Week by Week: 36 Weeks

Our Baby (a.k.a. Lil' Feisty): 

• Is still around 18-19 inches long and weighs SIX pounds! That's the size of a good honeydew melon, give or take. 
• Continues to gain about an ounce of weight a day. 
• Is beginning to lose that fine, downy hair called lanugo. 
• Is also starting to lose the vernix caseosa (that thick, white covering over baby's skin).
• Will swallow both of these things along with amniotic fluid, and this will comprise Feisty's first bowel movement--called meconium. 
• Should definitely be in the head-down position by now.
• Is like a cake or a loaf of bread during the last ten minutes in the oven. If it came out now, it would be edible and yummy, but that toothpick still isn't coming out cleanly yet. Feisty really should wait a couple more weeks before making an appearance. Also, sorry if food similes are too weird for you when talking about a baby.  

I (traditionally):

• Am not noticing a change in my weight anymore even though Feisty continues to gain every day. 
• Am sick and tired of feeling so BIG and am wondering just how this baby is supposed to keep getting bigger inside of me. 
• Experience an even bigger increase in the amount of Braxton Hicks I'm feeling, and should be ready to drop everything and sit down when they get going. 
• Have cervical cultures taken, like Group B Strep. If I have it, it's no harm to me, but I'll need to be on antibiotics during labor because it will be bad for Feisty. 
• Am packed and have hospital bags ready to go for both me and Levi. 
• Am starting to experience more breast pain and sensitivity as birth approaches--especially in the nipples. 
• Have even more swelling as my body reabsorbs some amniotic fluid to make room for that growing baby. 
• Will notice Feisty descending into my pelvis, making it easier to breathe. 
• Will have more pelvic discomfort and hip pain....for the same reason. 

I (actually):

• Want to tell those books and websites to SHOVE IT when they tell me that I likely won't notice a change in my weight at this point. I was SIX POUNDS heavier at this appointment than I was two weeks ago. Honestly, I think those fast and unstoppable increases in weight are the thing that brings on the most physical discomfort. My body doesn't have the ability to adjust quickly enough, so everything sort of aches for a few days when those big jumps happen. 
• Am not that sick and tired of feeling BIG (although I really don't want to keep gaining because I might have a tiny heart attack if the first number on the scale is a "2" instead of a "1".....), but it definitely is more of a challenge to find shirts that come all the way down to my hips now. 
• Have had a marked increase in those BH contractions. It depends on the day and the amount of work I'm doing, but I definitely spent Saturday afternoon sitting still and timing the contractions. 
• Took my own cervical culture, but I almost wish my midwife had done it for me. Turns out my body is big enough and swollen enough everywhere that trying to reach around my belly and find the correct angle was darn near impossible. What should have been relatively simple turned into an extremely difficult and awkward task. 
• AM PACKED AND READY. It's hard to believe it, but all the prep work for the start of labor is done. 
• Definitely have more breast sensitivity. See below . . .
• Keep my wedding rings off as much as I can, and am no longer shy about propping my feet up in public. The swelling is just too much otherwise . . .
• Can feel Feisty beginning to grind that head down into my pelvis. It's an odd feeling, to say the least. My midwife described it as a sort-of corkscrew motion, and that's the perfect way to describe it. It's like a round, semi-hard object corkscrewing itself down onto my cervix. Yowza!

So this breast sensitivity. Let's just get real (as usual) for a moment. Your boobs are just bigger when you're pregnant. And this includes your nipples. And said nipples are SUPER sensitive to touch, and not in a sexy way. It's more of a please-don't-touch-that-I-will-smack-you kind of thing. Now, most nights while Levi and I are facing each other in bed while we talk and laugh and discus the day I have a constant fear lurking in the back of my mind. That fear? That Levi will move his elbow an inch toward me, pinching my nipple, and causing me to holler in pain. It's not an entirely unfounded fear, people. It's happened before, and it HURTS. I think it's probably time to start wearing a sleep bra to bed. And now you know far too much about my bedtime wardrobe (or lack thereof) . . .

I have been ordering things like CRAZY this week. Things that we still need to have immediately available once Feisty arrives are getting checked off our registry list quite swiftly. At first, I cringed each time I confirmed an order, hating to watch $100 disappear here and $50 disappear there, but now it's not quite as hard as it was at first. I mean, we have saved for these items, and I knew that extra cushion in our savings account wasn't going to be there forever. It's just a bit surreal to finally be at the point where it's time to start USING that cushion. 

I've begun getting the COMMENTS. People anywhere and everywhere are asking me when the baby is due. The comments usually start with, "So when's the big day?" or "Any day now, huh?" or "You're just about ready to pop, aren't you?!" And then I tell them I've got a month left. And then they're mostly nice about it, but I've had a few looks of surprise. Yes, I know I look big. I'm short, people! There isn't a whole lot of height or torso space to offset just how gravid my belly has become. When you're rounding your height UP to 5'2" there's only so much you can do. 

The nursery is almost DONE!! The trim is finally finished, I'm mudding the last parts of the walls today, and they're going to be sanded and painted by the weekend. It will be so nice to have Feisty's room clean and in order. Maybe there will even be time for me to create some organizational systems before the birth. I'm actually tingling at the thought of putting in drawer dividers, labels, and baskets. 

Freak-Out Moments: 

None this week. I'm still entertaining people with the Freezer Meal Fiasco of 2015, though.

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That's all for this week, people! I might actually have the ability to write more than just this post this week, too. We'll see . . .

Keep it real,