38 Weeks

It's Thanksgiving - a fun day to turn 38 weeks! While I haven't managed to climb the stairs and change into the picture clothing yet, I did take this picture of my belly for the holiday and week:

We're spending the holiday getting stuff done and relaxing on the sofa. We tackled most of the kitchen, figured out the problems with our heating system, and straightened up the front rooms a bit. We got a lot to do, since tomorrow we get our Christmas tree!!! I'm so excited for that tree! Unfortunately, I've been super sleepy today too.

Katie and I managed to make cookies today finally. I've been planning on doing it for days, but exhaustion always got to me. She had a lot of fun helping me make them! Since there's no way I wanted to roll out each and every cookie, I made them into cookie bars, which she enjoys better anyway.

It's a bit odd to have our first ever Thanksgiving at home with no outside family, but it's been nice too. I'm actually relieved, I think, to not have to go this year. Every time I think of last Thanksgiving, I think of the cake we made, proudly announcing how excited we were for Elizabeth's pregnancy. It makes me struggle still, not having her here and preparing for her brother instead. Maybe next year will be a bit easier. For this year, we're just relaxing on our own.

There's not much new with baby, he's pretty much done cooking at this point and just continuing to fatten up. I'm thinking he's at the 7 lb mark or more now, and probably around 21 inches. He feels like he's about to break my water every day now, he's so rambunctious and low. I'm getting really eager to meet him!

37w, 6d

Another weekly appointment down! This time I finally met the new midwife Miri, though chances of getting her in labor are very slim since she's also 9 months pregnant and due any time now.

I was supposed to get all of my "fun" appointments set up today, which I was really interested about, but they forgot by the end and didn't get them scheduled. These are the NST appointments, the ultrasound to check fluid appointments, the induction appointments, etc - all for when you go over your due date. I am quite interested to know when they'll want to do the induction date, as two weeks after my due date is right in all the Christmas mess. Hopefully, I won't need that date anyway. I feel like this baby is going to come on his own, and not make me wait two extra weeks.

This week I measured 36/37 cms, so I'm still growing at the same rate. When she went to check him, he decided to fight back. My entire belly rippled with him kicking at her hands like crazy! He was not happy to be disturbed! He is very much so posterior still, which I knew because he's very uncomfortable. I've been doing all the suggested things I can find to flip him back around, but he's not having any of it. He's very insistent to stay the way he is.

I also learned this week that baking cupcakes is a no no - as I will eat almost every last one (I think Bill may have gotten 2-3 out of the batch!) and now I've gained 5 lbs in one week! Yeah...no more cupcakes for me (I say this as I have the oven preheated to make two batches of cookies!)

My blood pressure is still elevated (from what's normal for me) so I'm assuming it's just end of pregnancy stuff. Today is was 120/70. It's usually almost every single time 106/60.

They reviewed my birth plan and cleared it, which I knew it would clear as it's almost word for word the same one I used for Katie. This time I included information about wanting to circumcise and added in the request for Vitamin K, but besides that it's all the same.

The midwife said I still look great and ready to go at any time. After this weekend, I'm totally okay with this baby coming at any time - I'm pretty much ready to go even mentally at this point! I just want to make it into December, which I'm sure I'll make it plenty into. The EPO I'm using it working pretty well it seems, though it's really annoying to use. Walking around at the store today after the appointment, I was barely able to put one foot in front of the other from all the strong contractions gripping me. I would love to know if these are making any progress, but I'm in the dark until labor hits.

37w,5d

I learned something last night, while shoving in my sixth or so spicy jalepeno popper - I feel very ready to have this baby, until something actually feels like it's happening. Then my mind races and thinks "No, I'm a bit tired, I want to sleep!" and "it's too cold outside to have to leave the house!" I never had spicy food at the end of pregnancy before, and now I get why it can be labor inducing. I was rapidly eating the jalepenos while watching a Christmas episode of Doctor Who when suddenly the baby went insane. It actually felt like he was trying to get out, and he kept ramming his head over and over on my cervix and pushing really low. I guess he didn't appreciate the yumminess like I was. But his movements were not only very painful, but they set off alarm bells in my head that said he was going to do something labor inducing if he didn't calm down. I sadly put down my seventh popper and decided to not eat anymore. They may be something I want to stock up on in a few weeks when I feel a bit more ready, but for now I think I'll wait on the spicy stuff. He really hurt my cervix! It's still aching today and it feels like he may have dislodged parts of my mucus plug as well. While I like to play with the idea of having him very soon, there's definitely a panic that comes when I think it might be coming right now!

