38 Week Update

I'm still pregnant and that's all there is to it :) It's good news, as I'm just not ready to walk away from my office yet and Jeffrey has a really important week at work next week. We're hoping he just hangs on and arrives as scheduled, although my discomfort has increased greatly over the last several days. Nothing huge, just slight discomfort.

I had my 38 week appointment yesterday and all is well. The pound I lost last week is now back but didn't bring any friends along with it so I'm ok with that. My BP was good and Noah's heartbeat was strong at 140 again. The nurse said he felt pretty good sized when she was getting his heartbeat. I talked to the doctor about what to do if I ended up going into labor before my scheduled time and shared my goal of not feeling a single contraction. He laughed and said that as soon as I start feeling them come on I need to drink some water and see if they subside or not. If they don't, I'm to head into triage once I get them consistently. Contractions and when you head into the hospital is such a subjective thing so I hope that either my water breaks or that I just wait until my scheduled time so I don't have to make the judgement call...even after having a child and deciding when to head to the hospital I'm still not positive. Dumb. Now, let's talk about water breaking...I'd love to avoid this too unless it happens when I'm strategicially placed on a toilet. I wear dresses nearly everyday because of the lack of a waistband...I really don't want my water to break while I'm in a dress. I imagine it happening while I'm walking across the gym to pick up Connor at school...or maybe while I'm walking into Starbucks. That's how it would happen to me. In public or in front of children.

I asked my doctor to guestimate on Noah's size. I don't know why I even asked...this guess is almost always wrong...my last dr guessed that Connor would be 7 1/2 and he barely broke 6lbs. My doctor told me though, that he'd guess by how solid my tummy felt that Noah was about 7lbs now and would likely be 8lbs if I made it to the 28th. Amazing. I cannot even imagine an 8lb baby but I guess we'll see! Doesn't really matter how large/small he is since they are cutting him out and I'm not pushing him out! Ugh...just thinking about the recovery is enough to make me cringe right now. I just remember peeing for the first time after surgery, trying to take a shower for the first time a couple days later and just trying to adjust the way I was laying/sitting in the hospital bed with the pain of the incision. I'm going to stop trying to remember now and just focus on meeting Noah! I'm going to post a few pics of Connor's arrival this week for Flashback friday, but here's our first family photo when Connor arrived...

Not a stellar photo of anyone - This pic was taken at 11:20pm and Connor arrived at 11:08. Connor is still all wet and puffy, Jeffrey has a giant surg mask on and I'm wrapped up in about 7 blankets because I was so damn cold.

By the way, can I mention how much I love being told that I'm "all baby" and that I don't look like I'm full term yet? It really does depend on what I'm wearing though and at what angle you see me. If you see me from behind, I don't look pregnant...catch a profile shot of me and bam! ginormous. I am happy though that my face and arms didn't explode with lovely pregnancy weight gain.

Friday my ankles swelled up like crazy. I blogged about this yesterday so I'll spare the repeat. They've been a teeny bit puffy this week but nothing at all like Friday. My God, it was disgusting. Serious. I felt like I had ankle weights on and I kinda looked like I was wearing flesh-colored puffy socks. Not cute. By the end of the day my lower back is hating me and so is my heartburn. It's funny that all these pregnancy symptoms go away the very minute that the baby is born...like they don't gradually go back to normal, they just disappear. Odd.

That's about it from here. Made a bit more progress on the hospital bags for Noah and I...got the breastpump out...and well, that's about it. It's the strangest feeling living your life not having any idea if you'll be in the hospital with a brand new addition later that same day. Exciting as hell, but also tough to wrap your head around for a planner like myself! Thanks for checking in on the Barnes family :)