Full Term!

At 37 weeks done Aspen and I have made it to full term! Granted, in all likelihood there is still a few weeks to go, but it is kind of exciting to know that if I went into labor now there would be no fighting it...we would just have the baby!

We will now start having doctor's appointments every week.  It is still kind of exciting to have an appointment, but they have definitely fallen into a predictable routine.  The standard procedure starts when Jamie and I arrive at the office and I promptly hit the restroom to pee in a cup.  Then we wait until we are called in where someone takes my weight, blood pressure, and asks me about movement.  After that our doctor comes in, looks over the chart, asks us how we are doing, asks if we have any questions (I usually bring a notebook full of questions, but they have diminished considerably in number as we get farther along), measures my fundal height, listens to the heartbeat, and that's about it!  I am actually grateful that our visits are so straightforward and short, because in general that means things are going well.

Jamie and I are trying to wrap up the last few things that must get done before baby girl arrives.  We have installed the carseat (check).  We have acquired the bare essentials for her thermoregulating (i.e. clothes), sleeping, eating, and pooping (check). We have mostly finished the baby room (check). There are still some things to do (like finish packing the hospital bag), but we are getting really close.

Since the baby room is mostly done, I thought it might be fun to post some pics.  I don't know how much time she will actually spend in here in the beginning, but eventually it will get used!

For our tour we will start at the Southeast corner of the room

Panning to the South wall (and down to) see the crib and the rug.

The West wall above the end the crib.  Jamie and I had a lot of fun painting these decorations.

Swinging the other direction from the sitting chair to the East wall

Zooming in on the changing table with diapers

Zooming in on wall art made at the baby shower.  
The Aspen leaves are thumbprints of guests.

Lastly, the North wall

35 weeks!

Baby girl is currently 35 weeks and 3 days old!  It is getting closer and closer to the day when she will grace us with her appearance.  The real question is, when it comes to timeliness, who will little Aspen take after? Will she arrive in a whirlwind, impatient, rather disorderly, but on time (or early) like her mother? Will she take her time, be calm, perhaps do a spot of tidying before she vacates, preferring to be late than rushed, like her father?  Or will she somehow magically combine the best features of both? I suppose only time will tell.

I have been reading (well, sporadically reading) a child development book for fun, it is called "The Yale Child Study Center Guide To Understanding Your Child." I don't know if I like everything about the book, but there are certainly some mental gems that I have been able to pluck out of it and mull over.  

So far one of the more intriguing concepts that the book has discussed is the challenge that all parents face to mentally reconcile the child they have imagined with the child they have actually acquired.  Jamie and I have both already envisioned aspects of who our little girl is going to be, both from birth and beyond.  I don't think we can help it, or that any burgeoning parent can, it is part of connecting and dreaming and wondering. And there is probably some ego (the book points out, and if I am to be honest I have to accept) to those imaginings.  Traits we like about ourselves or our partners are included in the image.  Or alternatively, traits we don't like are carefully edited or erased from it. It seems to me that the challenging part is to recognize that this colliding of fantasy and reality doesn't happen just at birth when we meet our daughter, but it probably will happen again and again and again as we all grow together as a family. Sometimes it is daunting to think about!

However, as long as we are still able to indulge in fantasy, here is the probable (but not necessarily actual) changes and developments that baby girl is currently  undergoing:

• She is over 5 lbs and may be 5.5 lbs!

• From this point on she will probably gain .5 lbs a week (and I'll probably gain 1 lb a week, I don't really know what happens to that "extra" .5 lbs….this is probably going to be the stage where my face gets really round just like when I was a little kid.)

• She has learned to blink and she keeps her eyes closed when she is asleep and wide open when she is awake.  

• Her tiny fingernails have probably reached the tips of the fingers.

• She has been head down at all of our appointments, but she is definitely still rolling side to side.  The other day she must have been very restless because she flipped from left to right to left again within 15 minutes. This is a very cool, but not necessarily comfortable, sensation.

• Apparently my uterus may actually be up under my ribcage by now…given to how internally squished I feel and where I can feel her moving around I think this is probably true.

• She is big enough that she is probably no longer floating and instead is resting on my uterus.

And lastly, here is her current growth chamber:

Red in tooth and claw...also known as "Silver linings: at least I'm not a zebra".

At 34 weeks I am definitely entering a stage of pregnancy that isn't quite as comfortable as, say, 10 weeks ago.  I feel big, awkward, it is uncomfortable to roll over, and half the time I am ripped out of sleep in the morning cursing "fuck fuck fuck fuck" because of a horrific calf cramp (I really hate waking up that way). Not that all is bad, and some days are definitely better or worse than others. (Incidentally, today was a great day!) It is just that what the word "comfortable" means is changing every day, and I suspect it will continue to change as baby girl's arrival gets closer and closer.

However, I have been thinking a lot about this and have come to a major conclusion: it could be worse. I could be a pregnant zebra.

Or Ibex.

Or deer.

What is so bad, you ask, about being a pregnant zebra, ibex, or deer? It seems to me that the extra big downer in their pregnancy situation is that there are other organisms out there trying to eat them.  Unless something goes terribly wrong I will not have to try to run and jump, fleeing for my life from a very hungry lion. In fact, there is really nothing in my life that currently requires me to maintain any semblance of nimbleness, agility, or speed.  

Yes, my big silver lining (which does actually make me feel a lot better and cheers me up quite a bit), is that while I may be pregnant and uncomfortable, at least I am not pregnant, uncomfortable, and food.  Hurray!

Is there any pregnant mammal that has it any better? Maybe, just maybe, one...

As an orca there aren't to many things that are dangerous for me (a few, but not a ton,) and water would free me from the effects of gravity. Sounds pretty good! Of course, the downside is that now I have to catch my own food, hmmm....