(with that said, the only thing I am craving right now is poppers! I really want to eat the rest of them that we have, but don't want to go through that again!)

I'm running out of time to do my belly painting ideas that I had (having a Christmas baby really puts a lot of neat ideas in your head!) so I did one today while I was supposed to be busily crocheting a hat that needs to go out this weekend (and truthfully, hours later I still haven't even started on it! My deadline of getting everything done and shipped by December 1st is obviously not going to quite happen!)

37w, 4d

Yay for fun, busy days! This weekend went by so fast that it totally shocked me to see my ticker today said 17 days! Just 2 1/2 weeks yet until that due date. It's going SO fast! I thought it would go slower, because not only am I so anticipating the baby, but Christmas too. Instead, it's going really quickly because I'm busy preparing for both. Starting on Friday, we're going to get our tree up and the house decorated and ready for Christmas.

Yesterday I was nesting pretty badly. I even ripped through all of my hospital bags AGAIN and redid them, making triple sure I have everything. I also made lists for Katie's bag, consisting of a contents list and when to use each thing, a pronunciation list to help with those words that I understand but others won't, and a favorite tv episode guide to all of her favorite shows if all else fails. Yeah, I'm preparing EVERYTHING!

I even woke up early on Saturday to go through the bedroom, which has become overloaded in laundry. I went through drawers and took out clothes we don't use, took out all the dirty laundry, cleaned out under the crib, went through our baby drawers and made the top drawer all ready for baby (newborn diapers, baby wipes, A&D ointment, Desitin, Vaseline, nipple shields, etc) and the second drawer for Katie (diapers, wipes, pull ups, her extra blankie, etc).  I gathered all the toys that Katie slips in there and took them back out. Most of the bedroom is baby ready, I just need to fix up the closet and find more places for all the clean laundry being done!

I also finally remembered to send my birth plan and directions to my house to the midwives. Since they've been asking for this for a while, it's probably a good thing to have done!

I'm getting more and more excited. I'm wondering when the dread will set back in, but for now, I'm rooting on the days going by. I think it helps to see Bill so excited too, he's like a little kid waiting for a Christmas present. It's even more exciting this time around because this time we get it, we know what's going on, we can actually visualize it instead of it feeling like a fantasy. I keep thinking about how exciting Christmas is this year - we'll have an amazing, big Christmas with a beautiful set up and we'll have a brand new baby in our arms.

36w, 6d

Had a really good appointment today!

I've been praying about the GBS test all week, afraid of what it might show. Not only is it a high false positive rate, but I wasn't prepared when I got it. I had only been taking probiotics for two days, so they weren't going to help me this time. But, luckily, I'm negative anyway. This was SUCH a huge weight off of me! Being positive would have meant an automatic hospital birth, hooked up to an IV, having antibiotics pumped in me for hours, and the baby needing testing. Instead, this was the last hurdle I needed to jump through to get my birth center birth cleared, and I did it! I looked in my chart and found where it said negative and did a happy little dance in my chair.

I also signed the papers to get my water birth, and I received an email address of the birth center so I can just email them my birth plan and home address since I don't have any printer ink - and that's not the type of thing you want your librarian to print out for you! I need it by next week, so luckily it's already to go.

My blood pressure, for the first time ever, was higher than my normal. Every single time I go, I'm always 106/60. Always. If anything, my blood pressure tends to go lower than that (and nurses tell me things like "huh, you should be dead.") This time I was 120/60 something. No idea what might have raised it, but it's just raised to a normal level so it's not a cause for concern.

On the eve of being full term and 37 weeks, I now weigh 149.5 lbs, which equals out to be 35.5 lbs gained so far. Not bad, since when I had Katie at 40w, 2d I was about 42 lbs up, so I'm right on schedule or even doing a bit better this time.  (I had also started out about 5 lbs more with her too).

As of tomorrow, I can go into labor at any time and be okay still for my birth center birth, which is exciting. What a fun milestone! Everything is all clear, I'm eager to see if I get the birth I want this time.

