Baby Blessing: Week 37

This week of pregnancy started off great when I glanced at the pregnancy ticker on this blog and read these words:  "Baby is now full term!"  That is a fantastic feeling, to know that we've made it safely into the end zone and any time she wants to poke her head out and say hello is fine and dandy!  :)

I don't, however, have a sense that labor will start soon; in fact, I'm back to feeling mostly terrific physically, so it's easy to accept the fact that I might still be pregnant for several more weeks.  But sometimes, when rough days come, I think, "I am so ready to be done!"  Eventually though, I regain my mental equilibrium, and the world doesn't look quite so dark, and my energy goes up a little, and I find again the peace and strength to not only endure this last stretch, but embrace it joyfully.

Not surprisingly, the question of when she'll be born takes up much of my thinking time these days.  I realized with a start that, if she follows the example of her big brother David and is born 12 days before her due date, that means she would be born on Monday, just five days from now!  But although I wouldn't mind a March baby, I don't really picture the birth happening this month.  I have a feeling when April rolls around, the upcoming birth (if it hasn't happened yet) will feel MUCH more real--and CLOSE--to me.

After Jeff told me that his guess is that the baby will be born on April 2 at 2:12 AM, I decided to make an official guess, too, so I chose April 10 at 10:00 PM (trying to prepare myself mentally in case she's overdue).  ;-)  If you haven't already guessed, you're welcome to do so (and if it's not too much trouble, could you click over to this post to leave your comment so all the guesses can be in the same place? = easier for me to find after the birth when I probably won't be thinking too clearly!).  By the way, I forgot to mention what the prize is!  It's a $20 gift certificate to christianbook.com.  :)

I had an appointment this morning with Marty, one of the midwives at SWHC.  It was the kind of late-pregnancy, short-and-sweet appointment that can seem almost boring but is actually very reassuring.  She heard the baby's heartbeat (and we were talking about other things at the time, so I forgot to ask her what the heartbeat was this time), felt the position (seems to be head-down still, thanks to God for that!), told me that the Group B Strep test I had last time was negative (it always has been for me, but I suppose they have to check every time), asked if I had filled out the birth plan that I got at the hospital when I preregistered (oops-I forgot about that birth plan; I'll do it before my next appointment), saw that my blood pressure was fine, talked about how it's not a problem if there's no weight gain at the end of pregnancy (I was 184 pounds today, which is exactly what I was two weeks ago at my last appointment), asked if I had any questions, and that was about it.  I had so much other stuff I wanted to do today, so I didn't mind getting in and out quickly!

But before I talk about what else I did today...  I was looking back at my pregnancy posts with Shav and noticed in this week 37 update that I weighed 174 pounds.  Now I'm 10 pounds heavier than that, which bugs me a little...but only a little.  There will be plenty of time to think about losing weight after the baby is born!  :)

OK, so today, nesting hit me in a major way, in one area of life:  food!  More than ever before, I have been feeling the need to prepare meals for the freezer that can be pulled out and reheated in the hectic days after the birth; and today I had the time to sit down and make a list of 7 or 8 meals that would be relatively easy to do that with (and with some of them--like lasagna--I'll double the recipe and be able to freeze two meals from one batch).  Then I made up a grocery list and got to go grocery shopping (with only Shav!  it's so easy to shop with only one child!!)  :)  for the ingredients to make those meals (plus other stuff that we needed).  Tomorrow Pre-Baby Meal Prep begins in earnest...hopefully...if I can find the time and energy and don't have one of those days in which I absolutely collapse!  I feel so much better this evening, not only because of having meal ideas but also because of having lots of food in the house.  Now I'm convinced that we won't starve after the baby is born.  Not that there was any danger of that happening even if I hadn't gone to the store today.  ;-)  But I feel much better about our food situation tonight than I did 24 hours ago.  :)

Two other pre-baby things got checked off my mental list today.  First, I went by Jeff's shop and got one of the stylists to wax my eyebrows (which prompted David, who was watching the process, to say, "I am SO glad I'm not a girl so that I'll never have to do that!!").  ;-)  And second, Jeff painted my toenails for me tonight--a lovely pink color this time.  :)  When feeling as big as an elephant, it's mood-lifting to know that at least one's eyebrows and toenails are in good shape.  :)

I don't have any pictures for this update which is a bummer, but oh well.  I wanted to get these thoughts jotted down and not wait for a photo opportunity before posting this.  But to tell you the truth, it's been incredibly difficult to make myself sit here tonight and write this.  I'm as antsy and fidgety as can be, and I have no idea why.

It's time to hit the sack and try to make my restless self be still.  Hopefully sleep will come quickly!  :)