Hi sweet pea!
You're 37 weeks and now FULL TERM! Yay, yay, yay! We still have up to 5 more weeks to go (our midwife practice forces babies out by week 42) but good job sticking it out sweetie pie. They say second pregnancies usually fly by, but I feel like you've been around in my belly for a long time now. It feels like it was a long time ago when we surprised Daddy with the news that you were coming and we've done so much in the past 9 months. I hope you've enjoyed your surroundings so far and please, if you can, continue to enjoy them for a few more weeks so Daddy can be done with his finals and can actually hang out with you and function. :)
Mama is still feeling really great. I've been going on my walks in the mornings when your brother goes to school and I've been surprised that I haven't had to slow down just yet since you haven't dropped and things are still comfortable. Last Thursday night I was having a lot of pressure waves, but since then I've only had a few a day and they're fine.
I'm still ravenously hungry all the time and this week I've moved on from wanting lime juice all the time to wanting Malta all the time. I try to limit myself to one Malta a day since they're not good for you or me for that matter, but it's so hard since they now carry Malta (both Malta Goya AND Malta India) at the Target in town so it's not like I have to drive 30 minutes to get it anymore. Ahh!
We're still doing our hypnobirthing practices and Daddy has now joined us. He read a relaxing hypno thing to me last night that was nice. He also read the Bubble of Peace script to me earlier this week and got through it with only 2 million stops to laugh, your Daddy is so silly. We got a hand out at last week's midwife appointment about things to do to get my body ready for birthing. I haven't done much on the list yet...I'm drinking my pregnancy tea, we've been doing a little bit of perineal massage, and I've been doing a few other prenatal exercises but that's it. I think I'll start taking evening primrose oil this week though.
We still have to work on the name thing and also the diaper situation, and I have to pack our hospital bag (was supposed to do that last week, oops!), oh and check the breast pump to make sure I have all the parts to it still, but otherwise all is looking good. We usually have our midwife appointment on Tuesdays, but I changed this week's appointment to Friday so we could meet with one of the other midwives that we have only seen once (she's my favorite!). Daddy will be in Denver at his externship with the Supreme Court so he can't make it, but your brother will be joining us for the appointment and making interesting comments, I'm sure. I can't wait to hear your little heartbeat again, it never gets old! Love you sweetie!
What Mama is looking like this week (photos taken by Mister Octavio in his room):
What you're up to this week:
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 (like a stalk 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.
