SIDS so that’s on my mind.

Symptoms: Heartburn. No, seriously. The worst heartburn of all time. So bad that I woke up practically choking on my own acidic vomit-type stuff. It is by far the worst pregnancy symptom I’ve had all these months.

Sleep Quality: Pretty crappy. I wish I could sleep on my back!

Food Cravings: Prime Rib

What I miss: Not having to chug Maalox once a night.

What I’m Looking Forward to: Christmas day and exchanging presents with John!!

Trying to get done before baby: Hanging the alphabet cards in the baby’s nursery.

John's POV: “Joelle was always the looker of the family. I mean, I wasn’t voted Prom King. I wasn’t even nominated. But you can already see even at 2 days that Sophia’s going to get the Prom Queen’s good looks. She is adorable.”

Today I am...32 weeks pregnant.

This past week was huge! Probably my busiest week yet. It started off with a birthday party for my one-year-old nephew, Johnny. He is easily the cutest baby I have ever seen (and I say when I think a baby is ugly so this is no lie). Unfortunately, that means our little guy is in for a rough ride when taking pictures side by side with Johnny, but he’ll have to learn to cope. He certainly won’t be a blonde haired, blue eyed, Gerber baby. Then that same night we had Christmas party to attend. I managed to stay up until 11:30 or so but when I got home I was in for a rude awakening. I took off my high-heeled boots which had felt tight all day (after 14 hours in them) and found someone else’s legs attached to my waist. I mean, they must have been my legs but my calves were as big as my torso and my ankles were non-existent. I have never seen such a thing. As I stood in the bathroom and freaked out, John assured me that it was only because I was on my feet all day and this wasn’t going to last the duration of my pregnancy. I was skeptical. I mean, what in the hell did he know? How many times had he been pregnant? But, following his advice, I got into bed, and hoped to find a different pair of legs in the morning. And what do you know? Voila. In the morning my legs were back. Granted, they were nothing to write home about in the first place but I was happy to have them. The next day was my San Diego baby shower and it was a ton of fun. Friends, family, and presents galore!

Today was my last day at work and it happy and a little bittersweet. I am happy to not have to get up at 5am, not get home at 9:30pm, not get out of breath every time I trek to set. But the goodbyes were hard because it’s hard to leave a movie before it’s finished. Hard to go home knowing they’ll be there for the next 5 months, finishing the movie. But I did get a lot of nice things said to me and a few gifts which were appreciated.

Enough about that, on to the stats:

How far along: 32 weeks

Baby Development: Baby is a large jicama (?) and starting to gain weight fast.

Baby Movement: Bigger movements rather than small kicks and jabs.

Water Intake: Decent. But going to work in 40 degree weather is putting a damper on my iced water intake.

Best Moment of the Week: Saying goodbye to my long work commute.

Current baby/pregnancy worry: post-partum recovery and the terrible things your body goes through.

Symptoms: More of the same. Achiness, heartburn, uncomfortable.

Sleep Quality: Ahh, I remember when sleep was quality.

Food Cravings: Breakfast burritos

What I miss: Being able to walk at a normal adult pace, rather than a mosey.

What I’m Looking Forward to: Sleeping in next week!

Trying to get done before baby: Putting up the pretty wall decals in the nursery.

John's POV: “The mosey is the standard pace of my dad. It is a slow-down-and-take-it-all-in pace. And it’s the only pace that Lisa can do in the morning. At night, she operates at roughly a double-mosey. The reward of getting home, getting into PJs, and getting off her feet is what helps her take it to the next gear. We did a lot of moseying at the studio since it’s a long-ass walk from the parking garage, and part of me will miss it. We got really lucky with our jobs for this pregnancy. Surrounded by lovely people, able to steal away for a mid-day visit, commuting through unbearable traffic together, moseying together. Hopefully we haven’t been spoiled by it.”

San Diego Baby Shower

This past weekend my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law threw me an amazing baby shower in San Diego. It looked totally professional and so put together! Not surprising since all of them are so talented. It was a storybook theme which lent itself to amazing decorations.

The food was delicious and presented so beautifully. There were wraps, a giant salad, and individual little pots of tomato soups.

The topper was definitely the beautiful cookies hand-made by my sister-in-law Kelly. Wow. I mean, can you believe she made these?!

I got some amazing baby gear, handmade onesies, and more books than the lil' trickster will ever be able to read. Thanks for my family for such an awesome event!

Today I am...31 weeks pregnant.

