37 Weeks

And all is well :)

In some ways I feel badly for not recording and journal-ing as much with this pregnancy as with the last (Susannah), but most of the time there really hasn't been anything exciting to write!

This past week I had my first of the weekly doctor appointments that I'll be going to until the baby comes. As has been the normal for each appointment, everything is fine, measuring good and "on schedule", my blood pressure is good, the baby's heart rate is fine... and all that good stuff. The baby has been head-down for a while now, so while I wasn't worried about him or her being breech, it is nice to know everything's in the right place.

With a few short-lived (yet I wondered if surely they weren't going to last forever!) serious aches or pains that have cropped up from time to time, this has been a very easy pregnancy. Those aches and pains are just my muscles and bones stretching and shifting to accommodate the change my body is going through, and while they can be most painful at the time, they have all eased up and gone away in a week or two. Probably the worst was when an abdominal muscle stretched all.at.once. one evening, doubling me over in pain and tears. I moved at the pace of an inch-worm for several days after that, and things as simple as getting in and out of bed, rolling over in bed, or lifting my legs to go up stairs would bring tears to my eyes and sometimes I would flat-out cry. I was so very glad when it started getting better and I could move easier. I was also relieved when at my next Dr. visit she assured me that nothing had torn in two (that is what it felt like) and that what I experienced does happen sometimes, but everything was fine and would be o.k.

Right now I am just feeling huge, awkward, waddle-y, and like everything I reach for is 100 miles away :) In the mornings when I wake up it takes me several minutes to get up to full-speed as the kinks of being mostly still all night get worked out.

Almost everyone that has told me what they think we are going to have is guessing the baby is a boy. I think only one person so far as told me they think it's going to be a girl. Everyone asks, of course, "what do you think it is?" and "what do you want it to be?"

I don't remember how I carried Susannah to know if I am carrying this baby differently or not (some say that is a gender indicator). I don't remember Susannah's heart-rate, but I think it was on the low side, this baby's has been as well the few times I've asked what it is. I'm just excited (and amazed!) that there is a little baby growing inside me, and that the time to meet our little baby is growing closer and closer! I am already in love with this little person - the wiggles, the hiccups, the rolls and squirms. I am ready to see his or her face, kiss the tiny nose, marvel at how the fingers and toes are so miniscule and yet perfectly sized, drown my senses in the scent of his or her baby-freshness, and fall in love even more.

Do I care if it's a boy or girl? I do not. I am so excited to find out! I think it would be so wonderful if it is another girl! A little sister for Susannah, and wouldn't two little girls be so much fun?? And at the same time if it is a boy, it will also be so exciting! We would have a girl AND a boy! A brother and sister! We could have dump-trucks AND dollies :) It is not that I am blah and "ho-hum, I don't care" about the baby's gender, I just have no way of knowing (well, we COULD know if we wanted to) so why not just be so excited to see who God has been knitting together down there for the past several months?! Even when people ask me what do I think or "feel in my gut" the baby is, I am clueless.

My energy level has been decent. It could be better if I would be more disciplined about going to bed earlier :) Coffee has become my friend, most days I have a cup mid-morning for a nice boost to push me through the rest of the day. I don't know if I am nesting yet, but I have been on some serious missions around the house lately. Lots of purging and cleaning in the bedrooms and re-arranging to make room for the new baby.

About the coffee in the previous paragraph - I do want to note that before this pregnancy, I did not like coffee. I have never liked coffee. I love the smell of coffee and liked the coffee flavor in some things (chocolate mousse, ice cream, a little bit in some hot chocolate), but I did not like coffee. My bloggy friend, Alicia, wrote a post about coffee late last summer, and just looking at the pictures made me want to try it. I had some coffee on hand for guests, so I brewed up a batch and have been enjoying it ever since with some sugar, milk, and either a little cinnamon or chocolate syrup.

I also want to note that grapefruit is another thing that my taste-buds have changed their mind about. I can't say that it has exactly been this pregnancy, or maybe my tastebuds simply matured or changed since the last time I tried grapefruit (which would be long, long ago!). I now love grapefruit and could eat it frequently if I kept it around :)

Picture courtesy of the camera's self-timer
and late at night :)