Our Pregnancy: 37 Weeks! FULL TERM!!

8/26/13 36w1d - I am so excited to be into our 36th week, and marching closer one day at a time to what feels like a finish line of sorts - FULL TERM on Sunday, 37 weeks!! It is a huge milestone moment, especially with all of the pre-term "stuff" we've had going on.

After all of the "activity" this past week in terms of some fairly painful contractions that would be in a pattern for an hour or so (but always fizzled), loosing mucous plug, having bloody show, nausea, gassiness, and all that other lovely fun "warm up" stuff my body is doing to get ready for delivery - we are definitely in "baby watch" mode now. We got the car seat installed into the Jetta last night (well, Kenneth and Kent installed it, I was laying on the couch with an upset stomach and painful contractions and not feeling so hot). Apparently rear facing infant car seats take up a lot of space!! I didn't think about how far out they stick, and if anyone has to ride in front of the car seat, in the passenger seat, they're going to be a little cramped!! Although, after looking at a few sites, I'm thinking we should go ahead and move baby to the middle of the backseat, should make it easier for fitting... hopefully...!

Yesterday I cooked all three meals, which is a rare occurrence lately! I made Cowboy Scramble for breakfast, Martha Chicken and Mac N Cheese for lunch, and Meatloaf and baked potatoes for dinner. It was all super yummy and I was feeling good being in the kitchen and feeling productive. However, my stomach was really on edge yesterday and I wasn't able to eat a whole lot of what I cooked. Everything made my stomach hurt and set off the queasiness and nausea. I ate about 1/3 of my lunch before I had to set it aside... I ate a little more of the chicken after the initial bouts of nausea passed, but couldn't get much down without feeling like it was going to come back up. At dinner time, I was hungry, and ate my whole baked potato quickly before giving my stomach time to figure out what I'd done. Then I paid for it, for about an hour afterwards... sigh... I have to stick with small amounts of food at any given time and just be "gentle" - although so far today it isn't feeling quite as sensitive as it was yesterday (knock on something).

8/27/13 36w2d - I woke up feeling really excited to have made it into another day with baby still on board! Yes, I'm getting uncomfy, cranky, tired, and anxious to know "when", but I'm so happy to have her safe inside for another day to grow and get stronger too! Only FIVE more days to full term!! Come on September!! Last night I was pretty wiped out when I walked in the door a little before 6pm. Kenneth was on a phone call, so I had Kent grab his soccer gear and we grabbed him some dinner on the way to practice. I got a sandwich and a lemonade, but wasn't feeling very hungry at that moment. We got to the soccer field on time (1st practice of the season!) and Kent was excited to get out there and see if any of his teammates from previous seasons would be on his team this time. There ended up being 3 others he knew, which was nice. I know he'll make new friends in no time, but it's always comforting to have someone familiar there with a new situation. I like his coach a lot already, and his game uniforms have been ordered and will hopefully be here in time for the first game - which is NEXT WEEKEND!! Time flies!

While he practiced, I fixed the car seat - the boys had installed it behind the passenger seat and it just didn't fit there very well, plus it is recommended to be in the middle so I relocated it which allowed the passenger seat to move back much easier. The seats still might have to be inclined forward a little for the "in and out" but it's much easier to maneuver, and I know we'll get used to it quickly (hopefully)! So car seat is officially checked off my "to-do" list and is ready for baby girl when it's time for her to come on home. After I fiddled with that, I leaned my chair all the way back and sort of dozed in the car while listening to an audio book which was relaxing... I was so sleepy!! Practice wound down a little after 7:30 and the parents huddled around to be introduced to the coach and get some general info about player uniforms, photos, and upcoming schedule. It's going to be a good season - though I keep having moments of "I'm going to be bringing a newborn with me to practices and games this time"... which never ceases to momentarily surprise me it seems.

This morning I had some more mucous plug and some looser bowel movements (I know TMI - I like to keep track of everything though!) I had a very drippy nose yesterday, and have had head congestion the last couple days too - my ears feel pretty plugged up. Not sure if these are more impending labor signs and symptoms or what, but I know I've had similar things in the week or so prior to delivery before - so I'm keeping an eye on things. We'll see how things progress! I've had a few notable contractions this morning, but nothing too frequent or too terribly painful yet. Not much appetite this morning - mostly I'm tired and would love to go home and sleep some more. We'll see how I'm feeling by the end of the day. It would be nice to get out of here a little early and go home and put my feet up. It's getting harder to want to get up each morning and get to work.

