Full Term 2011!

37 Weeks, March 27-April 2, 2011

Milestones: At 37 weeks, the baby is considered full term!  No preemies here. We finished the nursery except for wall art, I put away all the washed baby clothing, and I packed the hospital bags.  Yes, plural, because on our hospital tour they told us to leave the going home clothes in the car until the last day so baby has his own little duffel suitcase for his outfit and blankets. Kevin got the car seat inspected at the maximum security Bronx station. Seriously, it had a locked gate around the facility. And right now I'm cursing the car seat straps and instruction manual as I try to figure out how to adjust it for a small teddy bear or large teddy bear playing the role of the baby.  (Don't listen in the womb, baby!) I feel like we're ready for the baby in the most superficial sense.  I'm hoping that Week 38 is all about getting REALLY ready in terms of full apartment spring cleaning and mental preparation.

37 weeks+ 4 days

We had a doctor's appointment on Thursday and the doctor seemed like she no longer thought a c-section was the way to go and suggested canceling our appointment. Here's the issue. We go to an ob/gyn practice with four doctors.  Dr. N is off lecturing somewhere and for all I know doesn't actually exist. Dr. K is an equally senior doctor with a wacky sense of humor to say the least.  He was the first doctor we saw but we've only had about three appointments with him.  Then there's Dr. C who we've had most our appointments with, and and Dr. A who we saw only last week.

So back when the baby was breach, Dr. C said to schedule a c-section. We ignored her because I was confident the baby would turn around.  Then the baby stopped being breach and Dr. K said to schedule a c-section anyway because the baby was so big. So we did. Thursday when we saw Dr. C she was wondering why we hadn't canceled the c-section appointment now that the baby was no longer breech.  She seemed enthusiastic about delivering babies as big as 12 pounds, whereas, the older Dr. K seemed decidedly unenthusiastic about delivering babies that reach 10 pounds.

Weekly Wisdom: After the doctor's appointment on Thursday, Kevin took me to get  prenatal massage. (Have I mentioned before that he is the best husband ever?) I have never had a massage before in my life (despite some gift certificates that sadly went to waste) so I don't have a point of comparison, but totally worth it. If you're pregnant, and you can at all swing it, get one.

At this point I am so heavy that I'm not sure the physical benefits lasted for very long, but two things about it were amazing. One, for the hour that I was being massaged I had a break from some of the physical discomfort of pregnancy that's been going on for at least 17 weeks. The whole massage is done on your side (I imagined a big hole for my belly so I could have my back up but it was not so) and they have the most amazing pregnancy pillow set up ever with soft L-shaped pillow on top and a super firm high square pillow for my top leg. If you haven't been pregnant then you probably can't even begin to relate to why this is awesome. Secondly, it was mood-enhancing. Afterward, I felt like I had taken happy drugs to counteract the pregnancy blues and "grumpies." Kevin benefited in intangible ways and tangible ways such as getting the remote for the rest of the evening without comment or complaint.

What I miss the most: My ankles. Some days I have some, some days, I don't.
Craving: Strawberry juice, strawberry sorbet, cherry and strawberry yogurt, burgers, (hotdogs), peanut butter and strawberry jam, tuna fish, cheese, tomatoes, and orange juice, acid-reflux be damned.
Anti-craving: None at all.

Symptoms: I am a water balloon. My little water ballon fingers ache from the swelling. I sometimes sleep on our bedroom couch now because it provides back support while I sleep and it has made my sleep so much better. When I do, Kevin says he feels like we're at camp.

Baby has his own inertia or lack thereof. This means that when I try to roll from one side to another it is a multi-step process. Say I am on my right side, I first roll on to my back and sit up a little, while I try not yell from the pressure on my lower back. My belly slowly follows. Then I roll onto my left. Finally the belly goes left. I don't even want to get into how many steps getting up involves.

Baby-size: Fat baby size.
Weight gain: Dinosaur.

Tomorrow I am 38 weeks! We are down to the final countdown! The official due date is April 17th. We have a 38-week doctor's appointment on Friday, and a 39-week appointment the following Thursday but we don't have confidence that we're going to make it to that last appointment. Kevin and I are guessing April 9th now. Let's see if we're right.