22 days left until my due date. 9 days left until we buy our tree and get all of our Christmas decorations out. 10 days until December. Somehow, I'm almost at the finish line already! We're going to have a brand new little life soon, just in time to celebrate the happiest of holidays. I can't wait!

36w, 5d

Today I'm EXCITED!

Yesterday, the last part of Katie's big sister package (everything that's going into her overnight bag) came. Her bag is fully ready now!

Her Mickey Mouse diaper bag has:

• Three pairs of the coziest pajamas
• about a million diapers
• two of her favorite on the go juices
• a Big Sister book I made on Shutterfly, so it's completely customized to her
• a little Pluto stuffed animal

And the other things going in are

• Her The New Baby book we read all the time about the Mommy who goes to have a baby and the big sibling who waits. I may need to add post its in it yet - Katie loves the book but we don't read the actual wording, so she's used to "our story."
• Her Blankie
• I was thinking about sticking animal crackers in there too. She'll sit there forever roaring like the lion and making elephant noises as she slowly eats them.

Besides the bag, I've gotten more Christmas stuff in the mail. I got Katie's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ornament yesterday, and today I got the Build a Bear wolf I bought a few days ago on sale for $7, as well as the little teddy bear Pluto hat I bought with it. I grabbed her extra Minnie Mouse stocking I bought her earlier in the summer and stuffed it to see if it would even fit all of her stocking stuffers! A very thick  Minnie Mouse coloring book, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book, the little Pluto hat, a Princess Minnie Mouse plush are so far in there...I don't think I'll be fitting the Nemo and Goofy plushes in there like I had planned, and hopefully I can remember to grab her some toddler crayons to fit in as well.

And oh yeah, the other reason I'm excited - I'll be full term is two days! WOW! I looked at my 37 week post from Katie and I was pretty nervous/terrified. I think it's a bit easier this time. Even though this time I know exactly what I'm getting into (OW!), I also know what comes out of it. I couldn't really grasp what it would be like to bring home our own baby. This time, I know and the excitement of getting a real baby who's been so long awaited is enough to keep me calmer about my one day of hell. Just three more weeks to go! And if that wasn't amazing enough, we have Christmas right after!

On Thursday, I'm going to start body prepping for baby. I'm going to start drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea, taking EPO, trying to do yoga again, and continuing with my Hypnobirthing techniques.

I'm also hoping to get quite a few hats knocked out by the end of this week. I did almost all of one in the last half of yesterday. Eager to finish it up (and get paid for it, as Katie's new Big Comfy Couch enjoyment is costing me more Christmas expenses!) and get on my last large order. Hopefully I can finish most of it by the end of the week!

36w, 2d

Just a short few days ago when I thought I might have Pre-E and my water might have broken, I felt fine with the idea of having the baby. I wasn't even scared. I felt excited. I was so ready to start labor and get this baby here. I just felt a sense of calm.

Yeah, that's not happening anymore. Realizing I'm going to be full term this week (37 weeks!!!!!!) is actually making me really jittery again. On my baby board, someone asked how many days do you think you have left. Well, until my due date is only 26 days left. I told Bill that any time after Thanksgiving is good for me...NOT realizing that Thanksgiving is only 12 days away. What?? Never mind! I at least have to make it into December. 12 days? I'm not ready for that!

The pain is getting worse every day. There is never a time of the day where I feel like my pelvis isn't cracking and breaking apart. My hip joints have so much relaxin in them that it feels like they're not even joined properly and my legs are all over the place because of it. The pain in my pelvis gets so bad that it brings tears to my eyes at least twice a day - and that's with me taking it extremely easy right now and not doing chores or anything.

And yet, I'm feeling okay with this now. It hurts like hell, but am I really ready to bring home a baby who will change our lives forever? Another little life to have every single day, to watch grow up and marvel at time flies? Am I ready to take this wonderful, perfect little life and change it? It'll of course be changed for the better, but it's still intimidating. It means new schedules, new ways of doing things, new lessons.

Bill is ready, but that's easy for him to be ready. If he was giving birth, I think I'd be jumping up and down saying "aren't you due yet? Don't you want to try labor today? Hurry up!"