8/28/13 36w3d - one more day closer to meeting this little one! She was SUPER wiggly last night - Kent had gone to bed, and Kenneth had just gotten home from work and we were lounging on the couch and she was all over the place making my belly contort into all sorts of strange shapes!! She's not usually that active in the evenings, so that was weird, but fun to watch! I had some pretty painful cramps and contractions last night but nothing that woke me up from sleep which was good. I was up a couple times with a leg cramp and needing to pee - same old, same old. So, at this rate it looks like maybe baby really is going to stay put for another couple weeks and I will just get to deal with contractions, cramps, and all these other signs and symptoms between now and then!

I was so tired when I got home last night, and contracting a lot, so I went and laid down on the bed (it was about 6pm) and the next thing I knew it was almost 8pm and I was waking up! I totally crashed, but I needed it. I was really, really tired. I got up and ended up fixing some pork chops and sloppy joe mixture to put in the refrigerator so there would be lunch leftovers for Kenneth, and probably to heat up for dinner tonight too. I made a double batch of the sloppy joe meat, and put half of it in a Ziploc bag to add to the stash of freezer meals. Kenneth isn't a huge fan of them, but Kent and I like them, and they're good easy lunches or dinners. Tonight I just need to make some side dishes to have in the fridge to go with the leftovers. There is still some mac n cheese in there, but I think I'll fix some potatoes and or pasta salad too.

I can't believe it's really already Wednesday - just 2 more days until my next OB appointment! I'm looking forward to making sure everything still looks good with my vitals, since it will have been 3 full weeks since the last appointment. I want to make sure my belly is still measuring well and that there's no reason to consider another growth scan or NSTs at this point. Baby seems to be normally active and feels like she's growing and taking up all the space she can in there, so it feels like she's doing ok. When I'm sitting sometimes I feel like I have a foot up in my boobs or something - I have to stretch my torso out and make sure to give her enough room or else it gets pretty uncomfy! That's another reason I love sitting on a medicine ball at work - it allows my belly more room to drop down and rest instead of being stuck resting on top of my legs which pushes everything up a little. I've been getting little "swimmers" in my vision off and on today - it's kind of annoying and I am wondering if my blood pressure is on the low side this morning or something.

I had to come back and add a quick update that I did end up getting more mucous plug and bloody show this afternoon - so that makes "round 2" - 4 days since the first time I had any on Saturday... We'll see if anything changes in the next couple days or not!

8/29/13 36w4d - It's Thursday! I'm so glad it's just about Friday and time for a 3-day weekend. I'm ready! :) Kenneth and I get to enjoy a quiet weekend home together since our kiddo is heading off to spend the weekend with a good friend of ours at Dragon Con! He is SO EXCITED. I am excited about a quiet weekend home, and hopefully a date night in there with my hubby. I'm hoping for a movie and some Italian maybe on Saturday or Sunday night. I have a prenatal massage scheduled for Saturday AM which is awesome - I am so ready to relax and enjoy a little pampering!

My belly has been really tight a lot today - lots of Braxton Hicks contractions and another big piece of my mucous plug not that long ago. I'm noticing early afternoon seems to be about when it happens, pretty much every day for the past week or so now (and only once a day)! Weird, but that's how it seems to keep working out. My back and the back inside of my upper thighs are feeling sore and achy today. I think a nice soak in a tub sounds like it might be in order this evening - although we have soccer practice at 7:30pm tonight and will have to head out around 7:00pm, so there probably won't be time for that... I'll have to figure out what we're doing for a quick dinner when I get in. It would be nice to just let the boys go to practice and stay home and rest, but I don't want to miss out on time with them either.

