ok baby, your room is all ready!

I finished the nursery today, insofar as I went through the last few boxes of lovely hand-me-downs and put away all the bigger boy clothes.  I organized some things and put away the freshly washed diapers.  I only need to hang a few things on the walls and his room will be ready!  Not that he'll be using it at first.  We're going to keep him in our room for a while.  I'm not sure how long though.

I had my 39 week doctor's appointment yesterday and saw the final doctor in the practice that I hadn't met.  She seemed alright.  She was friendly enough and knowledgeable, though she kept me waiting in the exam room for an hour and 20 minutes with no pants on, sweltering. There is only one doctor at my practice that I don't really care for.  I'm hoping she's not the one on call when I go into labor!  Everything is checking out ok and Ted's weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz as of now.  I was relieved to hear that, even though I know they're not always incredibly accurate.

the crib set I ordered off amazon and took 3 months to get here!

I got a few more ultrasound pictures,which I'm not posting because as he gets bigger and more squished, the pictures get worse and worse.  His eyes are open in this one and with the 3D imaging they look like empty, vacant holes.  Creepy.  He does have very smushy cheeks though!

So the stage is set.  We're only waiting on the main character to arrive!

"He's gonna be a big boy!" :-/

a little late at 38 weeks

So here we are at 39 weeks!  Only one week until my due date and 1.5 weeks until they take him if he continues to be stubborn and won't come on his own.  (With the gestational diabetes they won't let me get to 41 or 42 weeks like people with normal pregnancies.)  I'd like to avoid an induction for the simple fact that there is a much higher chance of having a C-section at the end of it.  It would be ideal if he decided to come on his own.  Maybe tomorrow after my last day of work?  Are you listening, kid?

Yes, I am starting my leave a teeny bit early.  My doctor thinks I'll go before my due date which is any day now.  I also like the thought of having a concrete leave date instead of leaving it up in the air.  I have plenty of things to do before he comes, so having a few extra days or a week to do things will be nice.

I'm still having contractions - some that hurt and some that are just tight and uncomfortable, but not painful.  The problem is they never get regular, thus they never go anywhere.  I have an ultrasound on Tuesday, so we'll see how big he's gotten.  The prenatal nurse on the phone freaked me out a little this past week when I told her that he was 6.2 pounds at 35 weeks.  She goes, "Oh, he's gonna be a big boy!"  Hmmm.  Not very reassuring, I'd say.

if you don't want to hear me complain, for heaven's sake don't read this

This cute picture negates all my complaining.

As I'm sure all women who've been pregnant can tell you, the ninth month of pregnancy is no joke.  In fact, though everyone thinks that pregnancy lasts only nine months, they're in fact, wrong.  It's actually 40 weeks which if you go by the average 4 weeks per month, adds up to ten months.  If you're super lucky, you'll go over 40 weeks!  I'm not sure about this, but I think I've been pregnant for at least 15 months.  It could be as much as two years.  My baby may have the same gestational period of an elephant baby, which is about 669 days.  What I wouldn't give to be pregnant like a dog whose gestational period is 63 days.  Think about that.  Two months pregnant and BAM.  Baby.  Of course with a dog, it'd be babies, probably 12 or so.  I don't know about all that.

I still have so much to do and absolutely zero energy to do it.  I have two loads of laundry to wash and dry and an additional two to put away from last weekend.  I have to organize the baby's room with all the wonderful gifts we received from the baby showers.  I should take a stab at cleaning, but who am I kidding?

In addition to this, I just feel bad.  I know two weeks ago Ted was 6.2 pounds and with the average weight gain of 0.5 pounds per week, he should weigh in around 7 pounds at this point.  I'm not sure this is accurate.  He must be at least 25 pounds.  I can't bend over because his butt (I assume, since he's appropriately head down) presses into my ribs.  His head turns on my bladder.  He feels very heavy.  Also, I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks now - well for a long time, but in the past few weeks they hurt!  Every time they start I wonder if this time is it.  And every time it isn't.  I go to sleep with a heating pad stuffed into my pajama bottoms.

I'm sure none of this is news to women who've done this - for many, many lifetimes women have done this.  And multiple times each!  I'm also sure that being pregnant and dealing with older children must be an absolute treat because they can't be ignored until you feel like dealing with them like I can with cleaning the kitchen.

Also, I have to add in here that Eddie does help me and offer to help me a lot.  I'm not doing everything alone.  He has been very understanding of my physical discomfort and always asks, "What can I do?"  He also lined the mattress with an old shower curtain and some towels yesterday morning when I was timing contractions while lying in bed.  Protect the new mattress at all costs! 

That's my rant for now.  Stay tuned...

36 weeks and getting closer...

I don't have a whole lot to add since it's been less than a week (I think) since my last post.  I had a doctor visit today that went well.  I did have crazy cramps (Braxton Hicks contractions it ended up being) on Saturday night.  It went on for about 3 hours and I thought, this is it... but alas... it wasn't.  Our magical pasta salad seemed to cure me - I ate some for dinner and the cramping stopped.  I'll have to keep a supply of magic pasta salad until at least the end of this week when it will be ok for me to go into labor.  Not only will I be 37 weeks and term, (not FULL term, just term) but my mom will have returned from her vacation and I'll have had my last baby shower.  Then it will be ok.  Doc said today that, really, anytime is ok at this point, which is pretty cool. 

36 weeks

26 weeks

 Hmmm... when I put those side by side, I feel like I haven't grown that much.  At 26 weeks, Ted weighed 2.8 pounds.  At 35 weeks he was 6.2 pounds.  Where is he?

five more things

I will be 36 weeks on Saturday, and on Monday I went to the doctor for the first of my weekly appointments.  The baby weighs in at 6.2 pounds, which is a pretty healthy weight I think!  At first I thought that the weight was awesome, then I started thinking what if I go to 40 weeks and how much would he weigh then?  So I freaked out and asked the doctor if I was on track for a huge baby and she said no, no.  Maybe 7.5 or 8 pounds.  That's a relief... 

More observations/experiences have arisen:

1. I couldn't reach the floor today at work when I crushed something under my foot and wanted to see what it was.  I had to grunt in order to get down there and see that I crushed a nothing piece of plastic that looked like a noodle. 
2. Certain positions while lying down preclude breathing, so I have to choose between sleeping and breathing.  (Not that I do a lot of sleeping, what with all the bathroom visits - 4 between 12am and 6am)
3. I tried to squeeze into a closet at work and ended up scraping my belly on the door latch. 
4. I realized I actually can sleep on my side (I'm an always stomach sleeper), but it hurts my hips so much that I often end up on my back, which causes me to snore and wake up, where I then turn to my side, which makes my hips hurt...
5. The baby kicking me is never annoying and I think I am going to miss it when he's out in the world.