I still have quite a few hats to make. I only have two weeks to get them all done. I'm going to have to work double time on them all just to finish them a bit later than I wanted. I've been lazy for a few days, but this week I need to get a hat done every other day to finish up in time. These are NOT easy hats. In fact, the one I'm making took me 4 days of hard work to do last time. I can't wait until they're finished though, as it'll be a huge stress relief once they're all done!

I found yarn a month ago that I SO wanted for myself. I really loved the idea of making a hat and scarf set for this winter. I picked it up again today, nearly put it in the cart, then realized "who am I kidding? I will never have time to make this before the baby comes, and when the baby comes I won't have any time even moreso!" so I put it back. The pretty Homespun purplish, soft yarn that would have been adorable with my maternity pea coat had to be shelved. Next year I may have something for myself!

And for something totally random, boredom found me finding one of my midwives on FB. Seeing their normal, outside of midwife life totally weirded me out for some reason. I left it quickly...but not before also checking out the rest of the midwives because hell, you can't just see one and not the rest. No idea why it felt so weird and strange! Luckily though, I don't feel such a bias as I did with Katie's pregnancy. I've become more comfortable with the midwives this time. Before when I only wanted the one I got with Katie, this time I wouldn't mind the others. In fact, I might even prefer one of the others now (which is good, since she seems to be working more than any of the others, so there's a good chance I could wind up with her!).

36 weeks

I'm now 36 weeks...which apparently is the "miserable pregnant woman stage" because that's exactly what I am. I'm in loads of pain, about the same amount of pain I was in during early active labor with Katie. I can barely walk because the baby is in my pelvis and is causing such huge amounts of pressure and feeling like my pelvis is going to split. My tailbone constantly aches. I've been losing my mucus plug quite a bit in the last two days. I'm SO tired. My back is killing me 24/7.

Like I said, I'm pretty miserable.

The good thing about this is that I'm no longer fearing the end. I'm so tired that I don't care, I just want it done because i know I'm going to get more tired, more pain, more miserable and the end result will still be the same.

I took pictures today of being 36 weeks, but I'm too exhausted to put them up or edit them, so they'll still be late. I just want to sleep today!

I really wish Bill didn't have to work, because all I want is someone to stay home and cuddle with me, be there to help with Katie and get me food, and just keep me company and help with the pain and watch tv with me. Bill makes me so much less miserable even during the contractions, and I'm having separation anxiety every time he leaves. I feel more secure when he's home. But of course, he can't stay home. Last time this phase hit me in second trimester with Katie, I wonder if it's here to stay until the baby is born since it came so late in pregnancy.

35w, 6d

Today was rough. The last few days I've been feeling worse and worse, and today it just seemed like if I added them all together, it looked A LOT like the list of pre-e symptoms. That combined with gushing that felt like my water had broke, I ended up keeping Bill home and going to get checked out.

What I ended up learning is because I don't have high blood pressure, they're not concerned with pre-e. They do want to make sure I get rid of my migraines in the next day or so, and to let them know if I have more gushing. So far they don't think my water broke, but there's always a chance that it could be a high leak instead of a low leak. Since I've had no problems since, I'm assuming it wasn't my water.

Apparently I'm losing a lot of my plug though, which they said is probably where the gushing and constant wet feelings are coming from. They also said it seems like my cervix is softening and changing, which would account for the mucus plug, the contractions, etc. She didn't actually check for dilation though, so I don't know if that's happening yet or not.

I got my GBS test done today, so I'll have the results at my next appointment, which I think is Monday.

Hopefully, I don't have another one of these scares again because Bill can't take off at the last minute like this again, and I definitely don't like the idea of having these kinds of scares and going without him. Actually, I don't like going without him to any baby appointment!

As of tonight, I have only a minor headache, lots of nausea, and lots of cramping/contractions with stabbing cervical pain - the last which is pretty much an every day thing at this point. Hoping tomorrow I'm able to eat a bit better and feel less yucky. Maybe if I can get rid of these symptoms, I can feel more tolerable of the rest of pregnancy. Only 29 days until my due date - yep, I'm in THE TWENTIES! WOW! How in the world did that happen? I thought 31 was big, because that's one month. But having only 20 some days left? It's a whole different level of "holy cow!"