We're looking at getting our windows on the Jetta tinted, Kenneth wants to get it done this weekend if possible, so it can be finished before baby arrives and it will help keep the sun off the baby especially while she's rear facing. We wanted to get it done anyway, but I think it's sweet he's thinking of trying to keep the bright lights out of her eyes. :)

I got the notification that the breast pump I ordered via my insurance through Edge Park is on it's way now which is awesome - I probably won't start pumping right away; unless there ends up being an issue with baby latching and I need to do bottle feeing for some reason, but am hoping to start pumping around week 2 or so, to increase my supply and build up a "stock pile" for when I go back to work. That's my plan, anyway. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow we'll probably get out of work early, due to the upcoming Holiday and I have my OB appointment at 3:00pm. I'll probably just check in early, and see whether or not they can squeeze me in any sooner than scheduled. If not, no big deal.

8/30/13 36w5d - I am very happy to be yet another day closer to that 37 week milestone! SO close now!! I was really wondering yesterday if baby was going to be making an appearance today. I had contractions all day, some of them pretty close together and by the evening some of them were pretty painful. Some as close as 5 minutes apart, then it would be 20 minutes before the next one. Definitely still "warm up" mode - but it seems to be picking up. I had another round of mucous plug in the evening, but not much. That's the first time I've seen it more than once in a day though - for whatever that's worth. I looked back to see how many days it's been going on now, the first day I lost some was 35w0d, so it's now been going on for almost a full 2 weeks! I'm not sure if sitting on the medicine ball at work since about that timeframe factors in or not - I wish I'd made a note of when I switched over to the ball instead of a chair to see if maybe there was any sort of correlation. It really is so much more comfortable for me and my back, and honestly it's easier to get out of than a chair.

Today I woke up with a very sore throat and a lot of congestion and am gassy again this morning. I've noticed one or two contractions so far. I'm looking forward to my appointment this afternoon and seeing how everything is looking!

Appointment update - totally boring appointment update. Urine and BP were fine, that was about all they checked. She did the GBS swab test and I should have those results by my next appointment (next Friday). They don't do cervical checks at this point, and I didn't really have any questions for her, so other than a longer than usual waiting time to see the doctor, I was in and out pretty fast!

8/31/13 36w6d - FULL TERM TOMORROW!! I'm so happy baby has stayed put all the way through to this fantastic milestone in our pregnancy. I went and had a fantastic prenatal massage this morning that felt wonderful and then stopped by the mall and had the chance to do some shopping and get a pretzel. :) I did my annual Bath & Body stock up! I am tired today, had more mucous plug discharge (and yesterday had more bloody show). I'm very congested today, and woke up with a painfully sore throat. I gave in and took some sudafed which helped. I was able to get some tidying up done around the house and got the artwork hung in the nursery so I was pretty happy with today! It's been a relaxing and productive day. :) I re-packed my hospital bag and Kenneth took a few belly pictures for me since I had a dress on that I liked for a change. I'm ready to put my feet up and relax for the rest of the evening - a nap would be nice, but it's already 6:30!! It's nice to have a lazy day to just do nothing. Kent is gone with our friend Sherry at Dragon Con, so the house is quiet and we're enjoying our time together. We're talking about having a date tomorrow with a movie and some dinner out which I am looking forward to!

9/1/13 37w0d - We made it! 37 weeks and officially counting down to Lindsey's arrival. She is welcome to come on out any time she's ready! We went to breakfast at IHOP this morning and have had a pretty laid back day so far. A few contractions but not many, an no mucous plug yet today. Feeling pretty tired and thankful for a long weekend to catch up. I'm going to to some baking and cooking and then not much else! I got my hospital bag repacked and have all 3 bags for the hospital lined up in the living room - Kent's gift bag, the baby bag, and my bag. We're as ready as we can be. :)


According to BabyCenter:

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (about the size of a bunch of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.


Comments

  1. Well, if she can't come on the 26th...or in August, at least she'll be a Virgo!

    Hugz&Khysses,
    Khyra and Phyll

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  2. EEEEK! I'm so excited and totally on baby watch with you!!! OMG OMG OMG! I'm guessing 9/7/13 @ 9:46AM 6lbs 12oz

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  3. Aww yay for baby guesses! :D I'm so excited to meet her when she decides to arrive - ready to see her in person after all these months!! :)

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  4. How did your doctor appointment go?

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  5. Totally boring appointment - I suppose those are the best kind? They didn't check anything (other than BP and urine) and I didn't really have any questions - so that's all 'til this Friday's next check in!

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