37 Weeks...

FULL TERM! I am officially full term this week! How exciting!!! Are you going to come next week baby? Maybe 10/01/10? On Friday? Maybe before the end of the month? That would be great! Please oh please!

This week has been pretty miserable.

Here is my "poor-me" list...

- swollen, nasty, huge feet and legs. Disgusting! Painful! NOT attractive!

- stretch marks. I haven't gotten ANY yet, until this week. Since the beginning of this week they have multiplied, gotten larger, and darker. They are also sore. Bummer.

- Peeing more and more. I'm ALWAYS in the bathroom.

- Feeling dumber and dumber. It's getting ridiculous how much I can't keep track of and how much long it takes me to do anything!

- No sleep. Between peeing every 30 minutes, my body going numb at night, being huge and uncomfortable, having difficulties breathing - I am sleeping less and less. Which makes the day so much worse!

- Stuffy nose and face. I can't breathe. It's hard to sleep or eat!

- Heartburn. Just gets worse and worse. It's all day now. I'm sleeping with FOUR pillows underneath my upper body to prop me up.

I could probably go on and on. But I won't. Man, I just want to be done. I want to meet this little girl, I want to not have to worry about work worries right now, I want to get labor "over-with" so I can stop thinking of horrible "what ifs," I want my normal body back (which I know won't be for a while). I just want to be done! Please oh please baby girl. Come any day now!!

Something I loved about this week ... Jesse. He's too cute. I think he's nervous and excited - but very excited. I love this ... "Bye I love you -- both." Makes me tear up. Love it.

Our little baby girl...

She weighs 6.5 pounds and measures a little over 19 inches. Since she is "full term" her lungs are most likely mature enough to fully adjust outside the womb.

Doctor's Appointment (37 weeks)

Today I actually got in and out of there within a HALF AN HOUR! Can you believe it? Wow! Much better than the usual hour+ just to SEE the doctor!

I got checked again today to see if I was dilated. Nope, still nothing. Bummer. This time it was a lot less uncomfortable though. Still bad, but at least I knew what to expect this time! geez!

She did say the baby is in the perfect position - head down, face down/sideways, and really really low. She said she could feel her head when she did the dilation exam. Crazy, right?

BUT she said since nothings really going on down there - I should expect anything this next week. My heart sank. Please little girl - decide to come next week!

I did gain FOUR pounds in a single week though. I asked her what she thought about this, since I had been doing so great until this last month. She said this four pounds especially is all water weight. She took one look at my feet, legs, and hands and rolled her eyes. She said "don't even look at the scale - it means nothing!" I hope she is right, because now I am four pounds over my target weight. Pretty disappointing!

On a good note she checked for a certain type of bacteria that women carry "down there" - it doesn't harm us and we probably never notice ... but it could harm the baby when the baby is birthed. If I did have the bacteria I would need IV antibiotics during labor, but YAY I don't have the bacteria. One less thing to worry about! :)

The Baby Bonzo Belly!! (35 weeks)

Warning - PICTURE OVERLOAD!

We got our maternity pictures back! WoOo! They are absolutely AMAZING! I am so happy with how they turned out. Chelsea is very talented! THANKS Chelsea!

My favorite changes every time I look at them. I think I like the belly shots with our hands the best though...hmmm. What's your favorite?

36 weeks...

This week Jesse and I have seriously been thinking about names. Well we've been thinking about names since week FIFTEEN (21 weeks, 5+ months, ago!) when we found out she was a she, but haven't quite figured it out yet. It's not that we can't agree (although I like some, he doesn't - and visa versa), but we come up with a lot of names, and can't find middle names to go with them! OR we think of a name, like it for a day, then change our minds. It's getting really annoying! This little girl needs a name!! So we've really been wracking our brains and coming up with some. We have a few combinations to go with, so at least with that we can take it to the hospital and once we see her - maybe it will click? We'll see!

We've also picked our Halloween costumes! Searching for a costume that would be tiny enough for her was really difficult! Most things say 0-3 months, and they really mean 3 months. They are HUGE! So we found this "newborn" pumpkin outfit, oh-so-cute. Jesse and I will be farmers - like farmers of a pumpkin patch. :) It'll be cute. Ours will be easy, and she'll be so dang cute! We also got a onsie with "My First Halloween" to wear underneath the pumpkin outfit. I can't wait to see her in it!! How exciting!

She has been moving around a lot lately - little slow moves usually. Kind of seems like she's just adjusting herself. I'm hoping she's getting REALLY uncomfortable in there - so she'll be happy to come out a little early! :) Come on baby!

We also found her going-home outfit. Super cute! I cant wait to see her in this little dress with little dress shoes and a little headband/flower. Awww!

AND I am officially pre-registered at Mountain View Hospital for labor and delivery. At the tour we took, they said to do this so when we come in for labor all we have to do is go to the third floor, they can look up our name in the system, and then get us a room. We don't have to wait around and sign paperwork and blah blah. So it seemed like a good idea! Yay!

I feel like we are almost there - everything is pretty much in place. BUT we still have a few major things to get done in the next week (at the latest) - install car seat/car seat bases into cars, call pediatricians (man I have been putting this one off!!), and CHOOSE A NAME. So the list is short, but all very important. We'll get it done!

Oh and I have been on a crocheting/sewing thing again. I finished sewing all of her changing pad covers - YAY! I have also crocheted a ton more beanies and flowers for her. So cute! I also sewed another "rag quilt" for my friend Shayann's baby boy. I finally found the right material - I was looking forever! I lover how the colors go together. I hope she likes it! Can't wait to see her cute baby in it!! :)

Our baby girl...

