How far along: 38 weeks 3 days
Size of baby: A pumpkin, somewhere between 18.9 - 20.9 in, 6.2 to 9.2 lbs (according to the thebump.com). I was just a tiny thing, born at 6 lbs 7oz on my exact due date. Fingers crossed little Maddie will inherit some of my genes and won't be a giant. My money is on April 18th for her arrival, along with my dad. Tom and my mom both think April 24th, which is my half-birthday, so that's kind of cool. My grandma thinks April 25th. Lord please, don't let me still be pregnant by April 25th! ;) Official due date is April 22nd - 11 days and counting! As long as she isn't born on an odd date, I'll be happy. I have a serious and unreasonable aversion to odd numbers. I hope she inherits that too, and picks a nice even date for her big debut.
Total weight gain: 33 pounds, yowzers.
Symptoms: General discomfort, everywhere. My ankles/feet swell up occasionally, still having back pain, and baby has dropped down low so there is lots of pressure in my pelvis. And the stretch marks have arrived. I really thought I was going to survive my first pregnancy without any, but alas, the skin around my (now outie) belly button can stretch no more.Size of baby: A pumpkin, somewhere between 18.9 - 20.9 in, 6.2 to 9.2 lbs (according to the thebump.com). I was just a tiny thing, born at 6 lbs 7oz on my exact due date. Fingers crossed little Maddie will inherit some of my genes and won't be a giant. My money is on April 18th for her arrival, along with my dad. Tom and my mom both think April 24th, which is my half-birthday, so that's kind of cool. My grandma thinks April 25th. Lord please, don't let me still be pregnant by April 25th! ;) Official due date is April 22nd - 11 days and counting! As long as she isn't born on an odd date, I'll be happy. I have a serious and unreasonable aversion to odd numbers. I hope she inherits that too, and picks a nice even date for her big debut.
Total weight gain: 33 pounds, yowzers.
Cravings: I've actually had some really strange cravings lately, including but not limited to: cottage cheese, McDonalds chicken nuggets, and orange soda (yes, like the kind you drank when you were 10, and Kel loved on Nickelodeon). The cravings are SO random and they come out of nowhere.
Sleep: At this point, I've accepted that there is no comfortable sleeping position. The beachball on my stomach is really in the way, and it's difficult to roll over. I generally wake up a few times during the night - restroom, snack, insomnia, back pain, baby kicks and hiccups... pinterest, reading random blogs, wandering around the house aimlessly. Last night, I bought a grout scrubbing brush on amazon at 3:45am. I guess this is nature's way of preparing me for what's to come! At least I've stopped dreaming about tax returns and excel files, dreaming about baby is much more fun :)
Movement: Still lots of movement and hiccups!
Gender: It’s a girl!
Name: Madelyn Grace
Style: Hahaha, "style". I'm not sure you can call yoga pants and maternity shirts "style". It's sort of like how my Old Navy maternity yoga pants are from their clothing line called "Active" but all I ever do in them is lounge around. We'll go with the term "comfortable" for my style, because it sounds better than "lazy" or "nonexistent".
Nursery: Ready for her! Pictures to come soon.
Best moment of the week: My maternity leave started! Holla!
Whew! I anticipate this being my last "bumpdate". We know I'm not very good at blogging regularly. My last weekly update was at 27 weeks... so... doubtful that I'll post another before she arrives :) Plus I figure I'll probably just get more whiny over the next couple weeks if she hasn't made her debut, so I'll spare you the complaints!
I officially started my maternity leave this week. My employer has an awesome policy - 2 weeks pre due date and 12 weeks after birth. I am so grateful for this time off before baby arrives. I feel like I have struck the perfect balance of productivity and restfulness this week. The house has been ready for baby for the past few weeks, but I've been able to take care of a lot of general life things: brakes checked, dog flea meds refilled, fixed my broken iphone screen, carpets cleaned, grocery shopped, frozen meals made, dropped of my wedding dress to be cleaned/preserved (better late than never right?), etc! It feels so good not to have those things weighing on my mind, and I anticipate errands like that to be a bit more difficult with an infant in tow.
I've also taken several naps this week and I treated myself to a pedicure yesterday. I went to a little hole-in-the-wall nail salon near my house that had a few good reviews on google. Upon arrival, they directed me to the candy bar, just like at our wedding, a little table where you can fill a cup with teeth-rotting candy! A little strange for a nail salon, but instantly, I knew I had picked the right one for me. It was even fresh candy. We're talking soft gummy bears and tootsie rolls. Yum! I picked out a pedicure package that was advertised at 45 minutes. Two hours later, I left feeling so refreshed! I was the only customer there for a while, and my poor girl must have been really bored. She gave me three different massage scrubs, a masque with hot towels, a hot stone massage, and another lotion massage. Ahhhhh. But my favorite part about this spa experience was definitely the eclectic music selection. Tom will be the first to tell you that I have some random playlists on my phone that I love to pull out on long road trips. But this sound track was something else. And now for your listening pleasure, here is a sampling of songs I heard while I was there:
- Boyz II Men, I'll Make Love to You
- Celion Dion, My Heart Will Go On
- A religious reggae-sounding song about the Rivers of Babylon
- An instrumental piece that made me feel like I was 5 again, riding a pink horse on the carousel at the mall
- Heart, All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You
- And the theme song to the Disney movie Pocahontas (Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, can you paint with all the colors of the wind?)
Ok the last thing I'll leave you with today is a doctor's visit update. We went in yesterday for our weekly checkup. The belly tape-measure test showed right at 38cm (cm = weeks, still so strange to me how that works!), and her heart rate was thumping along at 130 beats per minute. Great and great. Then came the cervix check to see if I had dilated any yet. Our doctor prefaced by telling us that most first-time mothers have not dilated at this point, and the tip of their cervix feels like the tip of a nose (odd comparison, but sure). Now, at no point did anyone ever tell me, nor did I ever read anywhere, that a cervix check would hurt. So let me be the one to tell you, future mothers, that it can be very painful! I first started to grasp this fact when the doctor told me to "pick a spot on the ceiling, focus on it, and keep breathing". It was quick, but it was miserable. Thank goodness he told us that I was 1-2cm dilated, and my cervix has started to point forward rather than down. I fully understand that you can walk around dilated for weeks, but it was still music to my ears to hear that there is progress. Also, he touched her head! He.touched.her.head. There is a baby inside of me, and he touched her! It still seems so surreal. He said her head is already really low, and when he poked it, her head moved away then came right back down into place (as opposed to squirming away and assuming a different position). All good news!
When we left, I was in a bit of a panic, thinking I was going to be the biggest wimp ever in labor if I thought the simple cervix check was painful. Luckily, I stumbled upon this article, where the writer says she thinks the check is worse than childbirth! Whew. Maybe I won't be a total wuss. We went ahead and met with the anesthesiologist to sign the epidural paperwork yesterday. I'm not even going to kid myself and say I will do it all natural. Pain, be gone!
Alrighty, back to my busy maternity leave schedule, it's just about time for my morning nap ;) See you all next time with nursery photos!!
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