It's been an emotionally exhausting couple of months. Four seperate trips to California within six weeks, keeping up with the holidays and stressing baby boy (who is still nameless may I add) would make an inconvenient early appearance. Meanwhile experiencing heavy feelings of inadequacy regarding my capabilities as a mother and how to soon balance life as a mother of two.
But it's a new month, a new year- the year I get to meet my little handsome. Aside from all those apprehensive feelings, I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to yet again experience pregnancy, of which not a second has been taken for granted.
Trimester: Third.
Baby: Size of a winter melon [19-22 inches, 6.5 lbs.]. At 37 weeks, baby is officially "full-term". That doesn't mean he's finished growing, although growth will slow down at this point. Baby is busy practicing for life after birth. If born now, baby boy would not require an incubator to keep warm due to presence of sufficient fat stores. Lungs are fully developed. At this stage the placenta weighs about 1.5 pounds. The placenta's job is nearly done by now.
Movement: Lots of frequent and strong movement.
Symptoms: Heartburn has subsided pretty drastically which has me confident that baby has "dropped". Gassy, constipated, emotional, constant trips to the bathroom, and strong braxton hicks contractions.
Cravings: Nothing in particular.
Sleep: I picked up a bad cold accompanied with a really bad cough which has kept me up at night. I realize there's probably still time to accomplish everything I need to, but there's also the potential that baby could come any day! The stress of that thought has me in a crazy nesting mode where I'm out of bed at 5:30am wasting no time on tackling my to-do list.
Exercise: Walks around the neighborhood and chasing after Evelyn at the park.
Stretch marks: None.
Total weight gain: 26 pounds.
Swelling: My wedding ring is a bit snug, but I can still take it off if needed. So I don't know how much of that is really swelling or due to weight gain.
Maternity Clothes: Yes. As far as pants go, because baby is resting so low in my belly I'm down to strictly leggings.
Belly Button: Out.
Doctor's Visit: This was the longest doctor's visit yet... I waited to get called back into the exam room for over an hour. Thankfully Evelyn was in Chelsea's care, otherwise it may have been a little rough keeping her entertained. Of course the actual visit with my doctor was short as always.
The doctor said he could get a finger through my cervix no problem, I'm about 70-80% effaced, dialed at 1.7 cm, baby boy is VERY low, and his head is still down. While those numbers are a good sign that my body is definitely progressing, it still doesn't give us a great idea of when labor will start. I could progress quickly over the next few days and be in labor before the weekend, or I could still have a couple weeks left. My next appointment is on Thursday the 12th and if I haven't gone into labor by then my doctor wants to strip my membranes. It was pretty surprising that he would suggest doing this at 38 1/2 weeks because I always assumed that wasn't something typically done unless a women was passed her due date and was desperate to induce labor. Luckily there are no risks and 50% of the time it's effective and women go into labor within 48 hours after having it done. I'll just wait and see where things are at next week before I decide whether or not I want the doctor to strip my membranes.
The good news is that I sensed a lot more confidence from my doctor this time around regarding a VBAC. Again, the fact that my body is progressing is a good sign. A few days ago it really hit me that there was a good chance I'd be delivering this baby vaginally and I panicked realizing that mentally I didn't feel so prepared. After a couple of days of mental preparation and now after this doctor's visit, I'm feeling so much more confident.
What I'm Looking Forward to: Next doctor's visit.
Best Moment of the Week: Doctor's visit. And accomplishing nearly everything on my nesting to-do list.
Worst Moment of the Week: Experiencing waves of anxiety about giving birth, and fighting off a bad cold.
Other:
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