39 Weeks!!

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! She continues to build a layer of fat to help control her body temperature after birth, but it's likely she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of her skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

I never thought I'd be this close! Today I am officially one week away from my due date. It is just insane to me that I'm literally about one week (give or take) away from having a baby! It really just blows my mind. I'd say about 90% of the time I am completely ready and eager for her to come and be here and to begin our lives and begin getting to know her. But then there's that other little 10% that I am scared out of my mind and saying, am I really ready for this? I know that there is no way to ever be completely prepared for a baby, especially the first baby, but I just have to keep reassuring myself that I am ready. And at least I am so incredibly blessed to be living with my mom right now, so I'll have an expert around to help me out! :) I figure my brother and I both turned out pretty awesome, so I will take all the advice and help she's willing to dole out!

I did go to the doctor yesterday for my weekly checkup and the doctor I saw told me that unfortunately I haven't progressed any at all. Nothing. No movement, no dilating, no thinning - nothing. So she said that I needed to start walking and eating Eggplant Parmesan! :) Have y'all heard of this place? http://www.scalinis.com/Bambino.htm It's over in Smyrna and supposedly you eat their EP and it puts you into labor! I'm willing to try anything!! I appreciate the fact that they're willing to put their recipe up online! The doctor yesterday even told me that she's sent 5 of her patients there and it worked for all 5 of them!

The upside to things not moving along is that I reallllllllly wanted to go to the Duluth Fall Festival this weekend. My mom and I go every single year and it was a tradition that I just really didn't want to miss. So there was always the fear that I'd end up going into labor right beforehand and not be able to go. I know there's still that chance, but it seems less likely. So that's definitely a plus!

I go back to see my doctor next Tuesday and hopefully I will have progressed. If not, I'm hoping that he will be willing to do something to move this process along. My mom has to go down to their condo in Orange Beach the weekend of October 8-10 and Nugget and I were supposed to go along, but that won't happen if she's too young, so the sooner we get her born the better! :)

In the meantime, if you need me, you'll find me walking around my neighborhood trying to walk this baby out!! :) If you have any other suggestions for what will help bring on labor - I'm willing to try them all!!

38 Weeks!!

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Well this is the first time I've ever updated this late in the week! This week has been insanely busy for me. I had my external cephalic version last week and despite being ridiculously painful - it was a success! It honestly wasn't THAT bad because the whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. She was very cooperative (for once) and the doctor was able to easily turn her into position. Then I had to lay there in the hospital for another hour to make sure she didn't go into distress and everything was ok. All in all, a pretty successful event! I did manage to find out though while we were there and I was being monitored, that apparently I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions and didn't even realize it! I'm glad they haven't been bothering me though.

I am very fortunate that my doctor also happens to attend my church and is in the Sunday School class that I go to with my mom. So on Sunday he was asking me how things were going and how I felt. He said he was kind of surprised with the contractions that I was having on Thursday, that things hadn't kind of started moving along. In fact, he told me he wanted me to come in on Tuesday so he could check things out and see how I was progressing. He told me to also keep my initial appointment on Thursday because he might want to check things again on Thursday depending on what he saw on Tuesday. Well, I got there Tuesday and nothing. I hadn't progressed at all. He said my cervix had thinned some but I was dilated at all yet. So I had gone from thinking "oh my goodness, she's coming this week!" to having my appointment for Thursday canceled and told that he'd be really surprised if she did come this week. Sad! I had run around like a crazy person trying to finish up last minute things and get all of my bags packed for the hospital. The good news is that I am all packed and ready to go! :)

So I go back on Monday afternoon to see where things stand. I'm about ready to start trying all of those old wives' tales to see if anything will help speed things along. :) I went walking with a friend of mine yesterday and it definitely got Nugget up and kicking, so maybe walking is going to be the thing. Mom and I are going to start going walking every day next week. We're also going to go to Suwanee Days this weekend and walk around there. If we get desperate and she's not here by next Friday, we're going to Provino's for some Eggplant Parmesan!

