Saturday, February 1, 2014

37 Weeks

Up until October, this week would have marked a big milestone: full term!! But since ACOG redefined full term to 39 weeks in October, now I just get to mark being early term, which doesn't seem quite as exciting. I'm ignoring that bit at work though, since I'm trying to keep the pressure on to transition my workload over, so I may have mentioned a few times this past week that I would be full term on Saturday!! The baby could come anytime!!! So while I've transitioned some of my work, I still am behind on so much more that I'm just not in a good place right now. I'll probably put in some hours this weekend to try to write up some instructions and chip away at some of the stuff I'm really behind on, and if I can do that, that should make me feel a little bit better at least.

The real milestone this week is that I now don't have to go directly to the hospital if I'm in labor! My midwives won't do out of hospital births before 37 weeks, so I was a little on edge the last couple of weeks to see if I would make it, especially since I started having some contractions this week. I also got a few comments that the baby dropped. I don't see any difference, but I have been feeling the baby moving around lower than normal, so maybe that is true.

We had our home visit appointment with one of the two midwives who will most likely be at the birth. We basically just ran through some logistics, confirmed that I had gathered all the supplies needed, and set up some stuff in the sun room. New baby is still laying on my left side with feet to the right, but apparently is now anterior rather than posterior, which is a very good position for the baby to be in.

I picked up the birth tub yesterday, so we should be setting that up this weekend and then we'll pretty much be ready (at least, as far as home preparations) for this baby to come. I'm still a bit nervous about catching the start of labor, especially since my midwife warned me things could happen very quickly so to call them as soon as we detected any pattern/consistency in contractions, regardless of how far apart they are. Since I didn't even feel contractions at first with Josie, and I'm pretty sure I'm not that good at recognizing them this time, I am a little worried about that.

I thought the end might be in sight for this 6-week long illness, since I no longer had a sore throat in the mornings and my congestion had gotten much better... and then this morning, we are all congested again. This is just ridiculous.

My stress/grumpiness may be showing through on this post, but in case it seems like my black cloud is overwhelming what should be a very exciting time for us, it's not. I just haven't really let myself focus on the baby too much since I've been so busy. And when I did start thinking about just how I excited I am to meet this little person in a few short weeks, I ended up getting all teary-eyed (while driving, so not super safe), so I'm back to trying not to think about it too much... although I have noticed an increase in the amount of time I've been rubbing my belly/the baby's protruding feet lately :)
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