Wow! 37 Weeks!

As of this past Monday, we officially hit the full term mark!

We've had an ultrasound, another non-stress test, weight gain is going smoothly.

I've officially signed the squirt's eviction notice. The doctor will sign it in two weeks. That's right, if the wee bairn doesn't see fit to come out on its own in two weeks (that'll be 39 weeks and 2 days), we're booking an induction.

Current weight is about 7.5 pounds. This is significantly less huge than I expected it to be at this stage. The women in my family have child-bearing hips and high blood sugars. We don't give birth to tiny infants. So we're actually doing quite well with the growth.

We had the second-last scheduled ultrasound. Jelly was kind enough to turn its face directly to the monitor. Looks quite a bit like I did at birth - puffy, squinty, and sleepy. Jelly has proper feet now that, on an ultrasound screen, actually look like feet - not talons. Oh, and yes, Jelly is head down. Can't remember where the face is right now, but that doesn't mattter. I understand that the full acrobatic flips are over now, but pirouettes still happen.

So, here we are... 37 weeks. Week 38. Let's turn to the incredibly awesome week-by-week description of what's happening now in this pregnancy, shall we?

... Not much.

Right now the kid's just packin' on the pounds - approximately 1% of its body weight each day. Of course, that is a staggering amount. Get out your calculators and do the math.

Along with the freaky weight gain, Jelly has also learned some new form of Celtic step dancing that it enjoys practicing in the evenings - especially when I'm trying to fall asleep (thank the hairy gods for Diclectin). I'm sure the Riverdance people would love a lesson.

At the time of this posting, I am in FULL nesting mode. Today saw most of the house vacuumed and dusted, all the bathrooms cleaned, and the kitchen scrubbed so hard it was begging for mercy. To put it in perspective, the top of the fridge was so disgusting, it was hit with Vim (excellent product, I recommend their oxygel formula) and a scouring pad. Honestly, it was naaaasty.

The cat hasn't spoken to me on purpose all day.

Tomorrow's projects include getting the car seat anchor (base) into the car so we don't have to worry about that at the hospital and a couple of our closets need some cleaning. Don't worry about me overexerting myself... one of them is a walk-in closet so I'll be sitting for most of it. The other closet is behind a large pile of unsorted important stuff that will have to be taken care of first - again, sitting on the floor.

Oh - the final appointment of the week was at the Diabetes Clinic where all of my caregivers seem to be perfectly happy with my numbers and what I'm doing. I was able to stop the endocrinologist from sending me off for another fasting blood test. See, they sent me for one earlier this week. Fasting blood tests are REALLY not fun when you have morning sickness. I told the endocrinologist that I already had a fasting test this week and I wasn't looking forward to another one and the one he wanted to send me for had already been done 6 weeks ago and I would be happy to do all the fasting tests he wanted AFTER the baby was born. So he flipped back through the chart (an amazing feat really. I didn't know they were capable) and determined that I did not need to go for this test right now.

*whew* That was wordy, eh?

Moving on...

The earlier test this week was a Hemoglobin A1c. Which I had 6 weeks ago. I tried to tell them that, but they wanted me to go to another one anyway. An HA1c tests your average blood sugars over a 3-4 month period. So, thank you taxpayers for sending me for another test. That bruised the hell out of my arm. I have troublesome veins. I'm probably too dehydrated. I should work on that before the delivery.

That's about it for this week...

So we'll do a brief symptoms check (brief... heh) and I'll leave you all alone for a while.

Morning Sickness: yes

Leg Cramps: not so much

Swelling: feet, yes. hands, no.

Blood Sugars: under control

Braxton Hicks Contractions: yep. And they're changing their style too.

Heartburn: oh yes.

Fatigue: yep. In between nesting spurts

Nesting: yep. In between fatigue jags

Hormonal emotional nastiness: yep

...

Yep, that's it for now.

Ciao!

-HLC