36 Weeks!

36 weeks exactly...... Holy expletive we're down to 28 days to go!  This week's highlights......

Size of baby: probably about 5 pounds, plus or minus 1
Movement: lots.... still sometimes a bit painful.... but always welcome
Maternity Clothes: I'm adding this one back at least for this week to say that while maternity pants are sooooo comfy for when you're not super pregnant, I hate them now that I am carrying a basketball.  When getting ready to go out to dinner last night, I tried putting on jeans, but I really cannot stand anything around my belly right now, so yoga pants it was.  The pants fit fine everywhere, its just the belly that's uncomfortable.  I told Chris that I was sorry, I just couldn't do it, and of course he didn't care!  It just seems that yoga pants and maternity shirts are what I live in when we're out of the house, but inside, I'm in Chris's t-shirts and old sweatshirts, except when I really want to white-trash it up and wear the one stretchy tank top that almost covers my belly with the lounge pants that fall below my belly... I'm a blond wig away from being Britney Spears in her K-Fed days
Food cravings: still loving peanut butter
What I miss: being able to put to put away a man-sized meal..... definitely losing my bottomless-pit reputation.  The pressure of the baby on my stomach makes it hard to eat much at one time
Sleep: sucks 90% of the time
Symptoms: same.... fatigue, an aching back, TONS of braxton-hicks this week... I'm sure this won't be getting better for another month or so..... no swelling or stretch marks yet, so that is a victory!
Best moment this week: probably a tie between Chris picking out baby clothes and dinner last night.... I'll explain below....
What I am looking forward to: this won't be changing from here on out - everything.  Getting our baby here and being a family.... hearing the doctor say, "it's a ____!".... and seeing the look on Chris's face when he gets to hold him/her for the first time

I guess this was a slightly busier week than usual.  I made it to the gym 3 days this week.  My goal was 4, but I had to skip out on Tuesday (and my doctor's appointment was on Friday, so no time).  That morning I went to an events meeting (embassy community), really just to get out.  Everything that was being planned is scheduled for next month, so I knew I wouldn't be committing to anything.  I was doing okay, but I was SO tired, and I started having a ton of braxton-hicks.  I decided just to rest and I felt a bit better.

The braxton-hicks calmed down, but came back on Thursday.  I just was running around too much.  I started the day at the gym, and when I came home, instead of going back to bed, I got to work putting the nursery together, which included putting away clothes, burp cloths, crib bedding, etc...  I also decided it would be a good idea to whip up some pumpkin bread - nothing wrong with that, except when you're bread overflows out of the pan while baking (which is has NEVER done before) and you have to clean clumps of batter out of a hot oven.  I was so mad!  When I picked Chris up that day, I told him that I was sorry in advance if I got cranky.  On top of the oven fiasco, when I turned the bread out of the bundt pan, it broke.  That really made me mad!  Even though it was just for me and didn't need to look nice for anyone, I was so aggravated.  I don't even know why it made me mad, but it just did.  I'm laughing at that now, but it was frustrating, and combined with a lot of extra activity that day, probably the reason I was having so many braxton-hicks.

Friday's appointment went routinely as usual.  I talked to my OB about all of the contractions, and she wasn't concerned at all.  I only need to worry about them if I get 6 in an hour for 2 hours without being able to stop them with rest and water.  So nothing to worry about there.  I will see her again on Thursday, and we also have our pre-admission appointment and birthplace tour that day.  I'm kind of excited for the latter, just to get to see what everything will be like.  After the appointment on Friday, we made a quick trip over to Watertown since we had just gotten a nice Kohl's coupon.  This is the part about Chris and baby clothes.  I had decided we were done buying anything for the first couple of months unless we found a stellar deal on something we really liked.  Cue one of Chris's weaknesses when it comes to baby clothes - puppies! (the other weakness being monkeys, and God help us when its a combo of those 2 AND footies!)  He found some really cute onesies on sale with puppies on them, so we left with those.  I love seeing him get excited about stuff like that.  Its so sweet, and I never thought HE would be the one losing it over baby clothes, with me saying, no, we don't need that.... its really cute though and it makes me even more excited to see how he will be when the baby is actually here.

Last night we went to The Works, our favorite place for a burger and a chocolate peanut butter shake.  We went with my friend Amber and her husband, and it was Heaven!  They have the BEST shakes there, the burgers are awesome, and the sweet potato fries and poutine are awesome!  I couldn't finish my burger though (so not me!).  Half of it is currently sitting in the refrigerator, probably because I ordered a small shake, but everyone else ordered mediums, which confused the person making them and they ended up making me a medium too - uh, no complaints here, that was Heaven in a glass!  Then this morning we got up and went out to one of the maple farms here for their annual brunch buffet.  If you can remember us talking about this last year, NO we did not have to follow the syrup bottles this time since it wasn't very busy.

This week should be pretty normal, except my appointment is on Thursday instead of the usual Friday.  I packed my hospital bag yesterday, which was kind of bizarre.  Last year when I took my first pregnancy test, I was exactly 4 weeks.... now we're down to 4 weeks to go!  I'm having more days of feeling at peace with everything than feeling terrified, so I guess that's good.  I'm definitely getting antsy to have this baby, but not because I'm in too much discomfort.... I just want to meet the kid!  I will definitely miss all the baby movement though.  That has been more amazing than I could have ever imagined, and while I will enjoy owning my body again, there is nothing like that reassuring feeling, even when it hurts, of a tiny little baby rolling and kicking all over the place.  I think both Chris and I are starting to feel like, okay baby we're ready to see you now!

That's about it.  As I said in the last post, the Lady Gaga show was just that.... quite a show!  I learned that sitting in a balcony seat at 35 weeks for a concert like that is a bit uncomfortable, but she was really good live - so good that I thought to myself, there's no way she's this good live - and right then her mic broke and it was very obvious that nope, she doesn't lip sync!

Well, when you read next week's post, I will be full term, and the kid fully cooked...... wow.