(39 weeks)
It's hard for me to believe this pregnancy is coming to a close. Every night I go to bed and wonder...will tonight be the night? The unknown is a crazy feeling, especially when you're trying to arrange childcare for the older two! We successfully checked off a lot of big events over the past couple weeks where my attendance was in question so I'm feeling a great sense of relief today. I stayed pregnant for our big MOPS leadership training a couple weeks back and then for the return of both sets of grandparents from Italy. I got to attend the wedding of a good friend over the weekend and watch Isla perform her role as flower girl. This morning I was able to be present to kick off the 2013-14 MOPS year which was sort of my last formal commitment other than two final shifts at work later this week. I'm feeling incredibly relaxed now, at least when Graham is home. I guess that means it's baby time or something!
I've been praying for the ability to savor these last few days and weeks as a mother of two and my prayers have really been answered. I feel like I have given the impression that I'm super anxious to get this baby out but I'm actually really quite comfortable physically, especially compared to my pregnancy with Emma. Other than trouble with insomnia, I'm really doing pretty good. Don't get me wrong though - I'm so excited to finally meet this baby and to find out the gender!! I am however, enjoying more down time than I've had in ages and investing heavily in some nesting urges which has been energizing for me.
I have had a sudden need (yes NEED!) to bake! This week alone, my kitchen (OK me) has produced pumpkin cinnamon rolls, homemade applesauce, whole wheat buttermilk biscuits, Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Nanaimo Bars and pumpkin chocolate chip bread, in addition to all my regular meal preparations. I am planning to make some coconut cherry granola bars tomorrow, am aging some bananas for some banana bread and have all the ingredients to throw together a French dark chocolate custard dessert here as well. Oh and I forgot about the rice krispie treat Fall cutouts I was planning to do with the girls...
I had a doctor appointment yesterday and he check me for the first time. I'm 2.5 cm dilated (woohoo?) and he tried to convince me that getting to 2.5-3 cm is the most difficult part but I heartily disagreed. Then he clarified that at least that's the case when you are trying to induce someone cold turkey.... Anyhow, my belly, by the tape measure is 3 cm smaller than last time around with Emma - hallelujah!! No guarantees but hopefully that means this baby is smaller! By golly, it'd better be with all the time I've invested into trying to stay fit this pregnancy!
I know you all think I'm crazy but after a brief 4 day break, I resumed my crazy pregnant lady running. Seriously, it makes me feel amazing mentally so I can't stop myself. Especially since I know it's more affordable and better for me than an anti-depressant with the gloomy weather we've been having. I made it the distance of a 5K last week but am mostly doing ~2 miles at this point. I may not be able to get my rain boots off anymore (true story), but I'm determined to keep running til this baby falls out!
I had one episode of false labor when I was just over 37 weeks. Graham was at worship practice and I was alone tending to the kids through some pretty rough contractions. Since then, I've been bringing my bags everywhere and mentally planning what on earth I will do if labor happens while Graham is at work (which is quite likely). Do I have an answer? Ha! If only it were that easy. I have many folks who are willing to step in, it'll just be a matter of finding one that is home and available to come to my rescue promptly. Stay tuned on Facebook. I may be making a public shout out when the time comes...
38 weeks
This may be of no comfort to you. My first three pregnancies I measured a cm over my week of pregnancy (went 41 weeks with two and induced with one at 40 weeks). They were all right around the same size. Then along came our precious princess. I was measuring 2-3 cm under my week of pregnancy. My midwife thought for sure I was going to have an "average" baby. I was thrilled with the idea of that. My boys ranged from 9.5-9.11. Grace was born at 41 weeks, weighing in at 10.1 lbs (my biggest) and 23 inches long. She surprised us all. Even after she was born (before being weighed) my midwife kept saying I think she is an 8lber. I knew from the birth (so much worse than the other 3) that she indeed was not smaller than her brothers.
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