Week 37 - Baby #3

Major events: Heidi and Wells starting preschool/MDO! (It's gotten pushed back multiple times due to Hurricane Harvey so even though I have been sad to lose those precious few days to myself, I'm happy to hopefully have one or two alone days before this baby girl gets here!)

Size of baby:  Stalk of swiss chard

Sleep: Seems to be better this week... while there is still a fair amount of tossing and turning and of course getting up to pee, I'm able to somewhat go back to sleep after bathroom visits and am awake for "normal" pregnancy reasons and not because of anxiety or stress keeping me awake. Yay!

Cravings: Okay this is so weird (and not FOOD craving related)... but this intensified sense of smell has me wanting to smell "bad for you fumes" SO bad!! Like, pumping gas at the gas station... OMG that smells so good. Rubbing alcohol, nail polish, exhaust fumes... even freshly poured asphault - SMELLS. SO. GOOD!! It takes a lot for me to not kill a zillion brain cells by inhaling all of these toxic fumes! I just want to smell them all!! 

Aversions: Food haha. There's just not a lot of room in there so food rarely sounds appealing.

Movement: Yes, although less it seems

Belly button in or out? Out (mostly)

Weight gain: 35ish lbs.

Missing: Alcohol occasionally but not every day... also missing feeling comfortable and being able to stand/sit/lay/move comfortably... there really is no position that is truly comfortable at this point.

Best part of this week: 

Hardest part of this week: 

Looking forward to: 

Signs of labor: 3cm dilated. Also, LOST THE MUCUS PLUG! This is the first time that it has been THIS obvious to me (in the past I think it's been a little bit more ambiguous or just come out gradually). But there was NO doubt that that's what happened. And you bet I took a picture to make Ryan look at it when he got home! Hey - if I have to deal with it you have to too buddy! (Not really, but I definitely wanted him to see it whether he wanted to or not haha! Sorry babe!) (Also, more than happy to show anyone else who "wants" to see or is curious... but I felt like subjecting the entire internet to seeing that picture without totally signing up for it wouldn't be fair. You're welcome.) Still having lots of pressure and braxton hicks. Also, baby girl definitely dropped on or after Thursday as suddenly my old discomforts have disappeared (and replaced by new ones) but I'm much more comfortable now. Before she dropped, I literally felt like my stomach was going to EXPLODE. Every organ was being completely crushed, skin and muscles tight, hard to breathe with lots of upper chest and shoulder pain/pressure... after she dropped most of that went away. Although, I am now experiencing more pelvic pain/pressure as well as bladder and cervical pressure (the amount of movement or whatever it is that I feel ON/IN my cervix is ridiculous!! It's like shes RIGHT there [ps she is].)

Emotions: All. Over the place. A lot of this has to do with losing the plug, but I think even if that hadn't happened I would still be a little bit of a mess. I'm trapped in between really wanting to meet her and really grieving that this pregnancy is basically over. So that's a pretty normal place to be in during my last month of pregnancy (on top of just being emotional in general from hormones and feeling uncomfortable). BUT... I was (and always have) mentally preparing myself to have at least until week 39 or so before baby comes. Granted, we never TRULY know and yes, sometimes babies decide to or need to come before that... but based on my history I usually don't "plan" on baby arriving prior to week 39. I prepare myself for a baby to come sometime during week 39 or even a week or two (or three) beyond that. So when I lost the plug a little over 37.5 weeks, it really threw me off. Losing the mucus plug really does not indicate much of anything as far as when labor will start. Statistically anyway. Some women lose it weeks before birth, days, hours, during and some don't even even know. BUT the fact that I lost the plug, plus all the braxton hicks, plus this being my third baby, plus already being 3cm dilated, PLUS the fact that the last time I gave birth was a mere 18 months ago... I really just started to feel convinced that there was/is a VERY real chance that she could come any minute. But the problem is... when you're pregnant and you let yourself start thinking that way... you really psych yourself out. Getting hopeful, but trying not to get your hopes up. Then feeling excited for birth... but then feeling like maybe I'm not ready yet... it's just a giant teeter totter of emotions yall. Back and forth back and forth. As exciting as it is to know that "things are happening" and my body is getting ready sometimes I wish that plug would have never fallen out because I would still be just happily living my life and not feeling quite AS stressed out about the timing of things. I hate stressing about the timing because I truly feel that it's up to my baby, my body and God (unless of an emergency) and it isn't really up to me anyway. It's just hard when everything already seems so out of control and then it gets even MORE out of our control! 

