Baby Fred - 37 Weeks!

Date:
July 27, 2015

How far along:
37 Weeks!!

How many weeks to go: 
3 Weeks! (or less, I'm guessing!)

Baby size:
Winter Melon (WTH is that?) or a large cantaloupe
18.9-20 inches long

Baby milestones: 
She's considered "full term" now and is just in there practicing her skills of inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping and blinking. (We saw baby practicing breathing during the ultrasound last Friday!)

Maternity clothes: 
It goes like this... I wake up for work, put on one of the three maternity dresses that I have or force myself to put on pants (this only happens once a week... maaaybe twice) I go to work and sometimes put on nice shoes, but end up wearing my Nike flip flops most of the day - especially if I'm not going to see any of my superiors. I come home - If I'm wearing a dress, I might just keep it on for the evening, otherwise I change into yoga pants or my PJs and a shirt... one that may or may not cover my stomach at all times... When it's time for bed, I wear my PJ pants (most of the time - sometimes I just say 'screw the pants' altogether) and a light shirt to bed, which usually doesn't stay over my belly most of the night... wake up and repeat. 98% of my closet doesn't get worn right now. It's sad.

Stretch marks: 
Still there and multiplying...

Have you started to show yet: 
Showing it off for everyone to see! 

Belly button in or out: 
Out

Symptoms: 
Random tightening of my belly (contractions, maybe?) stronger at some times more than others... still have pain in my fingers throughout the day and it's definitely worse at night (which is what they say is common), my feet aren't normal size, but I'm still able to get them to deflate if I stay off them, which is a slight bright spot!

Movement:
Yep - she stays pretty active in there most of the time. She was pretty still for a while on Sunday which I let freak me out a little (and I made the mistake of getting Trent freaked out as well) but after laying down and eating and doing some kick counts, she was back at it. She must have just needed a little nap ;)

Labor signs:
 I don't know what you consider a "labor sign" at this point... I don't feel like there's anything, but maybe some of these Braxton Hicks are doing some good and getting us closer to meeting this baby!

Mood: 
Pretty good, I think. There's plenty I could complain about, but I hope I'm doing a pretty good job of not being a whiner! 

Sleep: 
I have a feeling that it's going to be a good 10-15 years before I'm able to have the same relationship with sleep that I did just a few months ago! I used to LOVE sleep and loved sleeping in, but it's just not the same anymore! I have troubles getting to sleep a few nights a week and have started to get a little restless leg syndrome stuff going on occasionally. And I don't like that at all! I have to get up every few hours just to turn over (which is a lot of work these days) or to go to the bathroom. And I can't really sleep in because I am pretty hungry by the time morning rolls around. And then, during the day, I get so tired at times that all I want to do is take a nap! If only I could just sleep at night and then I wouldn't have to be so tired during the day! :) Luckily we've been having some pretty low-key weekends that are good for sleeping as much as I can in the morning and then taking naps in the afternoon, if needed! So I'll just keep taking advantage of those as long as I can!

Dreams: 
Saturday night, I had a dream that I was in labor at the hospital. I don't remember much about it other than there was a big black snail there and I was trying to get it or kill it or something. And then when I told Trent about the snail, he told me that he wished it was a tan snail... Whatever that means!
When I woke up, I kept thinking/hoping that was a sign, but obviously it wasn't :)

Miss anything: 
Not having back pain, being able to fit into more clothes, and just not hurting when I'm walking around.

Gender prediction: 
I really can't change my answer now, so I'm going to stay with boy. But I can't wait to find out!

Names: 
We haven't talked about them much this week. I think we're still pretty set on first names (we might have two girl options at this point) and middle names are still to be decided, but I have my top picks for those, too.

Best moment of the week: 
The best moment of the week was probably seeing our baby one last time by ultrasound. It's pretty crazy how much the baby has grown since our 20 week ultrasound. At that time, they could get the baby's whole body on the screen and we were able to see all of her at once. Now, they aren't even really able to get the baby's whole face on the screen!
The pictures that we did get of the baby's face were pretty comical this time. Baby looked pretty grumpy!! If she's really that unhappy in there, she should just come out and be with us, I guess!! ;)

The weekend that we had was also pretty great, in my opinion. We had another nice weekend at home getting things prepared. We had a list of things we wanted to get done and I am pretty sure we got it all finished! Trent washed and sanitized all the bottles and things. I got my pump on Friday, so I washed and sanitized everything that came with that. We cleaned the bathrooms so Trent could move back into our master bath when the time came for us to have guests and we cleaned and got the guest rooms ready for company! I got pretty worn out with all the cleaning, which made for a not-so-fun day the next day, but I'll be alright!
Trent also got the car seat put in the car. It's still strange to look in my rear view mirror and see it back there! :)

We found time on Saturday to go to see Ant Man in the theater. It was a good movie! And then we went to eat at Chipotle. (I think I could eat there every day... or at least several times a week!)

Nursery Things:
I think that we're as ready as we can be in the nursery now! I got everything hung up on the walls and all the clothes that we have is washed and put away. Now we just need a baby to go with the room.
There are a few frames that are still empty because I'm either waiting to receive what I am going to put in them or because they are going to have pictures of the baby in them, but the hard part of getting them hung straight on the wall is done. Now it should be pretty easy to put whatever needs to go in the frames in there and then put them right back in their place!

Here's the book ledge wall all done:

Below is a cross stitched prayer that my mom made when my sister was a baby (she's pretty sure that's when she made it anyway!) and I can remember it hanging up in my room pretty much my whole life. I had it reframed to go in our baby's room and just got it back this weekend and hung it up right away. I love having it in the room! The frame ended up costing more than I wanted to spend, but if it stays framed and used for another 30 years or so, I'd say it was a pretty good investment!

And here's the whole wall that you see when you walk in the room: 

Looking forward to: 
Meeting our baby whenever he or she decides to join us!

Also looking forward to wrapping up our birth class on Wednesday and having weekly appointments now!

Other things: 
At our ultrasound, the tech told us that our baby was estimated to be about 9lb 6oz or so, which is crazy! That means that the baby would have grown about 4lbs since our last ultrasound 4 weeks ago. The measurements obviously aren't a fact, but it sure does get everyone all riled up! (I really don't see how the baby could have gained 4lbs in 4 weeks because that's pretty much how much I've gained in 4 weeks, so that would mean that I would have had to gain all baby... doubtful)
After the ultrasound, we had our regular appointment. Baby's heartbeat was in the high 140s and then shot up to the 150s as she was moving around! (During the ultrasound, the heartbeat was in the 130s, which is the lowest it's been the whole pregnancy!)