35w,5d

There's something a bit magical about when Bill gets excited about the baby. While I've been on a verge of constant excitement/extreme nervousness, he got me to take a break from the nerves and just be excited. Last night he wanted to talk about the baby and how exciting it was that he'd be here soon and how eager he is to have another baby again. While I'm nervous about the birth and the first few weeks, it is nice to zoom back and think of the bigger picture. It's going to be so fun having another little kid in the house! I love watching Bill and Katie playing together, and Katie is such a daddy's girl. How much fun is it going to be to add another one into the play?

While I know it'll be an adjustment to get used to two kids, I'm not too worried at the moment. Katie is so easy going most of the time and always has been. She was a great baby and is a great toddler. Even if this one is a little spitfire, I'm counting on Katie to continue being my easy child until I get the hang of things. Now that we're all in the same rooms on the same floor, I think it'll be easier to do things. I've prepared as much as I think I can, so I'm definitely feeling ready to tackle this. I'm eager to have a new, snuggly baby to hold. I'm excited to have a long awaited addition to the family. I can't wait to see this dream actualized. And it's almost here! 30 days!!

Last night I felt horrible pressure above my pelvic bone. It hurt like crazy, enough where I couldn't walk. I leaned over the counter and swayed, then suddenly I felt a bunch of squiggling super low in my pelvis as the pressure stopped. I'm assuming this was baby dropping because now when he sticks his butt out, it's a bit lower. His feet never stop kicking, but they haven't gone inside my ribs since. I didn't wake up gasping at all or feeling unable to breathe last night. All signs point to him having lowered. I hope he stays there as he gets ready to go. I'm nearly ready, hopefully he is too! While I still have no hope of him coming even a day early, I wouldn't mind it. Any time after 38 or 39 weeks would totally be fine with me. It'll be an earlier birthday away from Christmas and it would get my baby here sooner, not to mention it would help with Bill's work as if his paternity leave goes into the New Year, he'll lose all of his personal days. But, I'm still guessing that his birthday will be between the 18th - 20th.

I quick grabbed a picture to make a comparison, it looks and feels lower so I'm guessing baby dropped. Dropped and head's down is a good sign at 36 weeks - now just stay there!

35w,4d

There's 31 days left to my ticker and next week, I'll be 37 weeks - FULL TERM! I feel like I've slipped back into dream land, where I can't understand that I'm actually this far, and soon this slithery little monkey that makes my belly do some crazy things will come out and be a new baby. How crazy!

I can see that it's starting to hit Bill. I mentioned that there were a few things we still needed for baby, and he said we should get them right away instead of waiting. While I was fetching things like baby washcloths (I never have enough, and since it seems like the popular method of changing a boy's diaper is to use a washcloth, I definitely need more) and nipple shields (Oh yeah, I'm gonna try a shield this time as apparently it helps with those first few weeks where you're raw and bleeding and damaged), he picked out this very soft little blue puppy that he and Katie were chatting about and said he wanted to get it for the baby. Usually he hates the baby aisles or even shopping in general, so it was sweet that he's actually looking around now and wanting things for this baby that's apparently coming REALLY soon.

Next week I'm going to put the mattress protection cover on the bed. The week after that I'm going to have Bill set up the whole car seat so it's ready to throw into the car (which I don't plan on doing until I'm in labor, so we can just put it in the trunk, just in case I need the backseat to be more "comfortable" and stretch out.) At the same time, I should probably get our big swing put together, and rewash the outfit i plan on taking him home in (as the top accidentally fell out of the basket and then I stepped on it and made it dirty, so back in the laundry it goes!)

I also finished three hat orders this week, so now I'm down to 7 more. Hopefully I can get through them all pretty quickly, I'm hoping to get at least 2-3 hats done each week. Everything needs to be shipped out by the first week of December at the very, very latest! While it's a bit stressful to be closing in on my due date while I still have orders out, it's nice to see my backup fund go up. Since Bill had no overtime this entire year (and most of last year!), we didn't get to make a baby fund like we did with Katie. We have an emergency fund that we'll dip into to cover the bills, and then we'll have my fund that I've been saving up so we can do things like eat out and by frozen dinners so Bill isn't cooking three meals a day while chasing a toddler and taking care of broken tailbone me and our circumcised baby. I don't have as much as I wanted to have, but I should get pretty close with the rest of these orders and one more month of mod money. I've gotten so used to bringing in some money each week that it's going to be a bit sad to see it all go!

