38 Weeks

At Ben's company's 10th anniversary party in my version of "cocktail attire" :)

Compare to 38 weeks, 4 days pregnant with Annie.

Due Date: February 27, 2012. Zero to 4 weeks to go. While there is still a lot I'd like to finish up at work before I go on leave, I'm now feeling pretty comfortable with the idea of having a baby any time now. It helps that everyone I know due before me has now had their babies, and I get to see them and wish I was already on my maternity leave with them :) These last few weeks sure are a mind game. I have had zero signs of anything happening, but I didn't last time until the day I had Annie so I put very little stock in all that. I won't get any internals at my midwife appointments either, so at least that won't either get my hopes up or make me depressed!

I had an appointment this morning and she again said that he's super low, and I'm measuring exactly at 38 weeks, so..... that's neat.

Weight Gain: Gained another few pounds today at the midwife, so I'm up about 32lbs overall.

Symptoms: Starting to feel like my body is falling apart a bit. My right knee has been a problem since I hyper-extended my ACL when I was 14 (at debate camp! Oh yes. Seriously), and now pretty much just constantly aches. My hips are usually sore, especially after sleeping. This time around, the pelvic pressure really is something else. There was one skyway walk I could barely finish because it was so painful to just stand up due to the pressure. A lot of the times it literally takes my breath away because it is kind of a shocking sharp pain - sort of like being tased from the inside. Out of breath all the time. Even reading Annie books I need to pause to catch my breath - if that's not pathetic, I don't know what is.

What's different this time: The aforementioned pelvic pressure. I don't think I felt this sore and run down last time.

Cravings/Aversions: Eating normally, still feel hungry quite often.

Sleep: Eh. Some nights have been okay. I'm up 2x a night to pee and usually I all the sudden just HAVE to go really bad now. I'm also to the point where I'm sort of hoping every time I get out of bed that my water will break. WHY I would logically think that when last time my water had to be broken for me while I was already at 10cm is beyond me. But still - the whole "oh, darn - I guess I'm not in labor" feeling has started already.

After work "rest time" has been happening more. Sometimes Annie tries to join me :) Reminiscent of WAYYYYY back in the first trimester - ha!

I am loving: that I am officially next on the list of people to have a baby (among my real life friends at least) - pretty much as my last week's update was posting, my friend Rebekah's water was breaking - I got to meet her baby girl Harriet on Thursday! Her water broke at 6am, mild contractions started at 7am, they got to the hospital around 10 and after 8 minutes of pushing she had Harriet at 11:49am - so they had breakfast at home, and by lunchtime they had a baby :) Seriously all these 2nd time birth stories are psyching me out thinking labor will be a breeze this time around... but I know that is not always the case!

Very weird that there's a baby this size in my belly. And he's upside down :)

I also seriously just am loving my baby girl lately - she's so hilarious and fun. I mean, obviously I always love her, but even when she's having a fit she's so funny and cute :) I love watching her with new neighbor baby Jack too, makes me so excited to see her with her baby brother! It already is so different to even see a newborn now, knowing what they turn into - and just knowing that there is this whole little personality somewhere in there, just waiting to come out.

A new use for the doll cradle!

I miss: Eh, I don't feel like writing out a whole laundry list of things here - suffice it to say I'm very much looking forward to not being pregnant anymore :)

I am looking forward to: See above. Since I'm trying to set more definite, short term goals or things to look forward to other than the obvious HAVING A BABY, I'll say this week that I'm really looking forward to Annie wearing her new red tutu on Valentine's Day, and going out to Annie's Parlour with her and Ben that night for the first time for burgers and malts :)

I'm spazzing about: sometimes I start spazzing about not being fully ready yet - we haven't installed the infant carseat bases yet, haven't packed any bags (ours or Annie's) for when I need to go to the hospital... but that hasn't actually sprung me into action to actually complete those tasks yet either. This week I do plan to pack up the bags so at least I wouldn't need to go into Annie's room to get a bunch of stuff if something starts happening while she's asleep.

Best thing about this week: It was obviously wonderful to meet Harriet, and to hear yet another positive birth story!

Another great part of this week was making great strides on our freezer meal stash! We have a few more things to finish up this week, so hopefully a blog post about that will go up later in the week.

The party on Friday night was really fun! The only downfall was my complete inability to do my hair in any way other than just.... plain old down, or in a ponytail. I searched pinterest, found a few "short hair updos" or half updos, and watched youtube tutorials. But when they say things like "OK, now twist your hair up like so and insert a bobby pin"... it just didn't work, ever. I guess I need some more instruction on HOW one "inserts a bobby pin". So anyway, beyond that, it was actually really fun to get dressed up, eat really good food, and socialize for a few hours!

Employees got the go-ahead to invite a few friends, which made the event a lot more fun for me - here was our little pregnant posse :)

Milestones: I have reached the official milestone of wanting this pregnancy to be over and being excited to go through labor and delivery :) Even though I am apprehensive about dealing with a newborn again, it sure would be preferable to feeling this uncomfortable! Plus, it's inevitable obviously, so let's just get this show on the road already :) Thank you, evolution, for allowing me to get to this point!

Also, my wedding ring is finally too uncomfortable to wear - I could force it, but nah. Very odd since that happened around 30 weeks last time. I MIGHT have a very very faint linea negra too, but it's not nearly as noticeable as it was with Annie.

Movement: Yup, and really don't feel like it's slowed down at all. There was one evening where Ben and Annie both got to see some WILD belly movements. I now can pretty accurately pick out a knee or a foot when it sweeps across my belly. He's also just WAY more up in my ribs than Annie ever was - and somehow also shoving down way harder on my cervix too. Talented boy, apparently.

It's a...: boy

Exercise/Diet: Just existence is exercise right now. I have been taking skyway walks daily too, which I basically need to wind down from for about 20 minutes before doing anything else because it's that exhausting :)