Ahh, week 31. A pretty tough week because of work. It was our first week of shooting on this little superhero movie and it was a long one. Shooting means up before 5 for the hour-long commute and not getting home until 9:30 or so. And that’s me leaving early because I’m the “poor pregnant woman”. I feel a little silly walking around set with a giant belly but no one really seems to mind. Or really take notice. Not sure if it’s because of the long hours (I guess I don’t need an MD to see that) but I am the most tired I’ve been so far. Absolutely exhausted when I get home.

This past weekend we got a Christmas tree and decorated the whole house for the holiday. It is one of my favorite things to do because I love this time of year!

And now, for the stats:

How far along: 31 weeks

Baby Development: The lil’ guy is apparently as big as a bag of oranges and can now suck his thumb.

Baby Movement: Lots of moving and he seems to get the hiccups a lot. That’s funny.

Water Intake: Not bad. Not good. Maybe 8 glasses a day?

Best Moment of the Week: Having my amazing husband put up the Christmas lights and the Christmas tree.

Current baby/pregnancy worry: Those first few weeks after birth. Okay, first few months. Sounds like we’re in for a rough ride.

Symptoms: Tired, sleepy, achy.

Sleep Quality: I’m trying not to disturb John’s sleep too much with all of my tossing and turning.

Food Cravings: Pasta and red sauce (which leads to heartburn!)

What I miss: Staying up past 10pm. Although, let’s be honest, I was always in bed by 11 pre-pregnancy.

What I’m Looking Forward to: San Diego baby shower coming up.

Trying to get done before baby: all of my Christmas shopping.

John's POV: “We had some friends over to help trim the tree/give Lisa a pat on the butt for aging. After everyone left I gave Lisa one last gift, an ornament with the name we’ve picked out for the trickster. No one else got to see it, and we put it in the back somewhere just in case company came a’callin’. I love the name we’ve picked out, but I’ve started warning people that despite the suspense we’re building by delaying the unveiling, it’s going to be an underwhelming reveal. This is where the parental narcissism that every expecting couple goes through clouds your judgment. No one’s gonna really get blown away by a child’s name. We’ve not invented a new way to combine consonants and we’re not using an umlaut. But expecting parents do sort of feel that way. And who’s to say they shouldn’t? It means a lot to us. And probably holding onto the info a little bit longer makes it even a little more precious. Forgive us. And do us the favor of feigning wonderment when we send you a text at 2am after 36 hours of labor with the reveal. Thanks.”

Today I am...30 weeks pregnant.

A big week for the Trickster household. I turned 32 years old and John and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary. (10 years of dating, not marriage.) Ten years is a long time. A LONG time and a lot has happened. I’ve certainly changed since he met me at age 21. And now I’m 32. Might be considered old in some towns to start a family but, luckily, in LA, and especially in the film business, everyone is acting like I am shockingly young to be pregnant. It’s nice never to have felt any pressure. That being said, talk to me in 13 years when we’ve got a teenager and I’m in my mid-40s and exhausted and wishing I was younger. But, truly, I am glad this is happening now. John and I got to do a lot of amazing things and take a lot of fantastic trips. And I can’t wait to be a parent with him and see him become a father.

Enough of the mushy stuff, here are this week’s stats:

How far along: 30 weeks

Baby Development: It’s getting a little crowded in there but I think he still has room for kicking and rolling. Especially since he’s kicking me in all my internal organs.

Baby Movement: Plenty.

Water Intake: I’m trying. Straws definitely help.

Best Moment of the Week: Having my father-in-law and husband build the little one’s crib. It looks great and I’m so glad they got to do it together.

Current baby/pregnancy worry: Just a general worry about his health, from newborn on up to about 4 years.

Symptoms: More heartburn and so many aches and pains. Maybe from sitting in my office chair for too many hours.

Sleep Quality: It’s okay. Getting up about once a night.

Food Cravings: my homemade turkey chili

What I miss: Nothing. It was a great week with family.

What I’m Looking Forward to: The holidays...a nice quiet Christmas at home.

Trying to get done before baby: Clean out the garage so it’s actually usable.

John's POV: “With us working most of the time and leaving my parents to their own devices, it was tough to keep the old man from assembling every piece of nursery furniture that was in a holding pattern in the garage. I was lucky he waited for me. And it definitely meant more getting to assemble it with him. As far as Lisa’s birthday, I got her a lovely assortment of gifts, but what she got me in return was the best: for our 'anniversary', (dating, not marriage) she framed the 'Songs: Ohia' poster I took off the wall at Spaceland during our first date. I don’t know how I held onto it as long as I did, but it was a lovely token of the distance we’ve come to where we are now.”