Katie's overnight bag is nearly completed. I have a few outfits in there, I have the diapers I need to add to it, I have a brand new juice cup with Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck, two more juice cups with the characters on the lids like she loves, and a list of her words that she says all the time. (She often abbreviates titles of things, like Bear in the Big Blue House is just "house?" with a jiggle). I just bought her a little stuffed pluto to add to the bag, as today I was thinking of what she needs to be happy. Basically, if she has 1) a juice cup, 2) a snack that's either bananas, cookies, or chips, 3) Blues Clues and Pluto cartoons, 4) her blankie and 5) something fun to play with, she's happy all day. So I figured she'd love to carry around a little pluto, since he's her favorite thing ever right now, and he'll fit nicely into the bag. I'll just need to remember to grab her blankie that day and she'll have all she needs to have a happy little vacation while mommy is having baby.

Now I just need to get ME ready for this thing!

Milestone!

Today feels like a big milestone. I was so excited I cried. When I would remember it, it would make me happy. I don't remember this happening when it occurred with Katie, so I'm not sure what makes it SO exciting this time, but something is. Maybe it's the fact that it's a sign that baby is coming soon and it's a bit of a wake up call, like this is REALLY happening, which sometimes is still hard to believe.

I'm LACTATING!

I've been checking every time I take a shower for a few weeks now, just to see when it would happen. I sort of gave up seeing anything before the baby was born by this time, but figured eh, might as well check. And today, I was easily able to get multiple drops of colostrum out of one side! Every time I squeezed, more came out, so it wasn't just a tiny amount. I must have been leaking from last night or through the day too.

It's funny, because this happened about an hour or less from when we were at the store looking at nursing pads. I didn't get any, thinking I wouldn't need to for a bit, but of course I've been proven wrong! I'm hoping I don't leak enough to have to use them already, but right now I'm excited enough to not care.

I love that even with only one ovary, I'm still able to not only breastfeed, but to have a very large supply when breastfeeding and I'm able to get milk in so early. It seems like my body is made to feed babies, no matter what!

Almost 32 days left!!

35 Weeks

Baby appointment was finally today! We didn't get too many answers, next week will be more telling, but at least for right now we know that I'm still growing. I went from 29/30 measurements to now measuring 33/34 at 35 weeks. Much better, but as someone who's always been consistent through two pregnancies so far, they're still keeping an eye on it. An ultrasound is still on the table, next week when doing the GBS test and cervical test, they're going to see how low baby is. If he's low, they're going to say that it justifies the measurements and let it go. If the baby is high up, it means the baby might be small and they're going to look into why through ultrasound.

I can feel this baby, he's NOT small. In fact, he feels longer and bigger than Katie was, who was almost 8 lbs at birth. I have a pretty good feeling that his position is really throwing off the measurements, as instead of normal up and down babies, he's head's down but then slouches off to the side. His butt is against the bottom of my ribcage, and then his legs curl around and his feet are just under my breasts. So he's all crooked and curled up, which the midwife admitted that yes, his position is exactly that and yes, that could mess up the measurements by a few weeks. So that's what I'm going with until the next appointment. His heartrate is still fine, my blood pressure is fine, he moves constantly, everything looks great except this wonky measurement, so I'm thinking everything is fine. She was also able to tell that there is quite a bit of fluid in there, and while doing the heartrate, she poked around him and said his rising heartrate as a result meant that the placenta was still working well.

We also got very surprising, good news today. Even though pretty much everyone on my baby boards says that unless they're on government assistance insurance, circumcision isn't covered. I had Bill check with his insurance, moreso as a just in case or crossing my fingers that maybe, possibly, they'd cover it partially. Today they called back saying they do cover the whole thing! Yay! That's over $700 that we don't have to sweat over anymore, so it's a big relief. We weren't sure where that money was going to be taken from. I was so happy to hear that it's not a thing anymore. Now if I could just remember to discuss with a midwife about the details of the circumcision process (they do it differently as it'll be out of hospital, at the birth center, with a pediatrician) but last time I asked I was told I have to wait until his birth. I hate that idea, I like to prepare. I do not want to be on the phone with a list of doctors to research them and figure out which ones are available at the time, especially since it'll be right up against Christmas!