Still packing on the pounds, at about an ounce a day! She weighs more than 6 pounds now and is more than 18.5 inches long! Her downy covering (tiny little hairs) are being shed as well as the vernix caseosa (the waxy substance protecting her skin from the fluid all of this time).

Doctor's Appointment (36 weeks)

I have been going every two weeks to by OB/GYN, but after this appointment it will be every week. It's getting so close!

This appointment was pretty fun (umm, I'm totally being sarcastic!) ... first, I gained what I was supposed to gain (yay, not twice as much ... like last time! Which now makes my total weight gain 30 pounds), got in and out pretty quickly (instead of the normal hour - hour and a half routine), BUT had to be checked for a bacteria (harmless to me, but if I have it - it may be harmful to the baby during delivery) AND the worse part - having to be checked if I was dilated. Could that be one of the most uncomfortable things ever? Wow. Not looking forward to labor day when this happens like every hour. Whoa. I'll be doing that all over again next week at my next appointment too. Exciting! Oh geez!

And, just for the record, I'm not dilated at all - looks like this little girl is enjoying where she's at. Dang it!

35 weeks ...

WOW - two more weeks and I can be considered "full term." I'm hoping this baby comes at 38 weeks! SO if that really does happen, I have less than a month to go! OH MY!

This week wasn't that eventful - just trying to finish a few projects for the baby, clean up and organize her room as much as possible, packed the bag for the hospital (wow, surreal!), and just getting bigger and bigger and bigger! I am so excited to meet her. It's overwhelming!

I got new shoes this week! Jesse, thankgoodness!, came along on my worse shopping experience EVER. I usually LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to shop - especially for clothes and shoes! yay! BUT definitely not when no shoe wants to fit your hugely swollen feet! yuck! I went to the mall and stopped in every old-lady type shoe place to find something that was not too tacky looking, but super comfy. I need better shoes at work, I'm hoping my feet wont be so sore! Anyway, even with going at least a size up or more AND getting the "wides" - still nothing was fitting!! It was a little ridiculous! Seriously! Finally, in the FINAL shoe store in the entire mall (about the 8th one we went into) I found Crocs. I don't think the regular Crocs are nice enough to wear to work, but I found semi-cute ballet flat ones that are the most comfy thing on the planet! They fit my swollen feet and have super comfy soles. I'm looking forward to wearing them to work and seeing how they work out! Yippy!

One super exciting thing we did this week was got our maternity pictures done! Our AMAZING friend from high school, Chelsea, took our photos. It was a lot of fun to hang out with her for a few hours, check out a brand new pretty cool place, and act cheesy taking lots of pictures! We went to the Clark County Museum, a place Jesse and I have never been to before - it's a really cool place. Lots of "run down" old things - buildings, cars, trains, homes, etc. All of these old things from when Clark County was just starting out. The backgrounds these things made were so very cool! Because we took so many pictures, and I just can't narrow my favorites down enough ... I'm making a whole post out of the maternity pictures!

Our baby girl:

This little girl isn't so little anymore and is having a harder time maneuvering now that she's over 18 inches long and 5.5 pounds! Her kidneys and fully developed now, and her liver and process some waste products now. Most of her basic physical developments are now complete, so she'll be spending the next month just putting on lots of baby fat! :)

-babycenter.com

34 weeks...

Wow. I can't believe how close I am already! When people ask me how far I am - I'm almost to the point of just saying how far I have left, instead of how far I am. I'm so excited, but also super nervous! AhhHh!

This week was my first full week back to work, so far so good. My feet hurt sooooo bad by the end of the day, but really it's not been that bad. My back and legs and everything else still feel okay, and even though I'm pretty exhausted (more than usual) at the end of the day, I still feel pretty good while I'm at work. So I think, for the most part, it's going okay. I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle being on my feet all day and dealing with 30 nine-year-olds all day ... but my class is pretty amazing and I am really going to enjoy these next few weeks I have with them before I get to be home with my baby :)

Speaking of my feet hurting though - I wish I could wear more comfortable shoes, BUT my feet decided to start swelling like crazy starting last week! I hate the look and feel of it, it's so gross, not to mention super uncomfortable! I can only wear my sandals, which have basically flat, cardboard, soles! Not the most comfortable thing to be walking around in for 8 hours! Oh well, I'll live! I'm just trying to watch the sodium (I haven't bought pickles. bummer) and drink lots and lots of water!

This week we also SOLD OUR HOUSE. Nothing really to do with the baby, but I'm excited this has happened. That means she'll be born here, but we're planning on being out of here by the beginning of December - so I'll have about a month left of my maternity to get things ready at the new place. I am so happy to be out from under this house, BUT nervous for the next step of looking for a new place to live. I'm sure it will be a much better place - more room for this little girl :)

Oh and I have to mention - I am an emotional wreck! I cry, but usually can control myself. Unfortunately, right now I definitely can not. I cry at nothing and everything! Even while I'm crying I know it's nothing and I can't stop it - I just feel sad and feel like crying. What the heck? This makes me worried about postpartum depression, which I never really even thought about before. I'm not a depressed person, so why would it happen to me? But now I realize I basically have no control over my emotions, so anything is possible! I'm hoping this goes away soon - at least after the birth. Right now I can handle it, so as long as it doesn't get worse!

Our little baby girl:

She weighs about 5 pounds now (according to the ultrasound we got) and is almost 18 inches long. She continues to put on fat - to help her regulate her body temperature once she's born. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs continue to mature as well. Luckily, if she was to be born between 34-37 weeks, although she'd be considered premature, she'd do fine with usually only a few days in the hospital (that's a relief, just in case!).