Week 39

"It's the FI-NAL COUNTDOWN *na-na-nah nah... nuh-nuh-na-na-nah*"

T-1 week to go!  But really, Baby T could come any day now.  We had an OB appointment yesterday and my OB thinks she'll make her debut in the next couple of days.  I've been having pretty regular contractions for several hours at a time, for several days this week.  Plus some of the usual pains of baby dropping and bouncing her head on my cervix (not an awesome feeling, btw) and hip ligaments stretching getting ready for the big day (also not an awesome feeling).  I've been feeling way more tired than usual, and moving around is getting difficult.  Even finding a comfortable sitting position is hard.  This last week, I'm sorry to say, has been a week completely devoid of house projects and mostly filled with me taking afternoon naps and watching marathon sessions of "The Good Wife" splayed out on the bed with a pillow propping up my belly.  Thank goodness some friends came over on Sunday to help finish up the nursery and kick my ass and force me to pack my hospital bag, otherwise I'm sure it would never have gotten done this week.  This was also my last week teaching classes, so until the baby comes, I'll be working from home.

While at our appointment on Thursday, we also talked with my OB pretty extensively about our "birth plan" because we keep hearing about it and we have been asked by quite a few people if we've made one yet, and/or what our birth plan is.  I haven't been particularly moved to create a birth plan because 1) I know that these things rarely go according to plan, and I'm suspicious that if I made a plan, Murhphy's law would kick in and everything would happen the opposite way, and 2) because I'm familiar with Providence's common practices in the L&D unit, and know that they're already going to do the things I actually care about (like NOT using forceps, starting pain management options from least debilitating first, C-section as a last resort, putting the baby on me skin-to-skin when she's born, letting the umbilical cord finish pulsing before it's cut).  The rest I don't really have strong feelings about.  As far as the epidural is concerned, I'm just going to see how it goes.

What Baby T has been up to this week:

• Callie should be measuring somewhere around 7lbs and 20 inches long - the size of a mini-watermelon.
• She continues to build those layers of baby fat to help control her body temperature and insulate her.

Pregnancy symptoms this week include:

• Contractions - when regular are anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes apart, last for about a minute, and continue on for a few hours.  They haven't been painful yet, so that's how I know true labor hasn't started when I'm having them.
• Hip ligament pains
• Fatigue
• Heartburn

What I miss/What I'm looking forward to:

• I miss normal body functions, moving around with ease, cuddling with Bryann, being comfortable
• I'm looking forward to all the popcicles and milkshakes I want while I'm in the hospital!
• Also looking forward to meeting this little girl squirming around inside me.  :-)

Finished nursery!!  East wall

North wall

South wall

West wall

Birthday pool

Kitty has dibs on the nursing rocking chair...