Week 36, 37, 38 and 39

Week 36

Major events: Friday night wedding in Austin! Last run until after baby...

Size of baby: Head of romaine lettuce

Sleep: Fine,but starting to wake up to pee much more now due to MAJOR pressure...

Cravings: None

Aversions: None

Movement: Yes! So strong and painful! (Especially when he stretches me SO far sideways!)

Belly button in or out? In

Weight gain: 30 lbs.

Missing: Champagne??

Best part of this week: Getting to spend so much time with Ryan. 

Hardest part of this week: Just dealing with stress and crazy emotions. 

Looking forward to: Being done with all of the meal prep/cooking/baking and being able to focus on baby!

Emotions: Starting to feel SUPER stressed out that nothing is ready and with my hormones ramping up BIG time this week I am a wreck. I usually start the day off feeling pretty good (emotionally and physically) but by the time evening rolls around and I start getting tired and uncomfortable... that's when I start to REALLY freak out. Lots of tears have been shed over how much left there still is to do and how there just isn't enough time to do it in. I feel like a time bomb... guaranteed every night no matter what is going on, usually by 9:30 or 10 a major meltdown is occurring. 

Signs of labor: Lightening (aka baby "dropping") and feeling the need to pee every second! Lots of Braxton Hicks! Although Braxton Hicks contractions feel completely different to me than labor contractions they are still annoying as heck! 

WOWZERS SOO much has changed this week!! Week 36 started off as a normal week, but I could tell that on day 5 of this week my body started to making some BIG changes. Baby definitely dropped, which caused me to feel an enormous amount of pressure in my pelvis/bladder area. I started to feel the urge to pee ALL the time (even if nothing much comes out) and can even feel when his head rams up and down on my bladder. (On the bright side I can breathe a little bit better now and my chest cavity feels less crammed!) Heartburn has been horrible the last few days of this "week" and it pretty much makes me feel like crap all the way around.

Major events: Met with our doula for the last time! Baked a zillion breakfast items

Size of baby: Swiss chard

Sleep: Not great... just waking up multiple times every night to pee. 

Aversions: None

Movement: Things got NUTS this week yall... during my first pregnancy, Heidi was very active and there were lots of kicks and strong movements, etc. but this baby... my GOODNESS it is absolutely freaky. 

Belly button in or out? In

Weight gain: 30 lbs.

Missing: Nothing!

Best part of this week: Buying all (most) of the remaining items we need for baby, washing his clothes and starting to feel a little bit prepared for his arrival and seeing my grandma for her birthday

Hardest part of this week: Day 1 of this week I suddenly started feeling very uncomfortable. I was very crampy all day and just felt yucky. This caused us to freak out a little bit (thinking there was a chance he could come any day!) and made me stress out a LOT about not even having our bags packed. I think this day was enough to convince me to kick it into high gear... so we packed our bags and got a few more things ready. The hardest part is just not feeling ready yet...obviously he is not here yet (as of week 37 day 7) though so we're still chipping away at our to do lists. 

Looking forward to: Getting excited to meet my little buddy!

Emotions: HUGE relief finishing all of the cooking/baking, but pretty stressed after a rough day 1 of this week

Signs of labor: Crampy with lots of tightening (mostly on day 1 of this week); as of the last day of my 37th week I am officially 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced!! (Which is just NUTS to think about because with my first pregnancy after laboring at home for 8 hours I was only 2cm. I'm already farther along than I was when I walked into the hospital to deliver Heidi!) 

Week 38

Major events: Ran a 5K (what?? I had signed up for a 10K but by the time the race rolled around I decided it was just best to walk the 5K. The plan was to just jog a bit at the start and then walk the rest but I felt good enough to run it - slowly!!) 

Size of baby: Leek

Sleep: Sleep got real bad this week. The pubic pressure (and bladder pressure) makes sleeping very difficult and quite uncomfortable.