Other than that, I'm 35 weeks today! That means that a standard baby is 18+ inches, so I'm thinking he's taller than that, and weighs a little over 5 lbs. His kidneys and liver are fully developed now and are capable of working normally. All he has to do now is keep getting chunkier until the big day!

And take a look at what he's supposed to look like now. That's a big, fully formed baby in there!

Bump Pic for 35 weeks:

34w, 4d

There's been a transition this week - I've gone from panicking over how soon the end is to wanting it to be here now. It's that time in pregnancy where I feel horrible all day and night. This time around is much worse than Katie, I was grumpy last time but able to do things, not cursed with contractions and inability to breathe. This time, unless I spend the whole day laying down, I'm feeling horrible. My tailbone feels like it's ready to crack, there's SO much pressure on my pelvis, my belly is always sore because I have so many hard contractions, my cervix is killing me from random stabs that feel like a knitting needle is stabbing through it, my knees hurt from all the extra weight, and now my back aches from cramping, contractions, and the muscles being pulled so hard forward from this big belly.

Yeah, I'm feeling done. Done means I get a baby, I stop fretting, and it's closer to Christmas. Done means I can see my feet again, I can get through the pain and then have a normal body again.

Of course, this doesn't mean I actually want the baby coming anytime soon. I still need him to bake for at least four more weeks and even beyond that a bit just for comfort. But mentally, I'm cheering on the passing of each day. I want to stop dreading the end and just get done and reap my rewards. Logically, I know that this baby is probably staying put for a while after my due date and so I should stop cheering for the end because I'm going to exhaust myself, but yeah...hurry up.

I started to finally pack Katie's bag today. It makes me panicky to do it, so I've held off. It seems like she needs so much to go in it. How can I pack every piece of knowledge needed to keeping this kid happy enough to not notice mommy isn't there? I've been coming up mentally with lists of episodes of certain shows that always makes her happy. I've tried coming up with a list of "if she's crying, try these things in this order." I bought her favorite types of juice and a new pair of Minnie Mouse pajamas. I'm packing her big sister book that she loves to read. I'm going to see if I can actually put together a Shutterfly book about becoming a big sister since she gets really happy to see pictures of Mommy and Daddy when one of them isn't around, so I think it'll help.
Edit: I actually stopped writing here and holy cow did a few hours fly by quickly, but her big sister shutterfly book is now complete. I did a virtual preview read through of it with her and she really liked it and pointed out everything I knew she'd want to point out, so I'm going to order it this weekend and add it to the bag when it gets here.

Also, seeing 38 days left on my tickers just put me into shock. Knowing it's only just over a month until the baby is due is one thing, seeing the days just melt away off those tickers is another! Wow!

34w, 2d

Is there any more exciting of a sight than that of a newly wrapped pile of Christmas gifts? I spent a few hours today in my attic going through box after box of toys I've been storing the last two months or so. I'd forgotten what all I bought, but it's quite a bit more than I realized, and every single one are toys I know Katie is going to go crazy for. This is going to be a great Christmas for her, because she loves things so much. I know that she's even going to love all of Will's gifts too, because they're all in themes that she still loves (like Scout, Mickey Mouse, and Doggies). A few nights ago I bought a set of four Mickey/Minnie/Pluto wrapping paper rolls with some really cute gift bows and Mickey tags. I had to get it because I know just Katie coming down Christmas morning to see Mickey, Minnie and Pluto wrapped boxes all over is going to make her get so excited.

All the kids' gifts are now neatly wrapped up and ready. I'm waiting for Bill's gifts to arrive (should come on Monday) so I can officially be done wrapping and get that crossed off of my long, detailed Christmas list. I only have four weeks to get it all finished! I also need to order their ornaments and Katie some pjs for Christmas yet.

Baby was quiet for a while today, so to make sure he was fine I woke him up. He's giving it back to me now - he won't STOP moving, for hours he's been sticking his butt, knee and foot out of me at different times, getting the hiccups ontop of my bladder, and rolling around in there. He doesn't want to stop moving now!

I noticed today that it looks like bits of my mucus plug seems to be coming out. Maybe all of these contractions every day are actually beginning to do something. I wouldn't mind being a bit ahead of the game for when labor starts, and gives me more hope that I'll be able to do labor on my own before the time is up and without trying to self induce.