40 Weeks Update

Two posts in one day! See below for a post on how much I have appreciated sweet gestures and random acts of kindness lately!

How big is baby? I guess close to 8 lbs, if she's following the trajectory my doctor predicted! Hoping she doesn't get much bigger, eek. 

Weight gain/loss: No gain from last week! Still 24 pounds gained in this pregnancy.

Sleep: Well, you know. Predictably not so good, but it's just part of God's way of preparing me for nights with a newborn. Just wish I could nap during the day... I'm really not a good napper! 

Movement: Moving! I saw a different doctor this morning for my weekly appointment -- my doc was performing an emergency C-section -- and he was a lot more positive and encouraging. I had seen this doctor once before, right after I delivered Ford, and he was just as nice as I remembered. Anyway, this doctor was able to feel for the position of the baby just by palpating my belly. He could tell she is turned so that she's facing my right hip (at least during the appointment she was, but she's moving a lot!). That put to rest some of my fears that the baby is OP, like Ford was, although Dr. J did say she could turn either direction (posterior or anterior) once labor begins.

Symptoms: Leg pain is back! My right leg spider vein has been throbbing. I'm even sleeping with my compression stockings on now. Overall though, feeling very good.

Belly button: Out!

Food cravings: Nothing in particular, although I have been eating the chocolate cake like crazy (see post below).

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! 

What I miss? Not much! Really, I'm cherishing these last days of "relative autonomy," before a newborn turns our world blissfully upside-down. :) Lots of sweet time with Ford and Brad, walks by myself, treasuring feeling baby girl kick...

What I'm looking forward to? Still just having some idea of how baby will arrive and when. The doctor this morning guessed it will be at least another week, so we may be having an April baby rather than a March baby. More expensive birth stone! Ha. I'm totally not impatient at all, and I want her to come when she's ready. But I know some people are making travel plans (and Easter plans!) around the baby's arrival, which stresses me out just a little. Not because they are MAKING me feel stressed, but because I would like to be able to give them a definitive date. And of course I don't want my doctor to start getting impatient, or maybe I should say more impatient. So it would be nice to have a clear idea of when she will be here! I guess she'll be here before April 8, since that's two weeks after my due date. I have been going to the chiropractor, who told me my sacrum was out of alignment, and the acupuncturist, who was shocked when I came back for a second appointment ("You no have baby yet? I think... you have... baby tonight.") Also taking lots of walks, herbs, stretching, doing my "spinning babies" poses to do everything I can to avoid having her turn OP... We're in full-on "get ready for baby" mode!  

Big Brother:Oy. I know I have said this every week for the past few weeks, but his love for "Mama" knows no bounds. I'm actually a little nervous about how he'll handle me being at the hospital for a couple of days. Brad took him to run an errand while I was at my doctor appointment this morning, and when they returned to an empty house (my OB and chiro appointments both ran way late), Ford burst into tears and was screaming "Moooommmmmy!!!!" Overall, he's still cracking us up daily and blowing me away with the new words he's learning. Lots of fun. With that, though, have been two or three days of skipped naps, a cold (and bronchitis?), teething... Lots of good with a few challenges mixed in to keep us grounded. He discovered the train table at Barnes & Noble last night and was OBSESSED. He has been asking to read the "New Baby" book a lot, a Little Critters book called "The New Baby." The thing is, I don't like that book much -- makes bringing a new baby home sound like a drag ("I read my favorite picture book to the baby but all she did was cry!"), so I always make up words ("Sometimes babies cry, but it's their way of telling us what they need. Babies are sweet!"). Ha.

I'll try to be back tomorrow with a due date post!