How far along?: 36 weeks
Baby Development: Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.
Had a doctor's appointment on on Friday, the 24th and am still measuring right on track. She told me if my water breaks to go to the hospital...um yeah, hope that's not for awhile yet!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I think I gained about 3 more pounds over the last two weeks. I'm guessing a lot of that is fluid as my ankles/feet are swelling quite a bit.
Gender: Everyone is having fun guessing! There was a lot of pink being worn at my shower yesterday. My friend Laura, who I had lunch with a couple of weeks ago, declared that "it's a girl". She said she wasn't sure 2 weeks ago, but is now.
Movement: Baby is still head down (yay!) and legs and feet are still moving a lot -- especially into my ribs and lungs. I taught a class at work on Thursday and found myself out of breath just talking.
Maternity Clothes: Loving dresses and skirts right now -- much easier to put on than pants. :-)
Sleep: Really tired most of the time, but sleep is still on and off good. Getting up anywhere from 2-4 times during the night...
What I miss: I still love being pregnant. Yes, I have aches and pains and moving is slower than normal, but I'll take it.
Cravings: Milk -- have to have it everyday. Fruits of all kind, cinnamon sugar toast, bread, burgers, sweets.
Aversions: No Chinese food. Bananas & peanut butter are still no-gos, though I can now eat them in things (like banana chip cake from Starbucks and scotcheroos).
Symptoms: Warm/hot most of the time, swelling in ankles/feet and hands, moving more slowly, tired, short of breath, sappy/moody, hips are sore and feel like they could give out on me when I stand up.
Best Moments this Week:
So blessed having another shower this weekend where we were very spoiled! I also had 3 great young helpers to help me open everything. Also enjoyed having everyone over to our house afterwards, even though the weather was less than desirable. I may have snuck in an hour or so of snuggle time with our God son James who was here from Minnesota.
Getting to spend time with family and friends throughout the week.
More organizing in the nursery and getting the rocking chair up there. I forgot to mention last week that Auntie C gave us a box of treasures when we visited them last weekend -- full of clothes her girls wore, as well as some of P's baby clothes.
Getting a preview of some of the photos from our maternity shoot with P's cousin -- so happy with how they turned out!
Looking forward to: Celebrating our 8th anniversary this week.
Getting the shelving built in the nursery so clothes and books can be put away.
Reaching full term -- 37 weeks!