Cravings: None

Aversions: None

Movement: Yes, he is still kicking the crap out of me, but I will say that movement seems to have decreased a bit – I assume due to the fact that he has much less room in there are this point

Belly button in or out? In...ish...

Weight gain: 33 lbs.

Missing: Bending, putting pants on, etc… Every Time something slips out of my hands or starts to topple over I think to myself "Please don't fall on the floor! Please don't fall on the floor!"

Best part of this week: Going on my REAL last run (promise this time that's for real), having a fabulous day with my girl and finally reaching the week 39 point – which means we are finally at the “relax and wait” point and no longer scrambling to get a zillion things done!

Hardest part of this week: Feeling really stressed after my dr. appt...(see my next post about Week 39 Anxiety!)

Looking forward to: Having (almost) nothing to do but just sit and wait :)

Emotions: Still not feeling quite ready for this pregnancy to end, even though I am getting more and more excited to meet him and hold him! I have just been trying to enjoy each and every moment I have with my baby inside of me, but I am now feeling SO much stress after my dr. appt...

Signs of Labor: 3-4cm dilated!

Major events: Easter Sunday

Size of baby: Personal sized watermelon

Sleep: Ooooh fine. Waking up frequently just to pee but really not in any pain or anything...

Cravings: None

Aversions: None

Movement: Yes - I am SOO going to miss feeling him roll around inside of me. This pregnancy went by SO fast it's hard to think about not being pregnant anymore!

Belly button in or out? In but very flat and strange looking... it looks as though it WANTS to pop out but can't 

Weight gain: 33 lbs.

Missing: Not feeling like I have to pee every second of every day

Best part of this week: Feeling SO relieved after my dr. appt at 39 weeks 7 days. (Everything looks good and my doctor was super laid back and supportive about continuing to give baby time in there and allowing things to happen on their own. We still have plenty of time before we even start to talk about induction yay! I am feeling great and WAY less stressed.) I feel so much more "ready" now that I did even just a few days ago.

Hardest part of this week: Being so stressed!

Looking forward to: His arrival any day now...!!

Emotions: Soooo stressed this whole week (see my next post: Week 39 anxiety) 

Signs of Labor: At my appointment (39w7d) my doctor performed a "membrane sweep", which essentially is when the doctor uses his/her fingers to separate the amniotic sac from the cervix (see here or just Google "membrane strip" or "membrane sweep"). Previously, I haven't been quite sure how I felt about this being performed, but since she was already checking my dilation when she asked I thought "might as well"! (It was not painful or uncomfortable and honestly I didn't feel a thing. I am grateful that she still asked for my permission though. I have heard of doctors just doing it without asking which would make me very uncomfortable.) The reason this is done is to encourage labor to begin - it triggers the release of the hormone prostaglandin (also found in semen in case anyone was wondering - a reason why they say sex can potentially help labor begin! Prostaglandin softens the cervix.) 

Wells, we have officially made it to your due date!! I'm finally back in a place where I can just relax and wait for you to decide when you want to come. Can't wait to meet you baby boy!

Week 37

Major events:  RAN A 10K! and had a super cute baby shower at Ryan's work

Size of baby:  Stalk of swiss chard

Sleep: Slept for 4 hours straight last night.  4 WHOLE HOURS!!  It was amazing. 

Belly button in or out?  STILL IN!!!

Best part of this week:  Successfully running a 10K.  While it was the slowest pace I have ever run, I did it.  I can't tell you how great that felt, how grateful that I am to still be able to run and how proud of myself I am.  

Hardest part of this week:  Absolutely NOTHING fits me.  It's insane.  And I'm not going to go buy new stuff so I can wear it for  2 - 4 more weeks.  I'm not super stressed over this or anything, but it's a bit of a pain.  I have gone out in public with this huge gut hanging out.  Sorry people, but I just don't really care any more.  

Looking forward to:  Meeting our baby girl SO soon!!

Emotions:  Trying to enjoy these last few weeks of pregnancy, happy that I feel so great!

Signs of labor:  None yet!  However, my mom never had any signs until she actually went into labor.  I really think that this thing is gonna go down the same way as her l&d... but we'll see!