Week 36

Week 36!!!! That is so wonderful to write! Four more weeks is all that we have to go and I can’t wait!!!! We go to the doctor every week now and last week was exciting. We met Dr. Snow (the last of the doctors that we will have to meet) and after I had the fun and exiting Group B Strep test he checked me and even though I am not dilated yet I am 50% effaced! It is still early yet but that is progress in the right direction in my book!

This week our baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. B-C now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon, what ever the heck that is…) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He/she is shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered its body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected the skin during its nine-month amniotic bath. B-C will swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, that will form the contents of the first bowel movement…that is just gross!

At the end of this week, B-C will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely he/she is in a head-down position. But if it isn't, my practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax our baby into a head-down position by manipulating B-C from the outside of my belly…I am counting on each and every one of you to be praying that this will not have to happen…we want a head down, not too big baby to be ready to be born in just a few weeks…earlier is ok with me too! Also if you could throw in there that I would like a super quick, super easy labor that would be great! Thanks!

Mark and I had a awesome weekend away this past weekend. We drove over to Clearwater and stayed a couple of nights at the beach…it was great! It was so nice to have some quality time together…we slept in every morning and just did what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it. We sat by the pool, ate lots of yummy seafood, and took a long walk on the beach. It was sort of memorable for us because Clearwater Beach is where Mark and I were engaged. We even went to dinner at the same restaurant we went to on the night that Mark proposed. It was delicious!

This week is exciting because our new baby furniture finally came in and Mark went and picked it up today! All that means is we have a lot of assembling to do in the next few days but I can’t wait! I am SO ready to have our “nursery” put together. Once it is all set up I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them.

So we go to the doctor on Thursday this week. Hopefully I’ll have more “baby” news to share then. As for me, I am still not sleeping well but I am sort of getting use to it. I try starting off the night in the bed but just like last night I usually end up in the couch…poor Mark is all lonely in the bedroom but hopefully he is sleeping better without me tossing and turning all night. My belly continues to grow and B-C keeps moving like a champ. I feel like he/she is running out of room but I swear our baby is still turning flips in there. I don’t think Dr. Snow believed me when I told him last week that the baby was still turning…he said it would be pretty painful and I quickly told him that it WAS painful!!! It is so weird, I’ll all of a sudden get this sharp/intense pain/discomfort and it is hard to breathe and I’ll look down at my belly and it will look like a sideways football…B-C is definitely still turning side to side at least! It is amazing what a woman’s body can accommodate! I keep telling Mark that I wish that he could experience what all of this feels like for just five minutes and he says that he can just imagine and I tell him that no he can’t because I thought could too before I got pregnant. What I'm experiencing now is NOTHING like I imagined before…it is SO crazy but I would not trade it for the world! Four more weeks until we meet B-C…we can hardly wait!