37 Weeks: ‘Kay, We’re Good

Guess who is FULL TERM now?

This girl right here.

37 Weeks Pregnant

Dear sweet baby Jesus. I’m so thankful to finally be at this point. Of course, I still have to wait for the baby to actually get here, which is a whole different story.

There must be something about my pregnancies and week 37, because I wrote in my 37-week post with Nora’s pregnancy that I had turned an ugly corner, and well, yep—same thing this time. I am suddenly REALLY uncomfortable and completely miserable a lot of the time. There’s just really no way around it: Being nine months pregnant is not fun, no matter how you slice it.

The good news is that my to-do list is pretty darn short now, thanks to my crazy nesting instincts the last several weeks. And my dad is on his way up for a visit, staying tomorrow through Monday morning. It’s my nephew Bryce’s first birthday weekend so he’s coming up to celebrate. I’m hoping that all of this activity will make the week go by pretty quickly, and I’ll be marking week 38 before I know it. I have high hopes for week 38 for some reason… just like I did with Nora. And lo and behold, at 38 weeks 6 days, I went into labor back then. Here’s hoping for some kind of a repeat this time around.

Late last week, at my 36-week appointment, my doctor did the swab for Group B strep and also did the first check for “progress.” In other words, people, I’m getting to the State of My Cervix here, so if you do not wish to know this level of detail CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SCROLL DOWN A LITTLE. You’ve been warned. She did a quick exam and said that I was just 0.5 centimeter dilated. With Nora, I was apparently 1 centimeter at 36 weeks. *shrug* I know it doesn’t mean anything but I don’t mind the checks because I’m curious. Inquiring minds just want to know.

My next appointment is on Thursday and my doctor is out of town so I’ll be seeing the nurse practitioner. I haven’t seen the NP since I went in on that fateful morning with what turned out to be appendicitis—which the NP insisted was a severe stomach bug. I wonder if she’ll remember that. I know she technically didn’t do anything wrong and appendicitis is easy to misdiagnose, but I’m still a little bitter about it! ANYWAY…

I was just thinking the other night about how I had yet to feel this baby have the hiccups. I know from looking back at old pregnancy posts that I felt them much earlier and more often with Nora. I thought, Weird. Maybe this baby just doesn’t have the hiccups. But then, later that very same day, I was lying on the couch after dinner, and sure enough—short, rhythmic “pops” that I was feeling on my right side. Too cute.

But I’m tired. I’m achy. I can’t breathe. I’m HOT. We’re experiencing a bit of a heat wave this week and I’m not going to lie: It sucks. I don’t want to be outdoors for longer than it takes me to walk from the house to the car or vice versa. Michael has been sweet, picking up on doing a lot of Nora things—bath, potty trips, playing, etc.—that are difficult on me right now. And Nora, well, the last two days she’s been a beast. She’s awfully close to those “Terrible Threes” I keep hearing about, so I’m scared. I just hope the crazy, irrational behavior goes in waves like it has for the Twos, with a few days to a week of unbearable crankiness and then a period of time when she’s normal again. Please God, let that be the case.

Aside from all of that, we’ve just been prepping. More clothes washing, hanging window treatments in the baby’s room, installing car seats, gathering supplies… I’d say we’re just about ready. I’ve even started transitioning a lot to others on my team at work, so we’re definitely getting close.

Now, we just need the baby.