In the meantime, we're going back to my house this weekend to try and finish up last minute cleaning so that my house can be in tip top shape for when I finally come back there in November when Joe gets home. It's going to be a VERY busy weekend. I'm hoping that come Monday I will be showing some progress towards this baby being born!

I would appreciate prayers though for this coming arrival. My biggest fear in all of this is that Joe is currently 5 hours away (6 if he's at work when he gets the call) and I'm worried that he won't make it in time for the birth. My prayer right now is that she holds off and comes next weekend (the 24th or 25th) because Joe will be coming home that weekend and he'll already be here. That would be my ideal birth situation. Of course, I know that this is all in God's time and this little girl is only coming when she's good and ready, but it never hurts to put in a request, right? :)

I would also appreciate any prayers for my sanity. :) I am currently training my temporary replacement at work this week (which may spill into next week, we don't know yet) and it is definitely a bit stressful and frustrating. I don't think I'm a very good trainer as I don't always have a lot of patience - I know, not good for dealing with babies and children, but I'm hoping to learn some along the way!! ;) But, in the meantime, I'm struggling to train and keep from losing my mind because training means I'm really not getting much of my work done at the same time. I really want to be able to go out on maternity leave next Friday (the 24th) and have everything caught up and up to date and not feel worried about things when I'm gone. I know that once Nugget gets here I won't even be thinking about work, but for the time being I don't want to go off and leave my bosses in a bad situation. So I'm working my butt off to get it all done. I know it'll all be worth it in 6 work days when I don't have to go back for 2 glorious months!! Woo-hoo!

I promise to update again (on time next week!) when I go to the doctor next Monday. Fingers crossed for lots of progress and good reports from the doctor then!!!

37 Weeks!!

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, her lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Well not much has changed really from my last update. I am starting to feel like there really is no more room in the inn and she honestly can't get too much bigger. The uncomfortableness level has just really kicked it up a notch. I had a hard time sleeping this weekend, but did okay last night. My hands are finally starting to swell a bit - so much so that I can't get my wedding ring off.

I go in today for another ultrasound so they can note Nugget's position, verify that she has enough fluid and make sure the cord isn't around her neck. If she's still breech and everything else is still good, then I have an appointment at the hospital on Thursday at 12 noon to try and manually turn her. I am really going back and forth now between the pros and cons of both the c-section and normal birth. I can now (having thought about this over and over and over again) see pros for both and so I don't really even know what I'm pulling for at this point! I just pray that whatever happens, Nugget is healthy and comes out with no serious complications. I am just ready for her to be here so we can start getting to know her and so someone else besides me might get to hold her for awhile! :)

I will update again as soon as I know more!

This child is really stubborn...

Well, I had my doctor's appointment today and despite everything looking good - I'm measuring 38 weeks, no weight gain or loss, good blood pressure, etc. - she's still breech. Apparently I haven't done enough to encourage and help her to get her in the right spot! Well, I just think she's being stubborn and doing exactly the opposite of what we want her to do. I swear she gets that from her Daddy. :) So now I have to try my hardest to do the exercises the doctor has given me and get her to turn this weekend.

I have an ultrasound on Tuesday afternoon which will just be to check her position, the level of fluid and to verify that the cord isn't around her neck. If all of those things check out, then I will have an appointment at the hospital on either Thursday or Friday for what they call an external cephalic version which means that the doctor will give me an injection to relax my uterus and they will try to manually turn her from the outside.

One of three things could happen from this:

1. It will be a success and they will get her into the correct position with no problems - my doctor says this happens in about 50 to 60% of first time mothers.

2. It won't work and she'll stay in the position that she's in and continue to be stubborn. This means that I will then have to schedule a c-section and pray that before that scheduled c-section occurs, she turns.

3. It won't work and it will cause some sort of distress that can't be corrected and I'll have to be rushed in for an emergency c-section. This is, obviously, NOT AN OPTION. She needs to understand that NOW. :)

So obviously my first choice is that she turns on her own like a good girl. After that I'm praying that she will allow them to manipulate her and get her into the right position. I realllllllllllly do not want to have a c-section, emergency or otherwise. I am a little... ok a lot... nervous about this and can really use all the prayers I can get that she will start using all this activeness to move herself around.