I am 37 weeks today, which means the baby is full-term--if I went into labor today they wouldn't try to stop it, and our baby will not be considered a preemie. She's done; now it's just a matter of waiting a few weeks for my body to decide to kick her out. It's a nice milestone to reach.As such, little things are starting to happen that indicate that I'm within a few weeks of labor.
The baby has "dropped" this week. My ribs and lungs feel much better, and my pelvis feels only slightly worse, so overall that's a gain in comfort. I can see why they call it the "lightening"--it does feel like she's fitting in there a little better this week than last week.
I'm down to weekly doctor's appointments now, and this week the doctor noted that there are "small changes, like you'd expect to see a few weeks from labor." My cervix is slightly shorter, and is beginning to open at the bottom, though it's still closed at the part touching the baby's head. It's a little weird to get weekly updates on one of your internal organs, but I guess it's rare for one of your internal organs to be so informative.
I'm also getting the regular Braxton-Hicks contractions now. They are neither painful nor uncomfortable at this point, just weird. The whole belly gets hard and tight. Now that they're making themselves known a little more clearly, I realize I've actually been having them for a long while. They come especially when I go from sitting to standing up and walking around, and it used to feel like the baby was shifting position or maybe even stretching when I did that, but now it's more clear that it's not her stretching outward, it's the uterus contracting inward around her.
My weight has also leveled off, which my doctor said happens at the end, and my blood pressure is still back in the normal range, which is a relief. My doctor is eager for me to be done working (as am I!) and I told her I'd be done by the next time I saw her. Delivery is just around the corner, relatively speaking.
7 comments:
Don't procrastinate now. We too are anxious to meet this little lady.
How exciting!
Don't worry, the focus on your girl parts will soon shift entirely to an even-more-obsessive focus on baby poo, feeding schedules, whether the temperature of your apartment is in the right range for a baby, etc.
Seriously, though, you are about to experience something that words can't adequately describe. I am still amazed every day when I look at Seamus and think, We created this little primate!
I have to object with your statement that it is rare for internal organs to be informative. In fact, I'm betting my career on the fact that internal organs are chock full of information ;-)
I'm thinking, that since we try to push the Bears and the Cubs on Geoff so much now that he is a Chicagoian and just out of respect of where he came from, we should possible cheer for the Red Sox to win the World Series and for Cora not to arrive next week so her Daddy can still have a chance to catch the games and remind us natives that the Cubs weren't in the World Series but the Red Sox were. :)
JULIEANNA!
so excited for you!
love reading your blog.
-evelin
I can see Geoff now, sitting in from of the T.V. with a 15 pack of beer and a Red Sox cap.
Julieanna: "Geoff, where did you put that diseased liver you were working on earlier?"
Geoff: "Not now, I watching the Red Sox! Pass me another Bud Light and give me some more of that foie gras you cooked-up."
Julieanna: "I didn't make any foie gras."
Geoff: D'oh!
Wow, we have friends that live here now but moved here a couple years ago from Wooster, Mass. We love them, when we are not cheering for the Bears, we are hanging out with them cheering on the Red Sox but the foie gras has never come up. I was affraid to google it fearing that I might learn something I should have known but was relieved to see that it sounds icky because I don't do liver and also that it is not something I should have known by now, that my 8th grade students could have taught me and I would have been appauled.
In the mean time, the beer and foie gras is so not the scenerio I envisioned Geoff in. I was thinking more like, "Go Red Sox. Yes, they won, now I can gently remind Chicago natives that the Cubs aren't playing now."
Geoff is such a nice guy though, he wouldn't do that. I'm thinking he is honestly more interested in preparing for the part of father of the princess. Still trick or treating with us on Halloween as a Red Sox fan will be cool. :)
Love those Cubs but GO RED SOX!
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